A study on the U.S. Marine Corps' future electronic attack needs is due to be finished in March, a key general said Sept. 27. The study, which the University of Pennsylvania has been hired to conduct, is expected to help the Marines refine their plans to replace their aging EA-6B Prowlers, said Lt. Gen. Michael Hough, the Marines' deputy commandant for aviation.
PRAGUE -- State-owned Czech aircraft producer Aero Vodochody will be put up for sale after the Czech defense ministry dropped its demand that the company's military aircraft servicing wing should remain in state hands.
A Boeing Delta II launched the first modernized Global Positioning System Block IIR satellite for the U.S. Air Force from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. The Lockheed Martin-built satellite, named GPS IIR-14 (M), lifted off at 11:37 p.m. Sept. 25, arriving at its transfer orbit 24 minutes later, Boeing said. The satellite is the first of a series of eight upgraded IIR satellites (DAILY, Aug. 24). They feature two new military signals for better security and anti-jamming performance, and a second civilian signal.
Reinhold Industries Inc. said Sept. 26 that it has agreed to sell NP Aerospace Ltd., a United Kingdom-based subsidiary, to the Carlyle Group for GBP 30 million (USD $53.4 million). Reinhold said it would use up to $25 million of the net proceeds to repay all or most of its outstanding debt. Reinhold, of Santa Fe Springs, Calif., manufactures heat-resistant composite components for rocket propulsion. Last year, Reinhold decided not to pursue a change-in-control transaction, such as a merger or sale (DAILY, Aug. 16, 2004).
The House Armed Services Committee late Sept. 27 is scheduled to vote on forwarding legislation to the full chamber that would formally disapprove the Base Closure and Realignment list that is now before Congress.
The European Space Agency has selected two target asteroids for its Don Quijote mission, aimed at deflecting near Earth objects (NEOs) away from the planet. Don Quijote is being studied by ESA's Advanced Concepts Team, which has completed an assessment of suitable mission architectures, launch strategies and options for propulsion systems and experiments, ESA said Sept. 26.
SHIP MAINTENANCE, REPAIR: Northrop Grumman Corp. has been awarded a $9.4 million contract to perform maintenance and repair work on the military prepositioning ship M/V Pvt. Franklin J. Phillips, the company said Sept. 26. The work will include living quarters' upgrades; replacement of cargo cranes; propeller and rudder maintenance; and underwater hull painting. The work will take place over five weeks at Northrop Grumman's Newport News, Va., shipyard, where the Phillips arrived on Sept. 26.
President Bush has nominated Dorrance Smith to be assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, replacing Victoria Clarke. Smith previously served as a senior media adviser for the Coalition Provision Authority in Baghdad, Iraq, and was a senior media adviser and consultant for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the first Bush Administration. Earlier in his career, Smith was executive producer for ABC News' "This Week with David Brinkley" and "Nightline." The Senate received his nomination on Sept. 22.
The House and Senate this week are expected to speed through a continuing resolution funding the government into fiscal 2006, although it won't help the Defense Department, which is "running out of money" to cover operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, as one lawmaker said.
The Pentagon's top acquisition official said business in the Department of Defense is changing toward information technology and services as the DOD tries to transform.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, in Huntsville, Ala., is creating two new development offices as part of its work on NASA's new moon-Mars push. It is creating the Exploration Launch Office, which will manage the program's new launch system, and the Science and Mission Systems Office, which will "integrate the center's scientific and engineering expertise," the center said Sept. 23.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency will not play an active role in the revamped Joint Unmanned Combat Air System program after it transitions to Air Force ownership in the next few months, according to outgoing DARPA Program Manager Mike Francis. Francis estimates the move to the Air Force will be complete by early November. The Air Force and the Navy still are working out the details of the new J-UCAS office, which is expected to be stood up at Dayton Air Force Base in Ohio and initially be led by a Navy program manager (DAILY, Sept. 14).
GETTING READY: NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has arrived at the Kennedy Space Center, Fla., to prepare for its January launch. The spacecraft is to be the first to visit Pluto and its moon Charon, and recently completed four months of space-environment tests at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Md., NASA said. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory designed and built the spacecraft.
Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center has awarded M.C. Dean Inc. of Chantilly, Va., almost $15 million more for C4ISR and information technology services, bringing the contract's total to $56.5 million. The company will provide planning, development, design, research, procurement, installation and related C4ISR/IT engineering efforts in the European and Central regions, mostly in Germany. The contracted work will be finished by next March, a Pentagon announcement said Sept. 23.
General Atomics' Altair has become the first unmanned aerial vehicle to receive an experimental airworthiness certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration, according to FAA Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety Nick Sabatini. Awarded Aug. 25, the certificate "defines the airspace they can operate in and the specific limitations within which they must stay," Sabatini told The DAILY. "So it bounds that operation." Altair's operational area is in the deserts of the southwest.
NASA may allow the Access Five unmanned aerial vehicle airspace initiative to continue through fiscal 2006 before canceling it, an industry source told The DAILY. The agency had been considering terminating the program as early as the end of FY '05, or Sept. 30, but interagency pressure from other interested parties may have convinced NASA to keep the program going for one more fiscal year, according to the source.
ARMY L3 KDI Precision Products Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio, was awarded on Sept. 19, 2005, a $17,083,960 firm-fixed-price contract for FMU-143 B/B and (D-2)/B fuze systems. The work will be performed in Cincinnati, Ohio, and is expected to be completed by June 7, 2009. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There were an unknown number of bids solicited via the World Wide Web on April 12, 2005, and six bids were received. The U.S. Army Field Support Command, Rock Island, Ill., is the contracting activity (W52P1J-05-C-0069).
