UAV TEAM: Boeing Australia and Israel Aircraft Industries signed a memorandum of agreement to jointly offer unmanned aerial vehicles to the Australian military, Boeing said Feb. 11. Boeing will offer command and control systems and support for IAI's UAV platforms, the companies said at the 2003 Australian International Air Show.
The Federal Aviation Administration is taking another step to address industry concerns about a proposed safety rule for commercial launches of expendable space vehicles, FAA officials said Feb. 11.
Senior Army and industry officials said Feb. 11 they will work to ensure that competition occurs at all system and subsystem levels of the Future Combat Systems (FCS). "We intend, through competition, to get the best of industry, and we're trying very hard to do that," Maj. Gen. Joseph Yakovac, the program executive officer for Ground Combat Systems, told industry officials at an FCS industry day briefing in Arlington, Va.
Boeing Co. has received a contract for phase two concept advanced development work on the Navy's Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft, and Lockheed Martin is in line to receive a similar contract, a Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) spokesman said. Boeing received a $20.5 million contract from NAVAIR on Feb. 6, and Lockheed Martin's contract is "coming shortly," Justin Ward said Feb. 10. "It's administrative," he said. "As soon as they [complete] the paperwork," Lockheed Martin will get its contract.
Officials with Northrop Grumman Ship Systems sector on Feb. 10 unveiled details of a monohull ship design they say would meet the Navy's requirements for a Littoral Combat Ship. The ship, based on the Visby-class corvette built by Sweden's Kockums, would be nearly 105 meters (346 feet) long and weigh 2,700-2,800 tons, Northrop Grumman officials said in a media briefing in Washington. Kockums has partnered with Northrop Grumman on the project.
Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) and Sens. George Allen (R-Va.) and Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) have reintroduced legislation that would double funding for aeronautics research and development at NASA and the FAA over five years. Under the proposal, aeronautics R&D funding would reach $1.15 billion at NASA and $550 million at the FAA by fiscal 2008. The bill is designed to make the U.S. aerospace industry more competitive internationally by reversing a long-term decline in aeronautics R&D spending.
GREEN LIGHT: Arianespace flight 159, the final mission for the Ariane 4 booster, was approved for launch over the weekend and is scheduled to carry the Intelsat 907 telecommunications satellite to orbit on Feb. 12. The Ariane 4 entered service in 1988, according to Arianespace, which is transitioning to the Ariane 5.
Three companies - Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman - have told the Missile Defense Agency they each plan to compete to become the prime contractor for a new ground-based interceptor test bed that could shoot down missiles in their boost phase of flight, MDA announced in the Feb. 6 Federal Business Opportunities.
President Bush intends to designate Hansford T. Johnson, the assistant secretary of the Navy for installations and environment, to be acting secretary of the Navy, the White House said Feb. 7. Johnson will replace Susan Morrisey Livingstone as acting secretary while tending to his current duties, the Department of Defense said Feb. 7. Livingstone became acting secretary on Jan. 24, when Gordon England left the Navy to join the new Department of Homeland Security. She asked not to be considered to succeed England, according to DOD.
Administrator Sean O'Keefe defended NASA's process for forming the independent Columbia mishap investigation board during a press conference Feb. 10, saying the formation of a more independent "blue ribbon" panel would have slowed the investigation in its critical early stages.
Phil Condit, chairman and chief executive officer of The Boeing Co., faces daunting challenges, including declines in commercial aircraft sales and in demand for commercial space launches, but he also sees significant new business opportunities in which he thinks the company is well-positioned to succeed. Boeing no longer thinks of itself as mainly a builder of airplanes and spacecraft but as a large-scale systems integrator, Condit said in an interview last week.
A House-Senate conference committee has tentatively agreed to add $10 billion to a fiscal 2003 non-defense appropriations bill to continue the war on terrorism. The Senate already had approved $3.9 billion for war-related intelligence activities (DAILY, Jan. 21). At the Bush Administration's request, the House-Senate panel tentatively has agreed to provide an extra $6.1 billion for defense: $4.5 billion for operation and maintenance and $1.6 billion for personnel.
Members of the newly formed Suborbital Institute visited Capitol Hill this week for a series of briefings intended to raise awareness of the emerging market for suborbital reusable launch vehicles (RLVs). The Institute is a trade association made up of companies who are exploring applications for suborbital RLVs. Using a stair-step approach, the companies are attempting first to develop small, "sustainable niche" markets, according to Pat Bahn, CEO of TGV Rockets, Inc. and Washington director of the Suborbital Institute.
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program is holding costs steady despite the first significant cut in orders, a senior Pentagon official said Feb. 7. The Pentagon's six-year spending plan unveiled Feb. 3 would cut roughly 400 aircraft from the U.S. order. The reduction drops the total JSF order to about 2,600, which includes the United Kingdom's order for 150 F-35Bs, the short-take-off-vertical-landing variant.
Another RQ-8A Fire Scout unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) successfully completed the first of several flight tests at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., according to officials with Northrop Grumman's Integrated Systems sector. The tests, conducted in January, involved a second test vehicle built as part of the program's engineering manufacturing and development phase. Three more air vehicles will be built as part of the program's low-rate initial production phase
Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI), the prime contractor for the Arrow missile defense system, and the Boeing Co. are completing a contract that will allow Boeing to begin producing Arrow missile components in the U.S., industry sources said Feb. 7.
MINI KILL VEHICLES: The Missile Defense Agency plans to conduct a flight experiment for its miniature kill vehicle program in fiscal 2005, according to MDA. MDA believes that developing smaller kill vehicles would allow it to put more than one on a interceptor, giving it multiple chances to hit a target. The agency is trying to decide what kind of "contract strategy" to pursue for the new program, according to a senior budget official at the Defense Department.
DEVELOPING THE ORD: The military services in general, and the Marine Corps in particular, are trying to do a better job of communicating operational weapon requirements to defense contractors, according to Marine Corps Assistant Commandant Gen. William Nyland. Doing a better job of developing the operational requirements document (ORD) before the early milestones of a weapons program is key, he says. "We have not historically done a great job in [developing the ORD]," he says.
ARMY BUDGET: Army Secretary Thomas White and Gen. Eric Shinseki, Army chief of staff, are scheduled to appear before the House Armed Services Committee Feb. 12 to provide their first congressional testimony on the Army's fiscal 2004 budget request. The request includes about $1.1 billion to continue research and development for the recently restructured RAH-66 Comanche helicopter program.
NO SHOW: Americans, U.S. companies and the armed forces should not participate in the Paris Air Show if France continues to oppose the potential use of force to disarm Iraq, says Rep. Jim Saxton (R-N.J.). Saxton, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee's new terrorism subcommittee (DAILY, Jan. 10), is circulating a letter seeking co-sponsors for a resolution asking Americans to steer clear of the show.
Goodrich Corp. on Feb. 7 reported a profit for the fourth quarter, but results for the newly acquired Aeronautical Systems business were worse than expected. Fourth-quarter net income rose from a loss of $54.4 million a year ago to nearly $12 million. Revenue for the quarter climbed 12 percent, from $1.05 billion to $1.18 billion, partly due to the inclusion of results generated by the former TRW Aeronautical Systems business.
India's meteorological series of satellites, Metsat, will be renamed Kalpana in memory of shuttle Columbia astronaut Kalpana Chawla, according to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). Metsat-1, the first of the series, will now be known as Kalpana-1. It was launched Sept. 12, 2002.
