FREE FLOATING: Air Force Space Command plans to test a prototype near-space communications balloon in Phoenix on Jan. 25. A modified weather balloon from Space Data Corporation of Chandler, Ariz., will float at 80,000 feet altitude while relaying communications between ground personnel and A-10 and Airborne Warning and Control (AWACS) aircraft. A second test is planned for early February.
CUTTER EQUIPMENT: San Francisco-based URS Corp. announced Jan. 20 that its EG&G Division was awarded a five-year contract worth up to $5 million to provide machinery assessment support services for U.S. Coast Guard cutters. EG&G will provide engineering assessment services for rotating equipment, electric motors and ventilation and piping systems. URS acquired EG&G Technical Services in August 2002.
Norway Chief of Defence Gen. Sigurd Frisvold and two other defense officials have resigned following revelations that the country's 2004 defense budget had a deficit of 950 million kroners ($150.5 million), the Norwegian Defence Forces said Jan. 19. "As chief of defense, this specific incident is my responsibility and therefore I choose to make my position available," Frisvold said at a press conference. "It is important that the overconsumption is made visible."
ABL FLIGHT: The U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Airborne Laser (ABL) aircraft, a modified Boeing 747-400 freighter, has flown six times with its Lockheed Martin beam control/fire control system since early December. The second flight, shown here, occurred Dec. 9. The most recent flight was Jan. 19. Flight tests are expected to continue for several months. The beam control/fire control system is designed to guide the ABL's chemical laser to its target. MDA ultimately hopes to mount the laser on the Boeing aircraft to shoot down ballistic missiles. Photo by U.S.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - The Malaysian government will allocate a defense budget primarily to replace existing equipment and upgrade services, a government official said. Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak said Malaysia's modernization, although modest, will be significant in the long term. Asked what the defense budget would be under the new spending plan, which covers 2005 to 2009, Najib said it has not been determined. - William Dennis ([email protected])
AIRCRAFT NUMBERS: The U.S. Army will upgrade all of its CH-47 Chinooks to the new CH-47F models by 2018, the service says. The Army's new acquisition plan will buy 55 new CH-47F models, have 397 helicopters remanufactured into CH-47Fs and have 61 remanufactured to the CH47G used by Special Forces units. Total procurement costs through 2018 will be $11.4 billion. When the helicopters are remanufactured, they will be rebuilt from the ground up, with the aircraft receiving new airframes, the Army says.
PLEASED: The U.S. Navy is pleased with its experiments in "sea swapping" and plans to expand the practice to three Norfolk, Va.-based U.S. Navy destroyers later this year, says Vice Adm. Timothy LaFleur, commander of the Pacific Fleet Naval Surface Force. The Navy is finding that the practice of rotating crews to and from a deployed ship instead of returning to port allows for a 50% increase in operational availability of that ship. "You've got to love that," the admiral says. The first phase of the Atlantic Fleet's Sea Swap experiment was completed Oct.
'MOSTLY NOISE': Proposed defense budget cuts will not affect the growing defense aerospace industry through 2005, says Stephens Inc. Investment Bankers. "While we will have a better understanding of the proposed cuts to the fiscal 2006 defense budget and their impact to future procurement and RDT&E account outlays when the budget is submitted to Congress on Feb. 7, we currently see the near- and medium-term impact to the industry and individual companies as mostly noise," the group says.
TRAINING EQUIPMENT: The defense segment of San Diego's Cubic Corp. will provide the U.S. Army with the latest Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System (MILES) Individual Weapon System (IWS) for live troop training under a five-year, $113 million contract, the company said Jan. 20. The contract was awarded by the Army's Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation in Orlando, Fla.
AVIONICS DELIVERED: Smiths Aerospace has delivered the first mission systems avionics for installation in the first F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft, the company said Jan. 20. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in Fort Worth, Texas, received the tactical data equipment avionics from Smiths in preparation for the F-35's first flight, set for September 2006, the company said. The mission systems avionics are used for mission planning, airborne mission and aircraft performance recording and mission and aircraft health debriefing.
