ASSESSING AIRFIELDS, SEAPORTS: Defense Department officials are identifying civil and military airfields and seaports, primarily in the Southern Hemisphere and Southeast Asia, for their ability to handle cargo and personnel shipments, according to Transportation Command Chief Air Force Gen. Norton Schwartz. As part of the Integrated Global Presence and Basing Strategy, the foreign airfields and seaports are being "nominated and assessed for their ability to permit transshipment between air, sea and surface modes of transport," Schwartz told House members March 2.
C-130 BURDEN: Eighty-two C-130 aircraft Air Force-wide are currently grounded or restricted, and combined with Reserve demobilization of C-130E/H personnel in 2006, the result "places a distinct burden upon the active duty fleet," according to Transportation Command chief Air Force Gen. Norton Schwartz. He told House lawmakers March 2 that after the planned acquisition of 168 C-130Js to replace the C-130Es was limited by PBD-753 to 53 aircraft - although later rescinded last May - funding to reach 79 C-130Js has only recently been restored.
H-1 READY FOR EVAL: Naval Air Systems Command's (NAVAIR) H-1 Upgrades Program, which is replacing aging Marine Corps UH-1N and AH-1W helicopters with upgraded UH-1Y and AH-1Zs, is ready to enter operational evaluation following the completion of developmental testing Feb. 17, NAVAIR says. Two of the five developmental test aircraft already have been transferred to the operational test squadron and are being used to train the Marines who will conduct the operational evaluation. Two aircraft are in final preparation to be transferred to the operational test squadron.
February 21 - 24 -- Software Radio Conference, "Connecting Warfighters & First Responders for Maximum Interoperability," Sheraton Premier at Tysons Corner, Vienna, Va. For more information go to www.idga.org. March 7 - 10 -- AVEX 2006 - 2nd International Air Show & Aviation Expo, Sharm El Sheikh International Airport, Cairo, Egypt. For more information go to www.avex-2000.com.
EELV: Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. has been awarded a contract worth more than $50 million to perform work on launch capabilities for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) Program, the Defense Department said March 3. The work is expected to be complete by September 2007. Tasks include launch and range operations for Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.; mission integration; mission unique development and Integration; and systems engineering and program management.
The U.S. Transportation Command is seeking a "limited" research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) budget and acquisition authority to pursue "intermodal distribution needs" not addressed by existing Army, Navy and Air Force R&D spending, according to the command's four-star general.
TANKS STILL IMPORTANT: The main battle tank will continue to be a key part of modern armed forces worldwide for the next 10 years despite moves toward transformation, a Forecast International analysis says. The study, "The World Market for Tanks," predicts that almost 7,800 main battle tanks worth more than $31.6 billion will be produced globally through 2015. Almost 45 percent of all new tanks worldwide will be the cheaper, more easily obtainable models mostly designed by the Soviet Union, Forecast predicts.
TRYING AGAIN: Arianespace and NASA have rescheduled launches this month that were delayed earlier. After a telemetry problem with Eutelsat's Hot Bird 7A forced a slip in the Feb. 24 launch date of its heavy-lift Ariane 5 ECA rocket, Alcatel Alenia Space has reverified the telemetry system and cleared the satellite for launch. A subsequent inadvertent disconnect of a cryogenic purging umbilical line to the Ariane 5 forced a rollback Feb. 25 at the launch facility near Kourou, French Guiana, so a new connector could be installed.
Aiming to capitalize on rising demand for advanced jet engine metals, Ladish Co. is planning to increase its capacity to forge super-alloy materials by 50 percent. The company is planning to add a third isothermal forging press at its plant in Cudahy, Wis. Isothermal forging, a process pioneered by Ladish in the early 1970s, is required to forge super-alloy materials that can withstand high temperatures. Aircraft engine makers are using more advanced metals to improve fuel efficiency and reduce emissions.
New plans for completing the International Space Station call for a full six-member crew to move in by April 2009, with life support and lifeboats set to be available to support them on orbit by then.
EQUIPMENT FUNDS: Senate lawmakers, including Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) and Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), are concerned about a projected $3 billion shortfall in Army funding for the reset, repair and recapitalization of equipment returning from Iraq. Army leaders are assuring Congress that money will be put into the FY '07 supplemental this July to cover the balance and prevent a slip in the production lines for either the Bradley Fighting Vehicle or M1A2 Abrams tank lines. But if the supplemental slips, a break in the production lines will take place.
The Senate Armed Services Committee will conduct a "special" hearing soon into the Pentagon's decision to drop the alternative engine program for the Joint Strike Fighter, Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), the panel's chairman, said March 2. House and Senate leaders have expressed concern about the Defense Department plan that eliminates an engine to be produced by General Electric and Rolls-Royce. That leaves Pratt & Whitney's F135 as the sole engine for the JSF. Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne has said the move was largely economical (DAILY, March 1).
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. - NASA and its International Space Station partners have agreed to accelerate the launch of the European Columbus and Japanese Kibo modules on the space shuttle, ahead of any attempt to service the Hubble Space Telescope. The changes involve a major repackaging of ISS elements in the assembly sequence to ensure the full station configuration can be completed as early as 2009, before termination of shuttle flights in late 2010.
The U.S. Navy has chosen Anteon International Corp. for a $15.8 million, five-year contract to support the Office of Naval Research's Marine Corps science and technology programs, the company said Feb. 28.
The chair and ranking Democrat of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on March 1 added their voices to an increasing chorus of lawmakers who think the Homeland Security Department's $42.7 billion fiscal 2007 budget request - and in particular for the Coast Guard - is too low and wrongly prioritized.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services airland subcommittee, is pushing the Bush administration to further boost its move into unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and especially for border security now that UAVs have been used to watch the Iraq-Syrian border. "I still don't think we're giving enough priority to UAVs," McCain told top Air Force leaders who testified before the full Armed Services panel March 2.
A panel of leading scientists decried NASA's fiscal 2007 budget request for science during a hearing on Capitol Hill March 2, warning that it will dissuade young talent from pursuing science careers. The most serious impact of the FY '07 budget proposal is that it threatens to "significantly decrease" the output of the research community by cutting the research and analysis grant lines by 15 percent, said Joseph Taylor, Jr., a Nobel Laureate and distinguished professor of physics at Princeton University.
ANNUAL ELECTIONS: Boeing Co. said March 2 that it has changed its bylaws to elect its board of directors annually. All current members will be up for election May 1 in Chicago at the company's annual shareholders' meeting. All remaining supermajority voting provisions in the company's charter documents and bylaws were also eliminated.
The Department of Defense needs a new comprehensive strategy for missile acquisition, according to Lt. Gen. Jerry Sinn, military deputy for budget to the assistant secretary of the Army for financial management. Army missile procurement budgets have been following a steady downward trend for the past several years, Sinn said at the Association of the U.S. Army's 197th Meeting of the Institute of Land Warfare Forum Breakfast in Arlington, Va., March 2.
