In an attempt to repair an acknowledged and costly weakness, Air Force acquisition officers are in the final weeks of a three-month effort to elevate systems engineering principles in all procurement programs. Marvin Sambur, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, has directed all program executive officers (PEOs) to report back by early April, according to an internal memorandum obtained by Aerospace Daily.
The Pentagon is debating whether to seek an extension for several contractual relief actions enacted by Congress last year that are due to expire at the end of fiscal 2003, a senior Defense Department official said March 4. The FY '03 Defense Authorization Act included provisions that offer military buyers greater flexibility to buy products and services urgently needed for homeland defense requirements, Diedre A. Lee, director of Defense Procurement and Acquisitions Policy, said at The Homeland and Global Security Summit in Washington, D.C.
A funding dispute is preventing the Department of Homeland Security from reviving a satellite-based program designed to aid in detecting forest fires, Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) said March 4.
Computer Sciences Corp. will support the design and acquisition of ships for the U.S. Navy's LHA amphibious assault ship replacement program, the company said March 4. The five-year task order is valued at $96 million if all options are exercised, the company said. The Navy is expected to award a contract in 2007 for construction of the next-generation amphibious assault ships, which will replace the existing, and aging, fleet of five LHA-1 class ships. CSC will provide engineering, engineering management and facilities support services.
Engineered Support Systems Inc. (ESSI) plans to acquire Technical and Management Services Corp. (TAMSCO), which provides information technology logistics services and telecommunications integration for the Department of Defense. St. Louis-based Engineered Support, which builds support and electronics equipment for the military, will pay $66.5 million for TAMSCO, subject to some price adjustments that may be made after the deal is closed.
AWARDS: Six technologies will be inducted into the Space Technology Hall of Fame this year, according to the Space Foundation. The inductees, derived from space technology, include a Northrop Grumman technology for cell phone power amplifiers and an ATK Thiokol Propulsion device to disarm landmines. For a list of the inductees, go to www.spacetechhalloffame.org/news.cfm.
The Missile Defense Agency plans to conduct nine flight tests from fiscal 2006 to FY '08 to help it develop a test bed for a ground-based interceptor system that can shoot down missiles in their boost phase, according to FY '04 budget documents MDA recently submitted to Congress.
Spending on homeland and security and defense is projected to increase by $1.2 billion through 2005, according to a report from the business development firm Equity International. State and local government spending for homeland security over the same period is expected to remain flat.
With nearly 14 percent of the space shuttle Columbia's mass recovered so far, members of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) are attempting to find the point where hot gas first infiltrated the orbiter's structure. "What we will be doing is trying to follow the heat," CAIB member Roger Tetrault said during a briefing in Houston March 4. "We have more questions than answers right now, but we're getting smarter fast, and I believe that there's a very good chance that we will ... be able to localize the breach."
NEW DELHI - The Indian air force (IAF) inducted its first mid-air refueling aircraft, an Ilyushin IL-78 bought from Uzbekistan, on March 3. The IL-78 was inducted into a new Agra-based squadron, "Battle Cry." The IAF is buying six IL-78s from Uzbekistan (DAILY, Sept. 5, 2002). A second IL-78 is slated to be inducted by the end of this month and the remaining four will be inducted by the end of the year, according to a senior air force official.
DELIVERED: Northrop Grumman has delivered the first of six E-2C Hawkeye 2000 export configuration aircraft to Egypt, the company said March 3. The former U.S. Navy aircraft was remanufactured and upgraded to the Hawkeye 2000 export configuration, which includes a commercial-off-the-shelf mission computer and advanced operator workstations, Northrop Grumman said. The $174 million upgrade program began in 1999. A second upgraded aircraft is slated to delivery to Egypt in early 2004.
NEW DELHI - India's defense budget would increase slightly in fiscal year 2004 under a budget presented Feb. 28 by Finance Minister Jaswant Singh. The government plans to spend $13.6 billion for defense in that period, compared with $13.54 billion for fiscal 2003. As a percentage of the overall budget, defense would represent 14.8 percent, down from 15.6 percent in FY '03.
Despite the progress that's been made in implementing the recommendations of the Rumsfeld-led Space Commission, there still is no "clear champion" for space at the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), according to former commission member Robert Davis.
The first test of the beam control/fire control system for the Missile Defense Agency's Airborne Laser tentatively is planned to begin in early summer and last several weeks, government and industry sources said March 3. The ABL's kill laser and a target missile will be simulated during the test, which will take place at Lockheed Martin facilities in Sunnyvale, Calif. The beam control/fire control system is designed to guide the kill laser to the target.
PRAGUE - Three upgraded Mi-24 combat helicopters have been delivered to the Czech Republic by Russia as partial payment of debts, Czech air force spokesman Petr Sykora told the DAILY March 3. The helicopters arrived by transport aircraft at Prerov air force base in south Moravia a month ago, but details have only now been released. Four more Mi-24s will be delivered to Prerov this summer, Sykora said. Some of the Czech army's older Mi-24s are to be decommissioned once the remaining Mi-24s have been delivered.
CACI BUY: CACI International said it has completed the purchase of Applied Technology Solutions of Arlington, Va., an information technology company with clients in the U.S. intelligence community.
PRAGUE - BAE Systems is paying a $10,000 fine imposed by Czech officials for advertising its Gripen fighters in breach of regulations banning the advertising of weapons.
The level of confidence investors had in the defense industry from early 2000 to mid 2002 is unlikely to return unless defense spending and weapons modernization increases after a war with Iraq, according to a March 3 report from Merrill Lynch. "Defense has been a frustrating group because while fundamentals look decent, [stock] valuations have fallen," senior aerospace and defense analyst Byron Callan writes in the report.
A $1.1 billion annual budget to develop chemical and biological weapons defenses for U.S. troops is being focused on dramatically improving a growing arsenal of detection devices, senior Army officials said March 3. Led by the Army's Soldier Biological and Chemical Defense Command (SBCDC), military leaders are focusing a five-year spending plan on developing more sophisticated sensors that can detect and identify harmful agents at standoff range, said Brig. Gen. Stephen Reeves, the Pentagon's program executive officer for chemical and biological defense.
MOTOR WORK: American Superconductor Corp. will lead a team to design and build a prototype 36.5 megawatt superconductor propulsion motor for electric warships, the company said March 3.
The Air Force unveiled plans late last week to modify the GBU-28 guidance and tail kits to accommodate an upgrade package for the BLU-113 penetrator warhead. Raytheon, the bomb kit's current supplier, will be awarded a sole-source contract to make up to 350 new GBU-28s in support of the Pre-planned Product Improvement program for BLU-113, according to an Air Force acquisition notice posted Feb. 28.
