ACQUISITION: Private equity firm Apex Partners has closed a deal to acquire Telenor Satellite Services. The company will be combined with France Telecom's former mobile satellite communications unit and folded into a new satellite service provider, Vizada. Telenor's satellite broadcasting unit is not part of the transaction.
The Iraq debate will dominate Capitol Hill this month, think tank analysts told a Washington audience as lawmakers reconvened ahead of a busy hearing schedule. But finding a consensus beyond eventual troop withdrawal will be the new challenge. "Iraq is truly the 8 million-pound gorilla in the room," said Norman Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
The Phoenix Mars lander's radar and UHF radio - both critical systems for a successful landing on May 25, 2008 - have completed in-flight checks as the spacecraft heads to Mars at 76,000 mph. Phoenix has covered more than 50 million miles of its 422 million-mile flight to Mars since its Aug. 4 launch from Cape Canaveral on a Delta II booster.
A pending U.S.-U.K. export controls treaty - whose details could be released in coming days - will reflect several regulatory recommendations made earlier this year by industry and is on its way to being extended toward Australia as well, international officials said Sept. 5. Andrew Radcliffe, counselor for defense equipment in the British Embassy in Washington, said the treaty should be sent to Congress, Parliament or both by next week, clearing the way for officials to discuss the signed-but-unfinished deal publicly.
Raytheon Missile Systems hopes NASA will be attracted to the skills it has honed building the U.S. Navy's Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) and the missile-defense Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) when it picks an instrument-unit contractor for the Ares I crew launch vehicle later this year.
There has never been a better chance than now to reform the U.S. export regime, U.S. and foreign officials and experts said Sept. 5. But any change is racing the 2008 elections clock and already faces European and industrial fatigue.
A Sept. 5 story on the Airborne Laser misidentified a congressional committee. Boeing plans to lobby the Senate Appropriations Committee for full funding for ABL. The Senate Armed Services Committee marked up its version of the corresponding ABL language in May.
The U.S. Army has developed a "500-Day Plan" to guide the service in the acquisition and operation of its information technology (IT) needs. "This Army CIO/G-6 500-Day Plan focuses on the near-term specified and implied missions in the Army Campaign Plan, as well as OSD and Joint strategic guidance," wrote Vernon M. Bettencourt, Jr., Army acting chief information officer, in the plan's opening statement.
In the coming year the U.S. Navy plans to purchase new hardware and commercial satellite services to increase the communications bandwidth available to ships by 50-70 percent, according to Dave Weddel, assistant deputy chief of naval operations for communications networks. The Navy is eager to replace the services provided by the Inmarsat constellation, which still provides most of the bandwidth for small Navy ships, Weddel said during an Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association luncheon in Arlington, Va., Sept. 5.
The National Academies' National Research Council (NRC) is recommending that one mission among the current slate of NASA "Beyond Einstein" astrophysics missions - the Joint Dark Energy Mission (JDEM) - be fast-tracked for a 2009 start. A joint effort between NASA and the Department of Energy (DOE), JDEM would use an optical-to-near-infrared wide field survey telescope to investigate the distribution of dark energy.
SOUTHCOM UAVS: The U.S. Navy has awarded a Phase III Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) contract to Optics 1 to help Southern Command in antiterrorist operations. The company will provide maintenance, engineering and technology improvements on existing - but unidentified - unmanned aerial systems, unattended ground systems, unattended surveillance systems and intelligence collection systems.
ARMY Alpine Armoring Inc. was awarded on Aug. 27, 2007, a $7,510,400 firm-fixed-price contract for commercial in-stock heavy armor vehicles. The work will be performed in Herndon, Va., and is expected to be completed by Nov. 1, 2007. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There were five bids solicited on Aug. 16, 2007, and five bids were received. The Tacom, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (W56HZV-07-C-0648).
TURKISH VLS: U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command is awarding Lockheed Martin's Naval Electronics & Surveillance Systems a $6.37 million contract modification for two MK 41 Vertical Launching System shipsets for Turkey under the Foreign Military Sales Program, the Pentagon announced Aug. 30. The deal includes spares, special tools, test equipment, material and services to refurbish fixtures and transport equipment. Most of the work will be performed in Baltimore, Md. (70 percent), while the rest will take place in Minneapolis, Minn. It is expected to finish by March 2010.
Boeing's Family of Advanced Beyond-line-of-sight Terminals (FAB-T) successfully acquired an operational Milstar satellite and completed downlink data transmissions, the company announced.
Engineering and technical services appear to be growing in importance again within the Pentagon, according to an Aerospace Daily analysis of 2007 DOD procurement data provided by the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting. Those types of services now rank fourth among top Defense Department expenses, the analysis shows. The grouping finished seventh in 2006 after finishing third in 2001 and second in 2002.
Globalstar Inc. has picked Arianespace to launch its next-generation constellation of 24 low-Earth orbit (LEO) communications satellites on Russian-built Soyuz rockets, but flying from the new Soyuz pad at the European launch center near Kourou, French Guiana, instead of from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
GWOT EXPENSES: Fiscal 2008 will be an "expensive" year for the so-called global war on terrorism, according to George Krumbhaar, senior editor of USBudget.com. President Bush's budget request last February - which tallied $141.7 billion but came out before recent reports of $50 billion in add-ons - listed total funding for defense operations in the GWOT at $661.9 billion.
Northrop Grumman said Sept. 4 that the U.S. Army awarded it a potentially $462 million RC-12 Guardrail modernization system integration contract to extend the ISR aircraft system's operational life beyond 2020. The contract runs for five years with one five-year option. The Army Program Executive Office for Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors also awarded the first two task orders under the contract, which have a combined value of $25 million, to provide signals intelligence sensor upgrades.
GPS IIR-M PRODUCTION: Lockheed Martin and ITT have begun production to reconfigure a modernized Global Positioning System Block IIR (GPS IIR-M) satellite to include a new demonstration payload that will temporarily transmit a third civil signal, the company said Sept. 4. The milestone follows a successful review with the Air Force. The Block IIR-M spacecraft featuring the new signal, located on the L5 frequency (1176.45MHz), is planned for launch in 2008. The third civil signal is supposed to improve GPS accuracy and performance.
AIR FORCE Tybrin Corp. is being awarded a contract option for $37,965,521. The Air Force is exercising option year five for software engineering support of guided weapons systems evaluations, simulations, and other services supporting research and development for the principals and customers of the Air Armament Center. At this time no funds have been obligated. For more information please call (850) 882-0168. AAC/PKZ, 205 West D. Avenue, Suite 433, Fort Walton Beach, Fla., 32542-6864 is the contracting activity (FO8635-02-C-0034, P00034).
