CONGRESSIONAL CHANGES: House Foreign Affairs Chairman Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) says he won't seek re-election in November. Lantos, 79, says he has cancer of the esophagus. His panel oversees enforcement of the International Trade in Arms Regulations (ITAR). The announcement brings to four the number of House Democrats who say they won't seek another term. Eighteen Republicans, including Armed Services' Reps. Duncan Hunter (Calif.) and Jim Saxton (N.J.), have announced they are leaving the House this year. The latest is Rep.
OUT-PERFORMED: Civilian and defense acquisition regulators have agreed on a new rule that changes the regulations related to performance-based payments, according to the Federal Register. The move, effective Jan. 25, amends the Federal Acquisition Regulation to increase the use of performance-based payments as the method of contract financing on federal contracts, as well as trying to improve their efficiency. The changes originated from recommendations submitted by the Defense Department's Performance-Based Payments Working Group in their March 8, 2005, report.
AMRAAM SALE: Under a deal recently approved by the Pentagon, the United Arab Emirates will receive a suite of weapons along with the F-16 Block 60 it is purchasing. The weapons include up to 224 of the newest AIM 120C-7 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAMs) and a variety of general purpose and guided air-to-ground weapons, including laser-guided variants. The total value of the weapons package is about $326 million.
Cluster bomb critics in Washington are claiming temporary victory given recently enacted fiscal 2008 omnibus appropriations that prohibit issuing arms export licenses or providing military aid for such munitions through September - unless the weapons have a 99 percent-or-higher reliability rate. The law, passed last month, further requires an importer to sign a statement before export can take place, agreeing that they will not use cluster munitions in civilian areas, according to the Friends Committee on National Legislation.
HARBORING DOUBTS: Russian Space Agency (RSA) head Anatoly Perminov says he harbors some doubts about Europe's willingness to cooperate on Russia's Crew Space Transportation System (CSTS) and its ability to finance a role in the system. "Most likely it would be necessary to develop a special agreement in this matter," Perminov told reporters late last month following an early December meeting between RSA and European Space Agency (ESA) specialists. He did not elaborate.
NASA's partial release of data from a controversial airline safety survey still has left some questions unanswered among observers in Congress and industry. Keeping a promise Administrator Michael Griffin made to lawmakers in October, NASA on the last day of 2007 released a redacted version of data from the $11 million National Aviation Operations Monitoring Service (NAOMS) pilot survey, although it contained little analysis or illumination of safety trends.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has formally signed a $29 million contract with BAE Systems and partner American Airlines to test an infrared missile defense system on scheduled passenger flights, but a leading industry group thinks it's a bad idea.
NEW DELHI - Indian government-owned defense manufacturer Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) is eyeing a joint venture with BAE Systems for manufacture and export of Mk132 Hawk advanced jet trainers. The agreement could include maintenance and overhaul of the Hawks. BAE Systems has started delivery of the first batch of the 24 Mk132s in flyaway condition to India, with the remaining 42 on order to be manufactured under a technology transfer license at HAL's facility in Bangalore.
SIGNATURE STUDY: Federal agencies faced with implementing laws signed by President Bush, but to which he has voiced disagreement in so-called "signing statements," apparently are not having much difficulty carrying out the contended provisions, congressional auditors say.
Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill say they will try to override President's Bush's attempted veto of the fiscal 2008 defense authorization bill - which is to say they will treat the alleged pocket veto as a signed veto, which is subject to bypass if enough lawmakers consent.
TRYING AGAIN: European military planners will meet again on Jan. 11 in another attempt to secure commitments for helicopters and other assets required for a European Union (EU) mission to Chad and the Central African Republic to support refugees from Darfur. If an agreement is reached, the EU could give a go-ahead for the mission as early as Jan. 28. The initial requirement needed to launch the operation is four fixed-wing transports and eight helicopters, according to military officials in France, which is among the main contributors to the mission.
PRT À PORTER: The Defense Department's "inaugural" $1.75 million Wearable Power Prize competition will be held at the Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, Calif., from Sept. 22 until Oct. 4, 2008. Finalists, whose entries must produce power on test stands continuously for 88 hours, will wear their power systems in field conditions, testing their ability to work in motion and exposed to weather.
SEA LAUNCH: Sea Launch will try again Jan. 15 to orbit the Thuraya-3 telecommunications spacecraft, after strong currents at the equatorial launch site in the Pacific forced the two-vessel launch fleet to return to port in November (DAILY, Nov. 28, 2007). The Odyssey launch platform and the Sea Launch Commander mother ship have left port in Long Beach, Calif., to return to the launch site at 154 degrees West Longitude. Liftoff of the Boeing-built satellite is set for a 44-minute window that opens 6:46 a.m. EST.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected] (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Jan. 7 - 10 -- 46th American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics' (AIAA) Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit. Green Sierra Resort Hotel, Reno, Nev. For more information call (703) 264-7500, fax (703) 264-7551 or go to www.aiaa.org
BEIJING - China's first lunar probe, Chang'e 1, will face its next challenge Feb. 21, when an eclipse will leave it without solar power for 5.5 hours and freeze its systems at extremely low temperatures.
ISR SUPPORT: The U.S. Air Force announced Jan. 4 that Spectrum Comm, Inc. of Hampton, Va. is being awarded a $74.5 million contract for advisory and assistance services to support the 560th Aircraft Sustainment Group. The group works to improve policy development, management and sustainability for the U-2 aircraft, the Global Hawk and Predator unmanned aircraft, the Distributed Common Ground System, the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System, and various other ISR-related programs.
The U.S. military needs to revamp its mindset for waging war against terrorists and their allies by investing less in technology and more in training troops for small-unit confrontations, says an expert in such training and tactics. "Our infantrymen are spending much of their time trying to figure out the new gadgets," said H. John Poole, who retired from the Marines in 1993 after 28 years as a commissioned and noncommissioned officer and now writes tactics manual supplements and trains active-duty units.
The U.S. Air Force has approved full-rate production of AeroVironment (AV) Inc.'s Battlefield Air Targeting Micro Air Vehicle (BATMAV) system and bestowed Milestone C approval on the program as well. The two milestones were achieved according to the Defense Department's 5000 Acquisition process standards within a year from the contract award. The Air Force selected AV's Wasp III as the micro air vehicle for its BATMAV program in December 2006.
DISN RECOMPETE: In a reaffirmation worth up to $613 million, the Defense Information Systems Agency has awarded the Defense Information System Network (DISN) Network Management Support Services-Global (DNMSS-G/R) Recompete Network Engineering contract to Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC). The company said Dec. 28, 2007, that the indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract, which has a two-year base period and three one-year options, is a "continuation" of the previous DISN Network Management Support Services-Global Network Engineering contract (DNMSS-G/NEC).
Boeing and Northrop Grumman submitted their final KC-X tanker proposals to the U.S. Air Force Jan. 3, marking the next milestone in what has become a war of words over which company is offering the most suitable replacement for the KC-135.
NASA managers have authorized technicians to replace an electrical connector suspected as the cause of intermittent failures of engine cutoff (ECO) sensors in space shuttle Atlantis' liquid hydrogen tank, but have not yet set a firm launch date for the STS-122/1E International Space Station (ISS) assembly mission.
LOCKHEED SETTLEMENT: The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) unveiled a self-described "major" settlement of a race discrimination and retaliation lawsuit against Lockheed Martin for $2.5 million and other relief on behalf of an African-American electrician allegedly subjected to a racially hostile work environment at several job sites.