HELO PURCHASE: Singapore's ministry of defense (SMD) has signed a contract with Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. of Stratford, Conn., to buy six new Sikorsky S-70B naval helicopters, the SMD said Jan. 21. Financial terms were not disclosed. The helicopters will be equipped with advanced anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare sensors and weapons. They will operate from the Singapore navy's new frigates. The helicopters are set for delivery between 2008 and 2010.
DDG 112: General Dynamics' Bath Iron Works was awarded a $562 million contract modification on Jan. 21 for DDG 112, the last of six DDG 51-class Aegis destroyers the company is building under a multiyear contract awarded in 2002. DDG 112 is scheduled to be delivered to the Navy in December 2010.
The U.S. Air Force has begun flight-testing the first A-10 Thunderbolt upgraded with a precision-weapons capability. The first flight of the modified close-air-support aircraft took place Jan. 20 at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. A "ceremonial" first flight is scheduled for Jan. 25. The Precision Engagement (PE) program is adding a targeting pod and Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) data link to the A-10. It also is integrating the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) and Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser (WCMD) on the aircraft.
Raytheon is beating the U.S. Air Force's cost reduction goals for the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle's (UAV) sensor suite, according to company officials. "The Air Force has a cost goal for the [sensor] system over time, and we've achieved that and bettered that for the basic system," said Steve Sheridan, director of the reconnaissance and surveillance systems group at Raytheon Unmanned and Reconnaissance Systems.
RUMSFELD TESTIMONY: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is expected to testify before several congressional panels in mid-February to explain his department's upcoming fiscal 2006 budget request. He is slated to appear before the House Armed Services Committee on Feb. 16 and the Senate Armed Services Committee and House Appropriations defense subcommittee on Feb. 17. A hearing by the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee has not been firmed up yet.
U.S. Navy Secretary Gordon England, a leading contender to succeed recently departed Air Force Secretary James Roche, could help the Air Force recover from recent procurement scandals and frayed relations with Congress, an analyst said Jan. 21. "Gordon England has a reputation for being a capable manager who is able to get along with people," said Loren Thompson, chief operating officer at the Lexington Institute. "In this Pentagon team, that makes him exceptional."
NO TIME: The impact of the first set of Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) on the second set will be "minimal" because of an accelerated acquisition timeline, the Defense Department's office of the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) wrote in its latest annual report. The first set, called "Flight 0," of four LCS from competitors Lockheed Martin Corp. and General Dynamics Corp. are due in late fiscal 2007.
The Pentagon's office of the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) expects this fiscal year to approve the test and evaluation master plan of the U.S. Navy's DD(X) multimission destroyer, assuming the Navy proposes an "acceptable" anti-ship cruise missile approach.
The proposed $3 billion sale of satellite operator Intelsat to Zeus Holdings still is likely to go through, despite the Jan. 14 failure of Intelsat's IS-804 spacecraft, according to Futron Corp. Senior Space Analyst Phil McAlister. "There will almost certainly be a [price] renegotiation, and I think both parties want the deal to go through," McAlister told The DAILY.
PROCUREMENT AGENCY: The South Korean government plans to create a defense procurement agency in 2006 to improve transparency in military purchasing, the Korean Information Service says. The agency would take over military procurement now split among eight government agencies, including the Ministry of National Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). The ministry and JCS would jointly decide on procurement priorities and the agency would allocate funds. To enhance transparency, more than 60% of agency policymakers would be civilians.
DELTA IV: An Air Force/Boeing investigation team expects by mid-February to determine the cause of the premature engine cutoff that marred the first demonstration flight of the Delta IV Heavy rocket Dec. 21. Fault tree analysis so far has ruled out the flight control system, RS-68 main engine, and the basic structure of the rocket as culprits, the Air Force says. Investigators believe the rocket's three common booster cores all shut off prematurely because of localized bubbles of gaseous fuel that fooled the engine cutoff sensors into thinking the fuel tanks were dry.
Requests for proposals for the Class II and III Future Combat Systems unmanned aerial vehicles are scheduled to be released Feb. 11, and contract awards are expected June 17, said FCS lead systems integrators Boeing and Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC). The draft RFPs for the Class II and III UAVs were released Jan. 14.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Taiwan's ministry of defense will have to make do with a procurement budget about NT$200 billion ($6 billion) smaller than the NT$610.8 billion ($18.3 billion) budget for this year that was presented in October.
