President Bush intends to nominate Thomas Forrest Hall to be assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs and John Leonard Helgerson to be inspector general for the Central Intelligence Agency, the White House announced Feb. 27. Hall has been the executive director and chief operating officer of the Naval Reserve Association since 1996. From 1963 to 1996, he was a U.S. Navy officer, retiring as a two-star admiral.
A priority for Airbus this year is to break into Boeing's market in Japan, Airbus CEO Noel Forgeard said here. "This will include significant industrial participation, for the first time," he said, giving notice that Airbus and the Japanese will disclose work-sharing agreements on the A380 superjumbo in the near future. "It's encouraging to see signs of recovery, in particular here in Asia," Forgeard said. "There's clearly an improvement in loads, and some airlines are re-introducing frequencies and destinations."
The Navy is planning to replenish its stockpile of precision-guided munitions in 2002 and 2003 after running short of them in Afghanistan, Adm. Robert Natter said Feb. 28. Natter, the commander-in-chief of the Atlantic Fleet, said the need for precision-guided weapons became especially apparent during Operation Enduring Freedom. "We damn near ran out in Afghanistan," Natter said to a group of defense writers. He was referring to Joint Direct Attack Munitions and 500- and 1,000-pound guided bomb units, a Navy spokesman said.
Two mapping systems jointly developed by the Air Force and the National Imagery and Mapping Agency proved useful in Afghanistan operations, according to Lt. Gen. Charles Wald, the deputy chief of staff for air and space operations. The first, called PowerScene, integrates imagery with digital terrain elevation data, Wald said Feb. 27 at a space symposium sponsored by the National Defense Industrial Association.
LAUNCH DELAY: The planned Feb. 28 launch of Space Shuttle Columbia on the fourth Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission (STS-109) has been delayed to early March 1 due to bad weather, NASA said. A combination of expected low temperatures, winds and humidity would have pushed the launch environment to the limit of safe conditions, according to NASA. The crew of Columbia will undertake an 11-day mission to add an advanced camera and other equipment (DAILY, Feb. 20).
TANKER WORK: The Boeing Co. intends to use its Wichita, Kan. facility and workforce if its proposal to covert 767 aircraft into tankers for the U.S. Air Force is accepted, the company announced Feb. 27. Boeing would produce the aircraft in Everett, Wash., and convert them to tankers at its Wichita Development and Modification Center.
A senior defense acquisition and procurement official told Senate lawmakers Feb. 27 that the Defense Department is committed to killing weapons programs that exceed their cost limits, as is mandated under the Nunn-McCurdy Amendment of 1982. Michael Wynne, the deputy undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, said the Defense Department's cancellation of the Navy Area Missile Defense Program for Nunn-McCurdy violations (DAILY, Dec. 18, 2001) demonstrates the Administration's intent to keep costs in line.
Department of Defense releases top 50 contractors for Navy in FY 2001 The top 50 aerospace and defense companies ranked by the net value of prime contract awards from the Navy are listed in the following table, released by the Department of Defense. Department of the Navy Fiscal Year 2001 Contractor RDT&E Other Services NEWPORT NEWS SHIP $8,934,608 $267,856,791 BOEING 338,281,707 342,908,493 LOCKHEED MARTIN 659,581,333 1,338,820,640
Former Mercury astronaut and senator John Glenn and former Secretary of the Navy Richard Danzig are among six new members who will serve on the NASA Advisory Council (NAC), NASA announced Feb. 26.
Marshall O. Larson has been promoted to president and chief operating officer. ITT INDUSTRIES, Clifton, N.J. John Capeci has been appointed director of marketing.
A decision on whether NASA will proceed with the assembly of the International Space Station beyond a basic "core complete" configuration could occur as early as the end of this summer, according to NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe. "I'm hopeful that we'll see enough progress to support that kind of decision," O'Keefe said during a House Science Committee hearing in Washington Feb. 27. This was his first congressional testimony as administrator.
The Missile Defense Agency has decided to delay the first shoot-down demonstration of the Airborne Laser by a year, to fiscal 2004, according to a congressional document released at a Feb. 27 missile defense hearing of the House Armed Services procurement and research and development subcommittees.
Heico Corp., which builds aftermarket aircraft parts and electronics, reported first quarter earnings lower than those reported a year ago due to the impact of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the commercial air transport market. Net income for the first quarter totaled $2.8 million, or 13 cents per share, compared with $3.9 million, or 18 cents per share, for the first quarter of fiscal 2001, Heico officials said in a Feb. 26 conference call.
U.S. defense contractors are interested in making arms offers to India, according to Indian defense officials and U.S. Ambassador Robert Blackwill. "American companies are increasingly interested in exploring possibilities of defense sales to India," Blackwill said. "But there is a lag time as the sanctions regime had prohibited arms sales to India until now. As the sanctions were lifted recently, it will take a little time for big U.S. defense contractors to shift course."
William Lawler, vice president and general manager of strategic operations and planning for Boeing Military Aircraft and Missile Systems, has been inducted into the Alabama Engineering hall of fame. Eugene Woloshyn has been named vice president of labor relations at the company's headquarters in Chicago.
Gregory E. Hyland has been promoted to president of the industrial products segment. Richard L. Clayton has been named president of the industrial components segment. John L. Garrison will join the company as president of E-Z-GO.
New weapons and communications systems using space-based technologies played a key role in the United States' quick victory in Afghanistan, according to a senior military official. In one of most detailed accounts of how weapons were used over Afghanistan, Air Force Lt. Gen. Charles Wald, the deputy chief of staff for air and space operations, emphasized that space-based capabilities were leveraged at every turn to maximize the U.S. military's advantage.
Buoyed by a recent successful test firing of the Trishul missile, Indian defense scientists are preparing for new test trials of the ship-launched Danush missile, which is intended to give the navy capability to strike land targets with nuclear or conventional warheads. More tests of the Danush missile will be carried out in the next two months, top Defence Research&Development Organization (DRDO) officials told reporters.
Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), chairman of the House Armed Services procurement subcommittee, said late Feb. 26 that he is drafting a proposal to boost funding for aircraft, ships and other military equipment by tapping a $10 billion war reserve fund that the Bush Administration has requested as part of its fiscal 2003 defense budget.
Boeing could launch the new 747-400X Quiet Longer Range (QLR) aircraft in June if orders are obtained, and aircraft could be delivered by late 2003. The QLR is designed to improve the sales appeal of the 747, which has not been selling strongly - particularly in its passenger version - since Boeing launched the longer-range variant of the 777. Larry Dickenson, senior sales vice president for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, did not give details of the current and projected 747 deliveries and backlog here.
