The House Appropriations Committee on June 7 voted to add one DDG-51 destroyer, two Littoral Combat Ships and one T-AKE amphibious cargo ship above President Bush's fiscal 2006 request, which already included four new U.S. Navy ships.
Lockheed Martin has been awarded two contracts worth $22.8 million to provide field support and upgrades for tactical missile defense radar systems used by U.S. Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan, the company said June 7.
United Defense Industries Inc. of Minneapolis has been awarded a $376 million contract for the continuing design, development and testing of the Advanced Gun System, which includes the fully automated gun, magazine, and Long Range Land Attack Projectile for the Navy's new DD(X) destroyer, the company said June 7. The AGS will be a fully automated, single barrel, 155mm, vertically loaded, stabilized gun mount that can store, program, load, and fire the LRLAP. Each DD(X) destroyer would have two AGSs with up to 900 rounds of LRLAP ammunition.
THERMAL WEAPON SIGHTS: DRS Technologies Inc. of Parsippany, N.J., has received $43 million in new orders to produce more than 4,000 Thermal Weapon Sights for the U.S. Army, the company said June 7. DRS will produce light, medium and heavy sights using uncooled infrared technology. Deliveries will begin in October 2005 and continue through October 2006.
NEW DELHI - India has budgeted $117 million for research and development of unmanned aerial vehicles for surveillance and other purposes. The country's military services have bought UAVs at a cost of $465 million, and are expected to invest millions more in the next three to five years, M. Natarajan, the scientific adviser to the defense minister, said recently at a workshop in Hyderabad on UAVs and emerging technologies sponsored by the Defence Research Development Organisation.
NEW DELHI - India has successfully test fired Pinaka, an indigenously developed multibarrel rocket system, from the Defence Research and Development Organisation's demonstration facility in Chandipur. Developed by the Armament Research and Development Establishment, Pinaka is an area weapon system aimed at supplementing the existing artillery guns at a range beyond 30 kilometers (18.7 miles). According to Indian army sources, the first phase of user trials has been successfully completed, and DRDO is working on suggested improvements.
The next milestone in the Department of Defense's Airborne and Maritime/Fixed Station Joint Tactical Radio System (AMF JTRS) program will occur this August when the department conducts a preliminary design review for the program. DOD officials said June 3 that Boeing and Lockheed Martin - the two companies vying for the system development and demonstration (SDD) JTRS AMF contract - recently submitted successful designs for the program's system design review phase. The approved designs have set the stage for the PDR in August, the DOD said.
LOADING TEST: Lockheed Martin's new West Coast Atlas V facility had a successful propellant loading test last week, the company said June 6, a "giant step forward" for the first Atlas V mission from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., next year. The team also conducted tests in a simulated "launch day-day fueling timeline."
The U.S. Navy's mine countermeasure (MCM) helicopter platform, Sikorsky Aircraft Corp.'s MH-53E Sea Dragon, now is expected to remain a part of the U.S. fleet until 2015, Rear Adm. Deborah Loewer, commander of Mine Warfare Command, has said. Speaking in late May at the Mine Warfare Association conference in Panama City, Fla., the admiral said recently approved upgrades for the helos constituted a "win" for the mine warfare community. The MH-53E first was deployed in 1983, and replaced the last of the CH-53E Super Stallions in 1994, according to the Navy.
Japan has requested 40 Standard Missile-2 (SM-2) Block IIIBs, with MK 13 MOD 0 canisters, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress June 6. The sale of the missiles, canisters and related equipment could be worth as much as $104 million if approved, DSCA said. The missiles would be used to defend "critical sea-lanes of communication," DSCA said, and would be installed on ships with the Japanese maritime self-defense force. Principal contractors would be Raytheon Missile Systems Co. and United Defense LP.
General Atomics' unmanned aerial vehicle maker unit, Aeronautical Systems, has merged with the company's Reconnaissance Systems, which makes sensor systems. "The seamless integration of aircraft with sensor and weapon systems is crucial to providing comprehensive and timely solutions for the warfighter," Neal Blue, chairman and CEO of the combined enterprise, said in a statement.
The Senate Armed Services Committee's version of the fiscal 2006 defense authorization bill would prohibit the Air Force from retiring 86 aircraft in 2006 at a cost of $460 million, the Congressional Budget Office has reported. Section 132 of the bill (S. 1042) would bar the Air Force from retiring any KC-135E tanker aircraft in 2006, when current service plans called for 49 of these planes to be mothballed.
PRAGUE - Ukraine has signed an agreement with European Union officials to participate in the Galileo program, becoming the third country to formally join Europe's global satellite navigation system ambitions.
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover (MER) team has managed to free the Opportunity rover from a sand trap in which it had been stuck for more than a month, NASA announced June 6. The rover drove into a small dune of windblown dust and sand on April 26, where its six wheels became partially buried. The rover had to churn 629 feet worth of wheel rotations before gaining enough traction to move three feet and escape the trap. The rover team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., directed the drives in small increments from May 13 through June 4.
PRAGUE - European officials may examine the flow of defense technology between the United States and Europe because of concerns that the U.S. is accessing European markets while protecting its own, a European Defence Agency official says.
ARMY DRS Optronics Inc., Palm Bay, Fla., was awarded on May 31, 2005, a $13,600,000 firm-fixed-price contract for visual module assemblies for the Bradley Missile weapon system. Work will be performed in Palm Bay, Fla., and is expected to be completed by April 6, 2008. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There were three bids solicited on July 9, 2004, and one bid was received. The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (W31P4Q-05-C-0129).
Sikorsky Aircraft has been awarded a $245.4 million low-rate initial production contract to provide the U.S. Army with 22 new UH-60M Black Hawk advanced utility helicopters, the company said June 6. The contract also has options for up to eight additional helicopters. Deliveries are set to begin in July 2006 before the start of initial operational test and evaluation in September 2006.
ACQUISITION CHIEF: Kenneth Krieg formally became the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics on late June 3, the Pentagon announced June 6. Krieg, previously the special assistant to the secretary and director of the office of Program Analysis and Evaluation, was nominated by President Bush on April 4 and confirmed by the Senate May 26. Senators have advised him to address defense acquisition ethics concerns as a top priority (DAILY, April 22).
The head of the Aerospace Industries Association said June 6 that his group is pushing to reduce the frequency of international air shows, citing their cost and declining utility. John Douglass, AIA's president and chief executive officer, told reporters that the shows have become "very expensive" for participants but have fallen out of favor as venues for selling aircraft and unveiling new technology.
