NNSA NOMINATION: President Bush intends to nominate Thomas P. D'Agostino to be deputy administrator for defense programs in the National Nuclear Security Administration at the Energy Department, the White House said Jan. 27. D'Agostino now is assistant deputy administrator for program integration in Energy's Office of Defense Programs. The U.S. Navy Reserve captain has also served as deputy director for the Nuclear Weapons Research, development and simulation program.
Moving to improve profit margins and position itself for an anticipated slowdown in Pentagon spending in fiscal 2007, Boeing on Jan. 27 unveiled a major restructuring of its defense business. Boeing Integrated Defense Systems (IDS), which has annual sales of more than $30 billion, is being consolidated from seven units to three: Precision Engagement and Mobility Systems, Networks and Space Systems, and Support Systems.
The U.S. Navy is speeding up its sea trials of unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs), and particularly Hydroid Inc.'s Remote Environmental Monitoring Units (REMUS). Rear Adm. Deborah Loewer, Mine Warfare Command chief, led testing of a North Atlantic Treaty Organization's REMUS prototype off the northwest coast of Italy in mid-December, Naval Sea Systems Command said Jan. 27.
FULL PLATE: Launch of Echostar 10 on a Zenit-3SLB in early February will be the first of six missions scheduled for the Sea Launch Odyssey floating platform in 2006. Sea Launch recorded nine commercial contracts last year, the best order and launch pace since the company was founded in 1995. Replacements for satellites launched in the early 1990s and demand for broadband, digital radio and high definition/direct-to-home television services are sparking the sales, a company official says.
AIRCRAFT RFP: India is expected to float a request for proposals for 126 Medium Range Combat Aircraft in March. The RFP that was to be released in December 2005 has been delayed following ''technical issues'' relating to changes in the procurement policy that required some modifications in the tenders, according to S.P Tyagi, Indian's air force chief. Lockheed-Martin, Boeing, Dassault, Gripen and Mikoyan are contenders. According to a defense official, the number of aircraft could be increased substantially to around 200.
The RAND Corp.'s analysis of alternatives (AOA) to replace the U.S. Air Force's aging refueling tanker fleet recommends picking an existing commercial airframe from a wide range of aircraft that could include planes made by Boeing and Airbus, according to a congressman who was briefed on the study.
CONGRESS RISING: With budgets tightening and President Bush facing lame-duck status, Congress is expected to assert itself more in budget making - and in turn for more offensive outreach by the aerospace and defense industry on Capitol Hill. With a nearly 50 percent jump in the defense budget since the Bush administration took office, the industry has enjoyed record growth in recent years. But now there is more uncertainty about the future, a top trade association representative says.
NEW HORIZONS MEETING: The Jupiter-flyby science team for the New Horizons mission to Pluto will meet by early February to begin more formal Jupiter science-data acquisition planning, now that the spacecraft has been launched (Aviation Week & Space Technology, Jan. 23). The team has roughed out a science plan, especially for acquiring Jovian cloud-motion imagery, but needed the exact day and time of launch to plan observations of the planet's moons. Propelled from Earth at 10 miles per second on Jan.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- The U.S. Army this summer will publish a space master plan, according to Lt. Gen. Larry J. Dodgen, commander of Army Space Command. It will tell "exactly what the Army needs in space," he said Jan. 24 at the Spacecomm 2006 conference here. "You won't have to go to 20 places to understand what the Army wants in space, what the Army needs in space, where the Army is going in space."
NASA REMEMBERS: The coming days will witness a series of solemn anniversaries for NASA. Jan. 27 will mark the 39th anniversary of the loss of the Apollo 1 crew, who died when fire engulfed their capsule during a ground test. Jan. 28 is the 20th anniversary of the loss of the space shuttle Challenger crew, who died when their vehicle exploded on ascent. Finally, Feb. 1 will mark the third anniversary of the loss of the Columbia crew, who died when their vehicle disintegrated during re-entry. On Jan.
IED PLEAS: The Defense Department has ramped up its pleas to industry to provide more ideas, and spend more money, to defeat improvised explosive devices (IEDs) -- but behind closed doors and only if business executives have classified clearance. IEDs are responsible for more casualties than anything else in the ongoing Iraq conflict and now are increasingly prevalent in Afghanistan.
FEDERAL INTERVENTION: U.S. federal mediation, including binding arbitration, is the likely next step to settle a Machinists' Union strike against Boeing that is holding up the schedules of nearly 10 Delta launches at Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The first of the delayed flights at the Cape is the GOES-N weather spacecraft to back up the primary National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration hurricane monitoring satellite (Aviation Week & Space Technology, Dec. 12). Six of the flights are military or National Reconnaissance Office missions.
Bell Helicopter Textron's TR918 Eagle Eye unmanned aircraft lifted off the ground for the first time Jan. 26 in two flights. The vehicle took off vertically, hovered for nine minutes, performed yaw and translation maneuvers, landed safely and then flew a second time within 30 minutes. The test program will keep working on the tiltrotor nacelles to achieve full-airplane mode and increasing speed and payload capabilities.
Congress won't have a lot of time for taking care of business this year because of an early fall adjournment for election campaigning. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) wants to adjourn Oct. 6, leaving only 130 working days between now and then, says Frist's budget and appropriations advisor, G. William Hoagland.
Aerospace Industries Association President and CEO John Douglass thinks there has been "spotty" progress in implementing the recommendations of the Aerospace Commission, which delivered its final report in late 2002, although he believes the commission has had a greater impact than most.
DIGGING DEEPER: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is getting in on the action to find ways to defeat hardened and deeply buried facilities without using nuclear weapons. The U.S. Air Force and Defense Threat Reduction Agency have already tried to develop weapons to thwart those targets, with mixed results.
PIRANHA PURCHASE: Ireland's defense department has awarded MOWAG GmbH, a part of General Dynamics European Land Combat Systems, a $37 million contract to provide 15 PIRANHA 8x8 wheeled combat vehicles, the company said Jan. 27. Nine of the vehicles will be equipped with a remotely controlled and stabilized 12.7mm Kongsberg weapon station. Six others will receive a stabilized Otomelara 30mm weapon system.
LIKE GOOGLE: The chief information officer of the Defense Information Systems Agency says the Defense Department wants to innovate more like Google. The Internet-search company designs different programs and puts little time or money into them until the firm gets positive feedback and knows that the programs are something Google wants to continue. DOD would like to follow this lead, CIO John Garing told an Input conference in suburban Washington.
'BLACK' AIRCRAFT: Military personnel stationed at Yokota Air Base, Japan, have spotted what may be highly classified "black" aircraft that could be flying spy missions over North Korea. Two or three of the unknown aircraft appeared at Yokota periodically over the last year, flying night missions for two-three weeks at a time, then departing. USAF C-5 Galaxy transports may have accompanied the "black" aircraft.
