The Pentagon is investigating why three U.S. helicopters have crashed in Iraq within the past two weeks, a Defense Department spokesman told Pentagon reporters Jan. 17.
A Northrop Grumman Corp.-U.S. Navy team has successfully completed nine autonomous shipboard takeoffs and landings of the RQ-8A Fire Scout unmanned aerial vehicle, a company representative told The DAILY Jan. 17. The tests, three on Jan. 16 and six on Jan. 17, are to be announced Jan. 18. The tests aboard the amphibious transport dock ship USS Nashville (LPD-13) involved idling, taking off, hovering 30 feet up and landing, he said.
RESEARCH CONTRACT: A unit of Boeing Missile Defense Systems has been awarded a contract worth up to $413 million to continue support for a pair of U.S. Air Force laboratories conducting research on satellite tracking and high energy laser technologies, the company said Jan. 17.
Congress has appropriated about $159 billion for fiscal 2006 for programs and activities whose authorizations it has let expire, including about $8 billion for the U.S. Coast Guard, the Congressional Budget Office reported Jan. 13.
The Naval Sea Systems Command has selected a Northrop Grumman Corp.-led team to design a 40-megawatt, high-temperature superconductor generator that is supposed to provide a smaller, lighter and quieter main power source for future surface combatants, the company said Jan. 13. Northrop Grumman Marine Systems and American Superconductor Corp. will complete a concept design and explore different configurations of the generator while assessing the impact on generator characteristics associated with voltage, phase-count, pole-count and cooling selection.
BOMBOT: Innovative Response Technologies Inc. said Jan. 17 that it has been awarded a $9.6 million contract by the U.S. Navy's Explosive Ordinance Disposal Technology Division to manufacture robots designed to disable and dispose of improvised explosive devices. The BomBot places explosive charges on or near IEDs. IRT is a wholly owned subsidiary of the West Virginia High Technology Consortium Foundation.
A blue-ribbon panel of naval researchers in Washington is casting doubt on the U.S. Navy's expected 313-ship fleet plan, saying the proposal depends on a confluence of unrealistically optimistic factors and nothing bad happening over the next three decades. "The plan is extremely fiscally optimistic, it counts on everything breaking right," said Robert Work of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
The planned Jan. 17 launch of the New Horizons mission to Pluto aboard an Atlas V rocket was scrubbed due to unacceptably high winds at the launch site in Cape Canaveral, Fla. NASA plans to try again Jan. 18 during a two-hour window opening at 1:16 p.m. Eastern time, according to Fran Slimmer, spokeswoman for launch manager International Launch Services. Air Force weather officers predict a 70 percent chance that the mission will be able to launch, Slimmer said.
DESTROYER NAMED: The Navy's newest Arleigh Burke-class DDG-51 guided missile destroyer will be named for the late Vice Adm. James Bond Stockdale, a renowned leader of U.S. prisoners of war during the Vietnam War. His plane was shot down in 1965 while flying combat missions over North Vietnam. Stockdale, who died last year, was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1976.
NOT MISSION MODULE: Navy admirals are promoting a so-called Global War on Terror mission package for the Littoral Combat Ship, but lower-ranking officers note it isn't a true mission module - which would otherwise mean a change in the LCS program's requirements. The primary GWOT capability, a boarding-party function, would come on top of the three planned anti-mine, anti-submarine and surface warfare packages.
Turkey has asked for bids for a new basic training helicopter. Ankara says it plans to buy 36 basic trainers and has an option for another 19 of the aircraft. Bids are due May 5, with a decision expected later in the year. As with all its procurements, the country is demanding extensive work for local procurements. The Turkish program is specifying a tandem-seat configuration and single turboprop propulsion system. A full glass cockpit is also being demanded.
DON'T STUMBLE: The Army can't afford to falter as it transforms Army aviation, according to service officials. The service is about halfway through a three-year restructuring plan using the $14.6 billion saved by the cancellation of the Comanche helicopter. Given the pressures on the Army's budget, "it is imperative that we stay the course on the schedule we laid out, on the requirements that we laid out, because I'm here to tell you, if we falter one nanosecond, the money on that program is gone," Assistant Secretary of the Army Claude Bolton says.
The Army hopes to be able to rethink its acquisition strategy for the Aerial Common Sensor program and restart the competition in 2009 following a new study by the Pentagon on joint airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance requirements. The service chose to terminate prime contractor Lockheed Martin's $879 million ACS development contract rather than proceed with any of the company's proposed options for saving the program following the revelation last year that the company's chosen ACS aircraft was too small (DAILY, Jan. 13).
NEW ADVISER: A senior Defense Department acquisition specialist is now the DOD's senior acquisition sources adviser for business transformation initiatives. Mark Kyzysko was named Jan. 5 as assistant deputy undersecretary for strategic sourcing and acquisition processes. He joins other executive leaders of the department's newly created Business Transformation Agency, which is supposed to help the largest federal agency get its financial house in order.
OSPREYS TO FARNBOROUGH: With the international market in mind and an OK from test officials, the Pentagon is going to send two of its $59 million V-22 Osprey tiltrotor transports to Britain's Farnborough International Air Show in July. If the aircrews can get permission, they hope to conduct a flight demonstration. However, even with program planners working to reduce costs by $1 million per aircraft, it's still going to be a tough sell to European customers.
