Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

Staff
The U.S. Air Force is buying 24 Huey II upgrade helicopters from Fort Worth-based Bell Helicopter to train pilots at Fort Rucker, Ala., the company said Feb. 21. Financial terms were not disclosed. The helicopters will be delivered over the next four years. The Air Force had been using UH-1H airframes for training, the company said. But since the Army stopped using the UH-1H, the Air Force decided to upgrade it. The UH-1H aircraft had been moved to the Air Force's inventory from the Army's.

Rich Tuttle
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Military officials are developing a communications plan to make it clear to terrorists that they would have to penetrate a formidable, multilayered system of defenses to carry out another 9/11-style attack, Adm. Timothy J. Keating says.

Staff
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Tactical Technology Office (TTO) is seeking proposals from industry for new technologies in the areas of space, unmanned vehicles, tactical multipliers and urban warfare/low-intensity operations.

Staff
EIGHTH CLIPPER: Boeing Co. has delivered the eighth C-40A Clipper to the U.S. Naval Reserve, the company said Feb. 22. The Clippers are modified 737-700s aircraft. They are replace aging C-9B Skytrain aircraft and will improve the Navy's airlift capability, the company said. The first Boeing C-40A was delivered to the Naval Reserve in April 2001. The seventh was delivered in November 2004, and the ninth will be delivered in 2006.

Staff
MAINTENANCE CONTRACT: The U.S. Navy has awarded Marine Hydraulics Inc. of Norfolk, Va., a $43 million, multiship/multioption (MS/MO) contract for nondocking maintenance availabilities on Arleigh Burke-class destroyers in Norfolk and Mayport, Fla. It is the second MS/MO contract awarded for maintenance on East Coast-based Navy ships. Marine Hydraulics will team with Jacksonville, Fla.-based Atlantic Marine Inc. to complete work in Mayport.

Staff
Switzerland's army may buy $127 million in telecommunications equipment from Israel, the Swiss Information Service said Feb. 19. The purchase would be the first from an Israeli company since 2002. Israel and Switzerland reduced military cooperation after Israeli forces reoccupied towns in the Palestinian territories in April 2002. The type of equipment was not disclosed. Switzerland purchased surveillance equipment from Israel in the late 1990s.

By Jefferson Morris
The first flight of Bell Helicopter's full-scale Eagle Eye unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) demonstrator should take place in Texas within the next three months, according to Robert Dompka, Bell's director of tiltrotor UAV programs. The Eagle Eye tiltrotor UAV is being developed for the Coast Guard as part of its Deepwater recapitalization program. The Coast Guard plans to buy 69 Eagle Eyes, which would be deployed on its new National Security Cutters and Offshore Patrol Cutters.

Staff
First-quarter 2005 net revenues for military electronics provider Engineered Support Systems Inc. of St. Louis surged 20+ACU- higher than a year ago, while net earnings climbed 31+ACU-, the company said Feb. 22. First-quarter earnings per share were also up 28+ACU- over 2004. Net revenues for the quarter ending Jan. 31, 2005, grew to +ACQ-233.5 million, compared to +ACQ-195.1 million for the first quarter of last year. Net earnings were +ACQ-20.6 million compared to +ACQ-15.7 million for the first quarter of 2004, the company said.

Staff
Northrop Grumman Corp. is expanding its planned unmanned systems center in Jackson County, Miss., to include the building of RQ-4 Global Hawk UAV subassemblies for the U.S. Air Force, the company said Feb. 18. Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman had originally planned to manufacture only the Fire Scout UAV for the U.S. Navy and U.S. Army at the facility, located at Trett Lott International Airport.

Staff
South Korea will spend $4.5 billion to produce hundreds of new helicopters to replace its aging UH-1H fleet, the Ministry of National Defense said Feb. 19. The Korean Helicopter Program (KHP) will begin in December and also include research and development. A manufacturer will be chosen by September. Domestic and foreign bidders will be considered. The research and development phase is set to be finished by 2010, and manufacturing will begin in 2011, the ministry said.

