Defense Department leaders met in the Pentagon Dec. 16 to discuss DOD's stance on Lockheed Martin and Boeing's proposed United Launch Alliance merger. Once a decision is reached, DOD will report its position to the Federal Trade Commission, which has spent months studying the ULA deal in anticipation of making an antitrust ruling. ULA would merge production of Boeing's Delta and Lockheed Martin's Atlas rocket families, yielding a projected savings to the Air Force of $100 million to $150 million annually, according to the companies.
A "series of process defects," Bush administration "incompetence" and the high-level naïveté of implementing a top-down military restructuring have resulted in a Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) that has "failed" to transform the Defense Department but has successfully shielded most major defense weapons and systems, a trio of analysts told reporters Dec. 16.
SLOW MOTION: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's legacy will not be a singular transformation achievement, but rather six or so years worth of picking and installing senior military leaders who share his transformation philosophy as they wage two decades of the global war on terror, according to Pierre Chao of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The aerospace and defense industry will benefit from this slow-motion transformation because it allows more time to adapt - at least three more years instead of just 2006.
General Dynamics' deal to buy fast-growing defense information technology (IT) contractor Anteon International could alter the landscape in the defense IT business, creating a new top-tier challenger to industry powerhouses such as Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC).
ARMY COMMUNICATIONS: ITT Industries of White Plains, N.Y., said Dec. 14 that it has been awarded a contract from the U.S. Army worth up to $681 million to operate and maintain communications and information systems in southwest Asia, central Asia and Africa. The contract has one base year and four one-year options. The work will be done by ITT's Systems Division, in Colorado Springs, Colo., under the operational direction of the Network Enterprise Technology Command's 160th Signal Brigade. The contract was awarded by the U.S.
House Democrats tried unsuccessfully to include planning regarding unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and satellites in efforts to secure the U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada, while a Republican is pressing satellite communications. The House started considering the proposed Border Protection, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act on Dec. 15.
SHIP SUPPORT: Northrop Grumman Corp. said Dec. 15 that it was awarded a U.S. Navy contract to provide support services for new and current ships, including DDG 51 destroyers, LPD 17 amphibious transport dock ships, LHD 8 amphibious assault ships, Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) and DD(X) destroyers. The potentially $64 million, five-year contract includes commissioning services and special-event support, as well as support of ships undergoing routine maintenance and overhauls.
Congressional negotiators hammering out a fiscal 2006 authorization agreement for the U.S. Coast Guard have not been able to reach an accord although they largely agree on boosting the service's resources. "The conferees have made a great deal of progress toward reconciling the language in both bills. However, some issues remain unresolved," Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.) said on the House floor Dec. 14. LoBiondo is chairman of the House Transportation's Coast Guard subcommittee.
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said Dec. 15 that he wants a letter of assurance from the Bush administration that the detainee provision sponsored by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) would not hurt the country's intelligence gathering ability.
FASTT LAUNCH: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Office of Naval Research successfully flew a hypersonic scramjet-powered vehicle from Wallops Island, Va., on Dec. 10 as part of the Freeflight Atmospheric Scramjet Test Technique (FASTT) program, prime contractor ATK announced Dec. 15. It was the first-ever free flight of a scramjet-powered vehicle using conventional liquid hydrocarbon jet fuel, according to the company.
Belgium's defense ministry said Dec. 13 that it has agreed to buy 10 NH90 helicopters from France-based NHIndustries. Financial terms were not disclosed. Belgium's military will use the aircraft for search and rescue missions and to support its navy's Type M frigates. The helicopters will also rapidly transport army units for peacekeeping, disaster relief and humanitarian missions, and provide civilian emergency evacuation and equipment transport.
NASA has decided to remove the Protuberance Air Load ramp from the space shuttle's external tank before its next flight, according to Associate Administrator for Space Operations Bill Gerstenmaier. The PAL ramp is a large area of foam designed to deflect winds away from a cable tray that runs along the external tank. A large piece of foam debris broke loose from the PAL ramp during Discovery's launch in July, shocking NASA engineers who thought they had eliminated sources of dangerous foam debris in the wake of the Columbia disaster.
The Pentagon once again has certified the over-budget Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) High program and is moving forward with a new plan that would keep prime contractor Lockheed Martin but shift some funds to explore alternative technologies in the event that satellites under development experience further problems.
House and Senate negotiators have agreed on the first authorization measure for NASA in five years, which endorses President Bush's manned moon-Mars exploration vision, as well as rejuvenated aeronautics research and other science missions.
Stability operations are now a major priority for the Defense Department, on par with combat operations, and will receive more planning and funding, DOD officials have said. A DOD directive signed Nov. 28 provides guidance on the operations and assigns responsibility for planning, training and preparing them. Stability operations are defined as those other than combat operations that involve violence or the threat of violence.
Lockheed Martin Corp. said it was recently awarded its second S-3 Prime Vendor Support program contract by the U.S. Navy. The contract, worth up to $28.5 million, includes four years of fleet engineering support and two years of depot maintenance and material support. The contract will coincide with the decommissioning of the last Navy S-3 Viking squadron in 2009. The first such contract was awarded to Lockheed Martin in March 2001.
The defense acquisition reform panel led by retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Ron Kadish released the executive summary of its final report Dec. 14, with Kadish warning that its findings should not be used as a justification to reduce the Defense Department's budget. "We're not at all suggesting that if you take these recommendations you can take X-billion dollars out of the department's budget," Kadish said during a public meeting in Arlington, Va. "If that occurs, we have failed in reducing instability."
A Raytheon-led team competing for the U.S. Army's Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System II (APKWS II) said Dec. 14 that it has conducted successful wind-tunnel tests of its laser-guided 2.75-inch rocket system. The tests, held Sept. 25 to Oct. 11 at the Trisonic Wind Tunnel facility in El Segundo, Calif., completed and verified details of the vehicle's aerodynamic design, including canard and improved tail fin design.
