U.S. Customs and Border Protection has awarded General Atomics Aeronautical Systems of San Diego a $33.9 million contract for two more Predator B unmanned aerial systems (UASs), the company announced Oct. 9. Scheduled for delivery in the fall of 2007, each UAS will be comprised of a Predator B unmanned aircraft equipped with an electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) camera system, multifunctioned Lynx Synthetic Aperture Radar and Ground Moving Target Indicator (SAR/GMTI) ), a ground control station, support equipment and logistics support.
Top U.S. Army officials said Oct. 9 that the service's fiscal 2008 budget request will be submitted on time to Congress early next year, despite the fact that it has missed the normal Aug. 15 deadline for submission to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
AF TRANSACTIONS: After cutting its personnel by tens of thousands, the Air Force is now looking for ways to reorganize by doing more "transactions" by computer or telephone that are now handled face-to-face, service officials say. About 85 percent of those transactions would be handled by computer, 10 percent by phone and the remaining 5 percent in person.
ARMY AM General L.L.C., South Bend, Ind., was awarded on Sept. 29, 2006, an $83,353,215 modification to a firm-fixed-price contract for M1152A1 and M1165A2 Marine Corps high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles. The work will be performed in South Bend and is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2007. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This was a sole source contract initiated on July 17, 2000. The U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (DAAE07-01-C-S001).
FCS FUNDING: The Future Combat Systems (FCS) program, the Army's major equipment modernization effort, is slated to receive roughly $32 billion during FY '08-13, according to Army officials. This makes the program a juicy target for cuts, which it has weathered annually for several years. Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker says Army leadership is committed to the program, although it still will have to "compete with everything else" for Army funding from year to year.
DEFENSE OUTLAYS: The Congressional Budget Office says its preliminary estimate of fiscal 2006 defense outlays totaled $500 billion, up an actual 5.3 percent over FY '05. The October calculation is down from the CBO's projection in August of $522 billion, or 5.8 percent. Still, outlays grew at an average annual rate of 12.7 percent from 2002 through 2005 (DAILY, Aug. 21).
With enhanced sensors, communications links and engine power, Apache helicopters will make ideal aircraft for deep-strike missions, Army aircraft program managers said Oct. 9 during the Association of the U.S. Army's (AUSA) annual symposium in Washington. "This is an optimized system," said Col. Mark Hayes, Training and Doctrine Command system manager for reconnaissance and attack. "The mission for deep strike still exists."
AWARD NOMINATIONS: Nominations for the 2007 Charles B. Ryan MRO Award are due Nov. 15. The award is presented annually by Aviation Week and Overhaul & Maintenance in two categories: outstanding airline or military operator, and leading MRO supplier. The Ryan Award recognizes those industry leading companies and organizations that are finding new ways to improve operations and service, profits, products, efficiency and effectiveness, while sustaining or improving safety and technical proficiency.
The presidential Bush family and Northrop Grumman Corp. christened the nation's 10th and final Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, the George H. W. Bush (CVN 77), on Oct. 7. At 1,092 feet in length, the nuclear-powered flattop is nearly as long as the Empire State Building is tall. When delivered to the U.S. Navy as expected in late 2008, it will weigh 97,000 tons and carry more than 80 combat aircraft, officials said at the ceremony in Newport News, Va.
Reactions on Oct. 9 to North Korea's claim of conducting a successful underground nuclear test ranged from calls to bolster U.S. missile defense efforts to underpinning naval and air capabilities, although President Bush and politicians from both parties continued to prioritize weapons proliferation as the main threat.
Research and development work for the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) and upgrades to ground vehicles to make them more relevant to current conflicts are likely to continue for some time, said Raj Rajagopal, vice president and general manager of BAE Systems - Ground Systems Division. The Army spent about $2.3 billion this year through the end of August for FCS research and development, according to a DAILY analysis of Pentagon contracts, ranking it in the top five DOD programs for contractual obligations.
NASA and the FAA aren't worried about operating under a continuing resolution, at least for now. NASA Administrator Michael Griffin says the agency expected the CR and is prepared to continue living at fiscal 2006 levels. FAA CFO Ramesh Punwani sees no serious problems unless the CR continues into January. Congress left town for the November elections without passing either agency's fiscal 2007 appropriation - or any of the others except defense and homeland security.
FACILITY CLOSING: Raytheon is laying off personnel at its Santa Barbara Remote Sensing (SBRS) operation in Goleta, Calif., in anticipation of transferring the remaining personnel and projects to the company's civil space headquarters in El Segundo before closing SBRS in early 2008. The company so far has given 25 of the facility's 250 employees their 60-day notices, and expects to winnow the remainder down further through more layoffs and attrition.
ACQUISITION ISSUES: Federal work is increasingly being performed by contractors, including emergency and large-scale logistics operations such as hurricane response and U.S. operations in Iraq, according to the Government Accountability Office. Many federal agencies rely "extensively" on contractors to carry out their basic missions, the GAO said, yet acquisition concerns weigh heavily on the nonpartisan congressional agency's list of high-risk issues.
PLAYING NICE: After months of Army-Air Force wrangling over whether they should buy the same variant of the Predator unmanned aerial vehicle -- the senior Pentagon civilian leadership says they must, to curb costs -- Defense Department sources say the Air Force is agreeing to buy the Army version. This variant has a heavy-fuel engine, enabling Army operators throughout the battlefield to use the same type of fuel used for ground vehicles rather than jet fuel. This reduces logistics requirements and costs.
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover "Opportunity" is beginning to explore the half-mile wide Victoria Crater, with assistance from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, after spending 21 months and traveling nearly six miles to reach it. Victoria is roughly 200 feet deep, exposing layers of rock that provide scientists with "a window on the past of the planet," according to Principal Investigator Steve Squyres of Cornell University.
KEEP IT SIMPLE: "Learning to live and work in space" is a long-established, never-questioned reason for building the International Space Station, and one lesson learned so far is not to try it again in the same way.
