Arthur J. Veitch is retiring in June as executive vice president and group executive of the Combat Systems group. Charles M. Hall is succeeding Veitch. Hall currently is president of General Dynamics Land Systems. David K. Heebner will replace Hall. Heebner currently is senior vice president, planning and development. Phebe N. Novakovic will replace Heebner. Novakovic currently is vice president of strategic planning.
The House Armed Services Committee projection forces subcommittee has added three Navy ships built by General Dynamics Corp. to the Defense Department's fiscal 2006 budget request and cut and shifted funds from the futuristic DD(X) destroyer to try to control the program's costs.
Susan E. Baumgarten, Jon Jones and William J. Lynn have been named company officers. Jones also has been appointed vice president and deputy general manager at Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems Company LLC (SAS) in El Segundo, Calif. Lt. Gen. Paul T. Mikolashek (USA-Ret.) has been appointed Army Service Executive.
An official of Global Military Aircraft Systems says the joint venture will win the competition to produce the U.S. Army's Future Cargo Aircraft because its aircraft will be "superior." L-3 Communications President Robert W. Drewes made the comment on May 11 following a flight demonstration of the C-27J Spartan at Fort Belvoir, Va. L-3 Communications Integrated Systems is in a 50/50 joint venture with Alenia North America Inc., a Finmeccanica company, to compete for the FCA work.
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. - The U.S. Army is slated to receive $458 million for aircraft and related procurement in the fiscal year 2005 supplemental budget bill, according to Valerie Lynn Baldwin, Army comptroller and assistant secretary for financial management. Within that total is $51 million for the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, $21 million for the AH-64 Apache Longbow and $37 million for aviation survival equipment. "Not a bad take, altogether," Baldwin said during a presentation at the Army Aviation Association of America (AAAA) symposium here May 10.
Eric Howell has been named vice president for contracts, pricing and procurement for Northrop Grumman Information Technology of McLean, Va. Craig Staresinich has been named sector vice president and general manager fo the Kinetic Energy Interceptors program.
The U.S. Defense Department has begun exploring whether the Missile Defense Agency's Airborne Laser (ABL) might have uses beyond shooting down ballistic missiles, a top general said May 11.
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. - Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition Claude Bolton told reporters May 11 that he would not support any attempt by the Army to revive the Joint Common Missile (JCM) program. Defense Department officials terminated the Army-led JCM as part of a $30 billion, six-year budget cut signed late last year.
OPEVAL: The U.S. Navy this week will begin operational evaluation (OPEVAL) of the MH-60R weapons system, a submarine-hunter and surface-attack helicopter to replace the legacy SH-60B and SH-60F aircraft, Lockheed Martin Corp. said May 11. Navy evaluators authorized OPEVAL at an April 22 operations test readiness review meeting. The decision followed the helicopter's successful completion of the Navy's six-month-long developmental test phase, known as technical evaluation, in February (DAILY, March 23). The OPEVAL is expected to be finished by September.
The Defense Department will go ahead with the multiyear procurement of the C-130J Super Hercules due to the cost of killing the program, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has told the chairs of the House and Senate armed services committees.
A new contract to Lockheed Martin marks the beginning of a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency program to study the feasibility of deploying an unmanned aerial vehicle from submarines, a DARPA spokeswoman said. The UAV, called Cormorant, after the sea bird, would "provide close air support for vessels such as the Littoral Combat Ship and SSGN," a specialized version of the Trident ballistic missile submarine, Jan Walker said. "This is the very first award ... this is the beginning of the program," she said.
AIR SCARE: A Cessna aircraft violated Washington airspace restrictions May 11, prompting an evacuation of the White House and Capitol. District of Columbia Air National Guard F-16s and a Black Hawk helicopter assigned to the Homeland Security Department escorted the aircraft to an airport in Frederick, Md. Air Force Master Sgt. Arthur Powell called the interception mission "a standard response" to threats against the U.S. capital.
