The next Administration will have to make priorities of foreign policy and national security, and build bipartisan support at the outset, according to a report by a group under RAND Corp. released yesterday. The 61-page report - "Taking Charge: A Bipartisan Report to the President Elect on Foreign Policy and National Security" - is intended to be a bipartisan roadmap, laying out strategic directions, organizational structure and critical decisions facing the incoming president.
BOEING AND UNITED SPACE ALLIANCE have agreed to pay $825,000 and give up rights to another $1.2 million in unpaid NASA invoices to settle a civil false claims lawsuit. The U.S. Justice Dept. suit, filed in California's Central District, charged Rockwell Space Operations Co. knowingly passed along fraudulent charges from its subcontractor, Omniplan Corp., before Boeing acquired Rockwell's space business (DAILY, Jan. 14). As Rockwell's successors, Boeing and USA have assumed legal responsibility for the false claims, according to NASA's Office of Inspector General.
Lockheed Martin, in a move that shows the increased priority of the Joint Strike Fighter program, named C.T. "Tom" Burbage as executive vice president and general manager for JSF, an expansion of his former responsibilities. In consolidating three companies into one last January, a senior executive team consisting of Dain M. Hancock, president of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, and five executive VPs was chosen to manage the "value-chain" of aircraft programs from the front-end to delivery.
NASA hasn't taken full advantage of its capabilities to ensure software for program systems will work well because it has lacked "adequate management controls," the agency's inspector general has found.
AIR FORCE SPACE AND MISSILE SYSTEMS CENTER has picked Boeing's Seal Beach, Calif., operation and Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., Sunnyvale, Calif., for $16 million architecture studies on the Global Positioning System-III program. Spectrum Astro, Gilbert, Ariz., also bid on the program. The studies will mark the first phase in development of a GPS system for military and civilian users in the period 2010-30, and will focus on plugging emerging technologies into concept architectures for the GPS-III constellation. Work is to be completed by Nov.
SCIENCE SHUFFLE: NASA's Earth-observing programs could get a boost if Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) gets his wish to trade the House Science Committee chair for the helm of the House Judiciary Committee. That would put Rep. Sherwood (Sherry) Boehlert (R-N.Y.) in line to take over the science panel. The 18-year House veteran has won accolades from environmentalists for his work on regulations aimed at curbing acid rain, which has damaged forests in his Adirondacks district, and is likely to be supportive of the space agency's environmental monitoring programs.
Pratt&Whitney and Aerojet have broken off negotiations aimed at creating a joint venture space propulsion company after encountering "unexpected issues" relating to the transition to a single business unit operating at P&W facilities in Alabama, California and Florida. The companies said Friday they would continue to seek opportunities to cooperate on specific space propulsion programs, with Aerojet maintaining its Sacramento, Calif., operations.
After a two-and-a-half week hiatus, Boeing was ready to resume flying its X-32A Joint Strike Fighter aircraft Friday at Edwards AFB, Calif. The flight was to follow "an interim fix" to a problem in the hydraulic system that caused the plane to divert to one of the dry lake beds surrounding Edwards on Oct. 24. During its third flight that day, a light came on indicating a potential loss of braking capability, but the pilot landed without incident.
ABL CONFIDENCE: The final fiscal 2001 defense authorization bill, signed into law by President Clinton on Oct. 30, calls for an additional $85 million over the president's request to keep the Airborne Laser program on schedule. The current timeline is for a demonstration in FY '03 and initial operational capability in FY '08. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael E. Ryan expressed his confidence in the ability of the program to achieve its demonstration milestone when he spoke recently to a group of scientists gathered for the AF Chief Scientist symposium in Washington.
A working group at the National Defense University in Washington is trying to make the Quadrennial Review Process run a little smoother - and a little deeper than the last QDR - by framing key issues.
MACH 1 OR BUST: Lockheed Martin continues to rapidly expand the flight envelope of its X-35A Joint Strike Fighter, achieving .98 Mach last Thursday and expecting to go supersonic over the weekend. Additionally, completion of a series of air refueling tests now allows the company to keep the plane in the air longer and gather more test points on every flight, a company spokesman says. "The test schedule is going so well, I think it is even exceeding everyone's expectations," he adds.
A number of companies are expected to receive Pentagon contracts under the Quiet Supersonic Platform (QSP) program, intended to lay the foundation for long-range supersonic cruise aircraft with military or civil applications that will fly with a less intense sonic boom. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has issued solicitations for QSP in three areas - systems integration studies, technology development, and advanced propulsion concepts and technology, a DARPA spokeswoman said. "We're going to have multiple awards under all three," she said.
