A key U.S. senator is criticizing a House panel's vote to kill the Air Force's Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) program. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee's defense panel whose state hosts some of the work that is done on the stealthy cruise missile, said late June 9 that he is disappointed with the House Appropriations Committee's June 7 decision to terminate the program (DAILY, June 8).
CALIPSO, a joint effort of NASA and the French space agency CNES, has arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., to prepare for its launch later this year. CALIPSO - Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations - was shipped from Alcatel Space's facility in Cannes, France, on May 19. The spacecraft will use "revolutionary measurement technologies" to study aerosols, small liquid or solid particles in the air.
The Department of Defense still is facing "pervasive" and longstanding problems with its business management systems despite spending billions each year to operate, maintain and modernize them, the Government Accountability Office says in a new report. "Our reports continue to show that the department's stovepiped and duplicative systems contribute to fraud, waste and abuse," the report says.
MDA PLAN: The long-awaited interagency Maritime Domain Awareness plan will be unveiled and implemented this summer, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thomas Collins told lawmakers on Capitol Hill June 8. "We locked the whole team up for six months and shoved pizzas under the door," Collins joked about the interagency effort to devise a common plan across the departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Commerce and others.
A June 7 DAILY story headlined "Raytheon team's TMOS proposal will stress flexibility, official says," should have said that the Raytheon team competing for the TMOS program includes AT&T in addition to Boeing and General Dynamics.
Arianespace has postponed the dual-launch of Spaceway 2 and Telkom-2 due to an electrical problem discovered on Telkom-2 during prelaunch testing in Kourou, French Guiana, which will require the spacecraft to be shipped back to manufacturer Orbital Sciences in the United States for diagnosis.
Roger L. Simpson, Cowling Professor of Aerospace Engineering at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, has been elected president. Vincent Boles, general manager of the Aerospace Corp., was elected vice president of international activities. Amr ElSawy, senior vice president and general manager of MITRE, was elected vice president of standards. David Shaw, senior MD and CEO of Global Business Analysis Inc., was elected vice president of finance.
The merger of two units of General Atomics Company, Aeronautical Systems and Reconnaissance Systems (DAILY, June 7), signals that the company provides "a systems solution for persistent situational awareness," said Randy Walti, senior vice president and general counsel of San Diego-based GA.
The U.S. Defense Department is expected to issue another request for ideas to counter improvised explosive devices (IEDs), which remain a grave threat to U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq despite a host of efforts to defend against such weapons. Brig. Gen. Joseph Votel, the Army's point man for IEDs, told a Lexington Institute luncheon audience June 8 in Washington that he hopes to see another broad agency announcement (BAA) issued "within the next six months."
X-BAND RADAR: The Raytheon Co. has been awarded a contract worth up to $261 million to provide logistics support services to operate and maintain up to four forward based X-Band Radar-transportable radars to support the Ballistic Missile Defense System, the Defense Department said June 8. Most of the work will be done at Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems in Woburn, Mass. The work is set to be finished in May 2010. The Missile Defense Agency awarded the contract.
Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, on June 8 stood by demands made a day earlier for a full, unredacted report by the Defense Department's Inspector General on the Boeing tanker lease imbroglio. "There's going to have to be some progress or else all hell is going to break loose around here on documents," Levin said. "It's inexcusable that an IG uses redacted documents that leaves out names of people who made decisions."
Philip A. Dur is retiring as corporate vice president and president of the company's ship systems sector. Philip A. Teel has been chosen to replace Dur. Michele Toth has been named vice president, human resources and administration, for the company's information technology sector.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Japan will move its sea-based missile defense research program to the development stage next year, said Yoshinori Ono, the chief of Japan's defense agency. Yoshinori, who was in Singapore for the Asia Security Conference over the weekend, said the first fiscal year of development will begin April 1 and is expected to cost several billion yen. He declined to give details, but said a request for a budget for the first fiscal year will be forwarded to the government.
Senate Democrats, including Sens. Harry Reid (Nev.), the minority leader, and Carl Levin (Mich.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, on June 8 called on Senate GOP leaders to bring the SASC version of the fiscal 2006 defense authorization bill to the chamber floor. The senators, accompanied by other SASC Democrats, complained that judicial nominations have occupied the Senate's time while the SASC bill (S. 1042) has been ready for debate for a month.
The Stafford-Covey Return to Flight Task Group closed out four more shuttle safety recommendations during a meeting June 8, and anticipates closing out the remaining three recommendations and delivering a preliminary report to NASA Administrator Michael Griffin before the end of this month.
