SPRING CLEANING: The Democratic-controlled 110th congressional budget plan, finalized last week, meets the Bush administration's growing defense budget requests through early fiscal 2009 while boosting domestic spending and not yet dismantling Bush's tax cuts earlier this decade. How do Democrats propose to fund defense?
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected] May 21 - 24 -- Joint Services Environmental Management and Geospatial Information & Services Conference & Exposition, "A Comprehensive Summit on the Evolving World of Environment, Energy & Geospatial Information within DOD," Greater Columbus Convention Center, Columbus, Ohio. For more information go to www.ndia.org.
SAT IN SERVICE: Astrium has indicated that the first of three U.K. fifth-generation Skynet military communications satellites, launched on March 11, has entered service. The company says it fully met an obligation to bring the unit into operation by April 24 under a 3.6 billion pound ($7 billion), 20-year contract with the U.K. government.
GLOBAL HAWK LOT 7: The U.S. Air Force is awarding Northrop Grumman a $11.5 million fixed-price-incentive/firm-target contract to provide for two RQ-4 Block 30 Airborne Signal Intelligence Processor-enabled unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) each containing enhanced Integrated Sensor Suites; three RQ-4 Block 40 UAVs each with a Multi Platform-Radar Technology Insertion Program sensor; one Mission Control Element; two enhanced Integrated Sensor Suites; support equipment and initial spares.
The House-approved cuts to the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's fiscal 2008 budget would cause the Airborne Laser (ABL) program's first demonstration to slip three years while also damaging U.S. credibility on the eve of formal negotiations over the proposed European missile defense sites, according to MDA Executive Director Patricia Sanders.
Congress has several potential operational and performance issues to consider in its review of the Coast Guard's $4.5 billion fiscal year 2008 budget request for homeland security missions, according to a recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report. The funding request represents about half of the Coast Guard's total budget proposal, says Ronald O'Rourke, CRS specialist in its National Defense Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division.
Telesat Canada has agreed to operate Canada's new Radarsat-2 satellite for MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) for the lifetime of the spacecraft's mission. Radarsat-2 will be launched this summer from Baikonur, Kazakhstan aboard a Starsem Soyuz rocket. It will be the first commercial radar satellite with multipolarization capability, which facilitates the identification of a wide variety of surface features and objects. Spatial resolution will be 3-100 meters.
Getting the needed number of Mine-Resistant, Ambush-Protected (MRAP) vehicles into combat quickly is a "moral imperative," said Gen. James Conway, U.S. Marine Corps commandant. He acknowledged the Pentagon is pushing procurement limits with MRAP acquisition, and said jokingly that before the purchases were complete, "I could still be wearing stripes."
PARIS - The European Commission is proposing to fund the entire Galileo satellite navigation system with public money, putting the controversial project on solid footing for the first time.
Plans by the U.S. and European Union (EU) to form a trans-Atlantic economic council could go a long way toward harmonizing technology transfer rules and ending trade barriers, EADS Chief Executive Officer Thomas Enders said May 17. Enders called the U.S. International Trade in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and home sourcing regulations like the Buy America campaign "unnecessary impediments" to trans-Atlantic trade.
RSRM TEST: ATK Launch Systems and NASA will test fire a four-segment space shuttle Reusable Solid Rocket Motor (RSRM) on May 24 at 1 p.m. Mountain time to help improve shuttle performance and advance development of the five-segment RSRM first stage for the future Ares I rocket. During the static test the RSRM will be fixed horizontally to the ground with a hydraulic system designed to hold 2.6 million pounds of average thrust throughout the duration of the two-minute burn.
HORNET AESA: U.S. Naval Air Systems Command is extending Boeing $7.4 million for the redesign of five monolithic microwave integrated circuits utilized in the F/A-18E/F AN/APG-79 Active Electronically Scanned Array radars. The McDonnell Douglas subsidiary's modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract is expected to run out in December 2008, the Defense Department announced May 16.
The Democratic-controlled House passed its version of the fiscal 2008 defense authorization legislation May 17, including a last-minute provision pushed by conservative Republicans to further integrate the U.S. ballistic missile defense system (BMDS) with Israel. The amendment, proposed by Republican presidential contender Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), who also leads the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) minority, would redirect $205 million in BMDS funds, as determined by Pentagon leaders, for the Israeli effort.
NEW NEIGHBORHOOD: Eutelsat is opening a new neighborhood at 9 degrees east longitude to expand direct TV broadcasting capacity to Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The slot is being served by Hot Bird 2, renamed Eurobird 9. This is the third spacecraft to be re-deployed following the launch of Hot Bird 7A and 8 to Eutelsat's primary neighborhood at 13 degrees east longitude last year.
SPIKE SUCCESS: Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) officials on May 15 announced that for the first time their developmental Spike missile successfully tracked and hit a moving target. Spike would be the smallest guided missile in the world at 25 inches long, 2.25 inches in diameter, and 5.3 pounds. It would also be the only missile using an electro-optical imaging strapped-down seeker, according to NAVAIR. The next demo, set for the fall, will replicate launch from a high-altitude unmanned aircraft.
U.S.-U.K. DEAL: President Bush said May 17 that the United States and the United Kingdom will try to improve defense cooperation by working toward an agreement reducing barriers to trade in defense goods and services and information between the allies and their defense industries. "I made it clear to the prime minister we will work on this issue tirelessly until we can get it solved," Bush told White House reporters in a press conference with outgoing Prime Minister Tony Blair.
While the U.S. Air Force and the competing companies for the service's combat, search and rescue (CSAR-X) helicopter fleet program bob and weave over the revised request for proposals (RFP), Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is continuing his investigation into the contested contract award to Boeing and awaiting more information from the service about the selection process.
REPLACEMENT APACHES: Boeing is getting $15.5 million toward expected war-replacement AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopters, the Pentagon said May 14. The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command on May 9 signed with McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Co. for the ongoing-contract modification. Work will be performed in Mesa, Ariz., and is expected to finish before June 2010. The sole-source contract was initiated on April 4, officials said.
A preliminary DOD study points to the need for more Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) sea-based missile defense interceptors and Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors, according to Lt. Gen. Kevin Campbell, commander of U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC).
The White House announced May 16 its opposition to House Democrats' efforts to add $2.4 billion for 10 additional C-17 aircraft to fiscal 2008 defense authorization legislation, as well $1.7 billion for an additional LPD-17 amphibious ship and $456 million for a T-AKE cargo ship.
The Pentagon is doing better at modernizing the way it manages its business systems, a recent report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) says, but DOD still has some work ahead of it. In the report released this week, GAO recommends that Pentagon annual reports include an assessment by its independent verification and validation agent of the quality of the department's "federated family of architectures," or related businesses, including the associated transition plan(s). In written comments, DOD agreed with GAO's recommendation.
