CALIFORNIA, Md. - When it gets under way next year, the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) program must meet its cost and schedule requirements or risk cancellation as the U.S. Navy struggles to recapitalize its existing aircraft fleet, service officials told industry hopefuls during a BAMS industry day here May 17.
EX-ORISKANY SUNK: The ex-Oriskany, a decommissioned U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, became the largest ship intentionally sunk as an artificial reef on May 17 when the 32,000-ton ship landed upright on the ocean floor about 24 miles off of Pensacola, Fla. After 25 years of service including operations in Korea, Vietnam and the Mediterranean Sea, the ex-Oriskany will serve as a fishing and diving attraction, as well as to benefit marine life.
The U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command has awarded Australia's Austal a potentially $88.65 million charter for the high-speed vessel MV WestPAC Express to transport the Okinawa, Japan-based Third Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF) and its equipment. The initial $13.4 million, extended to Austal Hull 130 Chartering LLC of Mobile, Ala., will be funded with fiscal 2007 funds. The contract was competitively procured with 100 proposals solicited and eight offers received, the Defense Department said May 15.
BERLIN - The Airbus A400M program has established 10 Maintenance Working Groups for the transport aircraft that are "just about ready to start working," Detlef Reiss, the A400M ILS manager for Airbus Military, said May 17 at Aviation Week's MRO Military Europe Conference. Some of those working groups include systems, powerplant and APU, and structures.
A final request for proposals (RFP) to replace the U.S. Air Force's aging KC-135 tanker fleet should be out in January 2007, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said May 17. "The draft request for proposals is expected to be out in September of this year and it should, if things work out properly, end up with a formal request for proposals by January of '07," Rumsfeld told the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee.
The House Appropriations Committee has agreed to boost the Energy Department's weapons activities program by $4.1 million over the Bush administration's fiscal 2007 budget request, for $6.4 billion total. In particular, the committee May 17 endorsed its energy and water subcommittee's markup, which would provide $52.7 million for the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) program, an increase of $25 million more than the request.
DEADLINE: The Pentagon has until June 5 to recertify the U.S. Air Force's Global Hawk program, which breached Nunn-McCurdy cost growth caps last year. The U.S. Air Force notified Congress of the breach in December. For the program to continue, the Pentagon must certify, among other things, that it is essential to national security and no cheaper alternatives exist.
Italian aerospace and defense giant Finmeccanica is continuing its positive financial development, confirming expectations for sales and operating earnings for all of 2006 and 2007 as part of its strong first quarter '06 financial report. Finmeccanica is targeting 12.7 billion-13 billion euros ($16.2 billion-$16.6 billion) in sales for the year, and wants to reach 840-860 million euros in earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT). One euro is currently worth $1.28.
The Justice Department has reached an agreement with Boeing to pay $615 million in penalties for its military acquisition blunders in exchange for not pursuing criminal charges against the company.
NODE NETWORK: Datapath Inc. of Duluth, Ga., has been awarded a $72.9 million contract to provide equipment and support services for parts of the Joint Network Node Network, the Defense Department said May 16. The work will be done in Duluth and is expected to be finished by Aug. 31, 2007. The contract was awarded by the Army Communications-Electronics Command, Fort Monmouth, N.J.
International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) restrictions hampered communications between Orbital Sciences Corp. engineers working on NASA's Demonstration of Autonomous Rendezvous Technology (DART) spacecraft and Britain's Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd., which provided a key piece of equipment implicated in the eventual failure of the mission.
A conservative senator has called for increased use of unmanned aircraft and their sensors as Congress, and the country, debate immigration reform - reflecting a growing sense in Washington that small aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and their sensors once envisioned for the U.S. military should be increasingly applied to border and coastal patrol.
President Bush's May 15 speech calling for 6,000 National Guard troops to be sent to the southern border of the U.S. to back up the Border Patrol is likely to help speed the integration of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) into the national airspace, according to a Pentagon UAV official. Most likely to benefit from the announcement are small UAVs such as AeroVironment's Raven, which has been used extensively by Guard troops deployed to Iraq, according to Dyke Weatherington, head of the Pentagon's Unmanned Aircraft System Task Force.
Retired Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Arnold Punaro says he was "surprised" at the extent of equipment shortages within the National Guard and Reserve, where even basic items such as trucks and communications gear are wearing out. Punaro is chairman of a 13-member panel charged by Congress to study the future of the Guard and Reserve and recommend needed changes in law and policy to ensure it can continue meeting its responsibilities. Guard and Reserve forces are being deployed at unprecedented levels in support of ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
AIRSHIP AESA: The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory awarded Raytheon Systems Co. an $8 million contract to develop Lightweight, Low-Power Density Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) technology for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Integrated Sensor program, the Defense Department announced May 12. The radar to be developed is dual UHF and X-Band and would be bonded to the flexible hull material of an airship. Already, $2.5 million worth of work has been obligated, and the contract runs through April 2008.
