The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is delaying development of a second aircraft in the Airborne Laser (ABL) program until after ABL's first scheduled shootdown test in late 2008. The delaying of trade studies and initial engineering on the second aircraft will allow for more refinement of the design, the agency said in budget documents released Feb. 6.
The U.S. Air Force is requesting $9.8 billion for space programs in fiscal 2007, which is up $500 million from FY '06 and represents about 19 percent of the Air Force's total modernization funding for the year, according to service officials. The biggest single space program for FY '07 will be the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV), which is requesting $955 million. The request funds four launches and includes roughly $300 million to allow EELV providers Lockheed Martin and Boeing to sustain their infrastructure independent of launch rate.
The federal government awarded more than $28 billion in information technology (IT)-related prime contracts during the first quarter of fiscal 2006, and the Air Force drove the majority of the growth with more than $11 billion in awards, according to an Input report.
EXTERNAL TANKS: NASA has modified its order for the big external tanks that carry cryogenic propellant on space shuttle missions to accommodate retirement plans for the shuttle in 2010. But the order still gives the agency enough hardware to launch all of the International Space Station modules supplied by its international partners and to send astronauts to service the Hubble Space Telescope one more time. An order for 35 tanks that was signed in 2000, when NASA thought it would be flying shuttles at least until 2020, has been trimmed to 18.
AFRICAN IMAGING: South Africa's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has concluded a memorandum of understanding with Alcatel Alenia Space to collaborate in the space market. Potential areas of cooperation include geospatial data, landcover mapping, satellite broadband, navigation and astronomy. Alcatel Alenia also concluded a three-year preliminary agreement to develop broadband medical imagery applications for Africa in cooperation with Global Imaging Online, a French firm specializing in medical treatment and diagnostic imagery.
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. said Feb. 2 that it will add Rockwell Collins Simulation & Training Solutions LLC and Aerospace Integration Corp. to its team competing for the U.S. Air Force's Combat Search and Rescue-X program to replace aging HH-60G helicopters. In an exclusive agreement, Rockwell Collins would be the training provider for Sikorsky's offering, the HH-92.
Net income zoomed 87 percent for Goodrich Corp. in the fourth quarter of 2005, while net sales climbed 11 percent, the company said Feb. 2. Four quarter '05 net income was $70 million, or 56 cents per share, compared to $37 million, or 30 cents per share, the year before. The gains were powered by increased sales for commercial aerospace original equipment and aftermarket products, the company said. Sales for the period grew from $1.25 billion in '04 to $1.39 billion.
QDR ON CHEM/BIO: For the next five years, beginning in fiscal 2006, the Defense Department is increasing funding for the Chemical Biological Defense Program (CBDP) by $2.1 billion, a 20 percent increase, according to the latest Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). The department also plans to spend $1.5 billion over the next five years developing medical countermeasures against the threat of genetically engineered bio-terror agents, the report says.
General Dynamics Corp.'s Land Systems unit said Feb. 2 that it received a $128 million increment of a $257 million contract to provide 130 new eight-wheeled Light Armored Vehicles in various configurations for the U.S. Marine Corps. The contract has a total potential value of $307 million if a $50 million option for electric turret drives is exercised, the company said.
SETTING BOUNDARIES: So how do senior Pentagon leaders currently assess China as a military threat? "China is an emerging world superpower and we want to constructively work with them ... across a number of regional issues [and help] them along that path to making what we view is the right sort of choices," says Adm. Edmund Giambastiani, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The Navy plans to adjust its force posture and basing to provide at least six operationally available and sustainable aircraft carriers and 60 percent of its submarines in the Pacific "to support engagement, presence and deterrence," according to the Quadrennial Defense Review.
The Bush administration will request $70 billion more this fiscal year for global military operations such as in Iraq and Afghanistan, and then an additional $50 billion for fiscal 2007 as part of the defense budget request on Feb. 6. One increase in supplemental funding will be for procurement - the need to replace and overhaul worn equipment, what the Defense Department refers to as recapitalization - as well as for force protection.
