SUPER HORNETS: The Boeing Co. is open to selling additional numbers of F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighters to the U.S. Navy and to India and Japan, a Boeing official says. "We're always working with our Navy customer ... we'll sell as many Super Hornets to the Navy as they would like to buy," Bob Farmer Jr., Boeing's director of business development for the F/A-18, said recently.
The U.S. Navy late May 26 announced it had awarded roughly $30 million in research and development (R&D) work to General Dynamics Electric Boat Division of Groton, Conn., and Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., of Sunnyvale, Calif., for undersea warfare activity.
IN THEATER: Lockheed Martin's Short-Range Assault Weapon-Multiple Purpose Variant (SRAW-MPV) currently is being used by troops in Iraq, according to a Marine Corps spokesman. The SRAW-MPV is a variant of the Predator shoulder-fired anti-tank weapon.
South Korea will buy another round of fighter aircraft worth 5.6 trillion won ($5.6 billion) and spend 800 billion won ($799 million) on 20 other weapons programs between 2006 and 2010, the defense ministry said May 26.
June 1 - 2 -- National Small Business Conference, "Opening New Frontiers Through Effective Partnering," Los Angeles Marriott Airport, Los Angeles, Calif. For more information go to www.ndia.org. June 5 - 7 -- SATS 2005: A Transformation in Air Travel, "Demonstration of the capabilities of the Small Aircraft Transportation System project," Danville Regional Airport, Danville, Va. For more information contact September Moon Productions at 248-355-3700, email [email protected] or go to www.sats2005.com.
With renewed hope that NASA may restore funding for hypersonics, engineers at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., are crafting a revamped proposal for the X-43C, a larger follow-on to the record-setting X-43A demonstrator that flew twice in 2004. Funding for hypersonics appeared to dry up last year as the agency's space exploration plans took center stage and various aeronautics efforts were scaled back or canceled. Engineers at Langley were ordered to stop work on the X-43C, a 16-foot-long vehicle that would have used hydrocarbon fuel.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has denied a protest from HMR Tech LLC over a U.S. Coast Guard contract for project and acquisition management services. HMR, of Arlington, Va., protested the award to Enterprise Information Services Inc. (EIS) of Atlanta, saying the Coast Guard didn't properly evaluate whether EIS' lower bid was realistically priced, among other things. The GAO said that the Coast Guard "reasonably satisfied its obligation ... to perform a price realism evaluation."
CHINA RISING: Rep. J. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) is forming the Congressional China Caucus because of the Asian giant's burgeoning economic and military capacity. "China's economic output is expected to triple over the next 15 years, and its militarization efforts have raised concerns worldwide," a Forbes statement says. "The Congressional China Caucus is being formed to raise awareness on and serve as a forum of discussion for U.S.-China interests in the U.S. House of Representatives." Other members include Reps.
ROCKET ORDER: General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products of Charlotte, N.C., has won a $129 million delivery order to produce 2.75-inch Hydra-70 rockets, motors and warheads for the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and foreign military sales, the company said May 26. The order was made by the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., under a five-year contract worth up to $900 million that was signed in early May. Program management and systems engineering will be done at the General Dynamics Burlington Technology Center in Vermont.
PARIS PRESENCE: The U.S. Defense Department plans to display eight to 10 aircraft at the Paris Air Show in mid-June, according to Air Force Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kohler, head of the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency. The aircraft likely will include Apache and Black Hawk helicopters, C-130J and C-17 transports and the F/A-18E/F fighter. In addition, the Boeing Co. says it plans to send over the first KC-767A tanker, which it built for the Italian air force. "It's one of the most robust shows we've had in a long time," Kohler tells The DAILY.
Boeing said its response to Pentagon officials earlier this week concerning the department's "show cause" letter and the possible termination of its billion-dollar Joint Tactical Radio Systems (JTRS) Cluster 1 program contract "is a first step toward developing a realistic plan for moving forward" with the program. "The response Boeing delivered to the government carefully reviewed all of its concerns and addressed them in a detailed and forthright manner," the company said in a statement released late May 25.
General Electric will upgrade an initial 95 F110 engines for F-16C/D aircraft as part of a service life extension program, the company said May 23. The work will be done under a $57 million U.S. Air Force contract. Ultimately, the SLEP program is expected to include about 800 F110 engines through 2012, and has a potential value of more than $280 million to GE, the company said.
HUMAN PERFORMANCE: Optimizing human performance in the military will be studied under a five-year contract worth up to 20 million pounds ($36.4 million) awarded by the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence. The Haldane-Spearman Consortium, led by QinetiQ Ltd., will conduct the research, QinetiQ said May 26. The consortium will study physical fitness, mental performance, nutrition, sleep, selection and training and making equipment easy to use, London-based QinetiQ said.
The United States has asked Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense (MND) to decide by the end of May whether it wants to buy 12 P-3C Orion anti-submarine aircraft from the U.S., a MND spokesman said May 24. If Taiwan does not reply, the aircraft may be sold to other countries, Liu Chih-chien said.
Northrop Grumman Corp. has opened a new space systems business development office near NASA Headquarters in Washington that will focus initially on the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) competition, the company announced. Former NASA associate administrator Alan Ladwig leads the office. Before joining Northrop Grumman, Ladwig was the chief operating officer for the Zero Gravity Corp., a private company offering parabolic airplane flights that simulate weightlessness.
QUICKBIRD: On May 25 DigitalGlobe announced the sale of high-resolution imagery from the company's Quickbird satellite that will allow better digital mapping of Hawaii. Quickbird imagery of Kauai County and the rainy Waimea Canyon will allow government authorities to conduct better flood plain mapping projects and disaster mitigation programs, the company said.
MOSCOW - RSC Energia's leadership has asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to bar a radical change in the company's management. Voting for Energia's president is scheduled for May 28. The country's Federal Space Agency, which controls about 38% of the company's shares on behalf of the government, plans to replace 70-year-old current president Yuri Semyonov with Nikolai Sevastianov, 44, who is managing the Gascom satellite communication company (DAILY, March 22).
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) seems to have hinted to Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) about the viability of a Florida base if he would go along with the Defense Department's plans to put the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy into early retirement. "In configuring the fleet for 11 carriers, the Navy will ensure that it makes effective use of existing carrier ports," OMB said in a statement of administration policy on the House's version of the fiscal 2006 defense authorization bill (H.R. 1815), which was approved May 25.
SWITCH MODULES: EDO-Darlington Inc. of Wando, S.C., was awarded a potential $240 million contract for procurement and support of 476 transition switch modules for the U.S. Marine Corps Systems Command, the Defense Department announced late May 25. Almost all of the work will be performed in Wando, with the rest in Augusta, Ga., and should be finished by May 2010.
Federal agencies awarded $11 billion in information technology related prime contracts during the second quarter of fiscal 2005, off 40% from the previous quarter, according to a May 26 report by the Reston, Va.-based consulting company Input.
Northrop Grumman has decided not to bid on the contract to manage Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico after reviewing the request for proposals (RFP) released by the Department of Energy May 18. "The company continues to be committed to helping the U.S. Department of Energy achieve its overall objectives, but has determined that it can best provide that support through other key programs," the company said in a statement. A company spokeswoman said she could not comment further on the company's reasons.