Staff
F/A-22 AWARD: Lockheed Martin Corp. has been awarded a $414.3 million contract to provide the U.S. Air Force with 24 F/A-22 Raptor fighter aircraft and associated equipment, the company said Feb. 18. The contract was awarded by the Headquarters Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. Thirty-three percent of the work will be done at Lockheed Martin facilities in Marietta, Ga., and 35% at Lockheed Martin facilities in Fort Worth, Texas. Work will also be performed at Boeing Co. facilities in Seattle, Wash.

Staff
ROCKETDYNE SALE: The Boeing Co. has agreed to sell its Rocketdyne Propulsion & Power business to Pratt & Whitney for about $700 million in cash, the company said Feb. 22. Rocketdyne is primarily a rocket engine developer and builder. Boeing Integrated Defense Systems CEO and President Jim Albaugh said Boeing will continue to build launch systems.

Michael Bruno
Congress should think of the U.S. Army's recently revamped Future Combat Systems (FCS) program as a "strategy" more than a system, top Army officials have said, and fund the fiscal 2006 budget request so the Pentagon can pull out useful technologies for quick application. "We're taking the benefit of FCS a lot sooner than we otherwise would have, because it was too far out," Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey told the House Armed Services Committee Feb. 9.

Marc Selinger
Raytheon Co. is expected to receive a U.S. government contract within days to build another batch of targeting pods for F/A-18s, Navy and company officials said Feb. 22.

Staff
General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products of Charlotte, N.C., has been awarded a $21 million contract option to produce 45 M2HB Machine Gun Overhaul Kits for the U.S. Army, the company said Feb. 22. The contract was awarded by the U.S. Army Tank automotive Command, Rock Island, Ill. The option was exercised under a contract awarded in September 2004. The contract's total value is now $42 million.

Staff
DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY

Staff
Boeing has completed 60 hours of operational ground testing with a new, more powerful transmission design for the AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopter, the company announced Feb. 22. The new design creates more power without increasing the size of the transmission and could be applied to a variety of other helicopter drive systems, according to Boeing. The tests are sponsored by the Army's Applied Aviation Technology Directorate (AATD).

Michael Bruno
The U.S. Army is "absolutely enthusiastic about what the Stryker has done in its performance" in Iraq and is considering whether to go to a seventh Stryker Brigade, top Army officials said recently. "It also has demonstrated the highest operational readiness [OR] of any system that we have had over there," Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey told the House Armed Services Committee on Feb. 9. "It is routinely above 95 percent in OR rate, always above 90 to the best of my knowledge, and it is one of the most survivable vehicles we have."

Staff
U.S. SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND Northrop Grumman Corp. of 600 Hick Road, Rolling Meadows, Ill., is being awarded a $105,000,000 maximum value, indefinite delivery contract for infrared countermeasures for the CV-22 aircraft. The first delivery order is valued at $31,804,097. The work will be performed in Rolling Meadows, Ill., and is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2006. This contract was awarded as a sole source; no other offers were received. The U.S. Special Operations Command is the contracting activity. NAVY

Marc Selinger
ORLANDO, Fla.- The U.S. military services are considering forming a "center of excellence" to better integrate their command and control (C2) capabilities, according to Air Force officials. The center would bring together all C2 developers "under one roof so that when requirements and concepts emerge, they emerge immediately in a joint context and are developed in a joint context, and people from all the services would know immediately how they fit themselves in," said Gen. John Jumper, Air Force chief of staff.

By Jefferson Morris
NASA's Space Flight Leadership Council has settled on May 15 as the target date for the space shuttle's return to flight, when Discovery will conduct the first of two scheduled test flights to evaluate new safety equipment developed in response to the Columbia accident. Although the launch date for STS-114 won't be finalized until late April, "we feel good about that date," NASA Launch Director Mike Leinbach said during a teleconference Feb. 18.

Staff
BIG YEAR: The military will "work through three major processes that will have a far-reaching impact on our future force posture" this year, says Gen. Richard Myers (USAF), chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.