The Senate on Oct. 28 confirmed several new civilian leaders at the Defense Department, including the secretary of the Air Force, the chief acquisition official at the Navy and the heads of defense-wide research efforts and networks.
LEGACY BOOST: A new National Plan to Achieve Maritime Domain Awareness calls for the Homeland Security and Defense departments "to reorient and integrate relevant Cold War command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) legacy systems and operational concepts with current and emerging sensor capabilities and applicable procedures." An interagency team overseeing the plan's rollout is supposed to become a forum to share DHS-DOD actions, as well as "propose a coherent, integrated interagency investment strategy," federal off
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency announced this week that it will transfer leadership of the Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems (J-UCAS) program to the Navy and Air Force by Nov. 1. The program now will be headed up by a new joint Air Force/Navy office headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, and will continue to be supported by personnel at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., and other Navy facilities, DARPA said.
DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION: Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is asking senators to give committee staff all of their amendment proposals for the fiscal 2006 defense authorization bill. Warner appeared on the chamber floor Oct. 28 to say progress is being made to work out a list of 24 contentious Republican and Democratic proposals, split equally, which would be lined up for floor debate. An agreement reached Oct. 26 is supposed to allow the Senate to pass the long-stalled, amendment-heavy bill within three days (DAILY, Oct. 28).
Oct. 31 - Nov. 1 -- Technology Training Corp.'s Military Radios Conference. Holiday Inn on-the-bay, San Diego. For more information call 1-310-563-1223 or go to www.ttcus.com. Oct. 31 - Nov. 2 -- Hallgren Associates' Short Course, "Introduction to Hypersonic Aerodynamics," Hope Hotel & Conference Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. Call 1-970-726-6928 or e-mail [email protected].
SSETI: The student-built SSETI Express satellite is up and running following its Oct. 27 launch from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome on a Russian Cosmos 3M rocket. Roughly the size of a washing machine, SSETI (Student Space Exploration and Technology Initiative) Express carried three 1-kilogram (2.2-pound) microsatellites that were deployed one hour and 40 minutes after launch. SSETI Express will take pictures of the Earth, function as a radio transponder and serve as a test bed for various designs, including a cold-gas attitude control system.
HOWITZER COMPONENTS: Triumph Group Inc.'s subsidiary Triumph Structures-Los Angeles will supply 495 M777 155mm Howitzer gun body units under a full-rate production contract from BAE Systems, the company said. The work is worth up to $53 million over four years. The company has been supplying the gun body units to BAE Systems under a low-rate initial production contract for 94 guns.
Boeing and its suppliers are spending tens of millions of dollars to sustain the C-17 production line in case the U.S. Air Force decides to exceed its current commitment to buy 180 aircraft, Boeing officials said Oct. 28. The money is being spent on long-lead materials for a potential 181st C-17 and beyond, Boeing officials told reporters in a phone call from the Airlift/Tanker Association conference in Nashville, Tenn.
REVAMPING: The European Space Agency is revamping the European Robotic Arm for the International Space Station so it can be launched on a Russian Proton rocket instead of the space shuttle. The arm had been slated to operate from the Russian Science and Power Platform, but Russia then proposed putting it on the Multipurpose Laboratory Module. Under a new contract, Dutch Space, which is leading a consortium of companies to produce the arm, will prepare it for a Proton launch and deliver the hardware to Russia for a late 2007 launch.
GETTING READY: Two experimental pathfinder spacecraft for Europe's planned Galileo satellite navigation system are in the final stages of preparation for launch, the European Space Agency says. Galileo System Test Bed V2/A (GSTB-V2/A), the first satellite, is undergoing solar simulation, acoustic and vibration checks at an ESA facility in the Netherlands. GSTB-V2/B is in final integration tests at Alenia Spazio facilities in Rome. GSTB-V2/A is scheduled for launch by the end of the year, with GSTB-V2/B to follow in 2006.
The Senate stands ready to take up and finish the long-stalled fiscal 2006 defense authorization bill after a unanimous-consent agreement to allow both parties to propose 12 contentious amendments each for floor debate.