VOSTOK FOR SALE: Russia's Kuybyshev Training Institute is selling a once-secret piece of Soviet space history in a very public way - an "ultimate auction" on U.S. television billed as a place for billionaires to buy unique holiday gifts. For sale along with Princess Diana's jewelry and a 65 million-year-old dinosaur skeleton will be Vostok 3KA-2, which flew a mannequin nicknamed Ivan less than three weeks before a similar craft made Yuri Gagarin the first human in space.
NORTHSTAR ELECTRONICS INC., of Vancouver, B.C., Canada, opened a new subsidiary, Northstar Network Ltd., which will focus on aerospace and defense markets. The company is working with Lockheed Martin in Manassas, Va., on submarine consoles and is bidding for roles in Canada's $2.9 billion maritime helicopter project and the U.S. Joint Strike Fighter program.
In light of its impending marriage to General Electric Co., Honeywell has stepped back from its plan to divest four under-performing units in attempt to refocus on core aerospace roots (DAILY, Aug. 28). Honeywell officially took its Friction Materials, Automotive Consumer Products Group, U.S. Security Monitoring and Pharmaceutical Fine Chemical units off the market on Friday. In a brief statement, the company said, "The decision to discontinue these divestitures was based on [the] recent agreement to merge with the General Electric Company."
HELICOPTERS WANTED: The National Governors' Association is urging the White House to provide more helicopters for the Army National Guard. The NGA writes in a letter to President Clinton that the Guard has a shortage of more than 300 UH-60 Black Hawks, and that more than 600 of the Guard's UH-1 Huey helicopters, or 75%, are usually not working due to mechanical problems. "Many states are currently experiencing shortages of utility helicopters, and such shortages could critically affect our readiness," the letter says.
President Vladimir Putin has ordered the Rosvooruzhenje and Promexport federal arms trade companies to merge, ending a months-long debate over leadership of Russia's arms trade with the creation of the "Rosoboronexport Federal Unitary Enterprise." According to Putin's decree, the reason for the merger is "increasing the effectiveness of the Russian Federation's military and technical cooperation with foreign states."
LEASE OPTION: Poland is not the only nation to turn to leasing older F-16s as an option that would offer an interim solution to an aircraft gap (DAILY, Nov. 10). The Royal Air Force of Jordan has already received 12 F-16As and four F-16Bs. Italy is also well along in the process of leasing 34 F-16A/Bs from the U.S. government, including the required congressional notification, while it awaits the Eurofighter (DAILY, Oct. 2).
L-3 COMMUNICATIONS will provide its Solid State Cockpit Voice Recorders (SSCVRs) to replace the current tape-based CVR units in about 60 U.S. Air Force C-17 aircraft. The award also includes installation in 30 new production C-17s and an option for 20 more. The USAF is thinking about swapping out more than 1,200 older tape-based CVRs over the next several years.
The U.S. Air Force received its 68th Boeing C-17 airlifter this week in a ceremony at McChord AFB, Wash. Gen. Tony Robertson, commander-in-chief of U.S. Transportation Command and Air Mobility Command, flew the aircraft to McChord from the Boeing plant at Long Beach, Calif. Delivery of two more C-17s is scheduled this year.
A Boeing Delta II rocket orbited a Lockheed Martin Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite in an Air Force launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., Friday that was delayed one day for safety reasons. Liftoff of the Delta II came with the opening its launch window at 12:14 p.m. EST, and the satellite reached its initial orbit at an altitude of almost 11,000 miles, Boeing said.
Orbital Sciences Corp. turned in a dismal third quarter, with ongoing financial woes at its Orbcomm affiliate driving down sales and operating margins and forcing the company to write off $107 million of its remaining investment. Orbital posed a net loss of $44.8 million, a $1.19 loss per share, excluding the Orbcomm charge and a gain on a stock sale. Consensus estimates predicted a loss of $0.79 a share in the period.
Real-time cockpits: Spirent Systems' Aerospace Solutions is partnering with Jouvre Data Management to deliver real-time technical documents and create task cards for civil and military aviators. The two companies have inked a memorandum of understanding to develop an e-business tool to offer transactions between pilots, mechanics, purchasers and vendors to improve flight efficiency and communications.
Dr. Rozalie Schachter has been promoted to president of Herley Wireless Technologies. Allan Coon has been promoted to president of the Microwave Products Group. Howard Eckstein has been promoted to senior vice president of the Space&Communications Group. John Kelly, vice president, director of corporate development, has been promoted to senior vice president. Mitchell Tuckman, president and general manager of General Microwave, has been promoted to senior vice president.
