ARMY Comtech Mobile Datacom Corp., Germantown, Md., was awarded on July 6, 2007, a $7,800,000 firm-fixed-price contract for MT-2011F Transceivers. The work will be performed in Tempe, Ariz., and is expected to be completed by Aug. 10, 2007. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This was a sole source contract initiated on June 29, 2007. The U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command, Fort Monmouth, N.J., is the contracting activity (W15P7T-07-C-J416). NAVY
UK TANKER: EADS says the AirTanker consortium it heads has issued an offer aimed at raising 2 billion pounds ($4 billion) to help fund the U.K.'s Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft program. If the offer is successful, it could reinforce chances of closing a deal for the multi-billion dollar private financing initiative with the U.K. defense ministry towards year's end.
B-52 INTERNET: Telephonics Corp. will add an Internet Protocol advanced data controller function to a digital audio distribution system it is developing for the Boeing B-52H under a contract modification from Boeing. This will consist of a network interface module in the secure digital intercom system on the aircraft to provide internet enabled communications between the aircraft and the ground over satellite communications radios. Bomber crews then will have secure data message and file transfer capability plus e-mail and text chat.
An employee of Invocon Inc., a Houston-based subcontractor to Boeing and United Space Alliance, is the focus of an investigation by the FBI, NASA and other federal authorities for alleged sabotage of a small computer box planned for launch to the International Space Station (ISS) on STS-118 Aug. 7.
ASTRONAUT HEARING: In the wake of a NASA report that some astronauts were intoxicated when they boarded their vehicles (see story p. 3), the House Science and Technology Committee plans a hearing in the first week of September to review this and other issues related to astronaut medical and behavioral health. "Drinking and driving is never a good idea - least of all when the vehicle involved is a multi-billion dollar space shuttle or a high performance jet aircraft," committee chairman Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.) says.
GRILLING NUSSLE: House Science space and aeronautics subcommittee chairman Mark Udall (D-Colo.) wants Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) to question James Nussle about his views on NASA's budget during Nussle's hearing for confirmation as the next director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. "I am concerned about the growing mismatch between the resources being provided to NASA by the administration and the tasks that NASA is asked to carry out," Udall says in a letter to Conrad. "If Mr.
The financial - and thus, military - interest on the part of the Bush administration in helping Lebanon is growing, according to a recent report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). "The Administration's FY2007 emergency supplemental request includes $220 million in FMF (Foreign Military Financing) for Lebanon, a significant increase from previous levels," says the July 12 report.
ROCKWELL RESULTS: Rockwell Collins reported a 21 percent increase in net income in the third fiscal quarter (April-June). Net income was up to $146 million from $121 million in the same period a year ago. Earnings per share also rose 23 percent to 86 cents a share from 70 cents a share a year ago. Third quarter sales increased to $1.113 billion, up 15 percent from last year's figure of $964 million.
UAV FMS: Thales says it expects to conclude by the end of the summer an agreement with a U.S. manufacturer to team for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system foreign military sale, possibly for deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan. Executives say Thales is in discussion with Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and Honeywell for the system, which would draw on experience with the U.K. Watchkeeper tactical UAV and be equipped with a U.S. air vehicle and Thales and/or U.S. subsystems.
Although the House Appropriations Committee (HAC) expressed a number of concerns in the report on its version of NASA's fiscal 2008 spending bill, it increased funding by $313 million to $17.6 billion, in the hopes that the funds will be directed to making much-needed improvements.
The medical panel set up to review U.S. astronaut health monitoring found that one astronaut was deemed too drunk to fly after reporting for a shuttle launch that was subsequently scrubbed for mechanical reasons, but still was allowed to board a T-38 trainer jet for the return to Houston. A second astronaut apparently was allowed to board a Russian Soyuz vehicle and fly in it to the International Space Station under similar circumstances, according to Col. Richard Bachmann, dean of the Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine and chairman of the panel.
