Signal Technology Corp., of Danvers, Mass., announced May 9 that its Keltec Division has been awarded a $1.9 million contract from BAE Systems to develop and manufacture power modules for transmitters on the U.S. Navy's EA-6B Prowler aircraft. The high-voltage modules will be used in the next-generation AN/ALQ-99 Band 7/8 transmitter that BAE Systems is supplying to the Navy. The Prowler has the capability to intercept, analyze and neutralize hostile radars at extremely long range and under any weather conditions.
Northrop Grumman Corp. has matched an offer from General Dynamics Corp. to buy all outstanding shares of Newport News Shipbuilding Inc. Northrop Grumman officials said their offer, made May 8, stemmed from concerns that the April 25 agreement between Newport News and General Dynamics Corp. "would create an unhealthy monopoly, resulting in an unacceptable and anti-competitive consolidation of the U.S. shipbuilding industry." Move called 'hostile'
LOCKHEED MARTIN CORP., Fort Worth, Texas, has been awarded a $12 million contract to provide for fleet upgrade for 22 F-16 aircraft. This upgrade includes incorporation of interface software for the Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile and the Advanced Identity Friend and Foe system. This effort supports foreign military sales to Bahrain. The work is expected to be completed by January 2003.
While the Air Force retains control and management of space, the chief thrust of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's assessment of the Space Commission report is that it creates more of a centralized authority for space.
Five former leading scientists for the Defense Department and NASA argued May 9 that critics of national and theater missile defenses are misguided to deny the feasibility of deploying such systems. The scientists told reporters that the technology has already been proven and that all that remains to be tackled is an engineering challenge, a difficult but achievable task.
LOCKHEED MARTIN Missiles and Fire Control - Dallas conducted three successful developmental flight tests of the Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) upgraded M270A1 launcher this week at White Sands Missile Range, the company announced May 9. Twenty-three MLRS rockets were successfully fired from the launcher over a two-day testing period. The M270A1 is a major upgrade to the launcher.
The U.S. Air Force demonstrated precision-strike accuracy with a Block 1A Conventional Air Launched Cruise Missile (CALCM) in a flight test at the Utah Test and Training Range, the Boeing Co. announced May 8. The test also validated advanced Global Positioning System processing flight software, which provided the precision delivery guidance, according to Boeing. The flight test, which took place last week, was the culmination of a three-year program to upgrade the CALCM with precision GPS-aided inertial navigation.
John Douglass, president of the Aerospace Industries of America, said the Commission on the Future of the U.S. Aerospace Industry needs to give the industry "a coherent road map that will help guide us all in the next four to eight years." Most of the members of the new commission have yet to be named, but Douglass, speaking at the Global Air&Space 2001 Forum and Exhibition, said it needs to be a "strong" commission that will look at current industry trends and help guide a changing industry.
The head of California-based duPont Aerospace Co. testified in Congress May 9 that a prototype of his company's vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) airplane could be available for testing three years after receiving contract funding from the U.S. government. Anthony duPont, president of duPont Aerospace, told the House Science subcommittee on space that a three-aircraft program for the DP-2 would cost about $160 million.
An ambitious and expensive Coast Guard plan to replace over 90 ships and 200 aircraft used for deepwater missions could run into budget trouble, the General Accounting Office warned in a new report. The Deepwater Capability Replacement Project, the largest procurement bid in the agency's history, is expected to cost over $10 billion, in 1998 dollars, and could take two decades or longer to complete.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's plans for reorganizing military space management will streamline the space acquisition process, according to Lt. Gen. (s) Brian Arnold. These changes could also attract more funding for military space endeavors, Arnold said at a National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) Space Committee luncheon on May 9. Rumsfeld called for giving the Air Force clear authority over space (DAILY, May 9) and announced several structural changes (see related story on Page 7).
European Space Agency officials are preparing another round of parabolic flights on an Airbus A300 to provide temporary weightlessness for researchers preparing experiments for the International Space Station. Three flights of 30 parabolas each are planned for May 15-17 from the Bordeaux-Merignac airport in France. Fourteen experiments will be onboard during the latest round, the most since the agency began the flights in 1984. Eight experiments are in the field of physical sciences, three are in life sciences and three were proposed by students.
