House and Senate defense authorizers are turning the screws on the Army's Future Combat Systems program and demanding "a comprehensive assessment" that will determine whether the program should continue as structured, be restructured or "be terminated."
Oct. 4 - 6 -- The Global Outlook for Carbon Fiber 2006, Sofitel Atrium Hotel, Budapest, Hungary. For more information call (207) 781-9630 or go to www.intertechusa. com/cf. Oct. 8 - 9 -- Modification and Replacement Parts Association's Sixth Annual Conference, Tempe, Ariz., Mission Palms. For more information call (480) 994-3353 or email [email protected]. Oct. 9 - 11 -- Association of the U.S. Army's Annual Meeting and Exposition, Washington Convention Center, Washington, D.C. For more information call (703) 841-4300 or go to www.ausa.org.
EAGLE EYE BLIND: Homeland security appropriators are declining to inject more funds into Bell Helicopter Textron's Eagle Eye tiltrotor unmanned aircraft. Appropriations conferees late last week decided to fund only the Bush administration's $4.95 million request under the Coast Guard's Deepwater recapitalization program. Proponents, including some of the Texas delegation, had hoped for a congressional plus-up. Bell officials claim that speeding up development and deployment is only a matter of funding, despite a prototype's crash earlier this year (DAILY, July 28).
Rep. Charles Dent (R-Pa.) is urging Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to talk with the U.S. Air Force about expanding the Civil Air Patrol's (CAP) mission along the Mexican and Canadian borders. In a letter to Chertoff released Sept. 29, Dent urged the secretary to negotiate with the Department of the Air Force, which oversees the volunteer Air Force auxiliary.
HYPERSONICS VALUE: The U.S. Air Force has its eyes on hypersonic weapons or platforms, but the service leadership is far from being sold on the necessity of spending its money on those capabilities right now. Gen. Ronald Keys, commander of Air Combat Command, says the Air Force can get a great deal of capability out of its existing aircraft and weapons, and heavy hypersonic investment may not be worth the price. He also says there's still much to be figured out regarding control, sensor integration and other technical issues.
ANOTHER LOOK: The U.S. Air Force will take another gander at the possibility of developing an electronic warfare (EW) version of the B-52 -- initially dubbed the B-52 stand-off jammer (SOJ). But there's a caveat -- the service will be quick to again cancel any program that triples in price the way the B-52 SOJ did the first time around. And the service is looking at other EW options. One possibility is an EW version of the F-15, although the Air Force would be reluctant to use such a valuable air combat aircraft for the EW role.
GOOD FOR NOW: Final fiscal 2007 defense appropriations are in line with industry expectations, if not the Bush administration's request, and extend any major programmatic decisions at least until the FY '08 proposal coming in February, analysts say. The $436.5 billion result -- down 6 percent from FY '06 but 4 percent above the original request -- underpins defense fundamentals through the remainder of this calendar year, but expect volatility to gradually increase on budgetary decision rumors as February approaches, they say.
RESCUE 21: House and Senate appropriators have agreed to provide the requested $39.6 million for General Dynamics Corp.'s Rescue 21 program, which is modernizing U.S. Coast Guard communications capabilities, although they have concerns. Rescue 21 has had "repeated problems with software development, cost overruns and schedule delays," they note in their conference report, causing the Coast Guard to terminate the vessel subsystem portion of the contract.
ACQUISITION: Rockwell Collins is acquiring Anzus Inc., a private software developer focused on high-speed tactical data link processing and sensor correlation for U.S. and foreign military customers, including many in NATO. Based in Poway, Calif., the real-time data exchange specialist company was founded 20 years ago and has $12 million in annual revenues. Rockwell Collins will acquire all shares of Anzus for cash and the terms were not disclosed. About 50 Anzus employees will join Rockwell Collins, which now employs 17,000 people.
China's alleged use of lasers to illuminate U.S. reconnaissance satellites is heating up the debate in Washington on whether the U.S. should strive for greater space cooperation with China. A NASA team led by Administrator Michael Griffin is returning to the U.S. after a week in Beijing to open space cooperation talks.
