BEIJING — The modified Long March 2F rocket that launched China’s Shenzhou 8 capsule on Nov. 1 performed with exceptional precision, space program officials say.
BELL RETIRING: Boeing Chief Financial Officer James Bell, 63, will retire effective April 1, and be succeeded by Greg Smith, 45, the corporate controller and finance vice president, on Feb. 1. Bell, who also is executive vice president and Boeing’s corporate president, has been CFO since 2003, stepping into that rank from being corporate controller. He joined Boeing in 1972 as a staff accountant at what was then Rockwell International. In 2005, he was interim chief executive for several months while Boeing searched for a permanent CEO, a post taken by James McNerney.
The size of potential budget reductions facing the Pentagon may put the U.S. Navy’s decision to move a nuclear aircraft carrier from Virginia to Florida back on the table, according to the chief of naval operations. In a letter to Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.), Adm. Jonathan Greenert says moving the carrier from Norfolk, Va., to Naval Station Mayport in Jacksonville, Fla., remains a “sound” strategic decision. But that may not be enough.
In a bid to push down the cost of spare parts, speed their availability and broaden its shrinking supply base, the U.S. Defense Department wants to establish an electronic marketplace that helps small companies quickly identify spares requirements that match their manufacturing capabilities. Under the Connecting American Manufacturing project, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) plans to award two 12-month contracts, each worth $800,000, to pilot new or enhanced web portals to provide better sourcing.
LONDON — Poland hopes to revive its advanced jet trainer competition in the spring after deciding to scrap the current version. The move could reopen the door for BAE Systems to offer the Hawk advanced jet trainer. The company had withdrawn from the competition, believing the requirement was tilted toward the high-end air combat role. Alenia Aermacchi’s M-346 and Korea Aerospace Industries’ T-50 remained in the running for the 16-aircraft program.
SINGAPORE — Airbus Military is betting a new agreement with state-owned Indonesian Aerospace will revive the fortunes of its tactical transport business, by helping it to secure aircraft orders there and elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region. Indonesian Aerospace already assembles the C212 and CN235 under license, but the C295, the largest tactical transport in Airbus Military’s product range, has always been made in Spain, although that is about to change.
NEW DELHI — India has about $10 billion worth of offset contracts in the pipeline, says a junior defense minister. “Since the introduction of the offset clause in our Defense Procurement Procedures [in 2005], offset contracts worth nearly 150 billion rupees ($3 billion) have been concluded so far and, I am told, that the total value of the offset contracts which are in the pipeline is estimated to be over 410 billion rupees,” M.M. Pallam Raju says.
LONDON — Finland could become an export customer for the stealthy Lockheed Martin AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (Jassm) under a foreign military sales deal now under discussion with the U.S. Finland had previously expressed interest in the missile, but those talks stalled. The weapons package, valued at up to $255 million, would include 70 missiles as well as related equipment. Finland would use the weapon on its Boeing F/A-18C/Ds.
BUFFALO BUY: U.S. Army Contracting Command in Warren, Mich., has awarded Force Protection Industries, Inc. a firm, fixed-price contract modification worth $185.9 million for the purchase of an additional 167 Buffalo A2 Mine Protected Clearance Vehicles and 102 Buffalo A2 Bar Armor Kits. The work is to be performed in Ladson, S.C., with deliveries lasting through April 2014. Michael Moody, chairman and chief executive officer for Force Protection, says the award provides the company “important revenue visibility into 2014.
NEW DELHI — Pakistan has successfully conducted a test firing of the multi-tube, indigenously developed Hatf-VII cruise missile (aka Babur) to validate the design parameters of the weapon system and a new Missile Launch Vehicle (MLV). The low-flying, terrain-hugging missile has a range of 440 mi. with high maneuverability, accuracy and radar avoidance features, the country’s military said in a weekend statement.
NAVY Electric Boat Corp., Groton, Conn., is being awarded a $91,151,493 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification (P00012) to previously awarded contract (N00024-10-C-2118) for lead yard services efforts related to Virginia-class submarines. The work will be performed in Groton (91.1%); Newport News, Va. (4%); Quonset. R.I. (3.5%); and Newport, R.I. (1.4%). The work is expected to be completed by September 2012. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, is the contracting activity.
BEIJING — Chinese technicians have fueled the Long March 2F launcher that is due on Nov. 1 local time to loft Shenzhou 8, the second of two spacecraft that will be used in the country’s crucial space docking exercise. The other, the Tiangong 1 laboratory, has been lowered to the altitude planned for rendezvous, 343 km (213 mi.), and turned 180 deg. to mate with Shenzhou 8, a human transportation capsule that will be launched without a crew. Tiangong 1 is also unmanned. China has not launched a Shenzhou capsule since 2008.
EXTENDED REACH: General Dynamics on Oct. 31 completed its acquisition of Metro Machine Corp., extending its reach into U.S. Navy ship repair on the East Coast. Metro Machine Corp. now becomes part of the shipbuilding and repair operations of General Dynamics Nassco (Aerospace DAILY, Sept. 23). Metro Machine employs about 400 workers and has been conducting U.S. Navy ship repair and conversions since 1972. The company is a prime contractor in Norfolk for the maintenance, repair and modernization of frigates, dock landing ships and amphibious transport ships.
Boeing will receive $40-50 million in incentives from the State of Florida to build and refurbish its proposed CST-100 commercial crew capsule inside surplus space shuttle facilities at Kennedy Space Center (KSC), as the NASA field center begins to accommodate the mix of public and private spacecraft that will follow the winged spaceplane.
The U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) commander has signed off on a first-ever detailed guide for certifying companies seeking to compete for U.S. government launches.
The U.S. Air Force is continuing work to reduce the cost of buying United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV and Atlas V Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles, which will remain the only vehicles for orbiting certain payload classes until new launch entrants are certified.
LONDON — Hundreds of billions of dollars are earmarked to be spent around the world on nuclear weapons over the next decade, according to the British American Security Information Council (Basic).
PARIS — When China attempts a remotely controlled docking this week between its new Tiangong-1 space lab and the unmanned Shenzhou 8 crew vehicle, it will mark the first international bilateral cooperation to make use of Beijing’s Shenzhou program. Slated to launch Nov. 1 aboard a Long March rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Inner Mongolia, Shenzhou-8 will carry 17 biology and medical experiments to be conducted by German and Chinese researchers.
