A Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flying 12 miles above the battlefield successfully sent images and data to an airborne battle management platform and to soldiers on the ground, Northrop Grumman said Nov. 13.
Boeing Co. said four companies have joined it in the competition for the U.S. Navy's Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft (MMA), but a Boeing spokeswoman said the four are also free to team with MMA competitor Lockheed Martin. Boeing said Nov. 13 that its partners are CFM International, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and Smiths Aerospace, and that the team is "focused on winning the MMA prime contractor selection in early 2004."
RAPTOR PROCUREMENT: Acting Pentagon acquisition chief Michael Wynne has released a memorandum authorizing the Air Force to buy 22 Lockheed Martin F/A-22 Raptors for Lot 4 in fiscal 2004. The memorandum also approves advance procurement for F/A-22s the Air Force wants to procure for Lot 5 in FY '05.
AIM-9X IOC: The AIM-9X missile's achievement of initial operational capability with the U.S. Air Force was celebrated Nov. 13 at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, by the Navy and Raytheon Co. The 12th and 19th Fighter Squadrons of the 3rd Wing, 11th Air Force, are the first operational units to field and train with new short-range air-to-air missile. Formal operational evaluation has been completed and all Lot 1 deliveries were accomplished ahead of schedule.
Lockheed Martin has won a $2.5 million end-to-end architecture study contract for the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-R) program from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the company announced Nov. 13. The contract covers four areas: space and launch; command, control, communications (C3); product generation and distribution; and end-to-end integration. NOAA's goal is to increase GOES-R's weather and environmental forecasting capabilities and reduce mission cost, according to Lockheed Martin.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) asked a top Pentagon official Nov. 13 to quickly clarify how the Air Force plans to implement newly passed legislation authorizing it to acquire 100 Boeing KC-767A tankers.
(Editor's note: The following is excerpted from written responses provided by Gwendolyn Brown, nominated to be NASA's chief financial officer, to questions from the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee in September. She was confirmed by the Senate Nov. 7.) Q: Why do you wish to serve in the position for which you have been nominated?
ISS CONTRACT: Applied Research and Engineering Sciences Corp. of Burlingame, Calif., will support International Space Station program, business and configuration management under a $178 million contract, NASA said Nov. 12. The contract's base period is four years, nine months, with two one-year extension options. The company also will support data integration, program information technology, international partner elements integration management, systems analysis and integration, engineering and technical services and safety and mission assurance, NASA said.
NATO countries have made "substantial progress" in improving their military readiness, according to NATO Secretary General Lord George Robertson. "People are waking up very quickly, not just from my exhortations, but to the realities facing them as well," he said Nov. 13 at a Defense Writers Group breakfast. Robertson pointed to efforts initiated by the Czech Republic, Norway, the Netherlands and Denmark to improve troop readiness and reduce inefficiencies.
PRAGUE, Czech Republic - The 14 used F-16 aircraft that the U.S. government is offering to the Czech Republic in a five-nation bidding contest will have an operational life of at least 20 years, according to a senior Lockheed Martin official. David Potts, Lockheed Martin's international senior director for Central Europe, told journalists here Nov. 12 that the Block 15 F-16As offered would be equipped with new Pratt & Whitney engines and undergo two structural upgrades to ensure maximum operational capability.
The General Accounting Office (GAO) endorsed the Department of Defense's new weapons acquisition policy in a new report, but recommended that the defense secretary strengthen the policy by requiring additional controls over managers when their programs reach crucial milestones.
The Missile Defense Agency's efforts to develop a space-based interceptor missile have suffered another blow, as the agency has decided against spending any money on the new initiative in the current fiscal year. Amid budget constraints and political resistance to space-based weapons, MDA has dropped plans to spend $14 million on research and concept definition for the space-based Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI) in fiscal 2004, according to sources and documents. Any spending on space KEI will not take place until FY '05 at the earliest.
Leaders of the House Science Committee have stepped up their resistance to NASA's new Orbital Space Plane (OSP) program, proposing that an appropriations measure defer the spacecraft's development until the U.S. government comes up with a vision for space exploration.
