Many Israeli Boeing 767s at El Al and other airlines will now be able to operate with Flight Guard systems to protect against shoulder-fired missiles now that the Israeli Civil Aviation Authority (ICAA) has certified the Israel Aircraft Industries/Elta Systems Ltd. equipment.
The Bush administration continues to clamp down on dissenting ideas from the Pentagon as it puts the finishing touches on future spending and force structure plans. Defense industry officials and uniformed officers are expressing concern about the lack of informed debate.
FRIGATES UPGRADE: Spain's Council of Ministers said Dec. 23 that it has authorized the awarding of an EUR 88.9 million (USD $105.3 million), three-year contract to modernize the navy frigates Numancia and Victoria. The ships are the second and third of the six-ship Santa Maria class commissioned between 1986 and 1994. They are beginning the second half of their service life, which will end in 2025-2030. The ships will be upgraded to operate in modern operations scenarios and to be compatible with new ships now entering service or being built.
CUEING SYSTEM: BAE Systems has awarded Evans & Sutherland Computer Corp. of Salt Lake City a contract to upgrade the visual cueing systems on two full-flight simulators, Evans & Sutherland said. Financial terms were not disclosed. Each simulator will receive an EPX-500 image generator and an Environment Creation Tool, which will help add more airfields and training areas to a larger geographic area.
AMC-23: A Proton rocket successfully launched SES Americom's AMC-23 communications satellite from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Dec. 28 local time. Based on Alcatel Alenia Space's Spacebus 4000 model, the satellite will provide communications services throughout the Pacific Ocean region following a few weeks of in-orbit checkouts. The flight marked the seventh and final mission of 2005 for International Launch Services, a joint launch venture between Lockheed Martin and Russia's Khrunichev that offers launches on Russian Proton and U.S. Atlas rockets.
About $68 million in U.S. Army inventory has been lost or is unaccounted for because the service has not always kept accurate receipt records with repair contractors, a Government Accountability Office report says. An analysis of 2004 shipment data from two Army inventory control points showed that "about 15 percent of unclassified secondary repair item shipments in the survey population could not be confirmed as being received," said the report, which was released last week.
A LITTLE HELP: The U.S. Navy has tapped the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory of Cambridge, Mass., to offer its "integration experience" to the Military Flight Operation Quality Assurance Demonstration Project, the Advanced SEAL Delivery System (ASDS) and the Submarine Class Ship Control System. The contract, announced Dec. 23 by the Defense Department, is worth $9.5 million and wraps up by December 2010. The contract was not competitively procured, the DOD said.
Military space programs, many of which have run into budget and deadline problems, are taking some of the biggest hits in the fiscal 2006 defense appropriations bill.
Informal discussions at a November unmanned aerial vehicle conference led some participants to believe the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency was interested in buying UAVs to conduct high resolution mapping in the U.S. and in pushing the Federal Aviation Administration to quickly find ways to permit UAV operations in national airspace. But an NGA official objected to that characterization of the agency's intent.
France's defense ministry said it has awarded Eurocopter a EUR 40 million (USD $47.3 million) contract to provide five EC 135 helicopters to its customs service's maritime patrol units. The helicopters will be delivered in 2007 and replace the Ecureuil choppers now in service. The EC 135s will be outfitted with gyro-stabilized sensors that will allow maritime targets to be detected and identified day or night and in any weather or geographical conditions.
Acting Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England, after eight months with two Pentagon posts, has quit his other job as Navy Secretary. England will be replaced by Donald Winter, who was confirmed by the Senate last month and will be sworn in Jan. 3. President Bush cemented England's authority with an executive order naming him the successor to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld if the latter dies or resigns.
A recent $5 million budget cut to the Missile Defense Agency's High Altitude Airship program is not expected to slow the effort significantly, according to prime contractor Lockheed Martin. Congress cut the money from HAA's $16 million budget request in its fiscal 2006 defense appropriations bill. MDA still is assessing the potential impact of the cut, according to an agency spokesman.
Jan. 9 - 12, 2006 -- American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics' Aerospace Sciences 44th Annual Meeting & Exhibit, Reno Hilton, Nev. Call 1-703-264-7500 or go to www.aiaa.org. Jan. 11 - 13 -- Aviation Symposium and Exhibition: "Army Aviation, Enabling Transformation Through Modernization," Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Center, Washington. Call +1 (800) 336-4570 or +1 (703) 841-4300 or go to www.ausa.org.
Sweden's defense ministry said Dec. 23 that it has awarded an SEK 4 billion (USD $500 million) contract to Saab Bofors Dynamics to provide its military with the Next Generation Light Anti-tank Weapon (NLAW) system. The system was developed in Sweden and the United Kingdom, which will both be involved in production. Final assembly will take place at Thales Air Defence in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Boeing and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency are looking to conduct the next flight of the X-50A Dragonfly unmanned aerial vehicle in January, according to a company spokesman. Following a 30-second "pop-up" flight in early November to build confidence, the X-50A completed a four-minute hover flight Dec. 2 in which it reached an altitude of 15 feet at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona. They were the first flights for the aircraft since March 2004, when a crash ruined the first prototype.
PRAISE: After hard-fought battles over language affecting the treatment of military detainees and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Congress finally passed the fiscal 2006 defense appropriations bill. President Bush, who initially opposed the detainee language and supports ANWR -- a provision that was removed -- now says the bill "will help us continue to hunt down the terrorists, pursue our strategy for victory in Iraq, and make America safer."
General Dynamics Electric Boat will perform a variety of work on the USS Virginia (SSN-774) attack submarine under a $15.5 million contract modification, the company said Dec. 22. The work, called a post-shakedown availability, consists of maintenance, repairs, alterations, testing and other activities. Most of the work will be done at Electric Boat's shipyard in Groton, Conn. The rest will take place in Quonset Point, R.I.
FLYBYS: NASA's Cassini spacecraft is gearing up for two more flybys of Saturn's mysterious moon Titan on Dec. 26 and Jan. 15. At 10,500 kilometers (6,524 miles) from the surface, the Dec. 26 flyby will be too distant for Cassini's radar instruments, so the spacecraft instead will focus on the cloud-covered moon using its array of optical remote sensing instruments. Cassini has conducted eight flybys of Titan so far out of a total of 45 planned. The closest will bring the spacecraft 950 kilometers (590 miles) from the surface.
T&E PAUSE: Following delivery of the U.S. Coast Guard's first-in-class, 140-foot Fast Response Cutter in 2008, current plans call for it to undergo "extensive" operational testing and evaluation before follow-on composite hulls are constructed, according to the Northrop Grumman-Lockheed Martin joint venture running the service's Deepwater recapitalization program. A critical design review for the cutter -- a program whose plans were accelerated by a decade under the revised Deepwater budget plan -- is projected for late this year or early in 2006 (DAILY, Oct. 13).