SLOW DOWN: The House Appropriations defense subcommittee is trying to rein in the U.S. Air Force's push to gain control of acquisition and operations of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). In its fiscal 2008 spending bill, the committee "strongly cautions against" changes in existing UAV management structures. Before any changes are made, the committee directs the Pentagon to analyze the issue and brief Congress on its findings. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T.
Shrugging off a White House veto threat, the Senate has overwhelmingly passed the fiscal 2008 Homeland Security appropriations bill that increases spending on aviation, port and border security. The $40.6 billion measure is $5.2 billion more than the department's original budget request, prompting the veto threat. The measure will now go to a House-Senate conference where negotiators will reconcile differences between the $36.3 billion legislation passed by the House.
MOBILE TV: The European Commission has approved a joint venture between SES Astra and Eutelsat to jointly provide an S-band mobile TV service. The service, to use a pair of S-band transponders on Eutelsat's W2A satellite, should be fully available by 2009, but partial coverage using a ground ancillary terrestrial component network could begin next year.
SENSOR FUNDING: In a definitive nod to concerns over global climate change, the House Appropriations Committee (HAC) is adding $60 million to NASA's budget for Earth Science research missions monitoring climate and weather in its fiscal 2008 spending bill, while at the same time providing funds to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for sensors on the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS). Within that amount, $850,000 is for continued development of a successor to the Total Solar Irradiance Sensor (TSIS).
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected] (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) July 30 - Aug. 2 -- 2007 Naval S&T Partnership Conference, "The Navy After Next... Powered by Naval Research II -- Power & Energy for the Fleet and Force," Marriott Wardman Park, Washington, D.C. For more information go to www.ndia.org/meetings/7200. Aug. 6 - 9 -- AUVSI's Unmmaned Systems North America 2007, Washington Convention Center, Washington, D.C. For more information go to www.auvsi.org.
WORKFORCE REPORTS: Though NASA has made overtures toward streamlining its workforce, the House Appropriations Committee (HAC) feels it has not quite achieved its goals. The HAC is attempting to stop the agency's bloodletting by putting a moratorium on NASA's Reduction in Force, and would like to closely re-evaluate management's term appointments (versus merit-based) for civil servant positions.
The European Union (EU) and the U.S. have agreed on a final design for the common signal to be used by their new Galileo and GPS IIIA satellite navigation systems. The design permits the L1F signal on Galileo and the L1C signal on GPS IIIA to use a multiplexed binary offset carrier waveform. The waveform will make it possible to track the signals with higher accuracy. The design is the product of joint working groups set up after an initial compatibility and interoperability agreement in June 2004.
CMS AWARD: In August the U.S. Navy plans to award a contract for the system development and demonstration phase of the Countermine System (CMS), a weapon that will destroy mines in very shallow water and beaches near amphibious landing areas without requiring intervention by humans or marine mammals. CMS will use precision-guided standoff munitions to attack surface-laid and buried mines, dispensing "countermine neutralizers" that will consume the mine's explosive fill, detonate it or defuse it.
NASA DEADLINES: The House Appropriations Committee (HAC) wants NASA collaborate with the National Academies to form an independent project review committee (established under the auspices of the Space Studies Board and/or the Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board) to avoid future program management problems. The HAC's version of NASA's fiscal 2008 spending bill allocates one million dollars for this effort, and the committee has requested a progress report by the end of February 2008.
The House Appropriations Committee approved a fiscal 2008 defense spending bill July 25 containing cuts for two Air Force space programs - the Alternative Infrared Satellite System (AIRSS) and the Global Positioning System (GPS) III.
TANKER WORK: Northrop Grumman officials say some work on the military modifications for its first KC-30s will be handled at its Melbourne, Fla., facility where it has centered its Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar Systems work. A portion of the work also will be handled by its new facility in Mobile, Ala., where the company plans to modify production models of its A330s into tankers if it wins the U.S. Air Force's $40 billion KC-X competition. The development program would include four tankers, with much of that work being handled in Melbourne.
