EDO BUY: EDO Corp. said it has acquired Advanced Engineering and Research Associates, Inc., for $38 million in cash. The Alexandria-based company provides information technology, engineering and logistics support to several military programs, including the U.S. Marine Corps' Commercial Enterprise Omnibus Support Services and the Coast Guard's Deepwater program. The company will become part of EDO's Systems and Analysis Group. EDO said last year the company planned to become "substantially larger" through acquisitions (DAILY, Aug. 7, 2002).
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted unanimously Feb. 5 to approve a U.S.-Russian treaty that would slash each country's nuclear arsenal. Committee Chairman Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) said he hopes to have the full Senate ratify the treaty within the new few weeks. The Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT), or Moscow Treaty, calls for the U.S. and Russia to cut their arsenals of deployed strategic nuclear weapons to 1,700 to 2,200 warheads each, or about two-thirds below current levels, by 2012.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The architecture for the Defense Department's emerging transformational communications system is slated to go through the approval process this spring and summer, after which decisions will be made on relevant acquisition programs, according to Rear Adm. Rand H. Fisher.
Despite the U.S. military's growing need for bandwidth, the likelihood that it will turn increasingly to the commercial satellite industry to fulfill that need remains remote, according to some industry analysts. The military always will depend on the commercial sector for some of its communications needs, such as casual communication, analysts say, but budget issues and the military's unique needs may make longer-term relationships difficult.
BANGALORE, India - India is hosting the Aero Expo 2003 here Feb. 5-9 just as its military is planning one of the biggest acquisition plans since the nation's independence. The Indian air force is attending the show with a shopping list for $25 billion worth of aircraft to meet its needs over the next 15 years, including some 360 transport, combat and airborne warning and control aircraft, as well as unmanned aerial vehicles.
A precursor to a potential new booster vehicle for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system was launched Feb. 6 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., a spokesman for the Missile Defense Agency said. The Orbital Sciences Corp. vehicle left its launch platform at 4:01 p.m. EST, and all three stages ignited properly, said Air Force Lt. Col. Rick Lehner, the MDA spokesman.
The U.S. Army has awarded General Dynamics Corp. three contracts that could be worth more than $250 million if all options are exercised. The Army Communications-Electronics Command, based at Fort Monmouth, N.J., awarded General Dynamics Decision Systems a $59.9 million contract for the systems integration work on the Army's Land Warrior system.
WORK BEGINS: Northrop Grumman's Ship Systems sector has begun construction of DDG 100, the 50th ship in the DDG 51-class of Aegis destroyers, the company said Feb. 6. The company has delivered 17 Aegis destroyers to the U.S. Navy, with the delivery of the 18th scheduled for Feb. 28.
Taking the next step in the streamlining of defense export controls, the Eurofighter consortium is set to sign the first Major Program Authorization (MPA) approved by the U.S. State Department, industry and government sources said. The MPA would clear the way for U.S.-based supplier Hamilton Sundstrand to export electronics components to the Eurofighter program under a single license.
AEHF WORK: Titan Corp. will develop "a significant portion" of the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) Mission Planning Element software, and provide systems engineering support, the company said Feb. 4. The work will be done under a contract from Lockheed Martin's Management and Data Systems, which has a value of $29 million through March 2008, the company said. Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space is the prime contractor for the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Center's AEHF program.
To reduce the problem of defeating mobile targets, the Air Force is calling for proposals to develop the first of a new family of near-autonomous munitions that can loiter in an area and strike when a target is detected. Dubbed the "Dominator," the proposed weapon is the product of the Area Dominance Program (ADM) at Air Force Research Laboratory's (AFRL's) Munitions Directorate at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.
The Bush Administration is threatening to veto legislation containing the fiscal 2003 NASA appropriations bill if Congress approves non-defense spending that exceeds a previously agreed upon level.
NASA is convinced that the piece of foam debris shed by the shuttle Columbia's external tank that apparently hit the left wing during launch Jan. 16 could not have resulted in the loss of the orbiter, according to Shuttle Program Manager Ron Dittemore. During an assessment of the damage, performed while Columbia was still in orbit, NASA engineers deliberately overestimated the weight of the debris, its speed, and the possible impact damage, Dittemore said.
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said Feb. 5 that her proposal to require military-style anti-missile systems for commercial aircraft would rule out using flare systems, which she considers dangerous to people on the ground. The legislation instead favors laser-based or lamp-based systems, which use energy to defeat missiles, she said.
The V-22 Osprey will not get another chance to prove itself if the current round of testing for the Bell-Boeing tilt-rotor aircraft is not successful, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Feb. 5. "In the event it proves not to be a successful test, obviously, it would be terminated," Rumsfeld testified before the House Armed Services Committee during a hearing on the Bush Administration's fiscal 2004 budget request. "To the extent it proves successful and everyone is persuaded that it brings value, then we would intend to go forward."
Raytheon Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. are teaming to compete for the contract to upgrade the Navy's Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) system, the companies said Feb. 5. The CEC system fuses tracking data from sensors installed on multiple ships and aircraft and distributes that data in the form of a single, common air picture. The system can then feed the data to a combat system like Lockheed Martin's Aegis Combat System, where weapon system operators can use it to engage threats.
The U.S. market for defense electronics is expected to grow to more than $181 billion over the next 10 years, according to a study by Forecast International/DMS. Much of that market growth will be related to the war on terrorism, senior military electronics analyst Richard Sterk says in the report, entitled "Overview of the U.S. Defense Market."
After being delayed, the blade-stopping X-50A Dragonfly unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is nearing a first flight in late March, and could become the first helicopter to deliberately stop its rotor in flight by June. The unique hybrid UAV has an unusually wide rotor that can be slowed down and stopped in flight, becoming a fixed wing, and allowing the aircraft to fly as a jet (DAILY, April 12, 2002). The fuselage, tail, and canards on the nose provide additional lift in fixed-wing mode.
MOU: Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) and Nelco Ltd. of India signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Feb. 6 to work together to develop, market and sell electronics-based systems to the Indian military. Nelco, owned by the Tata Group, builds electronic systems based around standardized modules, subsystems and software, according to IAI. The MOU was signed at the Aero India 2003 expo in Bangalore.
BANGALORE, India - The Indian air force's much-delayed buy of an advanced jet trainer (AJT) will be cleared by the country's cabinet soon, Defence Minister George Fernandes said Feb. 5. A new tender is expected soon. "We are on the threshold" of making a decision on the AJT, Fernandes told The DAILY after inaugurating the fourth Aero Expo 2003 here.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The Pentagon office charged with developing a military network that ultimately would allow any user to get only the information required, and at just the right time, has three goals, an official of the office said. Owen Wormser of the office of the assistant secretary of defense for C3I said the goals are removing bandwidth as a constraint to military operations; posting information before processing it; and protecting the information infrastructure.
Pentagon auditors say halting a $100 million acquisition program four years into its development was a prudent move by Army officials. The Defense Department's Office of Inspector General (OIG) last fall opened a review of the development and acquisition of aerial Sythentic Aperture Radar/Moving Target Indicator (SAR/MTI) sensors.
