U.S. Air Force planners this summer will begin studying the implications of the U.S. military adding 92,000 permanent ground troops on its air operations as the service cuts its own personnel by about 40,000 to pay for recapitalization costs, service Secretary Michael Wynne said March 19 during a breakfast speech on Capitol Hill. An Air Force team will try to determine how much airlift will be needed for the additional troops, as well as what will be required to provide close-air support, Wynne said.
Greater Russian and Chinese efforts to sell their so-called fifth-generation fighter planes provide another example of why the U.S. Air Force needs to stick to its stated purchases of the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), said Michael Wynne, Air Force secretary. Speaking about the Russian and Chinese efforts, Wynne said, "They see what we're doing. "The so-called Chinese fifth-generation variant, Wynne pointed out, "looks like a European Tornado."
MINE DETECTION: U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command awarded small-business Critical Solutions International Inc. of Dallas a $36.3 million contract modification on March 12 for interim vehicle mounted mine detectors. The work will be performed in Gauteng, South Africa, and is expected to be completed before October 2008, the Pentagon announced March 19. The original sole source contract was initiated on Jan. 31.
ARMY General Dynamics, Garland, Texas, was awarded on March 12, 2007, a delivery order amount of $44,877,079 as part of a $104,476,951 firm-fixed-price contract for MK80 series bomb bodies. The work will be performed in Garland, Texas, and is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2010. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This was a sole source contract initiated on Feb. 16, 2006. The U.S. Army Field Support Command, Rock Island, Ill., is the contracting activity (W52P1J-06-D-0006).
A House panel continued its probe of possible improper White House interference with releasing government-funded science results on climate change March 19, hearing from Bush administration political appointees that they were only following procedures established in the Reagan administration when they required a prominent NASA scientist to seek approval from agency headquarters before speaking to the press.
The congressional Government Accountability Office [GAO] has sustained a protest by ITT Federal Services International Corp. over a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers award to Kellogg, Brown & Root Services Inc. to acquire logistics support services throughout the Army's European theater of operations.
CUTTER MUNDRO: BAE Systems said March 19 it was awarded a $1.7 million contract for the routine overhaul of the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Munro (WHEC 724). Work on the Munro, which will begin in June and is scheduled for completion in August, includes repairs to the vessel's machinery, piping, sea valves and propulsion systems, as well as hull preparation and preservation. All work will be performed at BAE Systems Ship Repair in San Francisco.
IRAQI NAVY: By 2010, 15 patrol boats, four patrol ships, and two off-shore support vessels will be added to the Iraqi navy's current fleet of fast-attack boats and Predator-class ships, coalition officials said March 19. "They have a 24-hour capability, are armed for self-defense, and I would say the Iraqi navy is considering these to be the jewel in the crown of their future fleet," said British Navy Cmdr. Paul Marshall, Royal Navy advisor.
Northrop Grumman won a $7.3-million contract add-on from the U.S. Special Operations Command for an extension of a demonstration of the Viper Strike munition as a stand-off precision guided weapon for use on the AC-130 gunship. The goal is initial proof-of-concept of the system.
The U.S. Air Force grounded its U-2 intelligence aircraft worldwide last week due to fuel leaks found in at least three of the high-flying aircraft. The grounding disrupted intelligence collection operations around the globe, including surveillance activities in Iraq. The U-2 is being augmented by the Global Hawk there, though the comparatively young unmanned aerial vehicle is not able to collect the same imagery and signals intelligence as the U-2.
U.S. Marines need communications alternatives for those times when satellite services are unavailable on the battlefield, according to Brig. Gen. George Allen, chief information officer for the Marine Corps. "We need to take a look at other means of low-Earth orbit things that will take care of things when we don't have the satellite available, for whatever reason," Allen said during a March 14 luncheon sponsored by the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA).
SEARCH & RESCUE: The Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) is sponsoring a search and rescue unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) challenge in Australia. The student competition is to take place Sept. 24-27 at Kingaroy Airport in Queensland. The contestants must develop a low-cost UAV that can be used to save lives in the outback by finding lost people and delivering medical supplies.
The U.S. Air Force competition to replace the service's aging tanker fleet will likely hinge on risk reduction and which competitor can deliver the promised aircraft on time, according to Mark McGraw, Boeing's tanker program vice president. The tanker replacement acquisition is another "time-certain" program for the Air Force, with more focus on meeting deadlines than on adding capability in replacing more than 500 tankers, McGraw said March 16. The Boeing KC-767 proposal should be able to meet any schedule demands, McGraw said.
LASER TRACKING: The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and Boeing successfully fired the Airborne Laser (ABL) system's tracking laser in-flight at an airborne target for the first time March 15, the company announced. The ABL aircraft, a modified Boeing 747-400 freighter, used infrared sensors to locate the simulated missile exhaust generated from a test aircraft, then fired its track illuminator laser (TILL) at the target to gather tracking data - a key precursor to a missile engagement.
FAST RESPONSE CUTTER: Northrop Grumman Ship Systems still could compete for the B-variant of the U.S. Coast Guard's Fast Response Cutter (FRC) when the service releases its request for proposals later this year, according to an industry representative. Nothing precludes Northrop Grumman or Lockheed Martin -- who are teamed for the Coast Guard's Deepwater recapitalization program under a joint venture called Integrated Coast Guard Systems -- from bidding on that project.
Lockheed Martin is back at square one with unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flight-testing after the December crash of its P-175 Polecat demonstrator, which is only now being disclosed. The aircraft went down on Dec. 18, 2006 at the Nevada Test and Training Range, according to U.S. Air Force officials who run the range. An "irreversible unintentional failure in the flight termination ground equipment, which caused the aircraft's automatic fail-safe flight termination mode to activate" is cited by Lockheed Martin as the cause of the crash.
WIN-WIN: If it wins the U.S. Air Force tanker competition with its KC-767 bid, Boeing says it will use Pratt & Whitney PW4062 engines to power the aircraft. Italy and Japan selected General Electric's CF6-80C2 series for their KC-767 tankers. A GE official said the company did not "aggressively" pursue the KC-X competition because the economics were not seen as favorable. In its promotional material for the KC-30 candidate, Northrop Grumman/EADS North America has said it will use the GE CF6-80E.
HOT POTATO: All parties agree that the U.S. Air Force should proceed expeditiously with a remedy for the protests of its Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR-X) helicopter competition, but things aren't that simple. Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley is said to want a place in the discussions of how to proceed with the $712 million development contract issued to Boeing for a Chinook variant. However, he lacks the legal authority to influence acquisition decisions directly.
