Millenium Jet Inc., Sunnyvale, Calif., is being awarded a $1,000,000 increment of a $5,096,613 other-transaction-for-prototypes for the development and testing of a one-man vertical takeoff and landing flying exoskeleton under the Exoskeleton for Human Performance Augmentation program. Work will be performed in Sunnyvale, Calif., and is expected to be completed by September 30, 2003. A portion of the funds ($100,000) will expire at the end of current fiscal year. DARPA issued a solicitation in the Commerce Business Daily on June 30, 2000, and 23 bids were received.
Northrop Grumman Corp., Baltimore, Md., was awarded on Dec. 12 a $16,000,000 indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract to provide for research and development support for the Advanced Sensor Program. This effort will improve sensor systems in clutter by exploiting advanced processing architecture and developing advanced processing technologies. At this time, $2,000,000 of the contract funds have been obligated. Further funds will be obligated as individual delivery orders are issued. The work is expected to be completed December 2004.
The Defense Dept.'s acquisition process remains "expensive and vulnerable to fraud, waste and mismanagement" despite efforts to reform it, according to the Pentagon's Office of Inspector General.
FUND WATCH: U.S. Air Force officials are taking a wait-and-see approach to a provision in the fiscal 2001 defense appropriations act that shifts funding for Air Force C-17 acquisition to a new national defense airlift fund (DAILY, July 17). Air Force Gen. Charles Robertson, commander of the Air Mobility Command, says the new fund could help alleviate the service's airlift shortfall because it fences off money for airlift. But he adds that the fund will have to be adequately resourced to be fully effective. Air Force Assistant Vice Chief of Staff Lt. Gen.
DEFENDING THE DEFENSE: The X-band Ground-Based Radar for the projected U.S. National Missile Defense system, slated to be built at Shemya Island, Alaska, will be vulnerable unless security measures are beefed up, says Lt. Gen. John Costello, commander of the Army's Space and Missile Defense Command. "Would you believe I've had to fight for military security forces there from a budgetary standpoint so it's not a bunch of contractors" defending the site, Costello said at a recent conference in Washington.
House Armed Services Research and Development Subcommittee Chairman Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) said Friday that proponents of a sea-based National Missile Defense may have overstated the feasibility of such a system. "I think there's some overselling of the sea-based approach, saying it's available in the short term when every Navy person I talk to says it's not available in the short term," said Weldon, who has criticized the Clinton Administration's decision in September to delay building a land-based NMD (DAILY, Sept. 5).
Army Transformation is about more than new headgear. Outside of the highly visible signs -- acquisition reform, platform upgrades and black berets, which are only the tip of the iceberg -- the Army is changing inside and out to establish new paradigms for the 21st century.
SWITZERLAND'S CROSSAIR said it has chosen the Airbus A320 over the Boeing 737-800 to replace Boeing MD-80s starting in 2002. The carrier also has taken options on four additional A320s. Early sales of the older aircraft, it said, will mean a reduction in seat capacity and an increase in load factor. The A320 and the 737-800 "were neck and neck in the competition, with neither aircraft showing decisive advantages or disadvantages," Crossair said. "The European Airbus was selected as providing synergy within the SAirGroup.
RUSSIAN ARMS: House International Relations Committee Chairman Benjamin Gilman (R-N.Y.) is unlikely to subpoena the Clinton Administration in its final days for documents on its efforts to curb Russian arms sales to Iran, a House source says. Issuing subpoenas would conflict with the bipartisanship that President-elect George W. Bush is promoting, the source says.
U.S. Army officials are grounding the service's 742 Boeing AH-64A and D Apache helicopters after technicians found a faulty tail rotor swashplate assembly, the service said Friday. The order calls for a serial number inspection of all Apaches to find out whether the suspect swashplate assemblies are on that aircraft, and "an investigation will determine the status of the remaining swashplates," the service said in a prepared statement. For now the Army doesn't know how many aircraft have the faulty component, or how it happened.
OFFSET OFFENSIVE: The new National Commission on the Use of Offsets in Defense Trade is giving serious consideration to the idea that the U.S. should negotiate an agreement with other countries to curb the use of offsets, says Jon Baron, the panel's executive director. Defense companies have resisted unilateral action on offsets (DAILY, Dec. 6), but a multilateral approach might be more acceptable to them. Questions remain, including what the U.S. would need to do to get such an agreement and how an agreement would be enforced, Baron says.
LOOMING THREAT: The Bush Administration will have to develop a coordinated anti-terrorism policy within the next year, and the first step should be a National Office for Combating Terrorism, located in the White House, according to a panel chaired by Virginia Gov. James S. Gilmore III. The panel warns that a terrorist attack within U.S. borders is "inevitable," and the U.S. needs to be ready.
