The U.S. Navy intends to seek a Milestone B decision for its Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) program in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007, with system development and demonstration (SDD) starting in FY '08 and initial operating capability by 2013.
QUESTIONING COMMITMENT: A new report written by former NASA Johnson Space Center Director George Abbey and former White House Science Advisor Neal Lane questions the Bush Administration's commitment to its plan to return astronauts to the moon and land people on Mars. "To achieve George W. Bush's proposed mission ... the United States will need to bolster the competitiveness of its commercial space industry, expand international cooperation and refocus on basic science both in the space program and in the broader economy," the report says.
RADAR CONTRACT: Now that Raytheon Co. has been awarded a $752 million "letter contract" to supply Taiwan's air force with a land-based radar system to monitor hostile aircraft, missiles and ships (DAILY, June 24), the two parties plan to negotiate a more detailed, "definitized" contract within the next 180 days, according to Dan Martin, vice president of surveillance and sensor systems at Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems. Meanwhile, Raytheon is defining the group of companies that will work with it on the program, Martin tells The DAILY.
LE BOURGET, France - Heads turned skyward recently at the Paris Air Show as the French air force Mirage IV took off from the runway here for its final public display ñ something it had done 46 years before when it performed its first fly-past at the same event. Its Sepecat Jaguar close air support cousin joined the Mirage IV on static display and also will retire this year.
HIGHLY ATTRACTIVE: "Highly attractive and complementary" homeland security companies, along with an increase in federal information technology and aerospace and defense wartime spending, is making for "significant" merger and acquisition activity, the consulting firm Input says. Input points to L-3 Communications' planned acquisition of Titan, BAE Systems North America's pending $4.2 billion takeover of United Defense Industries and SRA International's bid to buy Galaxy Scientific Corp. "The shift of federal dollars to support the war on terror and multiple U.S.
EGNOS QUALIFIED: The European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), which will augment the U.S. Global Positioning System and Russia's Glonass satellite navigation programs, has completed its technical qualification, Alcatel Space says. EGNOS completed its operational readiness review, says Alcatel, which led a consortium of more than 40 companies to develop the system.
JOINT PROPOSAL: Two consortia bidding for Europe's Galileo satellite navigation system have delivered their joint proposal for the work to the Galileo Joint Undertaking (GJU). The Eurely and iNavSat consortia had been competing, but earlier this year the GJU said their offers were so similar that it could not choose between them and instead would negotiate with them simultaneously (DAILY, March 4).
The industry standards organization ASTM International is kicking off a new effort to develop consensus technical standards for unmanned undersea vehicles in response to a request made by the U.S. Navy, which is seeking to ensure that its future unmanned systems will be interoperable.
SECOND X-45C: The Boeing Co. has begun building the second of three X-45C air vehicles it is supposed to supply to the Defense Department's Joint Unmanned Combat Air System (J-UCAS) program. The first X-45C is well along in being assembled and is scheduled to begin flight-testing in early 2007.
June 27 - 29 -- The ION 61st Annual Meeting, Cambridge, Mass. For more information go to www.ion.org. June 27 - 29 -- 4th Annual Government Symposium on Information Sharing & Homeland Security, New Orleans, La. For more information call 1-888-603-8899 or go to www.federalevents.com. June 27 - July 1 -- 2005 National Space & Missile Materials Symposium, "Betting on Materials: A Sure Win," JW Marriott Resort at Summerlin, Nev. For more information go to www.usasymposium.com/nsmms/.
IMAGE SHARING: The U.S. Navy is making software changes and adding solid-state recorders to its Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornets to allow them to send target images from their Advanced Targeting Forward Looking Infrared (ATFLIR) pods to other aircraft and to ground forces. Capt. Donald "BD" Gaddis, the Navy's F/A-18 program manager, says the first two squadrons - one with 10 F/A-18Es, the other with 12 F/A-18Fs - are slated to have that capability this fall. "My plan is to make sure that that's in every Super Hornet," Gaddis says.
