NEW SPACECRAFT: Arabsat is reportedly preparing to order three additional spacecraft worth more than $600 million to meet hot demand in the Middle East for broadcasting and telecom services, and to enable the Saudi operator to fight off a growing challenge from competitors, in particular Egypt's Nilesat and Paris-based Eutelsat. Industry officials expect a request for bids this autumn and a decision in the first half of next year.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) prime contractor Boeing are looking forward to the next test of the GMD system in December, which will virtually duplicate the conditions of the team's successful Sept. 1 test. While the overall scenario will be the same, the December test will include an intercept as one of its criteria for success. The Sept. 1 test successfully intercepted its target missile, although that was not one of the explicit test objectives (DAILY, Sept. 5).
NEW JOB: Ford Motor Co. said Sept. 5 that Bill Ford is leaving his post as chief executive officer and is being replaced by Alan Mulally, CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes and executive vice president of Boeing Co. Ford will remain with the company as chairman. Ford praised Mulally as "an outstanding leader and a man of great character."
The White House said Sept. 5 that providing training, equipment and funding to foreign governments allied with U.S. interests is a core effort in its counterterrorism strategy, while leading congressional Democrats a day earlier urged President Bush to fire Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
VISUAL MODULES: DRS Technologies Inc. said Sept. 5 that it has been awarded an $8.3 million contract to manufacture TOW visual modules for the integrated sight unit used in the TOW 2 tracking system on Bradley Fighting Vehicles. The work will be done by DRS Sensors & Targeting Systems - Optronics Division in Palm Bay, Fla. Deliveries are set to start in November and continue through April 2008. The contract was awarded by the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala.
Fuel and equipment concerns rank near the top of the list of problems for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, a Pentagon report says. And for the U.S. Central Command Air Forces operating in both theaters, keeping manned and unmanned aircraft flying is a challenge. "Tankers are very important for the combined air forces command," said U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Gary North, U.C. Central Command Air Forces commander.
Weather forecasters scaled back their optimism slightly for the first of three attempts to get the space shuttle Atlantis in orbit, but NASA managers at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., remained hopeful the delayed STS-115 mission can launch in the next three days. "We are a little more concerned about launch day than we were yesterday," launch weather officer Kathy Winters said Sept. 5. "It is a little more moist and so we are going to bump up our numbers from 10 percent to a 30 percent chance of KSC weather prohibiting launch."
Developing aircraft and capabilities to counter insurgents is a major priority in standing up a proper Iraqi air force, U.S. Central Command Air Forces officers said Sept. 1. The ability to do such counterinsurgency (COIN) missions as airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance is a number one U.S. Air Force priority and remains a critical capability for the fledgling Iraqi air force, said Brig. Gen. Stephen L. Hoog, director of the Air Component Coordination Element for the Multi-National Force-Iraq in Baghdad.
The launch of the twin NASA Stereo 3D solar imaging spacecraft from Cape Canaveral on board a Boeing Delta II will be delayed an additional month until at least Oct. 18 following a determination that the vehicle's second stage must be removed from the vehicle on Launch Complex 17A for additional checks.
The Missile Defense Agency's Sept. 1 test of its Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) System exceeded expectations by hitting its target, said U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Henry "Trey" Obering III, MDA director. The test's expectation, or mission, was to get the interceptor into the kill region in space, Obering said in a post-test briefing. Actually, hitting the target would be icing on the cake, and Obering smiled in describing how the MDA had just completed the first successful in-flight test using all operational equipment and personnel.
The U.S. Special Operations Command is coming up short with people and training because of its increase in operations, the U.S. Government Accountability Office says in a recent report. And the increase in operations -- along with the greater number of people needed to handle them -- will drive a need for more equipment, said John Gresham, a defense analyst and co-author of the book "Special Forces: A Guided Tour of U.S. Army Special Forces." "The equipment base has to grow to meet the extra needs," Gresham said Sept. 1.
The U.S. Air Force is building communications networks and using digitally controlled precision airdrops in combat zones to make them safer and more effective for American troops and allies, U.S. Central Command Air Forces officers said Sept. 1. To better ensure the safety of road convoys in Iraq, the command has established special communications networks to keep ground vehicles in constant contact with headquarters or other platforms.
Canada's defense minister is calling for military officials to develop a plan to help the Afghan government assume more responsibilities for the country's security. During an Aug. 31 visit to Kandahar, Afghanistan, National Defense Minister Gordon O'Connor said he wants to see more Canadian money and military equipment provided to the Afghan National Police and Afghan National Army. "This contribution will help the Afghan government take control of their own security," O'Conner said.
LAWMAKING AGAIN: Congress has a full plate to deal with when it returns this week from its August recess. The Senate has yet to pass a defense spending bill for fiscal 2007, although it could happen by midweek. The $466.5 billion defense spending measure passed by the Senate Appropriations Committee bogged down amid a flurry of amendments and other election-year-related lawmaking. But first Democrats are expected to introduce still more amendments on the floor.
BADGUYOLOGY: The U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command's Night Vision & Electronic Sensors Directorate is looking for sensor integration technology to be coupled with existing force protection technology and profiling called "BadGuyology" to combat suicide bombers. Researchers want to combine "smart" imaging, chemical and spectral sensors that can note cues such as brain activity with BadGuyology behavior cues to provide "novice operators" like ground troops a "more robust standoff" suicide bomber detection capability.
The U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command has awarded Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Ship Systems (NGSS) unit in Pascagoula, Miss., a $95.9 million contract for DDG 1000-class destroyer detail design, the DOD and company said. Total value of the detail design effort is $307.5 million through 2013, with $39.4 million funded at contract award for advanced zone detail design. The remaining detail design is included in a priced option valued at $268.1 million.
FASTTRACKED POPULARITY: The U.S. Navy's new seven-year, $450 million "FastTrack" program to find, engineer and replace increasingly obsolescent parts for legacy aircraft across the Defense Department is becoming more popular with other armed services. "The Army is actively using the FastTrack program for efforts in Iraq," says Bob Polanowski, head of the Advanced Laser Data Acquisition Center reverse engineering unit.
IRAQI BUILDUP: Iraqi security forces are receiving the equipment they need to deal with the enemy they face, but they will get even more armored vehicles, aircraft and logistical capabilities in coming months, says U.S. Army Gen. George Casey Jr., the coalition commander in the country. Casey said Aug. 30 that while he does not know when Iraqi forces will be able to take over the security mission, they'll be able to take on security missions with very little coalition support over the next year to 18 months.
CEO PAY: The average pay of U.S. defense CEOs has doubled since 2001, far outstripping the 6 percent increase across all industries, a new report claims. The study by two liberal groups, the Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy, calculates that CEOs at 34 publicly traded companies that derive at least 10 percent of their revenues from defense contracts earned an average of $7.2 million a year in 2002-05, compared with $3.6 million in 1998-2001.
