THEY'RE BACK: The House Science Committee on March 17 will consider several reintroduced bills that would try to promote efforts to find near-Earth asteroids, improve the energy efficiency of the U.S. metals industry and strengthen U.S. supercomputing capabilities. The bills - H.R. 1023, H.R. 1158 and H.R. 28 - passed the 108th House in nearly identical form.
Despite having an alternative acquisition strategy, the U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program has built-in checks and balances to protect against wasting money, Army officials assured lawmakers on March 16. FCS, expected to cost $120-128 billion through 2025, is being procured under Other Transaction Authority (OTA), exempting it from Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) rules. Although the Army has incorporated some FAR regulations into FCS, the contract still eliminates the Truth-in-Negotiations Act (TINA) and Procurement Integrity Act (PIA).
Navy Adm. Timothy J. Keating, the combatant commander in charge of U.S. homeland defense, is urging Congress to fully fund a demonstration of the military usefulness of the Missile Defense Agency's unmanned, untethered, long-duration High Altitude Airship (HAA) as part of the command's effort to track airborne threats over the country.
Dan Garey is retiring as vice president of human resources and a corporate officer. He is being succeeded by Dan Serbin. Roger Sherrard has been named Automation Group president. Tom Williams has been elected vice president and president of the Instrumentation Group, succeeding Sherrard.
Several prominent Republican senators from shipbuilding states are promoting legislation to allow the U.S. Navy to use advanced appropriations for shipbuilding and provide $14 billion more in the budget, but another powerful colleague has expressed concern over tying down future budgets.
The U.S. Army received authority from the Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) on March 15 to proceed with low-rate initial production of an undetermined number of new UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters, an Army spokesman told The DAILY. Though the DAB passed the program's Milestone C, "we don't have the acquisition decision memorandum (ADM) yet, which will spell out the numbers for LRIP. The ADM will probably come out sometime next week," the spokesman said.
NASA has consolidated the management of its wind tunnels under a single program manager based at the agency's headquarters in Washington, who will determine which tunnels will be kept open and how they should be managed. NASA is considering a number of options, according to Victor Lebacqz, the agency's associate administrator for aeronautics. The options include shared ownership and pricing, transfer to management by other entities such as the Defense Department, and other modes of operation.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the U.K. Ministry of Defence (MOD) are collaborating on a program to determine the usefulness of unmanned combat air systems within future coalition operations, DARPA announced March 16. The effort began in December and is scheduled to end in July 2009. It will culminate in a demonstration involving live and simulated manned and unmanned vehicles from both nations operating in a coalition warfare exercise.
ROOT CAUSE: Boeing and the Air Force have determined the root cause of the premature engine cutoff that marred the first flight of the Delta IV Heavy rocket in December. The culprit was the tank design in the area of the propellant feed line inlet, which restricted fuel flow and caused a cavitation, or bubble, of gaseous fuel that tricked the engine cutoff sensors into thinking the tanks were dry.
Proposed cuts in NASA's fiscal 2006 aeronautics budget could lead to a serious erosion of U.S. economic and national security, witnesses told House lawmakers on March 16. Over the past decade, funding for aeronautics research at NASA has declined by more than half, to about $900 million a year. For FY '06, the agency is requesting $852.3 million, $54 million less than the FY '05 budget. This level would decline another 20% over the next five years under current plans, as NASA diverts personnel and resources to fulfill its space exploration goals.
HELO DELIVERY: The first of 11 Agusta A109 Light Observation Helicopters worth $72 million will be delivered to Malaysia's military in November, said Abdul Aziz Zainal, the country's military chief. The remaining 10 aircraft will be delivered in stages in 2006. The helicopters were ordered in 2003. Although the Agusta A109s are designed for reconnaissance, Malaysia's military plans to fit them with rocket launching systems, the military chief said.
CONSOLIDATION: Federal civil agency acquisition training will be moved inside defense acquisition facilities, the White House Office of Management and Budget announced March 16. The Federal Acquisition Institute (FAI) will be relocated within the Defense Acquisition University (DAU) at Fort Belvoir, Va.
The U.S. Air Force and Northrop Grumman are coming to terms with cost growth in the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) program that has occurred during the transition to the larger RQ-4B model, according to Northrop Grumman officials.
Testifying before a House Appropriations subcommittee on Capitol Hill March 15, Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R-Mich.) asked appropriators to fully support the Bush Administration's $3.6 billion fiscal year 2006 budget request for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Lockheed Martin, having completed the critical design review of the new radar for the Navy/Northrop Grumman E-2D Advanced Hawkeye aircraft (DAILY, March 15), is beginning to build the first engineering design model of the radar, officials of the company said. Northrop Grumman will use two such models, as well as four preproduction radars, for qualification, reliability and flight-testing.
The head of Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Ships Systems unit on March 15 called on U.S. political and military leaders to establish a "national commitment" for future shipbuilding so that the industry can "right-size" itself and plan investments and training. "The future of shipbuilding in the United States requires a national commitment," Rear Adm. Philip A. Dur (USN-Ret.), Northrop Grumman corporate vice president, told reporters in Washington. "What we can't live with are constant changes and forecast requirements."
The U.S. Defense Department's Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system has made significant progress over the past year but needs to undergo more testing to prove it can defend against long-range ballistic missiles, the Pentagon's top weapons tester said March 15. "I don't think you can say the system is operationally ready today," said David Duma, DOD's acting director of operational test and evaluation.
STRIKE ENDS: Union workers who build the F/A-22 Raptor and C-130J Super Hercules at Lockheed Martin's Marietta, Ga., plant approved a new labor contract with the company March 15, ending a week-old strike. The walkout had come at a sensitive time for both aircraft, which are under threat of Pentagon cuts.
GETTING ADVICE: Senate and House Democratic leaders Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on March 15 announced the formation of a national security advisory group to advise congressional Democrats on defense and national security policy. Former Defense Secretary William J. Perry leads the group. "Although the Democratic leadership of the Congress is convening this group, we have made it clear to Dr.
Research and engineering firm Science Applications International Corp. of San Diego has completed its sale of communications software subsidiary Telcordia Technologies Inc. to Providence Equity Partners and Warburg Pincus for about $1.3 billion in cash, SAIC said March 15. The sale of Piscataway, N.J.-based Telcordia was first announced in November (DAILY, Nov. 19). "The sale will strengthen SAIC's balance sheet and better enable us to pursue more focused strategic initiatives," Ken Dahlberg, SAIC chairman and CEO, said in a statement.
As the U.S. Navy moves into buying practically all-new kinds of ships, the service is changing its contracting practices to try to control costs and budget better, but not as much congressional investigators would like, a new report said.
The U.S. Army is dropping plans to develop a mobile version of the Tactical High Energy Laser (MTHEL) but remains "very serious" about exploring directed energy weapons, a service official said March 15.
