WRONG MESSAGES: Government buyers are only hearing the right messages, at the right time in the acquisition cycle, from a small number of companies, a federal IT consultancy reports. Government officials think most of industry’s approach to communication is wrong, consultancy Input says, but the companies that get it “right” are raising expectations and gaining a competitive advantage.
CONSPICUOUS OMISSION: In the Bush administration’s final Pentagon budget proposal there may be something missing. Military budget officials say they have been directed not to release the spending numbers beyond fiscal 2009. Traditionally, the military services outline the next year’s budget request as well as the “future year defense plan” five years out. This provides the public with an idea of trends to come. Not so for the FY ‘09 budget rollout, slated for Feb. 4. It seems the political leadership doesn’t want to address issues beyond their tenure.
DECOY ORDERS: Alloy Surfaces Co. Inc. has received an additional $20.5 million order from the Navy and $9.4 million from the U.S. Air Force for a new type of “flare” - actually small metal wafers released from a canister that glow and give off infrared energy to keep heat-seeking missiles from hitting U.S. military aircraft. The flares give off little visible light, which helps aircraft using them to avoid detection by enemy soldiers while also protecting themselves against man portable air defense systems (MANPADS).
JHSV CONCEPTS: The U.S. Navy plans to award a Phase Two detailed design contract with construction options for the Joint High Speed Vessel (JHSV) in late 2008. The Navy awarded three companies $3 million each on Jan. 31 for development of preliminary design concepts, from which a winner will be selected for Phase Two: Austal USA, Bath Iron Works and Bollinger Shipyards. The Army will receive their first ship in 2011. The vessel is a joint Army-Navy effort to acquire high-speed vessels for the two services.
An apparently successful ignition test of the powerpack for NASA’s new J-2X rocket engine clears the way for a series of hot-fire tests using heritage hardware dating back to the Apollo era.
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SHORT SUPP: The Pentagon will be requesting only around $70 billion in so-called supplemental warfighting funds for fiscal 2009, enough to carry the military through an immediate change of presidential administrations early next year. But the Defense Department’s top spokesman stresses that the number should not be read as indicative to the whole year’s requirement. Moreover, he says DOD still lacks full FY ’08 warfighting funds and wants $102 billion more.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicated new calendar listing.) To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicated new calendar listing.) Feb. 1 - 6 — AAS’s Guidance and Control Conference. Beaver Run Resort and Conference Center, Breckenridge, Colo. For more information call (703) 866-0020, fax (703) 866-3526 or go to www.astronautical.org
INTRASHIP TRANSFER: The U.S. Navy’s Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) expects to deliver and start testing its Test Article Vehicle Transfer System (TAVTS) in fiscal 2009. NAVSEA issued a $19.5 million contract for the design, fabrication and installation of a TAVTS to demonstrate the transfer of vehicles between a surrogate Maritime Pre-positioning Force (Future) (MPF(F)) Mobile Landing Platform (MLP) ship and a side port platform on a large medium-speed roll-on/roll-off (LMSR) ship.
BUDGET: The Bush administration unveils its fiscal 2009 federal budget request Feb. 4, with total defense requests expected to surpass FY ‘08’s record requests, which topped $641 billion. Budget documents will be released online mid-morning, and Defense Department agencies will brief reporters at the Pentagon mid-afternoon.
BACKBONE SUPPORT: Spending on communications and network services by the U.S. federal government will grow 4.9 percent annually from $17.6 billion in 2007 to $22.4 billion by 2012, according to Input. The IT consultancy suggests that a key area of growth will come in the wireless market segment. The consultants recently told information technology providers to lower their expectations this fiscal year over any new major federal IT efforts and to focus on apolitical efforts like communication and network backbone efforts (DAILY, Jan. 31).
