ITT Industries, System Division, Colorado Springs, Colo., is being awarded a $7,559,843 cost plus award fee contract modification. This action provides for a System Engineering and Sustainment Integrator (SENSOR) contract to integrate system engineering and sustainment of ground-based missile warning, missile defense, and space surveillance sensors. The SENSOR systems currently include ground-based radars and optical systems controlled and operated by the United States Strategic Command and Air Force Space Command (AFSPC).
REUSE: The U.S. Navy will try to convince lawmakers to support its long-term 313-ship fleet plan in part by advocating "maximum reuse of existing production infrastructure and existing designs to achieve new requirements." Examples will include using the DD(X) destroyer's hull for the follow-on CG(X) cruiser hull, as well as basing the LHA-Replacement amphibious ship on a modified version of the existing LHD class, Navy admirals have said. The "reuse" should help keep costs down while stabilizing orders for industry.
The Navy announced Jan. 20 that the next ship of its newest class of advanced auxiliary dry cargo transports, the Lewis and Clark-class T-AKE, will be named for the first U.S. astronaut, the late Alan Shephard. In 1959, Shepard was one of seven men chosen by NASA for the Mercury program. Two years later, he became the first U.S. astronaut during a suborbital flight that reached an altitude of 116 miles.
NASA is soliciting bids from industry for commercial resupply demonstrations to the International Space Station that would take place between 2008 and 2010. The agency hopes to be able to turn responsibility for supplying the ISS over to industry some time after 2010, when the space shuttle is due to retire, provided "a capability is successfully demonstrated and the government determines it is in its best interest," according to a request for proposals (RFP) released Jan. 18.
The European Space Agency (ESA) and Galileo Industries have formally signed a contract for the first four spacecraft in the Galileo satellite navigation system. The 950 million euro ($1.1 billion) contract was signed Jan. 19 and will be paid out equally by ESA and the European Commission. Galileo Industries is an industry consortium led by EADS and Alcatel Alenia Space.
NASA on Jan. 23 began stacking the solid rocket boosters for space shuttle Discovery's second return-to-flight mission, STS-121, set to launch to the International Space Station no earlier than May. Stacking takes place in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The right aft booster was transported from the Rotation Processing and Surge Facility to the VAB on Jan. 23, with the left aft booster slated to make the same trip the following day.
Honeywell said Jan. 23 that the U.S. Army has awarded it a contract worth up to $1.4 billion to improve and extend the life of Abrams tank engines. The initial 12-month contract for the Total InteGrated Engine Revitalization (TIGER) program is worth $69 million.
If the U.S. wants to score more successes in the war on terrorism there has to be a mix of technology and human intelligence, says a member of the House Intelligence Committee. "I think we made a horrible mistake by getting away from human assets and human intelligence," Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) said following a Jan. 23 speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 'It has to be a combination of both," he added.
After $1 billion in additional cuts to its proposed design and construction costs that trimmed its multimission aspect in favor of an aviation role, the Defense Acquisition Board has approved Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Landing Helicopter Assault (LHA)-Replacement amphibious assault ship program to enter system development and demonstration (SDD).
The services are struggling with the choices for manned and unmanned aircraft, sensor packages and the need for better intelligence integration. The Pentagon's airborne signals intelligence community, with its decision to terminate the Aerial Common Sensor program, has likely triggered months of inter-service battles as the Air Force, Navy, and Army try to push their intelligence priorities on their sister services.
LUNAR RECYCLING: NASA will pay Honeywell to refurbish a Miniature Inertial Measurement Unit (MIMU) originally built for the Triana Earth-observation mission pushed by former Vice President Al Gore, and plans to install the unit on its proposed Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). Intended for launch in October 2008, the LRO requires three of the MIMUs for redundancy, and NASA wants a sole-source deal with Triana-supplier Honeywell for the whole set - two new and one refurbished.
INFRARED PODS: The U.S. Navy has awarded Raytheon Co. a $92 million contract to provide 50 full-rate production Lot 4 Advanced Targeting Forward Looking Infrared pods for F/A-18C/D aircraft, the Defense Department said Jan. 19. Textron Systems Corp. has also received a $108 million contract from the Air Force for 332 Sensor Fuzed Weapons for Lot 11 F-16s, DOD said Jan. 20.
DRYDOCK SALES: The Congressional Budget Office expects the U.S. Navy to make $2 million from the sales of three yard and auxiliary floating drydocks - YFD-70, AFDM-7 and AFDM-2 - to various shipyards and port authorities this year. The fiscal 2006 defense policy act authorized the sales, and CBO reported on likely offsetting receipts Jan. 18.
EXOMARS DESIGN: The European Space Agency intends to select a design option by mid-year for its ExoMars sample-return precursor mission. Set for around 2011, the mission currently is planned as a lander/rover combination to be carried aloft by a Soyuz booster. But with available funding higher than required - and Canada set to offer more money on top of that - planners are looking at expanding its scope. One option under study is to add an orbiter and perhaps a communications payload that might draw more international cooperation.
Successful completion of engineering thermal vacuum testing of the payload for the first geosynchronous orbit satellite of the Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) is another step toward launch of the satellite in fiscal year 2008, according to Lockheed Martin Space Systems, which is developing SBIRS for the U.S. Air Force.
ISS ASSEMBLY: Top managers of the five International Space Station partners will hold a critical meeting in March to discuss a new plan for completing assembly of the orbital facility. Jean-Jacques Dordain, director general of the European Space Agency (ESA), admits that the agency heads won't be able to redraw the shuttle manifest definitively because the second of two post-Columbia space shuttle test flights isn't scheduled until later in the spring.
The Aerospace Industries Association is making "good progress" on developing an international ethics code for overseas aerospace countries wanting to do business in the United States, according to AIA President and CEO John Douglass. AIA began the effort about six months ago, Douglass said. During a review of AIA's own ethics program, a member of the executive committee suggested broadening the effort to include other countries and level the often "unbalanced" ethical playing field, he said.
Jan. 25 -- Precision Strike Association, PSA Winter Roundtable, "Precision Requirements, New Policies, Creating Innovative Opportunities," Crystal City Forum, Crystal City Marriott, Arlington, Va. For more information go to www.precisionstrike.org. Jan. 31 - Feb. 1 -- Image Fusion 2006, "Applications & Advances for Improved Situational Awareness," Hilton Washington D.C./Silver Spring, Silver Spring, Md. For more information call (800) 882-8684, email [email protected] or go to www.idga.org.
LONDON - Britain's defense ministry is trying to find funding to purchase an additional Boeing C-17 strategic airlifter. The Royal Air Force operates four C-17s, which have supported ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The aircraft were acquired under a lease agreement, which the British are now turning into a purchase.
MORE PRESSURE: Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), the vice chairman of the House Armed Services and Homeland Security committees, is promising increased pressure this legislative session on the CIA, the FBI, the Defense Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency. Weldon asserted during an American Legion Post 20 luncheon in Washington Jan. 18 that some intel leaders have stymied his oversight and that he won't take it anymore. He also continues to promote the Army's Land Information Warfare Assistance Center for its open-source information gathering ability.
Lockheed Martin is applying lessons learned from the Stardust sample return capsule and other similar capsules in its bid to build NASA's Crew Exploration Vehicle, according to the company. Stardust parachuted down into the Utah desert carrying comet and interstellar dust samples on Jan. 15 (DAILY, Jan. 18). The CEV capsule also will parachute down to solid ground, possibly with the help of retro-rockets or airbags.