The U.S. Army and Marine Corps anticipate fielding a joint Blue Force Tracking system for testing as early as December 2005, according to Army officials. The joint BFT system is being developed using the Army's Force 21 Battle Command Brigade and Below (FBCB2) software. FBCB2/BFT is a tactical command-and-control system that links troops, vehicles, aircraft and sensors via satellite or terrestrial radio to provide a digital picture of the battlefield.
NAVY HAWKS: The U.S. Navy expects the first delivery of its maritime Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., in August, says Capt. Paul Morgan, program manager for the Naval Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Program Office. The Northrop Grumman Corp. RQ-4A Global Hawks originally were developed for the Air Force. The maritime system includes landing and recovery and mission control elements for the Navy and calls for 34-hour endurance.
BAE Systems North America's $4 billion acquisition of United Defense Industries, finalized on June 24, "expands our prime position in the U.S. into land systems, enhances our existing support and services profile and brings strong, differentiating technologies for future programs and opportunities," said Mark Ronald, president and CEO of BAE Systems North America. He said his company's new unit is expected to generate annual revenues of more than $3 billion.
FCS MEETING: Newly appointed Pentagon acquisition chief Ken Krieg was briefed on the status of the Army's Future Combat Systems program during a meeting June 21. "The FCS meeting was just an information briefing to Mr. Krieg as the new defense acquisition executive, so is characterized as a DAE review, instead of a Defense Acquisition Board program review," a Pentagon spokeswoman told The DAILY.
Ret. Air Force Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish, former director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, has been tapped to chair a panel that the Pentagon is creating to help reform the weapons-buying process. The advisory committee will be charged with reviewing the Defense Department's entire weapon system acquisition process and recommending changes by November.
If Congress accelerated procurement of the Coast Guard's National Security Cutters (NSCs) and Offshore Patrol Cutters (OPCs) under its Deepwater recapitalization effort, it could help support the two U.S. defense shipyards that have built the U.S. Navy's large surface combatants, both of which are facing fewer Pentagon ship orders, according to a congressional expert.
TEAC Aerospace Technologies of Montebello, Calif., will supply MDR-80 mission data recorders to Italy's Aermacchi for the AMX fighter aircraft, the company said last week. The AMX fighter is a joint venture of Aermacchi, Alenia and Embraer. Delivery of the mission data recorders will begin in the fourth quarter of this year, TEAC said.
X-43 FUNDING: The Senate Appropriations committee's fiscal 2006 spending bill for NASA (DAILY, June 24) includes $25 million to continue the X-43 hypersonic research aircraft program, which set the world speed record of nearly Mach 10 during its final flight in November 2004. NASA moved to cancel the follow-on X-43C in 2004, but the program was kept alive with a FY 2005 congressional earmark. The X-43 team is drafting a revised proposal for the X-43C (DAILY, May 31).
Israel's El Al Airlines is equipping seven passenger jets with Sky Connect Iridium Satellite terminals, which will allow global cockpit voice and data communications on long-haul flights, Iridium said last week. Boeing 747-200s are being outfitted with Sky Connect Classic Iridium satellite phone systems, supplied by GayaCom, Iridium's service provider for Israel.
The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee has worked ahead and authorized $8.8 billion for the Coast Guard in fiscal 2007 as part of a two-year bill. The move came as the committee adopted S. 1280, which also authorizes $8.2 billion in FY '06 for the Coast Guard. The bill - not voted on in subcommittee - was cosponsored by the chairs and ranking Democrats of the full committee and fisheries and Coast Guard subcommittee (DAILY, June 24).
The DD(X) industry consortium and the U.S. Navy conducted the third consecutive successful guided flight test of the Long Range Land Attack Projectile (LRLAP) on June 16, according to Naval Sea Systems Command. Preliminary results showed the munition successfully conducted preplanned maneuvers along a 60 nautical mile flight path during the 280-second flight, according to a NAVSEA statement.
The Department of Defense faces two key challenges as it moves to transform its joint training, the Government Accountability Office says - it must effectively communicate with everyone involved to let them understand the plan, and make sure new training requirements meet the needs of combatant commands. The DOD expects its Training Transformation Program to be fully operational by 2009, and has set up three initiatives to get ready, developing them incrementally through what the GAO calls a "build a little, test a little" philosophy. They are:
