At the House Armed Services Committee on Aug. 1, the defense industry will be watching for clues about how the Obama administration plans to implement a penalty devised by Congress to force lawmakers to reduce the federal deficit. The penalty, known as sequestration, triggers a $1 trillion across-the-board government cut come January 2013, unless lawmakers reach a larger deal on deficit reduction.
LOS ANGELES and WASHINGTON — The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) has awarded an array of contracts for the Phoenix program, which aims to demonstrate the salvage and reuse of components, such as antennas, from dead satellites. The cost-saving concept is based on creating new space resources by repurposing equipment already in geosynchronous orbit. To demonstrate the scheme, Darpa plans to piggyback payload orbital delivery system (PODS) devices on a sample commercial communications satellite in 2015-16.
CYBER BULLYING: The controversial Cybersecurity Act of 2012, sponsored by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), is still stuck in the U.S. Senate even though numerous revisions have been made to make it more agreeable to all parties. So far the bill has 90 amendments waiting to be discussed, with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) as the number one contributor. A frustrated Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is skeptical it will pass. “We cannot let this bill die because of partisanship, and that is what’s happening,” Reid said July 31.
The Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee (SAC-D) has forwarded to the full committee a $604.5 billion U.S. defense spending bill for fiscal 2013 that for the second year in a row comes to the aid of a Lockheed Martin missile defense program.
THE PENTAGON — There is no single “smoking gun” that caused breathing trouble for F-22 Raptor pilots, but rather a “mosaic” of interrelated cockpit equipment issues that led to a chain reaction of glitches resulting in symptoms similar to hypoxia, says Maj. Gen. Charlie Lyon, Air Combat Command’s director of operations.
BEIJING — BAE Systems will upgrade 134 F-16s for the South Korean air force, making a rare incursion into a combat aircraft market that has long been reserved for U.S. companies. But a U.S. unit of the British company will do the work, which covers design and integration of a package comprising a new radar, mission computer, Link 16 datalink, a new navigation system, multi-function displays, Raytheon AIM-120C and AIM-9X air-to-air missiles, and wind-corrected munitions dispensers. The navigation system will use inertial measurement and GPS.
U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus should stick to his job and get out of the biofuel business, says Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). “You are the Secretary of the Navy, not the Secretary of Energy,” McCain says in a July 27 letter to Mabus, in which he also tells the secretary to avoid “politically driven demonstrations,” referring to a recent Pacific Rim exercise that, McCain says, apparently featured green-painted ships and aircraft as well as baseball hat souvenirs.
Defense research agency has developed its first submarine-launched ballistic missile, plans to develop a new range of missiles to boost the country’s military
WGS AWARD: Boeing has been awarded a contract for the 10th Wideband Global Satcom spacecraft by the U.S. Air Force in the last award of the current series of high-bandwidth communications spacecraft. The contract is valued at $338.7 million and continues an X- and Ka-band communications constellation that began in 2000. There have been four WGS launches thus far. The latest to reach orbit, WGS-4, was orbited in January and is currently undergoing acceptance testing. Boeing is building WGS-5-9 in a pulsed-line production process at its El Segundo, Calif., factory.
AIR FORCE Boeing Satellite Systems Inc., El Segundo, Calif., is being awarded a $317,700,000 contract modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract for WGS Satellite Vehicle 10 (SV10) production, processing, launch, and on-orbit activation. The modification adds an additional satellite to the existing requirements for WGS 7-10. The location of the work is El Segundo. The work is to be completed by March 31, 2018. Los Angeles AFB, El Segundo, is the contracting activity (FA8808-10-C-0001, Modification PZ0026).
While the U.S. Navy shipbuilding plan still falls short in meeting the need for combat ships, the service is ensuring its carrier fleet requirements will be mostly satisfied, a recent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report says. However, CBO highlights concerns about some carrier funding that the Navy omits from its shipbuilding plans, leading to low-balled funding estimates.
UAV PAYLOADS: The global UAV payload and subsystems market will reach $2.96 billion in 2012, according to a new report from consultancy Visiongain. With UAVs in demand by more nations, payloads have now become the main focus of UAV development, driven largely by U.S. demand, the report says. Consumers want smaller and lighter payloads that offer more capability and value for the money, the report says, while projecting that video and data-link payloads as well as weapons will become a main focus in the coming years.
LPD-27: The U.S. Navy has awarded Huntington Ingalls Industries a $1.5 billion fixed-price-incentive contract modification for the detail design and construction of the LPD-27 Landing Platform Dock ship. The modification incorporates the previously purchased long lead-time material efforts and the necessary labor and remaining material to efficiently construct the ship. Work under this sole-source award is expected to be completed by June 2017.
FT. PICKETT, Va. — CSC is offering customers video-by-the-hour unmanned-aircraft surveillance services, using assets originally acquired for a U.S. Navy contract. “If you want video, tell us where. You don’t have to buy anything or train for anything,” Bob Frizelle, CSC vice president and general manager for mission systems, told potential customers during a demonstration of its UAVs at Fort Picket, Va., on July 26.
FAA’s outdated risk-calculation methods for commercial space launch insurance could cost launch companies and the government, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). Added expense could come in the form of companies buying too much coverage, or actual losses resulting from current caps on government coverage, auditors warn. GAO’s report says FAA has used the same method since 1988 and has not updated crucial factors, nor has it had the method reviewed by insurance and risk modeling experts, who have called it outdated.
