BAE Systems' $4.5 billion deal to acquire Armor Holdings would add to the London-based defense giant's heft in the U.S. while furthering its push into the global land systems market. The acquisition, which is subject to regulatory approval, would add more than $3 billion to BAE's U.S. sales, which were $11 billion last year. It would also make the company the Pentagon's sixth largest contractor and move BAE close to its goal of generating 50 percent of its sales from the U.S.
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks and Information Integration and DOD Chief Information Officer John Grimes has signed into effect a new "DOD Information Sharing Strategy."
The U.S. Navy's Small Business Innovation Research program (SBIR) is gaining in importance and has tripled its budget in recent years to more than $60 million in fiscal 2007, according to Vice Adm. Paul Sullivan, commander of Naval Sea System Command, "When you're under $20 million, you're under the radar," Sullivan said in a May 7 presentation at the 2007 Navy Opportunity Forum. "When you're over $70 million, people tend to pay attention."
'GOOD SOLDIERS': Much of the funding for the Iraq war is being directed to the Army and Marine Corps, and while the ground forces replace war losses, some analysts have suggested the Air Force may need to tighten its belt and cancel some programs. USAF Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley disagrees and says he can recapitalize the Air Force with an additional $20 billion per year. Leave it to a retired blue-suiter, former Air Combat Command chief Gen. Richard Hawley, to speak candidly on the question. "Money. It consumes almost everyone who works at the Pentagon.
EXECUTIVE AGENT: The Pentagon Joint Requirements Oversight Committee (JROC) this week will likely take up the Air Force's bid to become the executive agent for higher flying unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). A unified command and control UAV structure just makes sense, argues Gen. Michael Moseley, Air Force Chief of staff. The Air Force wants to oversee operation and acquisition for UAVs flying above 3,500 feet. One of the most sought-after UAVs in the field is the Predator.
A set of 10 advanced technologies that will be needed to make the next-generation James Webb Space Telescope work properly has won approval from an independent review panel charged with ensuring they are sufficiently mature before further development work on the spacecraft.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected] May 7 - 10 -- AIAA Infotech@Aerospace 2007 Conference and Exhibit, Doubletree Hotel Sonoma Wine Country, Rohnert Park, Calif. For more information go to www.aiaa.org/events/infotech@aerospace. May 7 - 10 -- Joint Service Small Arms Symposium, Virginia Beach Convention Center, Virginia Beach, Va, For more information call (703) 522-1820, fax: (703) 522-1885 or go to www.ndia.org.
CLEAN SWEEP: Science Applications International Corp. is pursuing a so-called "clean sweep" algorithm to wash a target area of non-moving, non-radio frequency-emitting military objects of interest. The $5.7 million contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory, announced May 3, will be complete by February 2011, according to the Defense Department. "The objective of the clean sweep is to develop a wide-area search (detection) and high-confidence identification (HCID) capability," the Pentagon said.
ROCKET REJECTION: European aerospace interests have been buzzing this spring with the possibility that NASA may turn to the Safran Vulcain rocket engine for the upper stage of its Ares I crew launch vehicle if it can't develop the Apollo-heritage J2-X for the job. The European LOX/hydrogen engine has comparable performance to what is hoped for the J2-X, a derivative of the Saturn V upper stage engine, and while it isn't human-rated, it has a lot more run time than what is basically a new Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne development. Officials from the U.S.
Acknowledging the growing importance of environmental issues in aerospace businesses, Boeing said May 4 that it has established a company-wide Environment, Health and Safety organization and named a 23-year company veteran, Mary Armstrong, to be its vice president. Citing Boeing's concern with "environmental performance of our products and services" and compliance with environmental regulations, CEO Jim McNerney said the new organization will develop an integrated strategic plan for the company, also encompassing its work with suppliers and customers.
