The new head of U.S. Transportation Command said Nov. 30 that he needs new tanker aircraft with the flexibility to carry cargo or passengers as well as fuel. Air Force Gen. Norton Schwartz, who took the command's reins in September, said the Air Force should buy new multi-mission tankers "without delay" to replace aging Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft. Some industry officials have been predicting that cargo capacity might emerge as a key requirement, which would give the budget-constrained Air Force more bang for its tanker buck.
The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps led all federal departments in awarding information technology (IT)-related prime contracts in fiscal 2005, according to market research company Input, of Reston, Va. The Navy awarded more than half of all prime federal contracts mainly due to its Seaport-enhanced program, also known as Seaport II, which accounted for $54 billion of its total of $63 billion in awards. While the Navy also led in awards for FY '04, the dollar value of Navy contract awards increased 72 percent in FY '05.
All legacy U.S. Coast Guard medium- and high-endurance cutters now have access to the Defense Department's secret Internet protocol router network (SIPRNET), a classified wide-area network. The Vigilant, upgraded recently, was the last of 39 cutters to be connected, according to the latest monthly Deepwater program newsletter. The cutters received the Enterprise Communications Wide Area Network, an automatic identification system that boosts inter-ship communication and an upgrade of the Inmarsat-B satellite telephone system to 128 kilobits per second.
CONTROL PANELS: Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. has received a $13.7 million contract to provide flight control panels for Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, the Defense Department said Nov. 28. The work will be done in Stratford, Conn., and is expected to be finished by Nov. 15, 2010. The contract was awarded by the Army Communications-Electronics Command, Fort Monmouth, N.J.
ARMY AM General L.L.C., South Bend, Ind., was awarded on Nov. 21, 2005, a $61,299,000 modification to a firm-fixed-price contract for M1114 high mobility multipurpose-wheeled vehicles. The work will be performed in South Bend, Ind., and is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2007. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This was a sole source contract initiated on July 17, 2000. The Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (DAAE07-01-C-S001).
Progress on its F-35 Joint Strike Fighter development contract helped boost revenue and net income for Aerosonic Corp. in its fiscal 2005 third quarter, the company said Nov. 28. The Clearwater, Fla., company, which supplies precision flight products for commercial, business and military aircraft, reported third-quarter 2005 revenue of $8.9 million, up 10 percent compared with the $8.1 million for the same period the year before.
Ken Kreig, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, has approved the DD(X) destroyer's move into the system development and demonstration phase, a move that won praise from one of the two shipbuilders expected to manufacture the initial ships. "With the Milestone B approval we in industry are moving ahead with [the] Navy today to take a very mature program into detailed design and a construction schedule," Northrop Grumman Ship Systems said in a statement.
Technological developments in military training and force preparation are the focus of the three-day Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference that began Nov. 28 in Orlando, Fla., the Defense Department said.
The Defense Department made obligations totaling about $243 million for business systems information technology (IT) and support in fiscal 2004 that were not approved by the DOD comptroller as required by law, the Government Accountability Office reported Nov. 23.
MARIETTA, Ga. - Lockheed Martin executives are optimistic that orders for the F/A-22 Raptor won't end after 181 or fewer aircraft, as outlined by last year's Program Budget Decision 753. "I don't think that's a high probability," Larry Lawson, the executive vice president and F/A-22 general manager, said during a press tour of company facilities here and in Fort Worth, Texas.
U.S. Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne has expressed interest in technology that the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is developing to minimize unintended damage caused by detonating warheads, according to service officials.
A National Academies panel is recommending that NASA develop a single agency-wide plan for research aboard the International Space Station and increase its crew capacity to six as soon as possible.
MORE HUMVEES: Armor Holdings Inc. of Jacksonville, Fla., said Nov. 28 that it has received a $53.1 million contract modification to provide U.S. and foreign militaries with an additional number of M1114 up-armored Humvees. The work will be done in 2006 at the Armor Holdings Aerospace and Defense Group facilities in Fairfield, Ohio. The contract was awarded by the U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command.
SpaceX scrubbed its Nov. 26 attempt to conduct the first launch of its Falcon 1 after an improperly set valve allowed liquid oxygen and helium to escape from one of the rocket's auxiliary tanks. The launch was to have taken place from Omelek Island at Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.
Although the situation between Boeing and the striking union representing much of the company's Delta rocket work force remains at a stalemate, some Delta employees have begun returning to work, according to a Boeing spokesman. "There are numbers of union-represented employees that are 'crossing the picket line' and coming back to work, which is a good thing for us because we want to retain their talents," Boeing spokesman Robert Villanueva said.
Raytheon Canada will build an integrated coastal surveillance radar network on the islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao for the Netherlands navy and coast guard of the Netherlands Antilles & Aruba (CGNA&A), the company said Nov. 28. The deal, worth about EUR 10 million (USD $12 million), includes long-term maintenance and training. The system mainly will be used for search and rescue and drug interdiction, and will also help combat illegal immigration, Raytheon Canada said.
A meeting of the European Space Council stressed the strategic importance of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) initiative, the European Space Agency said Nov. 28. The council, made up of the ESA Council and the European Union Competitiveness Council, met in Brussels, Belgium. The ministers at the meeting stressed the need for an autonomous European Earth observation capability as well as GMES' role as the main European contribution to the worldwide Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), ESA said.
GROUNDBREAKING: Helicopter manufacturer AgustaWestland is breaking ground on an expansion to its Philadelphia, Pa., facility. Scheduled attendees at the Nov. 29 ceremony include Giovanni Castellaneta, Italy's ambassador to the United States, Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) and Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.).
