Boeing has established a new Earth Science Applications office and a Space Exploration Systems (SES) office to pursue opportunities connected with the president's new space policy, the company announced March 15. Charles Allen will lead the Washington-based SES organization as vice president and program manager. Allen previously managed the Boeing Orbital Space Plane (OSP) office in Huntsville, Ala.
The Air Force has issued a stop-work order to Boeing for installation of Global Air Traffic Management (GATM) kits on KC-10 tanker aircraft, according to a Boeing spokesman. "We have been notified by the Air Force to stop work" on the program, said Paul Guse of Boeing's Integrated Defense Systems unit in St. Louis. Boeing received the notification last Wednesday, he said March 15 in response to questions from The DAILY.
AIR START TESTING: The Korean air force has begun engine air start testing of the F404-GE-102 engine. The engine powers the T-50 Golden Eagle trainer, which is being developed by Korean Aerospace Industries with technical assistance from Lockheed Martin. Air start testing involves shutting down the engine in flight and restarting it. "This testing is critical because of the single-engine configuration of the T-50," Lt. Col. Lee Choong-Hwan, a test pilot, said in a Lockheed Martin statement.
Britain's Ministry of Defence (MOD) has made progress in developing new approaches to the management of its 450 million Euro ($551 million) research and technology programs so they deliver better results, according to a recent United Kingdom National Audit Office (NAO) report.
DELIVERIES: EADS Defence Electronics will deliver advanced self-protection systems against missiles and other threats for Eurocopter Tigers and NH90 helicopters in Germany, France, Italy, Australia, Portugal and Finland, the company said March 15. The work will be done under a 200 million euro ($240 million) Eurocopter contract. Deliveries will occur through 2012.
The U.S. Marine Corps Systems Command (MARCORSYSCOM) is expected to begin fielding 41 backpack-portable Dragon Eye unmanned aerial vehicles in Iraq in May. "We are playing a fine line expediting as fast as we can, but also trying to make sure we have all the program support in place as well ... training, sustainment, all the rest of that," said Program Manager Lt. Col. Don Bruce.
An Air Force official said March 15 that the F/A-22 Raptor has made significant progress toward a key performance goal, even as the General Accounting Office issued a report sharply criticizing the program.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Grand Challenge race for unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) produced no winner March 13, with the most successful team completing approximately seven miles of the 142-mile course. Nonetheless, DARPA is pleased with the results of the race, which was intended to spur innovations in UGV technology that can be applied to military vehicles (DAILY, March 2; July 29, 2003).
HEARINGS: House committees plan more hearings this week on the Defense Department's $401.7 billion budget request for fiscal 2005. On March 17, the House Appropriations Committee's subcommittee on defense plans to review the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps budget request of $119.3 billion in FY '05. The Navy wants $11.1 billion to procure nine ships, including the first DD(X) destroyer and Littoral Combat Ship, and also is seeking funding for the CVN-21 aircraft carrier. Air Force Gen. John W. Handy, commander of U.S.
The V-22 Osprey program office has identified potential fixes for a minor glitch on the tilt-rotor aircraft and hopes to start testing them within a few weeks, a program spokesman said March 15. The fixes involve revisions to the flight control software and a slight modification to the pilot control stick, program spokesman Ward Carroll told The DAILY. The software adjustments likely will be skipped if the control stick change proves sufficient. "We have a very strong plan," Carroll said.
To increase its hold in the security technology market, GE Infrastructure, a unit of General Electric Co., is acquiring InVision Technologies, a California-based explosives-detection equipment maker, for about $900 million. "This acquisition significantly enhances GE's capabilities in explosive detection and security technologies," GE said in a March 15 statement.
HUBBLE TROUBLE: Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) is "troubled" by statements made by NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe that he will never approve another space shuttle servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. O'Keefe made the statements to the press March 11, shortly after appearing before Mikulski at a Senate hearing during which both parties agreed to have the National Academy of Sciences study the matter further (DAILY, March 12). "This decision must not be made arbitrarily by one person at NASA or one person in Congress," Mikulski says in a letter to O'Keefe.
SLAMRAAM OFFICE: Raytheon Co., which recently was tapped to develop the SLAMRAAM system, plans to open its SLAMRAAM program office on March 15 in Huntsville, Ala. In late February, Raytheon was awarded a $127 million contract from the U.S. Army and Marine Corps to develop SLAMRAAM, which will consist of an AMRAAM missile mounted on a Humvee. The system will be used to shoot down aircraft and cruise missiles.
Industry still faces challenges in implementing the U.S. Department of Defense's Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) inventory management policy, including immature technology, implementation costs and changing business procedures, says Alan Estevez, deputy undersecretary of defense for supply chain integration. Meanwhile, DOD has one site RFID operational and pilot sites on the way for the hands-off tracking system, Estevez told The DAILY.
March 15 - 17 -- 6th International SAP A&D Forum, Washington, D.C. Go to www.sap.com/aero-defense. March 18 -- NASA contractor open forum with Tom Luedtke, NASA assistant administrator for procurement. 9:00-11:30 a.m., Marshall Space Flight Center, Morris Auditorium, Huntsville, Ala. For more information call Valerie Holmes at 256-544-0314, fax 256-544-9344 or email [email protected].
Northrop Grumman has won a $9.5 million U.S. Air Force contract to help enhance the surveillance capabilities of aerial vehicles by embedding antennas in the primary load-bearing structures of composite aircraft wings.
A new battery design should improve the performance of the U.S. Navy's Advanced SEAL Delivery System (ASDS) vehicle, John Young, the Navy's assistant secretary for research, development and acquisition, said at a congressional hearing last week. "We've had growing pains and a steep learning curve," on the program, Young told the House Armed Services Committee's projection forces subcommittee. "The battery life issue is the challenge, we're pushing the limits of technology."
Raytheon Co. has completed the first production-representative radar for the Missile Defense Agency's Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, a company spokesman said March 12. The X-band radar rolled off the final assembly line in Andover, Mass., on March 8 and now is headed to White Sands Missile Range, N.M., for testing. The device is to track target missiles and provide communications with in-flight interceptor missiles.
Lockheed Martin Corp. postponed its $1.8 billion acquisition of Titan Corp. while the government investigates payments by Titan consultants to international officials, the company said March 12. Lockheed Martin said earlier this month that it "has learned of allegations that improper payments were made, or items of value were provided, by consultants for the Titan Corp. or its subsidiaries to foreign officials" (DAILY, March 9).