The U.S. shipbuilding industry, still reeling from recent rebukes over problems in military acquisitions, could see a significant boost in Navy orders for new boats, including expedited Virginia-class submarines, Littoral Combat Ships and two amphibious classes. The House Armed Services seapower and expeditionary forces subcommittee has added another LPD-17-class amphibious transport dock ship and another T-AKE-class combat logistics force ship on top of one each that the Bush administration requested for fiscal 2008. Two more LCS
Successful wind tunnel tests of Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne's X-1 Scramjet engine just completed at NASA's Langley Research Center show that the U.S. Air Force's plans to conduct hypersonic flight-tests in 2009 are on track.
Gen. Michael Moseley, Air Force chief of staff, sees the future in battlefield situational awareness as being in the palm of his hand. Literally. The Air Force is working to develop a handheld version of its Remotely Operated Video Enhanced Receiver (ROVER), Moseley said in a May 3 interview. Essentially what Moseley envisions is the ability of troops on the ground to dial up overhead full-motion video on a Blackberry-like device the way the rest of the world uses cell phones now.
SOUTHERN SUPPORT: ITT said May 4 that the U.S. Air Force awarded it a potentially $194 million contract to support the aerial counter-drug surveillance mission of the U.S. Southern Command. Aircraft operate out of the Netherlands Antilles and Ecuador. ITT will provide air traffic control, airfield operations, communications technical services, food service, billeting, civil engineering, emergency fire response and other support as necessary. Phase-in began April 1, and with options, the contract will extend to 2014.
DEFENSE CLIMATE CHANGE: Just as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its report May 4, the Bush administration issued its own tally of its climate change expenditures, asserting that the president has devoted $37 billion to climate change issues since 2001. Deeper down in the tally, however, is data that shows the Defense Department - the largest single energy user in the U.S. government - has decreased its spending related to the interagency Climate Change Technology Program by $39 billion worth of budget authority over FY '07-'08.
Soaring valuations haven't slowed down mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity in the aerospace and defense market. A new study by PricewaterhouseCoopers says the disclosed value of aerospace M&A deals reached $33 billion in 2006, up from $24 billion in each of the two previous years and the highest level since 2000. The average deal size climbed to $277 million, up from $99 million in 2003, according to the study, which was released May 2.
ITAR IMBROGLIO: International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) have long been recognized as an impediment to the export of commercial space hardware. U.S. manufacturers complain bitterly that they lose business to overseas competitors because of State Department delays in licensing exports for satellites and other hardware under ITAR. But the problem extends into scientific cooperation as well.
In response to reports that the Air Force had made questionable changes in the acquisition of its replacement fleet for the service's combat, search and rescue (CSAR-X) helicopters, Chief of Staff Michael Moseley said the Air Force would never make such moves to narrow the field in favor of a particular competitor. "You never change anything to vector to a competitor," Moseley said during a May 3 interview. "If you change anything, it should be to open the competition."
READYING RAPTOR: Congress is scheduled to receive a report May 27, Pentagon officials say, that will address the pros, cons and possibilities of exporting more U.S. military technologies and platforms abroad. One of the key platforms being eyed for foreign sales, especially by the Japanese, is the F-22 Raptor. A highly placed source intimately familiar with the Raptor program says there's no doubt prime contractor Lockheed Martin wants to - and could - build and sell an export version that would keep top secret information intact.
Air Force brass is looking for ways to develop more common avionics and related equipment or operations between the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). "I'd like to see that," said Gen. Michael Moseley, Air Force chief of staff. "That makes perfect sense." What Moseley would like to avoid, he said in a May 3 interview, is the kind of different avionic displays facing pilots from one Air Force combat aircraft to another, such as an F-16 or an F-15. "I would like to see something more common," Moseley said.
TANKER FIRST: Gen. Michael Moseley, Air Force chief of staff, reiterated again May 3 that the service is looking for a tanker first and foremost in its contractor selection for the replacement fleet of the KC-135. He called the cargo-carrying attributes of bidders Northrop Grumman and Boeing "attractive," but said he wants a tanker that can generate sorties, has fuel-efficient engines, is reliable, provides operational flexibility and can take off or land on as many runways as possible, as well as operate in whatever area the Air Force needs to.
PARIS - A change in France's defense and aerospace policy looms once the dust settles from the May 6 presidential and parliamentary elections. The impact is likely to be greater on industrial strategy than military spending.
