Von Gardiner (see photos) has been named senior manager for Defense Department programs, and John Wallace VP-market management of Vienna, Va.-based NJVC. Gardiner was director of communications and information with USAF Special Operations Command at Hurlburt Field, Fla., and Wallace has been sales director for capital markets and banking corporate accounts, as well as VP-financial services industry at Hewlett-Packard.
Academic exercises about whether Congress will allow a nearly $1 trillion in across-the-board budget cuts known as sequestration to take effect in January are taking on an entirely new reality. Aerospace and defense companies are already beginning to announce plant closures, layoffs and cutbacks, and at least one of them is citing sequestration specifically.
It's official: President Barack Obama last week signed into law a measure that confirms full ownership rights to artifacts received by Apollo-era astronauts from their missions. According to the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, NASA managers routinely allowed astronauts to keep mementos, pieces of hardware and personal equipment from the spacecraft during the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. But beginning in the mid-2000s, NASA began to challenge the ownership of these artifacts.
Dean Foley has become sales manager of the aerospace division of West Springfield, Mass.-based Atlantic Fasteners. He has more than 25 years of experience in aerospace metals distribution.
Sir Martin Sweeting, executive chairman of Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. and director of the Surrey Space Center at the University of Surrey, England, has received the International von Karman Wings Award for his contributions to aerospace, presented by the Aerospace Historical Society and the Graduate Aerospace Laboratories of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
NASA's Langley Research Center, Mitre and several partners have completed the first in a series of inflight evaluations of cooperative automatic sense-and-avoid (SAA) algorithms for unmanned air systems (UAS), in large part to validate a new testbed that will be used for more advanced trials next year.
Careful succession planning is the hallmark of any well-managed company. Chris Kubasik may be taking over as CEO of Lockheed Martin at the beginning of 2013, but the company telegraphed his ascent back in 2010, when he was elevated to president. Louis Chenevert was eased into the position of chairman and CEO of United Technologies over several years. And General Dynamics has long been grooming Phebe Novakovic, who plans to succeed the retiring Jay Johnson as CEO on Jan. 1. Now Rockwell Collins has chosen an heir apparent for its longtime chairman and CEO, Clay Jones.
USAF Lt. Gen. (ret.) Dick Newton has been appointed executive VP of the Arlington, Va.-based Air Force Association, succeeding David T. “Buck” Buckwalter. Newton was assistant vice chief of staff/director of the air staff at USAF headquarters at the Pentagon.
The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser CG-68USS Anzio conducted a Standard Missile-2 (SM-2) launch Sept. 21 and live-fire gunnery practice during a drone exercise supporting Unitas Atlantic 53-12, a regional drill including the U.S. and its South American allies hosted by the U.S. Fourth Fleet.
The U.S. Air Force is beginning to sift through all the exotic weapons, materials and electronics in development and prototype programs and find a place for the most promising of them as operational tools in as little as 3-5 years. The focus of the work will be to develop, in parallel, the materials, tactics and training to make the weaponry effective in combat. The effort is being designed to counter foes who are themselves fielding a new generation of weapons that include advanced jamming, stealth and cyberattack capabilities.
Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney may be winning support from hawks in his party with a call to spend 4% of GDP on defense. But Democrats including former President Bill Clinton are hammering away at the fact that the plan would increase federal spending more than $2 trillion over 10 years at a time when the rest of the government is shrinking.
The Pentagon this month awarded fuel contracts potentially worth up to $5.1 billion to 16 companies out of a field of 27 contractors that competed for the deals. All of the awards feature fixed price with economic price adjustment, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contracts. The contracting authority is the Defense Logistics Agency Energy of Fort Belvoir, Va.
UAS CAUCUS: As concerns about privacy and security begin to weigh on the launch of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) in civilian airspace, the Senate is forming a bipartisan UAS Caucus to help smooth the industry’s takeoff. Aviation enthusiast Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) are leading the effort to move the industry out of the civilian world and into the hands of businesses and state and local governments across the U.S.
The newly formed LCS (Littoral Combat Ship) Council will help fill in any gaps hampering fleet development and deployment, according to the organization’s charter, released this week by the U.S. Navy. One of the council’s main missions will be to ensure the deployment of LCS-1, the USS Freedom, to Singapore this coming spring.
An industry team says that a protected satellite communications family of terminals has been developed at no cost to the U.S. Defense Department and is ready for production once a government agency certifies its cryptological system.
MOSCOW — Irkut Corporation has begun flight tests of the twin-seat Sukhoi Su-30SM multirole fighter. The first aircraft made its 2-hr. first flight on Sept. 21; the second fighter joined the flight tests on Sept. 25, says Irkut, a subsidiary of Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation.
TOULOUSE, France — With the proposed merger of EADS and BAE Systems facing serious opposition by the German government, which has indicated it may block the deal if its conditions are not met, EADS CEO Tom Enders is offering to negotiate further details of the transaction.
QUANTICO, Va. — The U.S. Navy is still interested in the platform concept and technology behind the Sea Base Connector Transformational Craft (T-Craft), but the service apparently has decided for now to skip buying the prototype. The T-Craft, proponents say, can serve as an inter-theater logistics connector, traveling at high speeds with significant payloads and capable of operating in austere ports and areas where there are no facilities available.
Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) can focus more on taking care of business and less on the possible effects of sequestration thanks to the company’s shipbuilding portfolio, Citi financial group says. “Thanks to its long-cycle business, HII is focused on executing what we’re calling its 5x5 plan as opposed to being too distracted by sequestration,” Citi says in a recent note to investors.
NASA’s Langley Research Center, Mitre and several partners have completed the first in a series of inflight evaluations of cooperative automatic sense and avoid (SAA) algorithms for unmanned air systems (UAS), in large part to validate a new testbed that will be used for more advanced trials next year.
The U.S. has confirmed that Indonesia is seeking to buy eight Boeing AH-64D Apache attack helicopters and has also disclosed the weapons the Indonesians want. In a statement to Congress, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) says Indonesia has put in a request to buy eight Boeing AH-64D Apache Block III Longbow attack helicopters, a deal worth $1.42 billion.
