The U.S. Air Force is completing a strategic business plan it hopes will allow it achieve savings that could be funneled to modernization accounts. "If we talk about the 'Air Force after next,' we need to work right now on buying the 'Air Force after next,'" Col. Chris Waln, chief of acquisition policy management for the service, said in an interview in his Pentagon office.
The Pentagon has approved full-rate production of the Predator unmanned aerial vehicle following a program acquisition meeting on Friday, Maj. Gen. Kenneth Israel, director of the Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office, said yesterday.
FAA forecasters have added a broadband satellite constellation to their newest projection of the low Earth orbit space launch market through the year 2006, which jumped 57% over last year's forecast in the scenario that assumes "aggressive growth" in the LEO launch market. "Last year, several proposals for broadband LEO systems forwarded by industry made considerable progress in terms of financing, licensing and systems design," the FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation (OCST) stated in announcing its new forecast.
Lockheed Martin will sell its Commercial Electronics operation to Manufacturers' Services Ltd., Concord, Mass., the companies announced yesterday. Both companies focus on the networking, computer and telecommunications industries. Commercial Electronics, an operating unit of Lockheed Martin's Electronics Sector, employs 700 in a 250,000 square foot facility in Hudson, N.H.
Savi Technology Inc., Mountain View, Calif., won a $111 million contract from the Dept. of Defense for Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) equipment, software and services for the U.S. military. Savi, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Raytheon TI Systems, will provide automated radio frequency tags so military services can monitor the status of goods and supplies around the world, Raytheon said yesterday. It said that if all options are exercised, the contract, the largest single investment in RFID technology, will last five years.
Minneapolis, won a $500,000 order from Boeing Co. for GigWorks Fibre Channel switches for the Airborne Warning and Command System (AWACS) Extend Sentry Program.
Lockheed Martin IR Imaging Systems, Lexington, Mass., will reduce its workforce by about 80 employees in the next month because of a decline in business volume, a spokesman says. IR has 650 permanent employees and 100 contract workers. Some at infrared units in rival companies speculate that a scaling back at Lockheed Martin could affect the Raytheon-Hughes merger, because Raytheon-Hughes would then control most of the U.S. defense infrared business.
Notional characteristics of variants of the U.S. Navy's planned Common Support Aircraft are listed in the following breakdown, prepared by the service. The CSA would replace C-2 cargo planes, E-2C early warning aircraft, S-3 antisubmarine planes and ES-3 electronic intelligence aircraft (DAILY, Aug. 6) with a single multi-role airframe that would have a service life of 50 years. Airborne Early Warning: Radius: 250 nm - 300 nm
DR. ROBERT PARKER has been selected as the new director of the NASA management office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Currently director of space operations and utilization in the Office of Space Flight at NASA Headquarters, Parker is a former astronaut who flew aboard Space Shuttle mission STS-35 in December 1990 and STS-9 in November 1983.
Parsippany, N.J., won a $64 million contract from Lockheed Martin Tactical Defense Systems, Egan, Minn., to make AN/UYQ-70 Advanced Display System tactical workstations for the U.S. Navy. The work will be performed by the DRS Laurel Technologies unit, Johnstown, Pa.
The U.S. Army's just completed fiscal 1999 budget review increases spending for modernization by about $1 billion over the fiscal 1998 request, according to Lt. Gen. Clair Gill, the service's budget director.
Won a $5.4 million contract from Hughes Missile Systems Co. to provide airborne test equipment for use by the U.S. Air Force and Navy in the AIM-9X missile. Work will be done by two divisions, Conic, of San Diego, and Microcom, of Warminster, Pa.
Selected acquisition Report (SAR) programs for the three-month period ending June 30 are detailed in the following table, released Friday by the Dept. of Defense. Dollar figures are in millions. Table details SAR programs for second quarter Current Estimate Changes this Quarter Weapon Bass Cost Cost System Year Base Then Qnty Base Then Qnty
The U.S. Army has changed course on the "Bird Dog" program in which an unmanned aerial vehicle was to support aviation platforms. During the past couple of months, "we refocused the program somewhat," Steve Parker, who manages the new program, said in an interview here.
The National Defense Panel reviewing the Quadrennial Defense Review isn't expected to report out until Dec. 15, but Army budget director Maj. Gen. Clair Gill says the Pentagon is already "looking for endorsement." He noted that the on-going budget process has factored in QDR recommendations. "If there are major changes, we'll have to crack [the budget] wide open," he says.
The Los Angeles Economic Development Corp., the Los Angeles Regional Technology Alliance, and A.T. Kearney Inc., Chicago, will study the Southern California aerospace and defense industry as a follow up to a 1992 study titled "An Industry in Transition." The study will be conducted through formal surveys and interviews. The results are expected to be released in October.
California Microwave this week plans to roll out the third Airborne Reconnaissance Low-Multifunction aircraft. The company has already modified two DeHavilland Dash-7s into ARL-Ms, which are now operating in Korea. The third ARL-M is expected to deploy there as well.
San Diego, won a contract through its subsidiary, Maxwell Federal Division Inc., for sensor research. The Technology Advancement for Sensor Research award from the U.S. Air Force Phillips Laboratory, Albuquerque, consists of a one-year base period valued at $5 million, with four one-year options at $5 million each. The program will begin in November.
The Cassini mission to Saturn is expected to launch as planned Oct. 6 from Kennedy Space Center, Fla., despite the discovery last week of a fuel leak in the Centaur stage of the probe's Titan IV-B booster (DAILY, Aug. 8). Cassini mission officials met Friday afternoon to assess the impact of the leak and, according to a NASA spokesman, determined that the schedule can be maintained. The leak was observed during a countdown demonstration test at KSC.
The Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program has been knocked at every stage of the fiscal 1998 defense authorization and appropriations process, but that didn't stop the Administration from making full funding of the $382.2 million request one of the must items in a veto threat letter to senior House Appropriations Committee members.
Broomfield, Colo., signed a cooperative research and development agreement with the government's National Air Intelligence Center. Ball said it calls for NAIC to provide algorithms and personnel to Ball, and for Ball to provide additional personnel and algorithms, as well hardware and a facility. The agreement will be handled through the new Ball All-source Hyperspectral Analysis Service in the company's Dayton, Ohio, Systems Engineering Office.
Wayne, Pa., won a $42.5 million, multi-year subcontract from the joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Raytheon-TI Systems to make Javelin missile simulators. ECC is making the units under its third low rate initial production contract.
Senate-proposed restrictions on helicopter spending affect all helicopter modernization programs, and could terminate the U.S. Army's AH- 64D Apache Longbow multi-year procurement program, the Pentagon has told the congressional defense authorization conferees. The Senate specified in its version of the fiscal 1998 defense authorization bill that 25% of helicopter upgrade and modernization funds are to be withheld until the Army reports on future modernization programs, particularly one focused on the utility helicopter fleet.
Since the CSA will be a multi-role platform, Peterson says he expects the Navy to be able to reduce the size of an air wing, winding up with fewer CSAs per air wing than the current number of E-2Cs, C-2s, S- 3s and ES-3s that it will replace. Future air wings, he says, are likely to have 12 CSAs.
