Charles J. Greene has been appointed vice president-tax and treasurer. Gary McArthur has been named vice president and chief financial officer. Pamela Padgett has been appointed vice president of investor relations and corporate communications.
CARTRIDGES: Alliant Techsystems Inc. of Plymouth, Minn., has been awarded a $49.7 million contract modification to provide the U.S. Army with M831A1 Target Practice Tracer 120mm Cartridges and M865 Target Practice Cone Stabilized Discarding Sabot Tracer 120mm Cartridges, the Defense Department said Feb. 28. The work will be done in Middletown, Iowa, and is expected to be finished by Dec. 31, 2008. The contract was awarded by the Army Field Support Command, Rock Island, Ill.
ADELAIDE, Australia - An unmanned aerial vehicle with the most combat hours, a prototype Global Hawk, left here on the final leg of its return to the U.S. from duty in the Middle East. It's last surveillance mission was a flight from Australia to Japan and back. Continuing a trip on Feb. 20 from RAAF Edinburgh that began in the Middle East about two weeks ago, it headed toward Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., where it may conduct some additional test flights.
Australia's defense department said Feb. 28 that it has chosen Lockheed Martin's Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) as a new long range air-to-surface missile for its military's F/A-18 Hornet fleet. The missiles are worth between 350 million Australian dollars ($259 million) and 450 million Australian dollars ($334.5 million) Lockheed Martin said. The JASSM is set to be working on the aircraft by late 2009. Purchasing such a missile has been part of the defense department's capability plan since 2001. Details were unveiled in 2004.
Al-Qaeda terrorists, Iran and North Korea pose the greatest international threats to U.S. national security, top intelligence officials told Congress Feb. 28. "Al Qaeda remains our top concern," Director of National Intelligence (DNI) John Negroponte told a hearing by the Senate Armed Services Committee. "Attacking the U.S. homeland, U.S. interests overseas and U.S. allies - in that order - are al-Qaeda's top operational priorities," Negroponte added.
Leading lawmakers are increasingly criticizing the Bush administration's fiscal 2007 budget requests for the Homeland Security Department, and in particular the Coast Guard, by accusing the White House of treating domestic security as an unwanted "stepchild" next to the U.S. military and failing to back its rhetoric with funds.
NASA is considering whether to remove a tiny particle of debris caught in a pre-valve screen in one of shuttle Discovery's engines that some engineers worry could cause problems if it is dislodged and pulled into the engine. NASA's worry about the piece, which Shuttle Program Manager Wayne Hale described as being about the size of the point on a mechanical pencil, is that it could either clog up engine components or ignite in the oxygen-rich environment of the engine.
EADS North America on Feb. 26 announced the first order from the Homeland Security Department's Customs and Border Protection (CBP) unit for 10 Light Sign Cutter EC120 aircraft under a deal for as many as 55 helicopters worth $75 million. "This success positively reflects our unique capability to support vital national security missions, including our offer of the UH-145 helicopter for the Army's Light Utility Helicopter requirement," chief executive Ralph Crosby Jr. said in a statement.
NASA's latest estimate for the total cost of returning the space shuttle to flight following the Columbia accident is $1.267 billion total spent from fiscal 2003 through FY '06. The cost estimates are included in the latest update to NASA's return-to-flight (RTF) implementation plan. The update, released Feb. 24, is the 11th edition of the plan and the first since the shuttle resumed operations with mission STS-114 in July 2005.
The Scaled Composites/Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer is being readied for delivery to the National Air And Space Museum after being returned from Bournemouth, England, to its Salina, Kan., base on Feb. 25. Jon Karkow, GlobalFlyer chief engineer and test pilot for Scaled Composites, made the westbound trans-Atlantic trip in the aircraft. He also flew a test flight out of Bournemouth on Feb. 24 to ensure the aircraft's systems were ready for the flight back to Salina.
The Air Force is moving select active duty Air Force combat search and rescue (CSAR) aircraft and crew from Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) to Air Combat Command (ACC) to consolidate personnel. Gen. T. Michael Moseley, Air Force chief of staff, directed the transfer of administrative control for select assets, the Air Force said Feb. 27. Under ACC, the CSAR assets can be mobilized faster during a national crisis, as well as integrated into combat training, the service said.
Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) Chairman Joseph Dyer is pleased with NASA's recent progress in developing its Independent Technical Authority (ITA), which has been a major concern for the ASAP since the panel was reconstituted in 2004. The Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) recommended the establishment of the ITA to provide an unbiased look at safety. In the past, ASAP panel members have expressed concern about the pace of the ITA's development (DAILY, July 22, 2004).
ARMOR PROTECTION: O'Gara-Hess & Eisenhardt Armoring Co. of Fairfield, Ohio, has been awarded a $66 million contract modification to provide the U.S. Army with M1114 Up-Armored High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles and Front Wheel Well Armor Protection Field Kits, the Defense Department said Feb. 27. The work will be done in Fairfield, Ohio, and is expected to be finished by Nov. 30, 2007. The contract was awarded by the Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command, Warren, Mich.
With lawmakers set to start grilling top uniformed officers of the military services this week, observers will be watching for programmatic winners and how Congress changes the Bush administration's recent fiscal 2007 budget request. Excluding the latest supplemental spending request for Iraq and Afghanistan, which asks for $65 billion for the Defense Department, the $439 billion budget request already prioritizes many programs.