First operational installation of an ALQ-135 Band 1.5 electronic countermeasures system on an F-15E fighter has been completed by U.S. Air Force technicians, assisted by Northrop Grumman field engineers, the company said. The radar countermeasures system has been designated "mission essential" for all F-15s.
RETENTION ISSUE: A U.S. Army panel looking into the captain retention issue is just about to wrap up, according to Vice Chief of Staff Gen. John W. Keane. He believes Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki will make some big changes based on the recommendations after the holidays, probably in the "January or February timeframe." The Army definitely needs a fix - it is running short by about 3,000 captains and is over-assessing lieutenants to compensate. The "heart of the matter," Keane says, is job satisfaction.
The Pentagon is close to getting Defense Secretary William Cohen's blue-ribbon MV-22 Osprey commission up and running, a Defense Dept. spokesman said Friday, and hoped to be able to announce the names of its members sometime in the afternoon. As of Tuesday, spokesmen said the leadership was still recruiting people to serve on the commission, which Ken Bacon, the Pentagon's chief spokesman, says he believes "will have three people on it."
Significant moves towards transferring the major part of Britain's Defense Evaluation&Research Agency (DERA) into private ownership through the U.K. government's Public Private Partnership program were announced. These included formation of NewDERA as a government-owned public limited company from around 75% of the current agency, with Sir John Egan as its first chairman. He will work with current DERA chief executive Sir John Chisholm to float the new company on the stock market as soon as its potential is suitably developed, which could be as early as 2001.
ITT Industries will supply its Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System (SINCGARS) to modernize the Saudi Arabian National Guard's tactical communications systems under a new $29 million deal. The contract covers the latest export model of the system, known as the Advanced Tactical Communication Systems (ATCS), which features better voice and data networking capabilities and is compatible with previously fielded SINCGARS systems. ATCS is useful for forward-deployed units because of its small size and GPS capability, ITT said.
CAROLYN GRINER, deputy director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Ala., since 1994, announced plans to retire at the end of the year. Griner started at Marshall as a co-op student in 1964. Before being named deputy director, her most significant assignments included serving as director of the Marshall Center Mission Operations Laboratory and managing the Marshall Payload Projects Office. She also served as acting director of the Marshall Center for nine months in 1998. No decision has been made on who will replace Griner as deputy director.
Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control - Dallas said it is working under a $2.2 million U.S. Navy contract to demonstrate a solid fuel ramjet missile. The Solid Fuel Ramjet Missile Technology program will demonstrate solid fuel ramjet and low-cost carbon-carbon technologies for hypersonic weapons applications, the company said yesterday. The 18-month program, it said, will develop a ramjet propulsion system using an airbreathing solid fuel combined with carbon-carbon structural components.
Lockheed Martin's X-35C Joint Strike Fighter carrier variant (CV) is slated to make its first flight on Saturday morning, a company spokeswoman said. The flight, from Palmdale, Calif., to nearby Edwards AFB, will take about 30 minutes, she said.
Missile defense spending needs to be increased by several billion dollars a year to ensure the U.S. can deploy an effective system as soon as possible, the Center for Strategic and International Studies asserts in a one of several "Homeland Defense" reports released yesterday.
Material Technologies Inc., a Los Angeles-based specialist in metal fatigue monitoring technologies, said it has won a $2 million U.S. Air Force contract to develop a system for military aircraft turbine engine assessment. The project is part of the AF's nondestructive on-wing capability of evaluating interior parts of engines. The contract is a follow-on to the Phase 4 Development Contract issued in February 1999 to the team of MATECH and the University of Pennsylvania.
Postponements mount for the launch of Arianespace Flight 137, which will carry the Eurasiasat-1 satellite to orbit. The launch service contractor said yesterday that satellite builder Alcatel Space Industries requested payload checks that must be conducted in the S3 preparation building. Arianespace said a new launch date will be set early next week for liftoff with the satellite mounted atop an Ariane 4 rocket from the European spaceport near Kourou, French Guiana. Launch dates of Dec. 8 and Dec. 11 were scrubbed for "verifications."
China has a host of efforts underway to deny the use of space to potential enemies and exploit space for its military and civilian goals, according to Richard D. Fisher Jr., a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation. China's space-related modernization is part of a strategy to build "asymmetrical" capabilities against the U.S. and force Taiwan to accept unification on Beijing's terms, Fisher wrote in a paper released at the Center for Security Policy's conference on space power Monday.
TRW Inc. announced that David M. Cote, 48, now president and COO, will succeed Joseph T. Gorman, 63, as president and CEO. Cote's appointment becomes effective Feb. 1, 2001. Gorman will remain chairman and a member of the board until July 31, 2001, when he will retire from the company and both positions, TRW said. At that time, Cote will assume the title of chairman and CEO. Gorman, a 32-year veteran of the company, has served as chairman and CEO for the past 12 years.
