SERVICE RENDERED: A new report to be released Feb. 12 in Washington will outline the current industrial structure of the federal professional services contracting base and trends that have swept through the industry in the past 13 years. Professional services provided to the U.S. government have grown at a compounded annual growth rate of 9 percent, from $102 billion in federal contracts awarded in 1995 to $233 billion in 2007, according to the Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group (DIIG) at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The U.S.
Commercial customers and the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) can start using imagery from the GeoEye-1 satellite launched last September, following an extended calibration phase for the high-resolution color data. GeoEye, a Dulles, Va.-based company, started selling imagery Feb. 5 with ground resolution as fine as 0.5 meters in black-and-white and color (blue, green, red and near-infrared). It also has started submitting imagery to NGA under the company’s NextView contract.
Launch of the space shuttle Discovery with the fourth and final Boeing-built solar array wing for the International Space Station in its payload bay won’t come until Feb. 22 at the earliest, to give engineers more time to complete safety testing.
Textron’s longtime chief financial officer has been ousted in a management shakeup after mounting concerns on Wall Street about the company’s balance sheet sent its stock price plunging again.
Degradation in performance of some of the eight thrusters that have handled attitude control on NASA’s Cassini Saturn probe for the past 11 years has led mission managers to order a switch to the redundant system.
NICE LIFT: Riding a continued upswing in financial support, German aerospace center DLR plans to build a broadband telecom satellite demonstrator and to fly a fuel-cell powered aircraft that could lead to high-flying unmanned aerial vehicles. Director General Johann-Dietrich Woerner, chairman of the DLR executive board, says the agency expects to receive a 5-10 percent boost in research spending this year and the next under a government stimulus plan intended to promote innovations that can lead to long-term economic growth.
The U.S. Air Force may need as much as $6 billion more per year than Bush administration estimates for developing and purchasing weapon systems between fiscal 2014 and fiscal 2026, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). In a report issued last month that was the topic of a House Budget Committee hearing Feb. 4, CBO says the Bush administration projected spending on research, development, testing and evaluation (RDT&E) would total roughly $63 billion in fiscal 2009 and increase to about $65 billion a year from 2010 to FY 2013.
BLACKOUT: The lack of federal budget guidance keeping Washington in a state of anxiety apparently extends to even those who usually get such inside information first. The National Defense Industrial Association apologized to members last week for having to cancel a closed-door, no-press event where executives expected to get annual budget briefings from high-level Defense Department officials.
Japan’s Hayabusa asteroid sample-return spacecraft is active again, after controllers restarted one of its ion engines Feb. 4 to nudge it toward Earth. The engine was shut down on Oct. 18, 2007, leaving the probe in an unpowered trajectory en route back from the asteroid Itokawa for a June 2010 reentry (Aerospace DAILY, Aug. 30, 2007).
BIDEN ON PAKISTAN: Vice President Joe Biden indicates yet another way the U.S. is trying to rebuild its relationship with Pakistan amid an expected U.S. military buildup in neighboring Afghanistan. Biden says the Obama administration plans to revive a bill he introduced as a senator to increase economic aid to Pakistan by $1.5 billion. Addressing Democratic lawmakers at a conference in Virginia before flying to Germany for an international security conference, Biden called for changing the nature of the U.S.
DON’T RETALIATE: Lobby group the Society of British Aerospace Companies (SBAC) is urging restraint amongst any politicians tempted to respond to Washington’s proposed “Buy American” policy, part of the new administration’s economic stimulus package. Ian Godden, SBAC chief executive says: “We operate in a global market and politicians can do immeasurable harm if they ignore this, regardless of the good intentions behind the policy. Buy American should be resisted in the U.S. and a tit-for-tat retaliation should not be on the menu in Europe.”
UNDERGROUND ACTIVITIES: So what is the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers doing in the Gaza Strip? Since they haven’t subcontracted to build tunnels into Egypt, they’re probably trying to block them. But it’s hard to tell from State Dept. comments. The Corps is there to stop smuggling of arms to rearm Hamas in Gaza, according to a State Dept. spokesman. How? They’ll make sure the tunnels are “not active,” the spokesman says. But how? “We’re working with Egypt,” he says. If Egypt stopped up its end, would the Corps be needed? “It’s complicated,” he says.
TEST BEDFELLOWS: The Pentagon’s Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) Task Force — created last year to get ISR systems into Iraq and Afghanistan quickly — is being criticized by some for being too diligent about time. The group is so focused on fielding systems within a 90-day requirement, it loses out on technologies that “could be ready on day 91,” one industry official says. But the Army may have a remedy.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicated new calendar listing.) Feb. 10 - 12 — 20th Annual SO/LIC Symposium & Exhibition, “The Persistent Conflict: The Path Ahead,” Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, Washington, D.C. For more information go to http://exhibits.ndia.org Feb. 22 - 26 — IDEX 2009, Middle East defense conference and Exhibition, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. For more information go to www.idex2009.com
MOSCOW — Russian arms export agency Rosoboronexport clinched a deal for more than 120 Lyulka Saturn AL-31FN turbofan engines to be delivered to China, top executive Anatoly Isaikin said in an interview to Russian media. The engines will be manufactured by Moscow-based Salut and are intended to power Chinese Chengdu Aircraft J-10 single-seat interceptor/ground attack aircraft.
SUMMING UP: IBM is building a world-beating supercomputer system to ensure the safety and reliability of the aging U.S. nuclear arsenal, under a contract from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The idea is to resolve time-urgent and complex scientific problems so that the weapons remain usable. There will be two systems, Sequoia and Dawn. Sequoia will be a 20 petaflop system based on future BlueGene technology to be deployed 2012. Dawn will be a 500 teraflop system scheduled for delivery in early 2009. Dawn will provide the foundation for Sequoia.
The first three squadrons of F-35s – with at least 59 aircraft – will be formed at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., between 2010, when the first aircraft arrives, and mid-2013 when No. 60 is due. Of the three training squadrons to be stood up, one will be U.S. Air Force with 24 conventional takeoff aircraft, one will be Marine Corps with 20 short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing aircraft and the last, with 15 aircraft, will belong to the Navy.
EXTENDED CARE: Boeing has proposed to the U.S. Air Force that it serve as an associate prime contractor for a $1.6 billion A-10 Thunderbolt Life-Cycle Program Support project to sustain the attack aircraft and to integrate future upgrades. The company wants to play off the ongoing $2 billion A-10 wing replacement program. Up to three contractors are to be selected to compete for various tasks over the life of the contract to keep the fleet operational through at least 2028.