Washington is working with Brussels on ways to make it easier to exchange politically important but secret intelligence. Bureaucratic hurdles to giving European policy makers insight into U.S. intelligence information have traditionally been high. Washington policy makers were happy with the results last year when they provided threat information on China to their European counterparts as the European Union mulled lifting its embargo on arms sales to Beijing. But the process was cumbersome, says one Defense Department official.
Feb. 6 -- Disaster Summit, Omni Tucson National Golf Resort & Spa, Tucson, Ariz. For more information contact Dick Marchi at 202-293-3029, email [email protected] or go to www.aci-na.aero. Feb. 6 - 9 -- 25th Annual Satellite 2006 Conference & Exhibition, Washington Convention Center, Washington, D.C. For more information go to www.satellite2006.com.
TEST FLIGHT TWO: NASA is still working toward a May window for the next space shuttle test flight, three years after the loss of Columbia forced development of in-orbit repair techniques for the delicate thermal protection system on the orbiter. The STS-121 mission will see spacesuited astronauts test mechanical plugs and putty-like filler on test articles in the cargo bay that later will be subjected to simulated re-entry temperatures in arc-jet tests on the ground.
GPS III: The U.S. Air Force plans to release the final request for proposals (RFP) for the Global Positioning System III satellite segment by mid-March, followed by another RFP for the GPS III control segment later in the spring. Contracts will be awarded beginning in the fall. The service is now finalizing both RFPs with the undersecretary of the Air Force for space.
GLOBAL WARMING: Congress is opening an informal probe into a key NASA scientist's charge that the agency has tried to stifle his calls for reduced greenhouse-gas emissions. Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Science Committee, says "NASA is clearly doing something wrong" after James E. Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, complained publicly that agency headquarters was showing excessive zeal in screening his public statements.
The Feb. 7 edition of Aerospace Daily & Defense Report will be sent to readers a few hours later than normal to allow for full coverage of the Bush administration's fiscal 2007 defense budget proposal, which will be unveiled on Feb. 6.
The Quadrennial Defense Review, released Feb. 3, says the Navy will "return to a steady-state production rate" of two attack submarines per year no later than 2012 while achieving an average per-hull procurement cost objective of $2 billion.
The HMS Daring, the first of the British navy's new Type 45 destroyers, was launched on Feb. 1 at the Scotstoun shipyard in Glasgow, the U.K. defense ministry said. "HMS Daring is the most powerful destroyer the U.K. has ever built. The launch of this first Type 45 is a milestone in the development of the Royal Navy of the future. It is proof that the government gives our sailors the tools they need to do their job now and in the future," John Reid, Britain's defense secretary, said in a statement.
C-130J ENGINES: Rolls-Royce said Feb. 3 it signed a $35 million, 10-year contract to support engines on C-130J aircraft operated by the U.S. Coast Guard. The aircraft, powered by four Rolls-Royce AE 2100D3 engines, are operated out of the Coast Guard Aircraft Project Office in Elizabeth City, N.C.
NASA's inspector general, Robert W. Cobb, has himself become the object of an investigation into charges he "'failed to investigate violations of safety concerns'" and retaliation against whistle-blowers.
BANG, NOT BUCKS: Many aerospace industry and military planners have been looking toward Long-Range Strike as the next major aircraft program that would make up for the major cuts now planned for the B-52 heavy bomber force. Not so fast, Quadrennial Defense Review planners are saying. The philosophy of the review is about capabilities, not numbers. Planners, despite fewer aircraft, expect to produce an "ever-increasing incline of capabilities" to do even more missions than are currently possible.
The Defense Department is expected to request $439 billion in its fiscal 2007 budget request, including $84 billion for procurement and $73 billion for research, development, testing and evaluation, informed analysts have said. The budget request, $120 billion in already planned supplementals for Iraq and Afghanistan operations in fiscal 2006 and early 2007, and the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) are seen as more friendly to industry than expected.
