FRENCH HELLFIRES: The governments of France and the U.S. have signed a Letter of Offer and Acceptance for the sale of Lockheed Martin’s precision-strike, laser-guided Hellfire II missiles to France. The agreement authorizes the sale of multiple warhead variants of the modular Hellfire II, including options, for the French army’s Hélicoptère d’Appui Destruction (HAD) Tiger attack helicopter fleet. Neither the value of the contract nor the missile quantities were disclosed. France is the 14th allied nation to purchase the Hellfire II missile.
GWAO Celebrates 20 Years! Everyone in the aviation community will be celebrating the 20th Annual Greater Washington Aviation Open on Monday, May 5, 2008 at Lansdowne Resort in Virginia – and we want you to be there.
NAVSEA RADAR: The U.S. Navy awarded ITT $18 million as part of the AN/SPS-48 Radar Obsolescence, Availability Recovery (ROAR) program. The award enables ITT to move from the initial nonrecurring development phase into low-rate initial production. ITT received $14.2 million following a successful critical design review in October. To date, ITT has been awarded $57 million by Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) for the ROAR program, aimed at keeping the AN/SPS-48 systems in service until at least 2045.
The fiscal 2009 budget request for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) continues the agency’s efforts to recover the climate sensing capabilities lost from the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) in that program’s Nunn-McCurdy restructuring in 2006.
Test officials are trying to figure out why the final flight of a hypersonic weapon technology demonstrator ended in failure after less than one minute of flight over the Pacific, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency says.
The VH-71 program to replace the existing fleet of presidential helicopters looks set for more contentious debate inside Washington this year as supporters push forward but acknowledge setbacks that appear to undermine the reasons given for the Navy-Marine Corps award to a Lockheed Martin-led team three years ago.
SINGLE SITE: Thales is grouping its Paris-area Security & Services Division activities at a single site in Velizy, south of the French capital. The activities serve the ground transport, airport, energy, government, industry and financial sectors. The move, part of an ongoing rationalization process following the merger of security activities at Thales and Alcatel Lucent, will affect 2,200 people.
The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), the Maritime Prepositioned Forces-Future [MPF(F)] concept of ships and the Virginia-class submarine could predominate long-term budgetmaking between the Navy and Congress this year as the sea service expects major decisions or reactions regarding each program, Navy officials told reporters Feb. 4.
The Bush administration’s final defense budget focuses on increasing the size of U.S. ground forces and their readiness, but the $515.4 billion fiscal 2009 request – plus at least $70 billion in “emergency” funds for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – also leaves decisions on the fate of several programs up to the next administration.
SOCATA CONTRACT: French armaments agency DGA has awarded EADS Socata a contract to upgrade 28 TB 700 aircraft. The 1.7 million euro ($2.5 million) five-year upgrade, which follows recent awards to modernize C-130 transports and Cougar transport helicopters, will cover air force liaison, army aviation transport and national flight-test center aircraft.
NASA’s fiscal 2009 budget request, the last submitted by the Bush administration, contains “no strategic changes” and tracks the previous five-year funding runout closely. Still, in addition to maintaining funds to make the shift from the space shuttle to development of the follow-on Ares and Orion crew vehicles, the final Bush budget would find some new money for Earth-science from orbit, and promises an outer-planets “flagship” mission by 2017 and a Mars sample return by 2020.
The U.S. Army wants $140.7 billion in fiscal 2009 to modernize the service, a 9.6 percent increase over last year’s request. The service’s budget request for strategic modernization is $37.1 billion. The Army’s top 10 procurement and R&D (research & development) programs total nearly half of its request for strategic modernization funds, and the biggest ticket item is its Future Combat Systems (FCS), allocated $3.6 billion.
At $11.9 billion, the Pentagon’s fiscal 2009 military space budget request does not include a dramatic boost from last year, despite rising rhetoric from the military that U.S. space assets are at risk from a growing number of threats, including that posed by last year’s Chinese anti-satellite test. The FY ’08 military space request was $11.3 billion.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is requesting a topline budget of $9.3 billion in fiscal 2009, a modest increase over the $8.6 billion the agency received in FY ’08. The request provides $6.9 billion for the development and testing of new and existing missile defense systems, $1.7 billion for system fielding and $700 million for sustainment. MDA plans to spend $2 billion in FY ’09 on testing/test-related activities.
What Can Be Done now to manage air traffic Demand? February 13 & 14, 2008 New York, NY The airline industry is finally in an upswing, and air traffic delays have become the headline news. Join us as we explore what the industry can do to alleviate congestion without compromising growth? Register and learn more www.aviationweek.com/forums/atcmain.htm or call +1.212.904.4483 or 1.800.240.7645
Starting in fiscal 2009, NASA plans to request $910 million over five years to begin work on five new Earth science missions recommended for funding by the National Academy of Sciences.
WHAT CAN BE DONE NOW TO MANAGE AIR TRAFFIC DEMAND? February 13 & 14, 2008 New York, NY The airline industry is finally in an upswing, and air traffic delays have become the headline news. Join us as we explore what the industry can do to alleviate congestion without compromising growth? Register and learn more www.aviationweek.com/forums/atcmain.htm or call +1.212.904.4483 or 1.800.240.7645
VEGA ORDERS: Arianespace Chairman/CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall says the Paris-based launch provider is looking at buying additional Vega light launchers in addition to more Soyuz medium-class and Ariane 5 ECA and ES heavy-lift boosters, because of strong demand. The follow-on Vega order would be in addition to an initial five-launch batch of Vegas currently being negotiated. Arianespace also is looking at acquiring 10-15 additional Soyuz vehicles and an undisclosed number of Ariane 5 ES’s.
Boeing announced a series of new leadership assignments Feb. 1 within its $32 billion Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) unit, placing 14 senior executives in new roles. The changes take effect Feb. 4 and include new assignments for leaders within each of IDS’s three major businesses and support organizations. Some of the new IDS leadership assignments are: John Lockard, 63, will move to the new position of chief operating officer, Integrated Defense Systems, reporting to IDS President and CEO Jim Albaugh and serving as his deputy.
