SUB SERVICES: The U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command gave Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Newport News ship unit a $59.3 million contract to support current and to be decommissioned SSN 688, Seawolf, Virginia, SSBN and SSGN-class submarines. Services comprise planning yard, design, configuration management and logistics support for new construction, operational, conversion and decommissioning submarines, as well as modernization support for operational and decommissioning submarines.
The Defense Department decision to kill the Joint Strike Fighter's alternative engine was made for largely economic reasons, Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne said March 1. The Pentagon's fiscal 2007 budget request scrapped the alternative engine program for the JSF F-35, dropping an engine to be produced by General Electric and Rolls-Royce, leaving Pratt & Whitney's F135 as the sole engine.
ScanEagle, a long-endurance unmanned aircraft developed by the Boeing Co. and the Insitu Group, will be deployed on a "number of other" U.S. Navy ships after a trial run in the Persian Gulf last fall, the companies said Feb. 28. The companies first received a contract from the U.S. Marine Corps in July 2004 to provide two ScanEagle "mobile deployment units." It was renewed in July 2005.
DHS S&T: President Bush intends to designate Jeffrey William Runge to be acting undersecretary for science and technology at the Homeland Security Department, the White House announced Feb. 27.
Greg Bradford has been named senior vice president for strategy and communications. Stefanie Starkey has been appointed director of legislative and government affairs.
A Russian Proton rocket failed to burn its upper stage engine for as long as planned during a launch from Kazakhstan Feb. 28, leaving the Arabsat 4A satellite stranded in a low orbit, International Launch Services (ILS) announced. The Proton lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 3:10 p.m. Eastern time. Preliminary flight information indicates that the Breeze M upper stage shut down early. Arabsat 4A separated from the rocket as a contingency.
Top U.S. Air Force planners are divided over the best type of aircraft to replace the department's fleet of aging KC-135 tankers. Asked at a Feb. 28 congressional hearing what was the best type for the job, Lt. Gen. Christopher Kelly, vice commander of the Air Mobility Command, said he favored a mix of large and medium-sized aircraft "from an operational perspective."
Dr. Nance K. Dicciani, president and chief executive officer of Honeywell Specialty Materials, has been appointed by President Bush to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
The British government rapidly needs to flesh out plans for defense research and technology investment, senior industry executives say. Industrialists appearing before the House of Commons Defense Committee on Feb. 28 told members of parliament that the Defense Ministry must detail its intent regarding research and technology investment.
The U.S. Coast Guard last year lost the equivalent of four ship years worth of operational capability, the latest sign that the service's aging legacy ships and aircraft remain its biggest problem, the service's master chief petty officer told lawmakers March 1. "Our fleet is old," Master Chief Franklin Welch told the House Transportation's Coast Guard subcommittee in its initial authorization hearings over the fiscal 2007 budget request. He reiterated for lawmakers an oft-used statistic that the Coast Guard has one of the oldest fleets worldwide.
Kenneth C. Dahlberg has joined the board of directors. Dahlberg is chairman of the board, CEO and president of Science Applications International Corp.
Top Navy officials said March 1 that they will conduct an acquisition strategy review for the proposed DD(X) destroyer sometime this fall, including the engine that the embattled program will use. Navy Secretary Donald Winter and Adm. Mike Mullen, chief of naval operations (CNO), told the House Armed Services Committee March 1 that the program - which last fall went through a cost-cutting exercise bound for all major Navy programs including aviation, according to Mullen - still enjoys "very strong" Navy support.
Big questions about cost and technical feasibility still hang over the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) official told Senate lawmakers during a hearing on Capitol Hill March 1. It still will be several more years before the FCS program's requirements are firm, according to Paul Francis, GAO's director of acquisition and sourcing management.
William M. Daley has been appointed a new board member on the finance committee. Daley is chairman of the Midwest region for JPMorgan Chase & Co. Gen. John M. Shalikashvili (USA, Ret.) will not stand for re-election to the board of directors.
CONTRACTORS: Senate Demo- cratic Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) and Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on March 2 will announce new legislation to address "the persistent problem of waste, fraud and abuse in government contracting." Among other provisions, the new bill would "ban war profiteering, rewarding corporate cheaters and hiring corporate cronies," according Senate Democratic staff.
