Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.), House Science Committee chairman, said science programs fared "relatively well" in President Bush's fiscal 2006 budget proposal and that he was "especially pleased to see the significant increase proposed for the laboratories at the National Institute of Standards and Technology."
The classified Schriever III space war game, set in the year 2020 and now under way at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., involves a series of events that stress the space architecture, including weapons of mass destruction and access to oil, said Brig. Gen. Daniel J. Darnell, the executive game director. Darnell, commander of the Space Warfare Center at Schriever Air Force Base, Colo., also said lessons from the game, the third in a series that began in 2001, will feed into the Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense Review, due out later this year.
Lockheed Martin Corp. said Feb. 8 that its industry team began cutting steel for the first U.S. Navy Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) on Feb. 1, marking the start of fabrication at shipbuilder Marinette Marine in Marinette, Wis. The group was authorized to move to the construction phase after passing a defense Production Readiness Review on Jan. 14.
LONDON - Does the U.S. Defense Department's selection of a Lockheed Martin-led team to supply the next presidential helicopter fleet signal an opening for European defense companies eager to penetrate the U.S. market?
ARMOR KITS: United Defense Industries Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., will provide a variety of armor kits for U.S. Army combat vehicles under a $30 million contract award, the company said Feb. 8. The contract was awarded by the U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command. United Defense will furnish add-on armor, including side armor and mine armor, for M113 vehicles. The company also will provide transparent armor shields for M113s and Bradley Fighting Vehicles. The work is set to be complete by July 31.
U.S. security forces airmen at Tallil Air Base in Iraq are using Lockheed Martin's miniature unmanned aerial vehicle, Desert Hawk, to gather information and identify threats, the Air Force says. The seven-pound, remote-controlled aircraft, part of the service's force protection airborne surveillance system, has a four-foot wingspan and can fly for about an hour using its rechargeable batteries. It's built from mold-injected expanded polypropylene.
The Army's Tank-Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) is conducting experiments in support of the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) effort in which manned Stryker vehicles work together with unmanned ground and air vehicles in simulated missions.
Almost $5 billion, or 90%, of the increase from President Bush's fiscal 2006 federal information technology (IT) budget request goes to support homeland security, anti-terrorism military operations and expanding health IT, according to Karen Evans, administrator of e-government and IT at the White House's Office of Management and Budget.
A group of leading suborbital space entrepreneurs intends to form an industry federation to develop technical standards and processes to promote the safety and growth of the personal spaceflight industry, the group announced Feb. 8. Individuals involved in forming the Personal Spaceflight Federation include Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites, John Carmack of Armadillo Aerospace, Elon Musk of SpaceX, Jeff Greason of XCOR Aerospace, Peter Diamandis of the X PRIZE Foundation and Mojave Airport Manager Stuart Witt.
CAE Inc. of Montreal has nearly completed the sale of its Marine Controls unit to New York-based L-3 Communications Corp., the company said last week. L-3 is paying $200 million in cash for the unit, which provides automated control systems and training systems for military and commercial ships. The remaining parts of the sale, including L-3's assumption of $41 million in CAE debt, is expected to close in the next few months, CAE said.
Technology services firm Alion Science and Technology of McLean, Va., will provide operational support services to the U.S. Air Force under a five-year, $40 million contract, the company said Feb. 8. Alion will furnish technical and management services to U.S. Central Command Air Forces (USCENTAF) Headquarters at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., and also support USCENTAF's mission requirements in Iraq and Afghanistan.
GOING UP: If Congress approves the $419.3 billion fiscal 2006 defense budget that President Bush proposed Feb. 7, the baseline defense budget will have grown 40% since Bush was in office, Director of the Office of Management and Budget Joshua B. Bolten said Feb. 7. Over Bush's first term alone, the defense budget grew 35%. The baseline budget comparison does not include supplemental spending for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Cubic Corp. of San Diego reported higher sales for the first quarter of fiscal year 2005, but increased investment in new product development drove down earnings, the company said Feb. 8. Sales for the quarter, which ended Dec. 31, rose 11%, from $171 million to $190 million compared with the same period last year. But earnings fell from $7.4 million to $5.2 million, or 20 cents per share compared with 28 cents per share for the same quarter last year, the company said.
NO CONTEST: Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. will not protest the U.S. Navy's presidential helicopter decision, which it lost to the Lockheed Martin-led Team US101. In a Feb. 3 debriefing, the U.S. Navy said the Team US101 "started with an aircraft - particularly the cabin - that more closely met the unique requirements established by the Navy, and that this was the major factor in the decision," Sikorsky said in a Feb. 8 statement.
The Defense Department is proposing to reallocate $161.3 million in fiscal 2005 funds to allow the Air Force to buy 15 more Predator unmanned aerial vehicles and the munitions to arm them, according to documents obtained by The DAILY.
The completion of a study on U.S. Air Force tanker modernization options has been delayed, possibly for months, according to the Defense Department. DOD was planning to give Congress the results of the tanker analysis of alternatives (AOA) by mid-February. But the department ended up canceling those briefings to give the Air Force and RAND Corp. more time to finish the study, DOD spokeswoman Cheryl Irwin said Feb. 8.
The first flight-test of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system has been delayed again because of lingering effects from budget constraints and propellant problems, according to a senior defense official. The test had been scheduled for the January-March quarter and now is slated for the April-June quarter, the official said. The event was delayed earlier from September 2004 to January-March (DAILY, June 7, Sept. 30).
MISSILE PURCHASE: The U.S. Army will receive Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) Block IA Unitary missiles under a $45 million contract awarded to Lockheed Martin Corp., the company said Feb. 7. The contract was awarded by the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command. The work will be done at Lockheed Martin facilities in Dallas and Horizon City, Texas. Delivery is scheduled for 2006.
Plans to develop a standoff jammer for the B-52H bomber are moving ahead with a U.S. Air Force notice that it plans to issue a request for proposals for a lead systems integrator to carry out the pre-system design and development phase of the program. A two-year contract would be awarded in about July, according to a Feb. 4 FedBizOpps notice from the Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. A pre-solicitation conference is slated for Feb. 16-17, the notice said.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is proposing to upgrade three radars to defend the homeland against a short- or medium-range ballistic missile launched from a ship offshore, according to a senior defense official.
