HELLFIRE CONTRACT: Lockheed Martin has been awarded a $90 million contract by the U.S. Army to continue producing Hellfire air-to-ground missiles, the company said April 20. The company will make 900 semi-active laser-guided Hellfire II metal augmented charge (MAC) warhead missiles and 180 high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) missiles, convert 100 HEAT missiles to the MAC warhead configuration, and produce training missiles along with training and support packages.
Two companies have been chosen by the U.S. Air Force to use existing technology to develop more flexible rockets and launch services for small satellites. Orbital Sciences Corp. of Chandler, Ariz., and Space Exploration Technologies of El Segundo, Calif., will compete under a five-year, $100 million indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract awarded April 18 by the Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center.
BUY III: The release of the final request for proposals (RFP) for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) Buy III has been pushed back to May. EELV contractors Lockheed Martin and Boeing received a draft of the RFP April 6, and according to the original schedule would have received the final RFP just one week later. The new schedule will allow the companies to provide feedback on the draft that can be incorporated into the final document, according to the Air Force.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's Coast Guard subcommittee is ready to look at accelerating the Coast Guard's Deepwater recapitalization effort, but the service still does not have performance metrics that would be needed to speed up the program.
General Dynamics' net earnings grew nearly 25% in the first quarter of 2005, while revenue climbed 3.7%, the company said April 20. Reported net earnings were $336 million for the first quarter of 2005, compared with $269 million a year earlier, a 24.9% increase. Revenue grew to $4.8 billion compared with first-quarter '04 revenues of $4.6 billion, the company said.
SDB APPROVAL: The U.S. Air Force's Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) program has received Defense Department approval to begin low-rate production, the Pentagon announced late April 20. DOD had been scheduled to convene a Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) meeting to review the program, but a lack of difficult issues prompted the department to hold a written or "paper DAB" instead. SDB is smaller than comparable precision-guided bombs now in use and will allow strike aircraft to carry more weapons. The Boeing Co.
APPROVED: Germany's parliament has approved the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) program's entry into the design and development phase, MEADS International said April 20. The approval "removes the final constraint to full development of MEADS," MI President Jim Cravens said in a statement. MEADS partner countries Italy and the United States approved entry into the D&D phase last year.
The U.S. Navy's Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (AARGM) has successfully completed its preliminary design review, a service official said April 20. Commander Larry Egbert, technical director for the Navy's Direct and Time Sensitive Strike Program Office (PMA-242), said the PDR, which occurred the week of April 5, identified a small number of minor problems, which he declined to disclose. But Egbert, who spoke at a Precision Strike Association conference, added that those matters will be easily resolved.
HELPFUL IMAGERY: DigitalGlobe said April 18 that San Diego State University (SDSU) is using high-resolution imagery from its QuickBird satellite to aid relief efforts in Indonesia after the Dec. 26 tsunami. SDSU's Immersive Visualization Center used the imagery to help establish refugee camps and coordinate medical information. Doctors from the center flew to Indonesia in January to work with the U.S.
The Loitering Attack Missile (LAM), which was recently removed from the U.S. Army's Non-Line-of-Sight-Launch System (NLOS-LS), could be revived in a year or two if key technologies mature, an Army program official said April 19.
ISR SERVICES: The Boeing Co. has been awarded a $14.5 million contract to provide "persistent intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicle services" for an unidentified Naval Expeditionary Strike Group deployment, as well as Gulf Oil Platform security, in direct support of Iraq and antiterrorism operations. The contract, which was not competitively procured, is for work on an unidentified U.S. Navy vessel in the Pacific Ocean and should be finished next February, the Navy said April 18.
Evans & Sutherland Computer Corp. will provide its EPX-500 visual system for a MiG-29 trainer simulator being built for the Indian navy, the company said April 19. The system will be delivered to Rheinmetall Defence Electronics' simulation integration facility in Bremen, Germany, by the end of the year, and is to be installed in 2006.
Carson Helicopters Inc. of Perkasie, Pa., has awarded Ducommun Inc. subsidiary Ducommun AeroStructures Inc. (DAS) of Monrovia, Calif., a follow-on contract worth more than $8 million to produce composite main rotor blades for Sikorsky S-61 helicopters, Ducommun said April 19. The Carson Composite Main Rotor Blades will allow S-61s to lift an extra 2,000 pounds and fly 15 knots faster than existing aircraft with metal main rotor blades, the company said.
Dividend: Goodrich Corp.'s board of directors has declared a regular quarterly dividend of 20 cents a share, payable July 1 to shareholders of record as of June 6, the company said April 19.
Sea Launch's Odyssey Launch Platform departed from Long Beach, Calif., last week to prepare for the April 26 launch of DIRECTV's Spaceway F1 broadcast satellite from the Equator. The satellite will be launched on a Zenit-3SL vehicle.
The cost of the U.S. Air Force's Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle program is expected to grow more than 15%, triggering a requirement that the Defense Department formally notify Congress, according to sources. But the increase is not expected to be big enough to invoke a Nunn-McCurdy Act provision that requires a program whose costs jump 25% or more to be canceled or recertified as key to national security.
The U.S. Army is "trying to do the right things to get the capabilities ready for Spiral 1" for the Non-Line-of-Sight Launch System (NLOS-LS) and Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon (NLOS-C), according to Rod Summers, program manager for NLOS-LS. The Army plans to conduct a Spiral 1 assessment of the Future Combat Systems (FCS) technologies in 2008, he told The DAILY on April 19 during a break at the Precision Strike Annual Programs Review 2005 in Crystal City, Va.
The U.S. Defense Department has begun exploring the possibility of developing a joint weapon that could slash the time it takes to deliver munitions to ground targets. With the military already expecting to find ways to speed up the detection of targets and the planning required to strike those targets, a Joint High Speed Weapon (JHSW) might be needed to help ensure that "weapons delivery won't be the long pole in the tent," said Rear Adm. Timothy Heely, the Navy's program executive officer for strike weapons and unmanned aviation.
The Senate Appropriations Committee has moved to make sure the futuristic DD(X) destroyer's next-generation power system remains under development, despite an expectation that land tests this summer instead will use a backup product.
NASA Administrator Mike Griffin told reporters April 18 that he would consider approving the launch of STS-114 over the objections of the Stafford-Covey review panel if shuttle program managers said they were confident of success.
U.S. soldiers overseas need more robots to assist them with scouting, explosive ordnance disposal and identifying improvised explosive devices, according to Col. Bruce Jette (USA-Ret.), former program manager of the Army's Rapid Equipping Force. "Make more robots," Jette told members of industry during the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement's Military Robotics conference in Washington April 19. "We want lots of robots, but we've got to be able to afford them."