The Oct. 27 story "Marines buy more legacy radars ahead of HELRASRs" contained incorrect information. The Marine Corps Systems Command has purchased $15 million worth of additional Row Electronics transmitters, receivers and power supplies for AN/TPS-59(V)3 radars from Lockheed Martin Corp.
MISSILE BUY: Taiwan hopes to buy 10 AIM-9M missiles and five AIM-7M Sparrow missiles from the United States, as well as continue F-16 pilot training and logistics support, the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency said. The DSCA notified Congress of the possible military sale on Oct. 26. The total value could be $280 million. The missiles would be used for live fire exercises at Luke Air Force Base, Ariz., where the pilot training takes place.
As expected, the House late Oct. 26 passed changes to the Iran Nonproliferation Act that would allow some U.S. payments to Russia in support of the International Space Station, but also added provisions regarding Syria that were not included in a Senate-passed version, leaving some question over the amendments' fate.
SALES, INCOME UP: Teledyne Technologies said Oct. 27 that third quarter 2005 sales were $295.3 million compared with $270 million for the same period of 2004. Third quarter 2005 net income was $15.7 million, or 45 cents per share, compared with net income of $12.5 million, or 37 cents per share, in the third quarter of 2004.
Net income soared 50 percent for Raytheon Co. in the third quarter of 2005, while net sales climbed 8 percent, the company said Oct. 27. Third quarter '05 net income was $228 million, or 50 cents per share, compared to $152 million, or 34 cents per share, the year before. Net sales increased from $4.9 billion in 2004 to $5.3 billion in the third quarter of '05. Income from continuing operations also grew, from $186 million, or 41 cents per share, to $231 million, or 51 cents per share, a 24 percent gain.
VESTS: Armor Holdings Inc. of Jacksonville, Fla., said Oct. 26 that it has received an $18.8 million contract modification to produce individual body armor vests for the U.S. military. The vests carry ballistic protective plates. The work will be directed by the Armor Holdings Aerospace and Defense Group in Alabama and Tennessee during 2006. The contract was awarded by Defense Supply Center-Philadelphia.
The U.S. military needs to better coordinate its use of electronic warfare systems in Iraq to ensure they do not interfere with each other, according to an Air Force general. As such systems grow in number and sophistication, the risk of "electronic fratricide" goes up as well, said Lt. Gen. Walter Buchanan, commander of U.S. Central Command Air Forces and the 9th Air Force.
WARFARE CENTER: San Diego-based Titan Corp. has been awarded a $16.5 million contract modification to provide engineering and technical support services and supplies for the telecommunication and communication-electronic systems of the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Special Communications Requirements Division, the Defense Department said Oct. 26. The work will be done in Lexington Park, Md., and St. Inigoes, Md. It is expected to be finished in October 2006. The contract was awarded by the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, St. Inigoes, Md.
NET SALES UP: Curtiss-Wright Corp. reported Oct. 27 that third-quarter 2005 net sales increased 15 percent to $271.4 million, compared to $236.6 million in the third quarter of 2004. Operating income in the third quarter of '05 increased 27 percent to $32.4 million, compared to $25.5 million for the same period a year eariler. Third-quarter '05 net earnings increased 19 percent to $17.5 million, or 80 cents per share, from $14.7 million, or 68 cents per share, in the third quarter of 2004.
Arlington, Texas-based VirTra Systems Inc., which sells situational awareness firearms training systems to the U.S. military and other customers, said Oct. 26 that it has agreed to purchase three private electronics companies and create a single firm. VirTra Systems will buy Altatron EMS, Dynalyst Manufacturing Corp., and Suntech Inc. in a stock-for-stock or merger transaction. Further terms were not disclosed. L. Kelly Jones, VirTra Systems' chief executive officer, will remain as CEO of the combined company.
NASA is making slow progress in reforming its accounting practices and still is incapable of providing supportable financial statements, according to witnesses at an Oct. 27 hearing on Capitol Hill.
Herley Industries Inc., which designs and builds microwave technology products for the defense, aerospace and medical industries, said Oct. 26 that it posted record net sales for fiscal year 2005, but net income fell more than 20 percent.
