E-10A BMC2 DELAY: The Battle Management Command and Control (BMC2) system for the Air Force's E-10A Multi-sensor Command and Control Aircraft (MC2A) is experiencing slight delays, according to industry sources. The release of the formal request for proposals has been delayed about two months, to April, because the Air Force had to conduct additional reviews to ensure it had "all their ducks in a row," one industry source says. The selection of a prime contractor is now expected in June or July instead of April or May (DAILY, Dec. 9, 2003).
ORLANDO, Fla. - The U.S. Air Force is "negotiating" with lawmakers over how many B-1B Lancers should be brought out of retirement, a general said Feb. 13.
HUMVEE FIRES: The U.S. Army's Tank, Automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) is investigating three Humvee fires aboard transport ships headed to Iraq. The U.S. Army Safety Center issued a Feb. 11 safety notification alerting users that an electrical system defect was suspected. One fire was categorized as Class A, an incident resulting in more than $1 million in losses. That incident occurred in a ship hold where a suspected "protective control box" allowed a starter to overheat and catch fire destroying four communication Humvees and damaging four others.
S&T FUTURE: The defense industry must make science and technology careers more attractive to counteract the anticipated shortage of scientists and engineers in the near future, according to the CEOs of several large firms who spoke last week at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics' conference in Washington. "Scientists and engineers are an aging part of the workforce," says Northrop Grumman CEO Ronald Sugar. "There's been a lull in the tech industry, but the lull will end shortly and we'll face a wave a competition with the commercial economy.
INTEGRATED SOLUTIONS: Defense industry leaders are working to overcome barriers that "stovepiped" capabilities within their companies can cause, industry leaders say. "We mirror our customers [DOD] when it comes to this issue," says Jim Albaugh, Boeing's executive vice president and president and CEO of the company's Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) segment. "Stovepiped capabilities within our organization compete within the company for resources and don't work together. Now we have an integrated solution, which is a significant change for us." Lockheed Martin Corp.
SHUTTLE DRILL: NASA will conduct a drill at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on Feb. 18 to test the readiness of emergency personnel, equipment and facilities during a scenario in which astronauts must be rescued from a downed space shuttle, according to NASA. In the simulated scenario, an orbiter crash-lands in a wooded area south of the shuttle runway. Emergency personnel will care for injured astronauts inside a shuttle crew compartment mock-up, provide emergency on-site treatment, and transport them by ambulance or helicopter to one of three hospitals.
House Science Committee Ranking Member Bart Gordon (D-Texas) unsuccessfully pressed NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe and White House Science Advisor John Marburger to provide a specific cost estimate for returning humans to the moon by 2020 during a hearing in Washington Feb. 12. President Bush's space exploration program calls for robotic probes to begin visiting the moon this decade to begin mapping resources and scouting landing sites, followed by a human landing no later than 2020 (DAILY, Feb. 5).
More than 10 percent of contractors to the U.S. Department of Defense are evading taxes totaling more than $3 billion, General Accounting Office (GAO) officials told senators Feb. 12. A GAO report found that more than 27,000 DOD contractors have pocketed payroll taxes and used the money to pay for luxury items, rent and utility bills. Because tax evasion reduces their overhead, many of these contractors are in advantageous positions to bid on contracts, the GAO officials said.
Several members of the House Appropriations Committee's defense panel said Feb. 12 they are dissatisfied with the level of proposed funding for procurement, equipment maintenance and replacement in the fiscal year 2005 defense budget. "There is a lack of flexibility in this budget. I am disappointed this budget does not contain what the troops need," said Rep. Jack Murtha (D-Pa.).
Raytheon has joined the Lockheed Martin-led team competing to develop the Army's Aerial Common Sensor (ACS). With Raytheon's addition, Lockheed Martin hopes to ensure that ACS, an intelligence-gathering aircraft, is interoperable with an upgrade Raytheon plans to make to the Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS). The DCGS upgrade is supposed to integrate a series of ground stations that process intelligence.
The U.S. Air Force and a Northrop Grumman Corporation-led team developing the service's E-10A Multi-Sensor Command and Control Aircraft (MC2A) successfully completed the program's systems requirements review (SRR), the company announced Feb. 12. The review, completed on Feb. 5, ensured that all system-level technical requirements have been identified, analyzed and understood.
SAN DIEGO - Oversized joint staffs may not be the best way to develop true operational jointness, according to Vice Adm. Albert H. Konetzni Jr., deputy commander and chief of staff of U.S. Fleet Forces Command.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Air Force Space Command's top budget priority in the mid- and far-term is the development of an Operationally Responsive Spacelift (ORS) capability, according to Col. Bill Doyle, under whom the latest edition of the command's Space Master Plan was composed. The capability has "a very high priority," he said in a Feb. 10 telephone interview from Peterson Air Force Base here. "We have very little capacity to ... provide that capability right now."
STOVL: The U.S. Air Force is considering buying a second variant of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) to give it more options, Air Force officials said Feb. 12. The Air Force already plans to buy about 1,700 of the conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) version, but it now intends to study buying the Marine Corps' short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) version, which would give the Air Force access to "many more runways," according to Gen.
The chances are "very low" that the space shuttle will fly again in September or October as NASA had been planning, according to Administrator Sean O'Keefe. Answering questions before the House Science committee in Washington Feb. 12, O'Keefe said the schedule is likely to slip because of ongoing modifications to the shuttle's external tank, as well as the development of a boom camera that will be able to examine the shuttle's underbelly for damage while in orbit.
GOOD REPORT: Orbital Sciences Corp. Chief Financial Officer Garrett E. Pierce said Feb. 12 that the company had "a very robust quarter" for new orders and completed 2003 with "another solid quarter of strong cash flow and profitability." The company reported operating income of $13.5 million on revenues of $157.8 million, an increase of 25 percent over the same period in 2002. Revenue for the year was $582 million, up 5 percent from 2002, the company said.
The launch of the Defense Department's experimental TacSat-1 micro-satellite has been delayed about two months, DOD officials said Feb. 11. The liftoff had been scheduled for March (DAILY, Dec. 4, 2003), but it is now slated for May 13 because the launch preparations are taking more time than expected, according to a spokesman for Ret. Navy Vice Adm. Arthur Cebrowski, director of DOD's Office of Force Transformation, which is sponsoring the satellite initiative.
BAE Systems is "prepared to execute immediately" if the U.S. Army asks it to produce Common Missile Warning Systems to help protect helicopters, according to Chris Ager, a business development manager for the company in Nashua, N.H. The Army has completed a plan, funded at $28 million in the fiscal 2004 defense supplemental, to outfit its helicopters in Afghanistan and Iraq with the best possible electronic countermeasures to deflect heat-seeking missiles.
Boeing's Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS) has passed a major milestone by receiving approval from the U.S. Air Force and Navy to begin full-rate production, government and industry sources said Feb. 11. The decision was made jointly Jan. 29 by Maj. Gen. Richard "Rick" Lewis, Air Force program executive officer (PEO) for fighters and bombers, and by Rear Adm. James Godwin, the Navy's PEO for tactical aircraft, said Mike Rietz, Boeing's JHMCS program manager.