Herley Industries will supply identification friend or foe (IFF) interrogators and transponder systems to the Republic of Korea navy for use on KDX II Batch III destroyers, the company said Nov. 12. The work will be done under $4 million in contract awards. "We are very pleased with these recent, additional contracts to provide communications systems for this multi-ship, multi-year program," President John M. Kelley said in a statement.
DEFENSE BILL: The Senate Nov. 12 approved the fiscal 2004 defense authorization conference report by a 95-3 vote. The legislation, which the House passed Nov. 7 (DAILY, Nov. 10), now heads to President Bush for his expected signature. The $401 billion measure authorizes $74 billion for procurement and $63 billion for research and development. It allows the Air Force to acquire 100 new Boeing KC-767A tanker aircraft by leasing 20 and buying the rest (DAILY, Nov. 7).
THE EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY (ESA) signed a deal with Rosaviakosmos, the Russian aviation and space agency, for two unmanned Foton capsule flights, ESA said. The Foton-M2 and Foton-M3 missions will carry 660 kilograms (1,455 pounds) of scientific payloads scheduled for launch in May 2005 and late 2006. The flights are replacements for science missions lost in the launch failure of Foton-M1 on Oct. 15, 2002, and the space shuttle Columbia accident in February. Two Russian companies, KBOM of Moscow and TsSKB-Progress of Samara, will partner with Rosaviakosmos.
JUNKERS AWARD: Jens Flottau, the Munich, Germany, correspondent for Aerospace Daily affiliate Aviation Daily, has been awarded the Hugo Junkers Award by the German Aviation Writers Association. The award is given annually for outstanding journalistic work in aviation and aerospace. Flottau received the award for his coverage of the demise of Fairchild Dornier, a regional aircraft manufacturer, a story he had followed since 1996.
ALVEY SYSTEMS George Reyher has been appointed account manager for Latin America. BOEING-SIKORSKY, Bridgeport, Conn. Mike Blake has been appointed Comanche program director, replacing Charles "Chuck" Allen, who has been selected as vice president and program manager for Boeing's Orbital Space Program, headquartered in Huntsville, Ala. DRS TECHNOLOGIES, Parsippany, N.J. Patrick R. Marion has joined the company as vice president and general manager of the DRS Laurel Technologies unit in Johnstown, Pa.
SpaceDev of Poway, Calif., is auctioning off a private space mission aboard a microsatellite that would be based on the company's Maneuvering and orbital Transfer Vehicle (MTV). The auction is open on eBay (www.ebay.com) until Nov. 20. The minimum opening bid is $250,000, although the reserve - the price below which the sale won't be accepted - is considerably higher than that. A potential buyer also has the option of bypassing the auction and purchasing the mission outright for $9.5 million. At presstime there were no bids posted.
Asian-Pacific countries could be the biggest buyers of small and medium-sized warships over the next six to seven years, according to several U.S. naval analysts. In a report released Nov. 12 in Singapore, naval analysts with AMI International of Bremerton, Wash., said new warship procurement in the Asia-Pacific region could grow from $7 billion in 2003 to $14 billion by 2009. Alan Garwood, a senior export official in the British Ministry of Defence, told the Reuters news agency that the Asia-Pacific market could become "enormous.
The Compact Kinetic Energy Missile (CKEM), built by Lockheed Martin Missiles & Fire Control, has successfully completed its first controlled flight test, according to company officials. CKEM is a next-generation hypervelocity anti-tank missile that builds on technology used in the Army's Line-of-Sight Anti-Tank (LOSAT) missile, which still is in development. CKEM is being designed for direct-fire, close-in engagements of about 219 yards (200 meters) and ranges that exceed those of LOSAT.
Defense contractors are seeing more opportunities in the operations and maintenance (O&M) portion of the defense budget, according to defense analysts. Merrill Lynch aerospace and defense analyst Byron Callan says in an October investors report that "the O&M account ... is an increasingly significant source of funding for companies we cover."