FLEET PLANNING: Congressional auditors say the U.S. Navy has taken “several positive” steps toward a “sound” management approach for its Fleet Response Plan (FRP), but the sea service still has not developed implementation goals, fully developed performance measures, or comprehensively assessed and identified the resources required to achieve its goals. In a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report published Feb. 1, auditors say the Navy has made progress in implementing the FRP since GAO’s prior reports (DAILY, Nov. 28, 2005).
Export controls and currency fluctuations top the list of business concerns at Rolls Royce North America, the aerospace technology company’s top lawyer says. Thomas Dale, general counsel at Rolls Royce North America, told an American Bar Association air and space law forum Jan. 31 that he worried about the international trade environment — especially export and technology controls that could hamper the movement of people and material.
SHODDY SHARING: The U.S. Army and Air Force plan to decide within 18 months whether to buy the Army’s “Warrior” version of the General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Predator unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). This aircraft uses traditional fuel rather than aviation fuel. The Air Force, which already flies the MQ-1B Predator, is buying two of the Army’s C-version aircraft, which will be delivered in July and August.
Belgium is deploying four Lockheed Martin F-16AM fighters with 100 personnel to Kandahar, Afghanistan, starting in October. The Belgian detachment also is expected to be joined by a similarly sized unit from Denmark, and will join six F-16AMs from the Netherlands already in theater.
C-130J SUPPORT: The U.S Air Force is awarding Lockheed Martin an almost $104 million contract modification for more C-130J support, spares and services, according to a Pentagon announcement Feb. 1. More than $12.5 million has been obligated. The modification was the first option under a pre-awarded contract and covers the third through fifth years of a long-term deal.
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) still is unable to balance its books when it come to transactions posted to the NGA Fund Balance with Treasury (FBWT) general ledger, the DOD Inspector General (IG) said in a new report.
Scientists who waited 33 years for a new look at the planet Mercury will have plenty of work in the years ahead digesting the take from the first flyby of NASA’s MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, Geochemistry, and Ranging (Messenger) spacecraft.
NASA has given the J-2X rocket engine it is developing for a return to the moon its first hot-fire test, albeit a brief one. Engineers at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi tested a pyrotechnic igniter Jan. 31 in a J-2X powerpack test article installed on historic test stand A1. Initial indications are that all objectives were met, setting up a full fueled test as early as Feb. 7.
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GIOVE B: Starsem will launch a second test satellite for the Galileo satellite navigation system on April 26. The European Space Agency’s Giove B, built by a consortium headed by EADS Astrium, is intended to validate a second, more accurate atomic clock and to guarantee International Telecommunications Union frequency use requirements in the event the first spacecraft is lost. Giove A, built by Surrey Space Technology Ltd. (SSTL) of the U.K., celebrated its second year in orbit without incident on Dec. 28.
Leaders of the independent Commission on the National Guard and Reserves issued a call Jan. 31 for the U.S. government to remake the Army and Air National Guard and armed services reserves into “operational, sustainable” forces, with the only alternative being reinstituting a draft and spending $1 trillion.
BORDER TECHNOLOGY: Although President Bush’s recent State of the Union speech stressed the role of technology in enhancing the capabilities of U.S. border patrol agents, House Science & Technology Chairman Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.) says that “many” existing technologies are not ready for full deployment because of high costs and the lack of technical or work force training.
The United States apparently has more to do to win over Poland’s and Europe’s support for building up ground-based ballistic missile interceptor facilities there, although Poland’s top diplomat did not announce new roadblocks or conditions at a Jan. 31 speech in Washington.
PARIS – Yannick d’Escatha, director general of French space agency CNES, says he sees no urgency in Europe’s quest to develop an independent crewed space transportation system (CSTS) capability, or to consider an interim orbital laboratory in the event NASA abandons the International Space Station in 2015. “Our vision remains 2020, not 2015, but there’s no hurry,” D’Escatha says. The comment suggests there may be no decision at the November European Space Agency (ESA) ministerial summit on whether to proceed with a CSTS with Russia, but only further studies.
