Two organizations commissioned by Boeing to investigate its ethics programs found that the company's scandals are not due to fundamental and systemic flaws in its programs, but that Boeing's ethics programs could stand some improvements.
Industry officials expect the Department of Homeland Security on Dec. 19 to award contracts for the first phase of a program to develop anti-missile devices for airliners. They say the contest for the two-phase, $100 million system development and demonstration (SDD) program has been narrowed from an initial field of about 90 to just five competitors - AVISYS, BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon.
A new 10-year forecast by Futron Corp. predicts that current small markets for satellite services, such as in-flight Internet, connectivity, will grow considerably over the next five years, while larger markets experience moderate growth.
Space experts disagreed on the value of the moon and Mars as destinations for astronauts during a panel in Washington Dec. 18, though all agreed that NASA needs a new destination to galvanize the country's human space flight program.
UFO LAUNCH: An International Launch Services Lockheed Martin Atlas III carried a U.S. Navy UHF Follow-On (UFO) satellite to orbit late on Dec. 17 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. The Boeing-built satellite is UFO F11, the last in the UFO series. It had been scheduled for launch earlier this week, but a problem with a mechanism attaching the rocket to the pad prompted a delay.
The Missile Defense Agency's Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system has successfully completed a key design review, clearing the way for the program to resume flight-testing in late 2004, according to a source at prime contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. THAAD, which was restructured after a series of failed flight tests a few years ago, received high marks from MDA during the system's Dec. 16-17 critical design review, which took place in Huntsville, Ala., the Lockheed Martin source told The DAILY Dec. 18.
The Department of Defense (DOD) has given the U.S. Army the go-ahead to acquire and field Stryker Brigade Combat Teams (SBCT) 5 and 6, and approved its plans to make improvements to these brigades and retrofit brigades 1 through 4 with newer technology as it becomes available. An Army plan "reviewed basing options for the brigades and the desirability of associating Stryker brigades with Air Force aerial expeditionary forces to facilitate development of joint doctrine, training, and deployment," the DOD said Dec. 17.
GPS LAUNCH: A Boeing Delta II rocket is scheduled to launch a U.S. Air Force Global Positioning System satellite on Dec. 21 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., Boeing said Dec. 18. The launch of GPS IIR-10 is scheduled to occur during a 15-minute launch window that opens at 2:54 a.m. EST, the company said. The spacecraft is to be deployed 68 minutes after launch.
NEW DELHI - Pakistan has integrated its indigenously produced H-4 hard-target bomb into its air force, a diplomat at the Pakistan Embassy here said recently. The integration of the H-4 is in preparation for obtaining Beyond Visual Range (BVR) missile capability for the Pakistan defense forces.
NASA has renamed the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) the Spitzer Space Telescope, and released the first images from the spacecraft on Dec. 18. The telescope was named after Lyman Spitzer Jr. (1914-1997), who in 1946 became the first to propose placing a large telescope in space to avoid the obscuring effects of Earth's atmosphere.
PRAGUE, Czech Republic - Czech officials will open negotiations with the Swedish government over a leasing contract for 14 new JAS-39 fighters at the beginning of 2004, according to the Czech ministry of defense.
CHAIRMAN: Thomas M. Culligan, the executive vice president of business development for Raytheon, and CEO of Raytheon International, has been named to a two-year term as chairman of the board of the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA). The NDIA provides a forum for exchanging ideas between industry and government on defense issues.
COBRA JUDY CONTRACT: Raytheon Co. has been awarded a contract worth up to $1.045 billion to replace the Navy's aging ship-based Cobra Judy radar system, the Defense Department announced late Dec. 18. The contract, which was not competitively procured, calls for Raytheon's Integrated Defense Systems unit to design, develop and produce the new system (DAILY, Dec. 18). Cobra Judy is used to track foreign ballistic missile launches.
The Indian government balked at signing a contract for the purchase of the Barak anti-missile system for the Indian navy after the system malfunctioned during tests. A senior Indian defense ministry official told The DAILY that technical problems turned up in the Barak system during trials in the second week of November. More tests have been ordered in the near future.
NEW DELHI - Crashes of its upgraded MiG-21 aircraft have prompted the Indian air force to require 50 hours of flight testing before putting the MiG-21 bis version into service. About 125 Indian air force MiG-21s are being upgraded by the state-owned Hindsutan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in Bangalore.
Canada's Maritime Helicopter Program (MHP) officials stunned Lockheed Martin Canada by disqualifying its bid for an estimated $3 billion contract to replace the country's fleet of aging Sea Kings. The Public Works and Govern-ment Services Ministry announced Dec. 17 that Lockheed Martin Canada (LMC) had failed to pre-qualify and would not be allowed to respond to a request for proposals. Only Sikorsky International, with the S-92, and E.H. Industries Ltd. pre-qualified to supply 28 maritime helicopters.
BATTELLE, Columbus, Ohio Maj. Gen. James T. Jackson (U.S. Army, ret.) has been named marketing manager for the Battelle Office of Homeland Security. DRS TECHNOLOGIES, Parsippany, N.J. Ervin T. Kiriu has joined the company as vice president, programs for the Electronic Systems Group, based in Gaithersburg, Md. KEYSTONE HELICOPTER, West Chester, Pa. Peter Wright Jr., president of the company, has been named vice chairman. NORTHROP GRUMMAN, Los Angeles
