COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - President Bush's fiscal year 2004 budget includes "a significant plus-up" for space programs, an Air Force Space Command general said. Brig. Gen. William L. Shelton, the command's director of operations, said that "... in the president's budget, there was a significant plus-up to the space business, and you'll see that rolled out here shortly."
ORBITAL WINS: For a 10-year period beginning next year, Orbital Sciences will provide the Air Force with space launch and missile defense target vehicles using deactivated Peacekeeper missile rocket motors as part of the Orbital/Suborbital Program-2 (OSP-2). The Air Force announced the contract award Jan. 29. The company also will provide space and target launch vehicles using deactivated Minuteman missile motors, similar to the work the company has been performing for the Air Force under the OSP-1 contract.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is expected to join the airland subcommittee for the first time in his congressional career to ensure adequate oversight of military aviation programs, especially those of the Air Force. McCain has questioned whether an Air Force proposal to lease 100 Boeing 767 air refuelers is the most cost-effective way to acquire new tankers.
Confirming rumors that the Air Force and Navy unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) programs would be merged, the Air Force is requesting $4.8 million in fiscal year 2004 to establish a joint UCAV program office. The Department of Defense (DOD) has been pushing for closer collaboration between the two programs as a means of controlling costs and leveraging overlapping work (DAILY, Dec. 12, 2002). DOD plans to spend $275 million on UCAV programs in FY'04, and eventually may decide to produce only one aircraft that would fulfill the needs of both services.
The acquisition strategy for the $4.4 billion Space Based Radar (SBR) program should be prepared later this month, but the Air Force already knows the competition will be open to companies outside the traditional space market, two senior defense officials said Jan. 31.
AMNS: Raytheon Co. was awarded an $18 million contract to demonstrate and develop the Airborne Mine Neutralization System (AMNS), a U.S. Navy airborne mine countermeasure program, the Department of Defense said Jan. 30. The system will be integrated into the MH-60 helicopter. Work is expected to be completed by September 2006.
JSF HARDWARE: Lockheed Martin installed LM-STAR avionics test equipment at QM Systems in Worcester, England, and at Raytheon in McKinney, Texas, marking the first support hardware deliveries for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. All avionics builders for the JSF will use a common test system, the company said Jan. 30.
If history is any judge, the Defense Department's budget request for 2004 is unlikely to reflect the goals of military transformation spelled out in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), according to a senior defense analyst. Much of the funding requested is likely to be for programs started long before the new QDR defense strategy was created, according to Michael Vickers, director of strategic studies for the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Analysis.
A six-year spending plan launched by the Defense Department's fiscal 2004 budget request is aimed at tackling the so-called "bow wave" of heavy procurement and administrative bills expected to come due by the end of the decade, DOD comptroller Dov Zakheim said in an interview. Based on the DOD's latest budget guidance, the Congressional Budget Office estimated last year that the Pentagon needed $430 billion a year for the next decade to maintain its current force structure and procurement plan.
In contrast to a senior Defense Department official's remarks earlier this month, Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) is not planning to consider accelerating CV-22 production until all operational tests are completed in two years, AFSOC's chief said Jan. 30.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - President Bush has signed a directive authorizing U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) to assume responsibility for four new missions, according to the command's deputy commander, Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas B. Goslin, Jr.
Boeing expects its military businesses to continue growing, company Chairman and CEO Phil Condit said Jan. 30 in a conference call with analysts and investors. "In particular, our defense, intelligence and non-commercial space markets will remain very strong," he said in reporting the company's fourth-quarter 2002 financial results. "We believe we are very well positioned in these markets as a leading provider of existing capabilities and emerging network-centric systems."
Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said late Jan. 29 that he supports the idea of forming a homeland security subcommittee but wants more time to think through the details involved in creating such a panel. Stevens issued his statement after Rep. C.W. "Bill" Young (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, announced earlier on Jan. 29 that he was forming a House Appropriations subcommittee on homeland security as part of a committee reorganization for the new 108th Congress (DAILY, Jan. 30).
Joint experimentation will get significant funding increases in the fiscal 2004 defense budget that the Bush Administration plans to release Feb. 3, according to documents submitted to Congress.
Wavestream Corporation of West Covina, Calif., plans to introduce a line of new high-power solid-state amplifiers for communications and radar systems by mid-year that the company hopes could reach a multi-billion dollar market within the next few years. The amplifiers are intended for commercial and military communications as well as radar and imaging systems operating at millimeter-wave frequencies, roughly 20 GHz and up.
Harris Corp. will supply telemetry modules for the U.S. Air Force's Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) under a $12 million contract, the company said Jan. 30. The Air Force contract is a follow-on to the original contract awarded in 1991, the Melbourne, Fla.-based company said.
LONDON - The United Kingdom Ministry of Defence's (MOD) selection of lead contractors for its two new CVF aircraft carriers could represent a groundbreaking change in U.K. defense procurement procedures. As had been predicted (DAILY, Jan. 29), Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon presented a proposal to the House of Commons on Jan. 30 for rivals BAE Systems and Thales to work together to design and build the Royal Navy's new carriers, scheduled to enter service in 2012 and 2015.
Goodrich Corp. announced Jan. 29 it was selling its Avionics Systems business to L-3 Communications Corp. for $188 million cash. The sale is part of the company's push to become "a systems supplier, not a component supplier," a Goodrich spokesman said. "We want to focus on markets where we can be either number one or number two."
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - U.S. Northern Command faces a number of challenges, but money earmarked for combat air patrols over the next several years shouldn't be diverted to help solve the challenges, according to Lt. Gen. Edward G. Anderson III, NORTHCOM's deputy commander. "My feeling is no, I don't think it would" be right to shift the amount, apparently $700 million, away from the CAPs, Anderson said in response to a question at a conference here.
