FLEET SUPPORT: The U.S. Navy has awarded the fleet maintenance division of Alexandria, Va.-based VSE Corp. a five-year contract to provide technical and engineering services that could be worth more than $1 billion, the company said Sept. 27. VSE will support the Naval Sea Systems Command's repair, overhaul, alteration and maintenance of ship systems under the indefinite quantity, indefinite delivery, multiple award contract, the company said.
The U.S. Defense Department's Joint High Power Solid State Laser (JHPSSL) program is on track to demonstrate 25-kilowatt solid-state lasers in December, according to program representatives. Three designs devised by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon will be tested in laboratory settings, according to the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), a key player in the effort to develop electrically driven lasers.
General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products' (GDATP) Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) 70mm guided rocket successfully completed its fifth flight test earlier this month, the company said Sept. 28. The Sept. 10 test was the latest in a series that began in 2002 during an advanced technology demonstration (ATD) project to demonstrate the basic design's effectiveness over the operational range.
San Diego-based Titan Corp. has elected David Danjczek as corporate vice president for compliance and ethics, the company announced Sept. 28. Lockheed Martin had planned to acquire Titan, but called off the deal in June after it was delayed by Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission probes into alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by company consultants (DAILY, June 28). Titan reported a second-quarter loss of $66.6 million for the second quarter of 2004 due to expenses from the investigations (DAILY, Aug. 5).
MEADS International, the industry joint venture developing the tri-national Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS), announced Sept. 28 that it has been awarded a $3 billion contract for the next phase of the program. Under the design and development (D&D) contract, MEADS International will finish designing and integrating the system, whose major pieces include a battle management system, a launcher, the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile and fire control and surveillance radars.
A Lockheed Martin team has been awarded a $45 million contract by the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center at Robins Air Force Base, Ga., to repair C-130 Hercules transport aircraft, the company said Sept. 28. The indefinite quantity, indefinite delivery contract includes the repair of wing spar caps on the C-130s. The work will be done under the Unprogrammed Depot Level Maintenance program, the company said.
AEHF TEST: Northrop Grumman has completed electrical testing of the uplink phased array antenna for the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) military communications satellite program, the company said Sept. 28. The antenna directs radio frequency beams electronically rather than by moving reflectors mechanically. AEHF is expected to deliver 10 times greater total capacity and channel data rates six times higher than that of Milstar II communications satellites.
The U.S. Army's Low Cost Interceptor (LCI) program has scheduled its first flight-test for the summer of 2005. During the short hot launch (SHOTL) test, the interceptor's motor will burn for a few seconds, propelling the vehicle a few kilometers.
The National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) is preparing to take over the job of providing Landsat-type remote sensing imagery starting with the first NPOESS launch in 2009. NASA manages the Landsat spacecraft, with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) processing and distributing the data. Last year, NASA tried to partner with industry to develop a follow-on to the current Landsat spacecraft, Landsat 7, by 2007.
CAPTIVE CARRY: NASA's X-43A "Hyper-X" hypersonic demonstrator conducted its final captive-carry flight at Dryden Flight Research Center Sept. 27 in preparation for a Mach 10 (7,600 miles per hour) flight attempt in early November. The captive-carry flight duplicated all operational functions of the planned Mach 10 flight except for release from the B-52 mothership and engine ignition. Powered by a supersonic combustion ramjet (scramjet) engine, the X-43A set a speed record for an airbreathing aircraft during a successful Mach 7 flight in March (DAILY, March 30).
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency delayed a key experiment for its Multiple Kill Vehicles (MKV) program partly because it concluded that more time is needed to develop the kill vehicle's solid-fuel divert and attitude control system (DACS), a Defense Department official said Sept. 27. "We have chosen a higher-risk, higher-payoff solid DACS that will require additional component testing to assure us that it is ready for [the experiment] and beyond," the official said.
NEW CFO: Herley Industries' board of directors has appointed Thomas V. Gilboy vice president and chief financial officer, effective Sept. 13, the company said Sept. 27. Gilboy most recently served as the CFO of Del Global Technologies.
GMD INTERCEPTOR: The fifth interceptor for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system was placed in an underground silo at Fort Greely, Alaska, Sept. 25, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency announced Sept. 27. A total of three more GMD interceptors are to be installed at two sites in 2004: Fort Greely will get its sixth interceptor by mid-October, and Vandenberg Air Force Base will receive its first two by year's end. GMD, whose prime contractor is the Boeing Co., has been slated to become operational by Oct.
A National Academies panel is urging NASA to slow the development of one of the two proposed space telescopes in its Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) mission to ensure that results from previous planet-finding efforts can be incorporated into its design. NASA originally had planned to choose between two competing TPF architectures and launch a single observatory (DAILY, June 20, 2002). This plan changed, however, following the announcement of President Bush's new vision for space exploration in January.
The European Space Agency's SMART-1 spacecraft has celebrated one year in space and is preparing to enter a lunar orbit in mid-November, ESA said Sept. 27. SMART-1, Europe's first lunar probe, was launched Sept. 27, 2003 by Arianespace, on a booster that also carried the e-Bird and INSAT-3E communications satellites (DAILY, Sept. 30, 2003). The spacecraft's first mission phase, to test technologies including solar-electric propulsion and miniaturized payloads, has been completed, ESA said.
The Defense Information System Agency (DISA) has awarded Thales of Weston, Fla. a contract to secure unclassified circuits in the United States, Asia, and Europe for the Defense Information Systems Network (DISN), the company said Sept. 24. Thales said it was able to win the contract because its Datacryptor is easy to use, it is cost-effective, it is flexible for AC and DC power requirements, and because of its remote management capabilities.
An airborne local-area network (LAN) that will allow leaders to access information from their home stations while they are anywhere in the world has been successfully flight-tested, the U.S. Air Force said Sept. 24.
Avitronics, a South African company jointly owned by Grintek of South Africa and Saab of Sweden, has launched the Land Electronic Defence System 100 (LEDS-100) for combat vehicle self-protection, Avitronics said.
NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida appears to have suffered only minor damage from this past weekend's arrival of Hurricane Jeanne, although the cumulative effect of recent storms on the agency's return to flight effort has yet to be determined.
GOES-R WORK: Lockheed Martin will perform design and risk-reduction work for NASA's Solar Imaging Suite (SIS), scheduled to fly on the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites R series (GOES-R), the company said Sept. 27. The work will be done under a $6 million, 18-month contract. SIS instruments are to study solar activity and the effects of the sun on the Earth. The launch of the first GOES-R satellite is scheduled for 2012.
The U.S. Coast Guard awarded a $451,000 contract to VideoRay LLC of Exton, Pa., for five underwater surveillance robots to conduct underwater hull inspections. Company spokesman Erick Estrada told The DAILY that the contract would provide for five video remote devices with different accessories to enable the service to examine hull damage on vessels.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is slowing efforts to promote international participation in its cash-constrained Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI) program. Instead of awarding development contracts in fiscal 2005, as previously planned, MDA now intends to provide funding for multiple concept studies in FY '06, a Defense Department official said Sept. 27 in a written response to questions. After the eight-to-12-month studies are completed in FY '07, one of the concepts will be chosen for development.
