The Federal Communications Commission's action last week to block the acquisition of Hughes Electronics by EchoStar Communications could mean more orders for satellite manufacturers, according to two industry analysts. However, unveiling a new subscriber-based broadband satellite service network might be more difficult for two entities rather than one large one, they said.
YESTERDAY'S DARPA: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) head Tony Tether says he's making progress in returning his agency to its roots in high-risk, "far side" technologies. As defense science and technology (S&T) budgets declined during the 1990s, "DARPA was being pressured more and more to fill the gap in what I would call the product improvement S&T area," Tether says.
WAR RESERVE: The newly completed $355.1 billion fiscal 2003 defense appropriations conference report does not include the $10 billion reserve fund the Bush Administration requested to continue the war on terrorism into FY '03. Appropriators were reluctant to give the Administration $10 billion with few restrictions on how it could be spent. But some lawmakers have suggested that costs arising from the war on terrorism could be paid for later on with a supplemental appropriations bill.
Oct. 14 - 18 -- The 9th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems. Lakeside Center at McCormick Place, Chicago, Ill. For more information visit www.itsworldcongress.org. Oct. 15 - 17 -- The Precision Strike Association presents the 2002 Precision Strike Technology Symposium, the Kossiakoff Conference Center, The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md. Email [email protected] or go to www.precisionstrike.org.
SEA-BASED TERMINAL: Although the fiscal 2003 defense appropriations conference report denies the Missile Defense Agency's $90 million request for a new sea-based terminal missile defense system - a program lawmakers say was not well defined - development of a sea-based terminal capability still could be aided by two upcoming flight tests for the Sea-based Midcourse Defense (SMD) program, according to a Defense Department official.
The Department of Defense should report to Congress how many "nontraditional" defense contractors are participating in Section 845 agreements, which DOD uses to attract such contractors, the General Accounting Office said in a report. The agreements generally are not subject to procurement contract regulations. In addition to attracting companies that aren't traditional defense contractors, DOD also views the agreements as "a way to test creative procurement strategies" such as using teaming arrangements and consortia, according to the GAO.
MIDEAST SUPPLIERS: Aerospace and defense industry watchers may want to consider what would happen if relations broke down between Arab states, the United States and the United Kingdom following a war with Iraq, a report from Merrill Lynch says. One result could be that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates would reduce arms purchases, according to senior aerospace and defense analyst Byron Callan. "This might impact Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, who are in the midst of supplying F-16 Block 60 fighters to the UAE," Callan says.
E-4B WORK: DRS Technologies will supply the primary workstations that control multiple communications links for the Air Force's E-4B Advanced Airborne Command Post, the company announced Oct. 10. The deal could be worth up to $1 million and calls for the installation of the Enhanced Command Consoles on the E-4B, a modified Boeing 747-200 that serves as an airborne operations center during national emergencies. Boeing awarded the contract to DRS.
The Missile Defense Agency's plans to build a sea-based X-band radar for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system have hit a snag on Capitol Hill, where key lawmakers say they have not yet been persuaded that a sea-based radar is better than a land-based one.
BOEING SPACE AND COMMUNICATIONS GROUP will perform payload engineering integration, mission integration and payload operations work for the International Space Station under a $201.5 million contract from NASA, the aerospace agency said. The work will be done under the new ISS Payload Integration Contract (IPIC), which consolidates station payload work under a single contract. Boeing previously performed the work under two contracts. The work will be performed at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, and Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
The House Appropriations Committee wants NASA to reconsider its plans to stop servicing the Hubble Space Telescope during its final years in orbit. Hubble, which was launched in 1990, is scheduled to return to Earth in 2010 and be replaced by the Webb Space Telescope, formerly the Next Generation Space Telescope. To save money, NASA does not plan to service Hubble after 2004.
Two Raytheon Co. businesses will develop anti-jamming technology for the Global Positioning System (GPS), the company said Oct. 10. The Precision Guidance Systems (PGS) unit of Raytheon's Space and Airborne Systems division was awarded a contract option worth $1.9 million by the Navy's Space & Naval Warfare Systems Center as part of Raytheon's work on the Digital Antenna Electronics (DAE) program. Under the option, PGS will develop, produce and test DAE prototypes that are compatible with standard aircraft anti-jam antenna systems.
