RIDLEY PARK, Pa. -- Egypt is likely to be the first customer for the Cargo Helicopter Alternate Procurement Strategy (CHAPS) program, according to manufacturer Boeing. Egypt currently has a fleet of 17 CH-47D Chinook helicopters, which the country would like to round out to 22-24 aircraft to have two full squadrons, according to Bob Sobey, Boeing's deputy director for Chinook programs. Through CHAPS, "the D-model that we would sell them is an exact match for what they're currently flying," Sobey told The DAILY on March 31.
April 7 -- Aviation Week & Space Technology's Annual Laureates Dinner. U'dvar-Hazy Center of National Air and Space Museum, Washington Dulles International Airport. For more information call (202) 383-2313 or go to http://www.aviationweek.com/conferences April 18 - 19 -- Precision Strike Annual Programs Review, Marriott Crystal City-Potomac Ballroom, Crystal City, Va. Call +1 (703) 247-2590, fax +1 (703) 522-1885 or see www.precisionstrike.org.
RADAR SPARES: Raytheon Space & Airborne Systems has been awarded a $22.8 million contract to provide the U.S. Navy with AN/APG-73 radar spares used on F/A-18 aircraft, the Defense Department said March 31. The work will be done in El Segundo, Calif., and is expected to be finished by September 2007. The contract was awarded by the Naval Inventory Control Point.
Members of a House Armed Services subcommittee questioned the realism of the Navy's shipbuilding plans during a hearing in Washington on March 30, with Chairman Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.) saying that the Navy is running a "high risk" of not being able to reach its goal of a 313-ship fleet. While members of the Projection Forces subcommittee expressed support for the 313-ship level, "the probability of us getting there is somewhere between red line and high risk," Bartlett said.
AC-130 FOLLOW-ON: The Air Force is developing the Persistent Surface Attack System of Systems as the follow-on to the current AC-130 gunship, top service officials say. "This gunship follow-on will provide responsive, survivable, persistent and precise fire support in the low-threat to selected high-threat engagements in the 2015 timeframe," said Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne and Gen. Michael Moseley, Air Force chief of staff.
NASA PR POLICY: NASA Administrator Michael Griffin released a new public affairs policy on March 30 designed to allay complaints from the agency that political appointees at agency headquarters have tried to shape news on NASA-backed science results to boost administration policy. "NASA, as an Agency, does not take a position on any scientific conclusions," the new policy states. "That is the role of the broad scientific community and the nature of the scientific process.
The Navy formally has decided to stick with the Flight 0 ship variant of the Littoral Combat Ship through fiscal 2009, according to Allison Stiller, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for ships. Previously, Flight 1 -- with additional, LCS-designed capability and refreshed technology -- was to begin construction in FY '08. The Navy's latest five-year shipbuilding plan includes two LCSs in FY '07, three in FY '08, and then six annually in FY '09, '10 and '11.
AIR FORCE CUTS: The Air Force is looking to cut 30 general-officer billets, including "some" three-stars, according to top Air Force officials. Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne says the reorganization would focus generals around warfighting headquarters, to support combatant commanders, and away from administrative work. The move, spearheaded by Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley, is part of an Air Force personnel reduction targeting roughly 40,000 full-time equivalents by fiscal 2011.
CROWDED SKIES: FAA Administrator Marion Blakely says civil airspace will soon be "filling up very, very rapidly" with more commercial aircraft of all sizes, including unmanned aerial vehicles. The FAA has issued its first airworthiness certificate for a nongovernment UAV, she says, and "you're going to see more and more applications for it." The agency has issued a temporary flight restriction (TFR) in Arizona, where a Homeland Security Department Predator B patrols at night. But general aviation pilots fear security demands will shrink the airspace open to them.
Lockheed Martin Corp. and Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. on March 31 delivered the first new-production MH-60R helicopter to the U.S. Navy. "Delivery of this helicopter fulfills the Navy's Master Helicopter Plan to reduce six helicopter types to two multimission aircraft, the MH-60S and now the MH-60R," said Capt. Paul Grosklags, current manager of the Naval Air Systems Command's multimission helicopter program office.
SPACE RACE: Powerful members of Congress are pressing NASA Administrator Michael Griffin over China's human spaceflight ambitions, warning that the totalitarian nation could get to the moon before the U.S. human exploration program does. "I don't trust China," says Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that sets NASA funding.
SHIFTING WORK: Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.), chairman of the House Armed Services projection forces subcommittee, continues to push the Navy to consider making far more of its ships nuclear-powered. Bartlett, who has tried to call attention to future pressures caused by dwindling oil supplies, notes the cost benefits to refueling an unconventional aircraft carrier or submarine every few decades. "I would like our Navy to go as nuclear as possible," he said, including transport and other ships.
Michael A. DeCesare and Mark Holder have been named corporate vice presidents. DeCesare will lead the Information Dominance Division within the Land Forces Group (LFG). Holder will serve as LFG chief technology officer.
TEST GEAR: Belgium-based Advanced Mechanical and Optical Systems (AMOS) has signed a contract with Indian Space Research Organization's (ISRO's) Space Application Center in Ahmedabad for production of a one-meter diameter collimator to test cameras flown in Indian remote-sensing satellites. AMOS will design, manufacture, test and supply the collimator according to ISRO specifications. AMOS, which has already supplied two collimators to the Indian center, is also involved in the design, manufacturing and installation of a space simulator for ISRO in Bangalore.
The March 30 article "Tanker RFI 'very, very near,' Air Force leaders say" contained incorrect information. The Air Force does not want to retire 35 C-5 aircraft even though they are flight restricted and legislatively restricted from retirement. "Our preference for those aircraft is to modernize them," a Pentagon representative told The DAILY.
The Aircraft Carrier Industrial Base Coalition, a trade group for companies building and supplying the Navy's largest capital ships, is pushing Congress to go ahead and authorize CVN-21-class flattops in fiscal 2008, 2012 and 2016. The advanced authorization, a little unusual, would further prove to industry that the Defense Department and Congress were committed to a predictable, reliable shipbuilding plan, coalition officials told The DAILY.
The U.S. Air Force is studying the alternative of performing a service life extension program (SLEP) on already-built Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) spacecraft that have yet to launch. The study is part of the Nunn-McCurdy review process on the overbudget National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS).
LOS ANGELES -- Space Exploration Technologies had a rough start with the loss of its first Falcon 1 rocket on March 24, but its future customers are hanging in for now with the low-cost launch company, says SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk. SpaceX engineers believe they know the cause of the accident, and Musk hopes to make the second flight by September or October.
