FRUITFUL FRIGATES: Canada said Sept. 5 it will award two long-term contracts for roughly $2 billion to Lockheed Martin Canada for the combat systems integration (CSI) design, construction and in-service support under the modernization of Canada’s 12 Halifax-class navy frigates. The CSI contract, worth about $1.4 billion, is for upgrading command-and-control systems, redesigning the operations room and reconfiguring the ships’ masts for a new radar suite. The in-service contract, worth $600 million, covers the combat system’s long-term servicing needs.
MRAP PARTS: BAE Systems Survivability Systems, LLC of Fairfield, Ohio, will receive up to $9.8 million more under an existing contract from the Defense Logistics Agency for spare parts for U.S. Army and Marine Corps Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles. Deliveries are scheduled to be completed by Feb. 10, 2009.
SAN DIEGO – The most effective way to communicate the value of space to the U.S. and the world would be to establish an official national space strategy, ensuring policy gets translated into programs, according to U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) commander Lt. Gen. John Sheridan. Sheridan addressed a crowd at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ (AIAA) annual Space Conference and Exposition here Sept. 9. “We are on the doorstep of our next 50 years in space,” Sheridan said, “but we’re still invisible.”
Following a waiver over the weekend from the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) for India to carry out civil nuclear commerce, all eyes are now on the Bush administration to see if it can win approval from Congress to enact the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal.
In a report prepared for the U.S. Air Force, Rand Corp. recommends changes to the cost estimating process for major space systems, citing 46 percent cost growth in past acquisition programs.
LONDON – A decade after it set the privatization process in motion, the British Defense Ministry Sept. 9 sold the last of its shares in U.K. defense technology company Qinetiq. The ministry had retained an 18.9 percent holding in Qinetiq, but the last of its stock was placed on the market and raised more than 240 million pounds ($423 million). The Defense Ministry retains a “golden share” in Qinetiq for security purposes.
The U.S. Defense Department is sending an assessment team to Tbilisi, Georgia, later this week as U.S. officials begin considering how to rebuild Georgia’s military after the Russian invasion last month, Bush administration officials told lawmakers Sept. 9.
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GENOA, Italy — Italy’s defense and aerospace sector is aiming to secure substantial business in Libya following a strategic agreement between Rome and Tripoli that included a $5 billion, 20-year reparations package for Italy’s occupation of Libya from 1934 to 1943.
The Bush administration issued a veto threat Sept. 9 for the fiscal 2009 defense authorization bill being considered by the Senate. The $612 billion measure matches the Bush administration’s FY ’09 request but rearranges where the money would go. Among the provisions objected to by the White House Office of Management and Budget: an additional $430 million to develop an alternative engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and an additional $96.9 million for B-52 flying hours and depot maintenance.
LOST IN THE MOVE: A new Rand Corp. report warns against the security risks brought by presidential transitions. “America’s reliance upon the spoils system to fill key policy positions every four or eight years is unmatched in the Western world,” says James Dobbins, Rand’s director for international security and defense policy. The result is a high degree of inexperience in the opening years of many presidencies, particularly when the opposition party comes to power. The study reviews the U.S.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the U.S. Coast Guard are moving ahead with plans to develop a joint program office for coordinating the use of maritime unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), says the head of CBP’s air and marine division.
President Bush’s plan to reduce troop levels in Iraq over the next six months isn’t enough to begin rebuilding U.S. military readiness and provide additional forces needed in Afghanistan, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said Sept. 9. Bush announced earlier in the day that he planned to cut troops deployed to Iraq by 8,000 by February 2009.
The biggest risk to the crew of the space shuttle Atlantis during next month’s mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope will come from micrometeoroid/orbital debris (MMOD) instead of the falling insulation that doomed the shuttle Columbia and has been the main concern with subsequent shuttle flights.
Supporters of the U.S. Army’s Joint Heavy Lift (JHL) concept have appealed to Congress to reverse a decision that jeopardizes fledgling multiservice efforts to develop a new battlefield airlifter. Proponents have asked House Armed Services Committee and defense appropriations subcommittee leaders to reconsider their decision to deny the Army’s request to reprogram $11.5 million in fiscal 2008 funding to provide its contribution to the definition and risk reduction of candidate aircraft for JHL (Aerospace DAILY, Aug. 27).
French armaments agency DGA has issued a 1.5 million euro ($2 million) contract to EADS Astrium and Thales to operate France’s Essaim signals intelligence (SIGINT) demonstrator for another 18 months. The extension aims to provide continued availability of SIGINT data, which is used for operational as well as experimental use, until a more advanced electronic signals intelligence (ELINT) demonstration cluster is launched in mid-2010. Operation of the four Essaim spacecraft, orbited 44 months ago for a nominal 36-month mission, has already been extended once.
GeoEye-1, the commercial industry’s highest resolution satellite, is in its calibration and checkout phase after a successful launch on a Delta II from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., on Sept. 6. GeoEye Chief Executive Matthew O’Connell said the company’s ground station in Tromso, Norway, made contact with the 4,310-pound satellite about 1 hour, 40 minutes after the 11:50 a.m. liftoff.
NASA’s space shuttle program can continue to fly beyond its current scheduled retirement date at the end of 2010, probably with only a minimal effect on development of the first of its follow-on U.S. human spaceflight vehicles, if Congress appropriates enough money for both activities, NASA’s shuttle manager says. “What I would tell you is we haven’t reached the point yet of no return,” John Shannon, NASA’s space shuttle program manager, said Sept. 8.
AIR FORCE The Air Force is modifying a contract with United Technologies Corp., Pratt and Whitney, of East Hartford, Conn., for $30,042,543. The contract will exercise an option for three combined test force engines. The location of performance is United Technologies Corp., Pratt and Whitney, East Hartford. At this time $30,042,543 has been obligated. Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA8611-06-C-2900). NAVY
HAWKS WORK: Sikorsky has flown the first helicopter from its Hawk Works military derivatives completion center at Schweizer Aircraft in Horseheads, N.Y. The new S-70B Naval Hawk will be delivered to an international customer in the first quarter of 2009. To avoid disrupting production of baseline UH-60Ms and MH-60R/Ss for U.S. military customers, Sikorsky set up the Hawk Works to complete any helicopters requiring customized configurations. In addition to the S-70Bs, UH-60Ls and MH-60Ss are being completed at the site.
The Pentagon’s Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC) has validated Joint Capability Technology Demonstration (JCTD) proposals for fiscal 2009, introducing a new set of opportunities for fast fielding of joint projects and new technology. Included in the list is an unmanned airship called Persius, with an integrated sensor and communication relay payload for persistent and responsive theater support. The Joint Recovery and Distribution Systems is a common vehicle for cargo distribution, as well as recovery of disabled joint forces’ vehicles.