Three divisions of New York-based L-3 Communications have joined a TRW-led team vying to replace the Air Force's Satellite Control Network Command and Control Segment, the company announced May 9. L-3's Communication Systems-West, Telemetry&Instrumentation and Storm Control Systems are part of the team led by TRW Inc., which has been awarded a Phase One contract in support of the Command and Control System-Consolidated (CCS-C) program.
The Senate May 8 voted 57-43 to confirm John Bolton as under secretary of state for arms control and international security, despite Democratic complaints that he doesn't have enough experience in arms control and non-proliferation and has opposed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and other arms control agreements.
Although space industry leaders agree that the road to the next reusable launch vehicle (RLV) will not be quick, easy, or cheap, they differ in their opinions on exactly how we'll get there. Albert E. Smith, executive vice president at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, believes that development of the next generation RLV will depend on wiser allocation of R&D resources.
Aircraft part suppliers may have to consolidate into a few large companies to meet the divergent needs of customers in the commercial and military aviation markets, the president of Hamilton Sundstrand said May 8. Speaking during a panel discussion at the Global Air&Space 2001 forum and exhibition, Ronald McKenna said the supply base consolidation trend over the past 10 years, which mirrored the same trend among larger system components manufacturers, will likely continue.
NASA's X-40A technology demonstrator had a successful fifth free-flight test May 8. The unpowered, unpiloted craft is a demonstrator for the X-37 robotic spaceplane program. In the fifth test, the X-40A was released off the centerline of its landing site at Edwards AFB, Calif., and its flight computer had to guide it to a straight approach.
With a $5 million grant from the U.S. Defense Department, the University of Chicago will become a new national headquarters for studying the long-term performance of high-tech materials in space. The unclassified research program could lead to new and improved materials for satellites, space stations and high-altitude aircraft, Aerospace Daily affiliate AviationNow.com reported.
The General Accounting Office, mulling a Lockheed Martin Corp. protest of a $64 million Air Force award to Raytheon Co. for production of laser guidance kits for bombs, has until late next month to make a decision.
President Bush on May 7 announced his intention to nominate Matt Fong to serve as under secretary of the Army. Fong is the founder and president of Strategic Advisory Group, and is counsel to the law firm of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter&Hampton. Fong has served in the U.S. Air Force Reserves since 1980, following five years of active duty in the U.S. Air Force. As a Reserve officer, he has been the chief for budget and congressional analysis for the Pentagon since 2000.
The chairman of the House Science Committee's space panel said May 8 that he plans to invite California businessman Dennis Tito to a hearing to discuss his recent trip to the International Space Station and explore possibilities for increasing space tourism and other commercial activities in space.
Japan's National Space Development Agency and Japanese aerospace manufacturers will likely participate in NASA's Crew Return Vehicle program, officials said here. NASA invited their cooperation on the program to develop an escape vehicle for the crew on the International Space Station Alpha. Money for NASA's own program to develop such a vehicle was curtailed after the station hit a $4 billion cost overrun. Since then, the agency has been looking to its international partners for help on the CRV and other station components.
In a show of the increased importance of the use of space to the U.S. military, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld outlined several major organizational changes to the management structure of space responsibilities, but stopped short of advocating putting weapons in the territory outside the Earth's gravity. "We rely on space more than any other country," Rumsfeld told reporters at a standing-room-only briefing room at the Pentagon May 8. "Our dependence on operations in space, however, makes us somewhat vulnerable to new challenges."
The Federal Aviation Administration awarded Sensis Corp. a contract to evaluate the integration of two technologies in surveying airfield traffic. The company will look at the effectiveness of integrating infrared imaging with multilateration technology to capture and report on surface movement of both cooperative and non-cooperative traffic.
Comtech Mobile Datacom Corp. of Germantown, Md., has been awarded $3.5 million in orders for equipment and services to be used in the U.S. Army's Movement Tracking System (MTS) program. The company is a subsidiary of Comtech Telecommunications Corp. of Melville, N.Y., which announced the orders May 8. The company said this was the second large order under an eight-year contract that could have a total value of $418 million.