The U.S. Navy on Sept. 26 awarded VT Halter Marine Inc. a $1.99 million contract for the ship detail design and construction, or Phase II, of the Missile Range Instrumentation Ship [T-AGM (R)] system, the support platform for the Cobra Judy Replacement (CJR) program. The CJR program provides the platform and systems to replace the aging USNS Observation Island (OBIS) platform, treaty monitoring and verification and collection of ballistic missile defense technical data.
SBSS VENDOR: Team leaders Boeing and Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. have chosen Semiconductor Technology Associates Incorporated (STA) of San Juan Capistrano, Calif., as the supplier of a key component in the optical sensor for the Block 10 Pathfinder spacecraft in the Space Based Surveillance System (SBSS). STA's charge coupled device (CCD) will collect images onboard the SBSS spacecraft. Boeing said the selection marks a key risk reduction milestone for the program, which is being restructured by the U.S. Air Force (DAILY, Sept. 22).
COAST GUARD C4ISR: Homeland Security appropriators in Congress are lamenting the state of the Deepwater recapitalization program's information technology modernization component, even though it has been spotlighted as a successful Deepwater upgrade. Intended to provide an automatic identification system (AIS) and access to the Pentagon's classified Secret Internet Protocol Router Network, the C4ISR design efforts is over cost and behind schedule, according to a Coast Guard report provided to appropriators in August.
F-117 WEAPONS: The U.S. Air Force has awarded Lockheed Martin Corp. a six-year, $1.4 billion contract for the Total System Support Partnership (TSSP) II effort, which provides continued sustainment support for the F-117 weapon system. Solicitations began in December 2005 but negotiations weren't complete until last month. In recent years, anxious lawmakers have enacted provisions blocking the retirement of F-117 Stealth Fighter.
BOMBERS BOOSTED: Congress is temporarily barring the U.S. Air Force from retiring or dismantling any of its 93 B-52H bombers until defense officials submit a detailed reported outlining their strategy for long-term bomber force structure. The move, not unexpected, is part of the fiscal 2007 defense appropriations measure that lawmakers finalized last week.
EUROFIGHTER: Danish defense officials have visited EADS facilities associated with the Eurofighter Typhoon program as part of the country's ongoing campaign to pick a new fighter. The Lockheed Martin F-16 and Saab Gripen also are in the race, with a decision likely in 2008. Meanwhile, the British Royal Air Force is reconsidering its decision not to use the gun on its Typhoons, as a result of lessons emerging from recent close air support operations in Afghanistan.
Several U.S. allies are pooling resources to purchase three or more C-17 Globemaster III aircraft to help NATO meet an important need and show its commitment and ability to meet its mission requirements, according to U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Joint funding for military cargo aircraft has been a proposal several U.S. and NATO leaders have pushed all year. The C-17s will be owned by the alliance -- only the second aircraft after the E-3 AWACS fleet to be acquired in that way, Aviation Week & Space Technology reported Sept. 18.
Congressional homeland security appropriators are accelerating the U.S. Coast Guard's acquisition of EADS' CASA's HC-235A-300M medium-range maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) by doubling the program's fiscal 2007 budget as compared with the Bush administration's request. The appropriators also are pouring more funds into patrol boat accounts while chastising the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) armed service for poor management of a troubled effort to provide new Fast Response Cutters (FRCs).
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is calling for more oversight of the next-generation Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-R) program, whose initial cost estimates are close to doubling. Originally budgeted at $6.2 billion, the latest projection for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) weather satellite program is $11.4 billion. This has led NOAA to downscope the effort, cutting one of the five planned GOES-R sensors and potentially dropping the number of satellites to two.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) stands by its July recommendation that Congress restrict NASA's spending on the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), despite changes NASA has made to Lockheed Martin's CEV contract in response to GAO's criticisms.
In hammering out their fiscal 2007 defense spending deal, congressional appropriators provided the Bush administration what it asked for in total defense shipbuilding funds, but they didn't stop there. While the deal not only provides $10.6 billion in sorely needed funds for the U.S. Navy's shipbuilding programs, the House and Senate appropriations conference agreement also provides $523 million for prior-year cost increases, including $318 million for CVN-77 aircraft carriers and $111 million for Virginia-class SSN submarines.
HELLADS: The Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has awarded General Atomics a $2 million increment of a $32.7 million contract modification for phase IIIB of the High Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System. The award, announced Sept. 27, runs through January 2008. The initiative will design, build and test a new laser design that will be lighter than other high-energy laser system concepts.