PACT: L-3 Communications' Link Simulation and Training division will build a P-3C Partial Aircrew Coordination Trainer (PACT) under a $6.6 million U.S. Navy contract, the company said Oct. 10. The PACT will be used to hone the skills of the aircraft's intelligence gathering crews, the company said. Commander Patrol Reconnaissance Forces Pacific P-3C crews, which patrol the western Pacific Ocean, will train on the system when it is delivered to the Naval Air Station Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, in 19 months, the company said.
Speaking deep in his rival's territory, the co-CEO of Europe's largest aerospace company appealed for greater access to the U.S. defense market and linked better transatlantic partnership to world security. Phillipe Camus, co-CEO of European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS), said the sophistication of modern defense programs demands greater collaboration between U.S. and foreign companies.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Army Space Command will gain as yet unassigned new missions as part of its reorganization into the freshly-minted U.S. Strategic Command, Lt. Gen. Joseph M. Cosumano Jr. said Oct. 9.
JOINT TESTING: Lockheed Martin, the U.S. Air Force and the Italian air force have conducted joint C-130J tests as part of the U.S. Air Force's C-130J defensive systems upgrade program, Lockheed Martin said Oct. 10. The Air Force is installing radar warning receivers (RWRs) on its C-130Js, and conducted trials to ensure the aircrafts' upgraded software works with the RWRs. Italian air force C-130Js already have radar warning receivers, so Italy provided an aircraft for the joint testing program, which was funded by the U.S. Air Force.
A Boeing/Science Applications International Corp. team welcomed the military's decision to keep them as the industry lead for the DARPA/Army Future Combat Systems program. "The concept of an industry lead systems integrator was so revolutionary that [DARPA} and the Army wanted the opportunity to reaffirm their choice of the LSI early in this phase of the program," Jerry McElwee, Boeing vice president and program manager for FCS, said in a statement released Oct. 10.
Australia's defense minister on Oct. 10 publicly tested the military capabilities of a small, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) originally conceived as a weather observer. Robert Hill remotely piloted one of three Aerosonde UAVs, which are lightweight drones with nearly 9-foot wingspans. Each long-distance aircraft contained either a video camera, a radio frequency repeater or a radar-jamming device to prove its military capabilities.
As an extension of ongoing cooperative research with the FAA, NASA is putting together a major initiative in aviation security and safety that should have a high profile in the agency's fiscal year 2004 budget request, according to Administrator Sean O'Keefe. A major thrust of this initiative will be the modernization of the country's overburdened air traffic management system. This effort "is really going to be the answer for so many of the commercial industry's woes right now," O'Keefe said during a press breakfast in Falls Church, Va., Oct. 10.
The Federal Communications Commission on Oct. 10 blocked the proposed $16.2 billion acquisition of Hughes Electronics Corp. by EchoStar Communications Corp., citing concerns about the effects of diminished competition in the video programming subscriber market. In an Oct. 10 statement, FCC officials said the possibility that the merger would reduce competition in the multi-channel video program distribution (MVPD) market outweighed any public interest benefits caused by the merger of the satellite TV providers.
SPACEWALK: Mission Specialists David Wolf and Piers Sellers wrapped up the first spacewalk of the shuttle Atlantis' mission to the International Space Station on Oct. 10. They began activating and outfitting the station's new Starboard 1 truss, which was attached to the station earlier in the day by the station's robotic arm.
The Army's RAH-66 Comanche program passed its make-or-break Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) review earlier this week, a source told The DAILY. The DAB review was held to approve the Army's restructuring plan for the Boeing-Sikorsky helicopter program - the sixth so far in its troubled history. Apparently satisfied, Pentagon Acquisition Chief E.C. "Pete" Aldridge Jr. has signed the Acquisition Decision Memorandum (ADM) formally approving the new plan, the source said.
