JOINING BOEING: Judge J. Michael Luttig has resigned from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit to become senior vice president and general counsel of the Boeing Co. Luttig will replace Douglas Bain, who is retiring effective July 1, the company said May 10. Luttig was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals by President George H. W. Bush in 1991.
Cuts in two Missile Defense Agency (MDA) long lead programs could delay them by 18 months or more, U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen Henry Obering III , MDA's director, said May 10. Both the House and Senate Armed Services committees have recommended cuts to the Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI) program in fiscal 2007. The House committee wants to trim $100 million and the Senate $200 million from the Bush administration's $406 million budget request.
The House on May 10 began consideration of its $512.9 billion fiscal 2007 defense authorization bill, including initial supplemental funding for Iraq and Afghanistan operations, and could wrap up as early as May 11. The House's first move May 10 was to adopt a manager's amendment sponsored by Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, which included a provision to add $4 million for Call for Fire Trainer/Joint fires and Effects Trainer with an offset of $4 million from the Joint Tactical Radio System.
A prototype weather sensor whose development problems have contributed to the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System's (NPOESS) woes is entering thermal vacuum testing, according to Raytheon. Raytheon is developing the Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) to measure sea surface temperature and ocean color. Development problems have pushed delivery of the flight-ready sensor to NPOESS prime contractor Northrop Grumman from an original target of fall 2005 back to 2008.
Alcoa's Howmet operation is bringing a new furnace online to help keep up with soaring demand for aircraft components. The furnace at Howmet's Whitehall, Mich., facility will be dedicated to producing airfoils for manufacturers of new aircraft engines. Howmet says it is designed with the latest automation technologies and will help the company be more responsive to customers' production schedules.
M SHAPED: M Ship Co. announced May 9 that the U.S. Navy's Office of Naval Research (ONR) awarded it a $750,000 contract, including options, to validate the potential of an M-shaped hull design. ONR's Small Business Innovation Research contract represents phase II of research into the M-hull. Earlier this month, the company delivered the 88-foot M 80 Stiletto, built with $12.5 million from the Pentagon's Office of Force Transformation (OFT) as part of the OFT's Wolf PAC Distributed Operations Experiment, conducted with the U.S. Special Operations Command.
A strong rebound in commercial aircraft production helped Precision Castparts Corp. close out its fiscal year with record sales and profits. The supplier of gas turbine and structural aircraft components reported net income of $351 million ($2.58 a share) for the year ended April 2, compared with a loss of $1.7 million in the previous fiscal year. Sales rose 22 percent from a year earlier to $3.55 billion.
Northrop Grumman Corp., embroiled in a congressional debate over earmarks and defense spending, is defending a request for $200 million for hurricane disruption out of the supplemental measure working through Congress as fair for the Navy, the company and taxpayers.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded Lockheed Martin Corp. a $22 million, 48-month contract to develop the Generalized Integrated Learning Architecture (GILA), the company said May 9. GILA will help U.S. Air Force planners better control air space over a battlefield, as well as train personnel.
JFK DEFENDED: Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) has vowed to fight early retirement of the USS John F. Kennedy aircraft carrier or at least receive a commitment from the Navy to station another flattop at its Jacksonville, Fla., base. Nelson told constituents he would try to strip language sponsored by Senate Armed Services Committee head Sen. John Warner (R-Va.). That is unlikely to succeed. Warner was the reason the retirement was barred last year, and now he agrees with the Navy that JFK funds could be used elsewhere.
JASSM ER CONTRACT: Harris Corp. said May 9 that it has been awarded a two-year, $10 million contract by Lockheed Martin to provide the Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missile - Extended Range weapon data link transceiver. Harris will test, fabricate, design, and deliver a two-way, miniaturized, data link transceiver module for JASSM's beyond-line-of-sight communications.
RUMSFELD REACTS: "Our nation's defense should not be a bill payer for other parts of the budget at a time when our country is at war," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said May 9 in response to congressional moves to tap requested defense funds for domestic spending instead (DAILY, May 8). The Pentagon needs supplemental funds for Iraq and Afghanistan operations now in congressional conference, and contract obligations are being delayed in the meantime. Elsewhere, "no, we're not" trying to take over the U.S. intelligence community, Rumsfeld said about Air Force Gen.
The Senate Armed Services Committee is proposing several legislative provisions for fiscal 2007 to boost the Defense Department's oversight of its acquisition programs, committee staff have said. One provision authorizes a DOD pilot program using time-certain development in the acquisition of major weapons systems, for which program schedule is a key performance parameter.
NET LOSSES: Commercial space services provider SPACEHAB Inc. said May 9 that it suffered net losses for both the third quarter and first nine months of fiscal 2006. The company sustained a third-quarter net loss of $1.7 million on revenue of $12.4 million. For the same period in '05, SPACEHAB had revenue of $14.3 million and a net loss of $500,000. For the nine-month period ending March 31, the company net loss was $12.4 million on revenue of $36.2 million. For the same period in '05, SPACEHAB had a net income of $5.2 million on revenue of $40.4 million.
SPAWAR SUPPORT: AMSEC, a limited liability company jointly owned by Science Applications International Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Newport News, said May 9 it received an award potentially worth $318 million from the U.S. Navy to support its Space and Naval Warfare (SPAWAR) Systems Center in Charleston, S.C. Contracted services include installation of command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems on ships, submarines and shore sites.
The U.S. Air Force last month completed a restructuring of the Space Based Surveillance System (SBSS) Pathfinder satellite program to address tens of millions of dollars in cost growth while maintaining its planned December 2008 launch date.
