The Pentagon's 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) calls for a 15 percent increase in special operations forces in fiscal 2007, along with accelerated unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) procurement to improve the military's persistent surveillance. This latest QDR, a congressionally mandated 20-year defense outlook, continues the Pentagon's increased emphasis on special operations forces (SOF) in the post-Cold War fight against global terrorism. The SOF budget has risen 81 percent since 2001, according to the QDR.
The Stiletto, a prototype shallow-water craft made from a tough, lightweight carbon composite material, will be "put through its paces" with Naval Special Clearance Team 1 in early May, the Defense Department said Feb. 1. Nevertheless, Navy Cmdr. Greg Glaros, a transformation strategist in the DOD's Office of Force Transformation, also said he was uncertain when the one-of-its-kind craft will be fielded.
As he prepares to step down from the helm of Loral Space and Communications after 34 years, Bernard L. Schwartz says he learned a lesson from the company's financially disastrous Globalstar satellite telephone venture. But he has no regrets about his decision a decade ago to sell off the company's military electronics units to focus on space communications. Schwartz says two milestones prompted him to announce his retirement as chairman/CEO: the company's emergence from bankruptcy protection last November and his 80th birthday the following month.
SEALIFT IT: SRA International Inc. announced Feb. 1 that it has awarded a competitive contract to provide a range of information technology services to the U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command afloat operations. The contract has an estimated value of $108.5 million over six years if all options are exercised. SRA partners include Advanced Information Systems Group Inc., Anteon International Corp., Cambridge Communication Systems Inc., Capstone Corp., Cyberspace Technologies International Inc., GlobalSat, InScope, Mercomms Unlimited, MILVETS Systems Technology Inc.
Terrorist protection for the Super Bowl in Detroit Feb. 5 includes a detailed imagery data base of the area taken by secret National Reconnaissance Office Advanced KH-11 type digital imaging spacecraft. The imaging of U.S. cities by NRO reconnaissance spacecraft has also been done in the past to help build geometrically correct imagery products for use by agencies such as the Secret Service to support presidential visits and other high-profile visitors or events.
NASA's Ames Research Center is seeking industry's help to identify alternate heat shield materials that could protect the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) when it re-enters Earth's atmosphere following a mission to low Earth orbit. NASA and its CEV contractors already are working on the more advanced and robust heat shields that will be needed to protect the CEV when it re-enters following a trip to the moon. NASA plans to begin flying crew aboard the CEV by 2012 and return astronauts to the lunar surface in 2018.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Feb. 2 that the fiscal 2007 defense budget, which the Bush administration will propose Feb. 6, is "appropriate" and that U.S. taxpayers are getting more military capability per dollar than ever before. "My feeling is that the defense budget is appropriate and that we will be getting a great deal more out of it than in earlier periods because of the steps that have been taken to improve the effectiveness of the military," he told a lunch crowd at the National Press Club in Washington.
MERCURY MISSION: L-3 Communications announced Feb. 2 that its Vertex Aerospace subsidiary has been awarded a nine-month, $27.1 million contract to provide Contractor Logistics Support (CLS) for the U.S. Navy E-6B Mercury aircraft fleet. With the exercise of four one-year options, the total value of the contract is $142.3 million. A modified version of the Boeing 707, the E-6B Mercury serves as an airborne command post and is the U.S. Navy's largest and heaviest aircraft.
The joint venture of Northrop Grumman Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp. heading the U.S. Coast Guard's massive Deepwater recapitalization program said the first National Security Cutter is about 49 percent complete. The ship is scheduled for launch later this year and will be delivered in spring 2007. Production of the second cutter has started, Integrated Coast Guard Systems said in its January newsletter.
The Northrop Grumman/Navy Fire Scout unmanned aerial vehicle team hopes to conduct shipboard takeoff and landings aboard the High Speed Vessel 2 (Swift) in May, according to program officials. The Swift is demonstrating technologies for the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), where the Fire Scout UAV eventually will be deployed to assist manned helicopters with countermine and anti-submarine warfare missions.
NASA should remain involved in rotorcraft research, Director of Army Aviation Brig. Gen. Stephen Mundt told Capitol Hill lawmakers during a hearing in Washington Feb. 1. "We need your help in keeping NASA involved," Mundt told members of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces. "NASA needs to stay involved in the rotary wing industry, and they need to stay involved in helping us bring [forward] the technologies that will help our rotorcraft."
The Defense Department will cancel the Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems (J-UCAS) program but accelerate the acquisition of a new long-range strike platform, fielding a new manned or unmanned bomber by 2018 instead of the mid-2030s, according to outside analysts at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
The Office of Government Ethics (OGE) says it does not recommend eliminating any current statute dealing with conflicts of interest for executive-branch hiring, but Congress may want to update some laws while maintaining the practice of officially criticizing improper conduct. "We recommend either that Congress maintain the status quo, or modernize the statute to more accurately reflect the needs of today's executive branch, while continuing to proscribe conduct that remains improper," the office said in a January report.
The U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command has issued a $19.1 million contract modification to Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems for the Littoral Warfare Weapon (LWW) system demonstration. The award, announced Jan. 30, provides for a 23-month research and development effort, including a series of at-sea LWW tests and demonstrations. It comes after the initial contract was awarded last May for $2.9 million for land-launch demonstrations.
Martin Euler has been named CEO. Lyman Smith has been named president of the group telematics business unit. Trevor Venter has been appointed president of the geomatics operation and managing director for South Africa.
House Science Committee leaders have endorsed President Bush's State of the Union call to boost math and science teaching, and they are expected to push his proposal for a permanent extension of a basic research and development (R&D) tax credit. But Democrats want to see details.
RETIRING: Loral Space & Communications Chairman and CEO Bernard L. Schwartz plans to retire on March 1, the company said Feb. 1. Schwartz has been chairman and CEO since the company was formed in 1996. Before that, he served as chairman and CEO of the firm's predecessor company, Loral Corp., beginning in 1972. "...I have concluded that now is the right time to activate our succession plans and pass the reins of the company on to our extremely talented team of executives..," Schwartz said in a letter to the company's board of directors.
