NAVY Bechtel Plant Machinery Inc., Schenectady, N.Y., is being awarded a $44,777,000 cost-plus-fixed fee contract for naval nuclear propulsion components. Work will be performed in Schenectady, N.Y. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The contract was not competitively procured. No work completion date or additional information is provided on naval nuclear propulsion program contracts. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00024-07-C-2102).
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems' Mariner unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) demonstrator has completed its participation in a maritime surveillance trial conducted off the North West Shelf (NWS) of Australia, the company announced Oct. 19. The trial's goal was to assess the potential of UAVs to participate in joint maritime surveillance and support the Australian navy's Armidale Class Patrol Boats, OPC Dash-8s and army troops.
With the U.S. Navy facing funding shortfalls for shipbuilding and sharing other military services' concerns over growing health care and personnel costs, the three-star admiral who has personally spearheaded a potential cost-savings revolution in naval aviation is set to retire.
REPORT DENIED: MBDA Missile Systems has denied a report on the debka.com Web site that an Aster 15 air defense missile battery will be deployed by Italian troops in Lebanon. The company said that the Aster 15 is currently employed only for ship-based area defense, and that the Aster 30-based SAMP-T ground-based variant has yet to be introduced into service.
LAS CRUCES, N.M. - Video gamer John Carmack's Armadillo Aerospace team plans to go back to the drawing board this winter after its attempt to win a $350,000 NASA Centennial Challenge lunar lander competition ended in failure on Oct 21.
The solar and space physics community needs to coordinate better with NASA's space operations personnel if the agency is to protect astronauts on future long-duration space voyages from the dangers posed by space radiation, according to a new report from the National Research Council.
HARPOON UPGRADES: McDonnell Douglas Corp. has been awarded a $17.2 million contract to provide Harpoon Ship Command Launch Control Systems upgrades, modifications, equipment and spares for Pakistan, Chile, and Turkey, the U.S. Defense Department said Oct. 23. The work will be done in St. Charles, Mo.; San Diego, Baltimore, and other U.S. locations. It is expected to be finished in July 2008. The contract was awarded by the Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md.
PURCHASE CLEARED: Germany's court of appeals has cleared the acquisition of full control in Astra Playout Services (APS) by SES Astra, denying a complaint filed by competitor Eutelsat in early 2005. Eutelsat had argued that the move, approved by Germany's antitrust office in December 2004, would affect APS's neutrality. Eutelsat officials declined to comment on the decision.
NAVY TOUR: Navy officials are touring the U.S. to build up support for the service and boost its public image. With the Army, Marine Corps, Air Force and even the Coast Guard benefiting from greater public awareness due to military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and hurricane response - and those services commanding their own headlines in seeking more funds - the Navy must fight for an already tenuous shipbuilding and force structure plan.
The German army is about to field the first NH90 transport helicopter, setting off a series of quickly ramping up deliveries to several customers. The handover comes about two years after the original program plan. Before year's end, NH Industries expects to deliver helicopters not just to Germany, but also to Greece, Finland, and potentially Italy, says Eurocopter executive vice president Lutz Bertling. The first helicopter is already in the German army's hands, but formal acceptance is not expected for at least another two weeks.
HELO AIR FRAME: Aero Vodochody has shipped the second of three prototype airframes for the new Sikorsky S-76D helicopter. The first was delivered in July and the third is to follow next year.
Top Democratic House members for defense and foreign affairs said Oct. 20 that they would not use appropriations to drive changes in U.S. policy in Iraq, but they asserted that reducing U.S. troops there is the only way to let the military recapitalize for other threats such as Iran and North Korea.
NASA REACTION: The Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) recent analysis of alternative launch programs to support NASA's exploration plans "largely... validated" NASA's choice to develop the shuttle-derived Ares launch systems, according to Jeff Hanley, the agency's Constellation program manager. CBO estimates that the total cost of the launch campaign to support a 2018 lunar return, assuming NASA relies solely on the U.S.
CHANGES SOUGHT: South Korea would like to see changes in its agreement for protection under the U.S. "nuclear umbrella" policy, Yoon Kwang Ung, the country's minister of national defense, said during an Oct. 20 Pentagon briefing. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said during the same briefing he didn't know South Korea wanted the changes, but that the two countries' staffs are discussing any alterations. A communique with any changes was not released by press time Oct. 20.
Oct. 23 - 25 -- International Loran Association's 35th Annual Convention and Technical Symposium, Mystic Marriott Hotel, Groton, Conn. For more information call Bob Lilly at (805) 967-8649, email [email protected] or go to www.loran.org . Oct. 23 - 26 -- 11th Annual Expeditionary Warfare Conference, "Joint Expeditionary Operations in an Uncertain World," Marriott Baypoint Resort Village Golf & Yacht Club, Panama City, Fla. For more information go to www.ndia.org.
SCIENCE EXAM: The Defense Science Board is focusing on the impact of export controls on the space industrial base. A board task force expects to make recommendations to Pentagon acquisition chief Kenneth Krieg this spring. The tea leaves are hard to read so far. Some members say industry complaints show that the U.S.'s international licensing is gummed up but doesn't point to serious industrial-base problems.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has announced the 78 Track B teams that will vie for a chance to compete in the 2007 Urban Challenge robotic vehicle race, bringing the total number of teams in contention to 89. Unlike the first two Grand Challenges, the Urban Challenge has two different "tracks" by which teams can participate. The Track A teams, competitively selected by DARPA, receive up to $1 million in development money in exchange for limited licensing rights. Eleven teams already have been chosen for Track A (DAILY, Oct. 4).
Raytheon, Northrop Grumman and L-3 Communications will split $7.4 million in contract awards to study technology alternatives to laser jammer countermeasures against shoulder-fired missile attacks on commercial aircraft, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
