Supporters of exempting Buy American restrictions over specialty metals under the Defense Department's acquisition of commercial-off-the-shelf products have spoken up loudly in support of DOD's proposal and the Pentagon has issued its final rulemaking to enact it.
OHIO READY: The Ohio SSGN class of four converted submarines achieved initial operational capability (IOC) Nov. 1. IOC for the reconfigured guided missile subs, rebuilt to carry up to 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles and to launch and recover Special Forces units, comes after the lead ship of the class, USS Ohio (SSGN 726), was certified to re-enter the Navy's active fleet. The 2002 Milestone C cost estimate for research, development, test and evaluation and procurement was $4.052 billion, and the current estimate is $4.095 billion. Rear Adm.
ACQUIRED: Eurocopter has acquired full control of U.K.-based McAlpine Helicopters as part of a move to expand its network of wholly owned sales and support facilities. McAlpine, which was already 10 percent owned by Eurocopter, supports a fleet of 200 rotorcraft and employs 169 people.
A panel of witnesses before a House Science & Technology subcommittee urged continued support for the Arecibo observatory in Puerto Rico, citing its importance for science and its role in characterizing potentially dangerous near-Earth asteroids. "A better understanding of our skies ... is essential to understanding the dangers that may threaten our society," Rep. Luis Fortuno, a Republican from Puerto Rico, said at the hearing's outset Nov. 8.
House Armed Services strategic forces chair Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) told reporters Nov. 8 that final congressional defense authorization language for fiscal 2008 should hew to her subcommittee's drive to "NATO-ize" U.S. ballistic missile defense (BMDS) system efforts based in Europe.
AUSA RESOLUTION: The Association of the United States Army has called for an active force of at least 700,000 in its 2008 resolution, saying that although today's soldiers can "achieve success on today's battlefields...the Army...they serve is out of balance." The Army would like to see its share of the Defense Department budget increase from 24 percent to 28 percent, as well as a more consistent funding stream. The resolution also called for closing the gap between military and civilian pay and revising and enhancing the reserve component compensation package.
ONE-BUTTON TSAT: Boeing and its industry partners recently demonstrated "one-button" start-up, a feature of its U.S. ground station, which is an element of the company's Transformational Satellite Communications System (TSAT). The feature allows a ground station technician or remote command center operator to use a single button on a control panel to go from a full "off" condition to full communications operation within minutes, even under adverse operating conditions.
DRAYSON RESIGNS: In a surprise move, Paul Drayson, U.K. minister of state for defense equipment and support, has announced he's leaving his position to pursue a motor racing career in the United States. Ann Taylor is his replacement. The announcement comes only weeks before the impending release of the second installment of the Drayson-inspired Defense Industrial Strategy. He was in office for more than two years and released the first portion of the strategy.
MINI SUPPLEMENTAL: Democrats in the House have announced a four-month, $50 billion off-budget supplemental measure for Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere - a far cry from Bush's yearlong $196 billion request - including a possible veto-bait provision mandating a troop drawdown in Iraq within a year. The rest of the federal government would remain funded by a continuing resolution extended until Dec. 14 under a provision tacked onto the regular fiscal 2008 defense spending bill. That measure was approved 400-15 by the House Nov. 8 and the Senate was expected to follow suit.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has denied Harris Corp.'s protest of a downselect competition award to Raytheon by Space and Naval Warfare System Command (SPAWAR) in June 2006. The competition was for the U.S. Navy's Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) Multiband Terminal (NMT). Harris challenged the evaluation of proposals and the resulting source selection.
NASA officials told House lawmakers on Capitol Hill Nov. 8 that the agency's effort to find potentially dangerous asteroids must be expanded if it is to meet the deadlines set out in NASA's 2005 authorizing legislation.
Lockheed Martin said Nov. 6 it received a $304 million undefinitized contract action from the U.S. government for four C-130J Super Hercules airlifters, plus initial spares and training, for Norway through the Foreign Military Sales program. The deal funds half of the program and will allow Lockheed to begin long-lead acquisition of production materials. A final contract agreement is expected to be signed early next year.
BAE MRAPs: BAE Systems has received two new delivery orders from the U.S. Marine Corps for 600 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles, a contract totaling $322 million. The company already is contracted to build three of the five MRAP variants, and now must deliver 1,462 Category I vehicles and 1,176 Category II vehicles. The first delivery order, worth $278.4 million, includes the delivery of 511 MRAPs. The second delivery order, worth $44.3 million, calls for the delivery of the balance of 89 vehicles.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) completed a successful test of the U.S. ballistic missile defense (BMD) system late Nov. 6 with simultaneous engagements of two ballistic missile targets. The "hit-to-kill" intercept flight-test occurred off the coast of Hawaii in conjunction with the U.S. Navy. This was the first time an operationally realistic test involved two unitary "nonseparating" targets, meaning that the target's warheads did not separate from their booster rockets. Two missiles
A Wall Street analyst thinks a Nov. 2 Federal Communications Commission (FCC) order requiring additional information from XM Radio and Sirius with respect to their proposed merger is unlikely to derail the deal, despite an earlier decision by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to prolong its investigation.
V-22 FIRE: The U.S. Marine Corps is investigating the cause of a nacelle fire in an MV-22 during a training mission Nov. 6. The aircraft was forced to land, and the aircrew was able to activate the onboard fire suppression systems, though damage to the aircraft was described as significant. No injuries were reported. The aircraft made its emergency landing in a designated zone at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, N.C. The aircraft was an A model, not one of the B models now executing their first foreign deployment to Iraq.
Defense aircraft were big winners in the congressional agreement over regular fiscal 2008 defense appropriations, according to the report accompanying the bill, and they could benefit further from supplemental funding expected later. House and Senate appropriators Nov. 6 hammered out an agreement that, except for embattled Army and Air Force helicopter programs, provided robust funding for fighters, warhorse helicopters, transport and unmanned aircraft.
Imminent legislation due out of Congress could be the first major steps in rolling back acquisition reform achievements from the 1990s, warns one of the architects of that era who is now deputy undersecretary of defense for industrial policy.
BEIJING - China's Chang'e-1 lunar probe accurately entered its working polar orbit around the moon Nov. 7, marking the end of its journey and the achievement of the challenging space navigation goals of the project. Now orbiting the moon at 127 minute intervals and 200 kilometers (120 miles) altitude, Chang'e-1 will go ahead with at least a year of lunar observations that will be prolonged by 200 kilograms (440 pounds) of fuel it saved thanks to unexpectedly precise navigation during its journey from Earth.
STS-120 commander U.S. Air Force Col. (ret.) Pam Melroy, assisted by co-pilot Marine Col. George Zamka, landed space shuttle Discovery into a stiff headwind at 1:01 p.m. EST Nov. 7 on Runway 33 at Kennedy Space Center, Fla. Astronaut Stephanie Wilson was the center seat flight engineer for the landing, which had a higher-than-usual workload for Melroy and greater speed monitoring tasks by the co-pilot and engineer due to the winds.
AdaCore, a leading supplier of tools used by aerospace and defense contractors to develop programs in the Ada software language, says Ada is not going away even though Java and C++ are often used nowadays as the Pentagon embraces commercial software. Even so, DOD has specified Ada on many weapon systems and its aerospace and defense suppliers have written hundreds of millions of lines of code in that language over the past 25 years, says Robert Dewar, president and CEO of AdaCore Inc.
