President Bush's vision for space exploration is "stalled" in Congress, in part due to a perceived lack of detail and lingering uncertainty over NASA's ability to carry it out, according to a senior Senate staff member. A. John Cullen, senior staff member with the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transporta-tion and a technical consultant on space for Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (D-S.C.), said that despite its promise, the vision remains stalled along party lines.
GENERAL DYNAMICS ADVANCED INFORMATION SYSTEMS will develop improvements to the AN/SQQ-89A(V)15 surface ship sonar system under an $8.9 million contract modification. The contract calls for system engineering, software engineering, integration and test activities to field sonar technologies in U.S. and allied surface ships, the company said. Technologies in the program include automated torpedo detection, sonar performance prediction, active sonar, active displays and integrated training and logistics methodologies.
U.S. forces should rush the delivery of equipment to Iraqi security forces as the war-torn country prepares for a transition of power, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee April 20. Wolfowitz, who testified along with military leaders on defense policy and planning in Iraq and Afghanistan, said the U.S. should accelerate the provision of weapons, ammunition, vehicles and radios to Iraqi security forces.
Former Boeing official Darleen Druyun could receive a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for covering up her job negotiations with a company executive while overseeing a $20 billion negotiation with the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Attorney for the eastern district of Virginia said April 20. Druyun pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy in U.S. District Court and will be sentenced Aug. 6, U.S. Attorney Paul J. McNulty said in a statement.
ROCKWELL COLLINS will provide Block 1 modification upgrades for U.S. Navy E-6B aircraft under a $79 million Navy contract. The program could be worth up to $300 million, the company said. The modification would provide the aircraft with an open-system architecture for mission avionics and would upgrade its primary mission systems, including the Digital Airborne Intercommunication Switching System (DAISS) and the Ultra High Frequency Command, Control and Communications system, Rockwell Collins said.
NASA's long-awaited Gravity Probe B (GP-B) successfully launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., at 12:57:24 p.m. EDT April 19, kicking off an 18-month mission to test unverified predictions made by Albert Einstein. A launch attempt on April 19 was scrubbed three minutes before liftoff when technicians decided there was insufficient time to confirm that the correct wind profile had been loaded aboard the Delta II rocket. The team was holding out for last-minute weather balloon data due to high winds that were observed throughout the countdown.
The most viable way to close the shipbuilding industrial base gap in fiscal 2006 is to add advance procurement money for another DDG-51 surface combatant in the fiscal 2005 budget, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Richard Vortmann, president of the National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO), said at an American Shipbuilding Association (ASA) forum April 20. Doing so would have the U.S. Navy procure 63 DDG-51s instead of the planned 62. General Dynamics' Bath Iron Works, based in Maine, builds DDG-51s.
CUBIC CORP. will supply instructional services and maintenance support for the U.S. Navy's Pioneer unmanned aerial vehicle program. The five-year, $5 million contract will include systems maintenance, operator instruction and classroom instruction for the UAV and its ground control system at Navy Outlying Field Choctaw in Milton, Fla., the company said. The work will be done by Cubic's Worldwide Technical Services Division, part of the Cubic Defense Applications group. "UAVs will play an important role in the future of the U.S.
LOCKHEED MARTIN AND CUSTOM MANUFACTURING & ENGINEERING INC. (CME), a small woman-owned business in St. Petersburg, Fla., have signed a two-year mentor-protègè agreement under which Lockheed Martin will help CME develop an imaging sensor product line. The mentor-protègè program is a U.S. Department of Defense initiative that encourages large companies to share technical expertise and government contracting knowledge with minority and women-owned small businesses.
FORT BELVOIR, Va. - The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program office is exploring the possibility of increasing the number of precision-guided Small Diameter Bombs (SDBs) the aircraft could carry in its internal weapons bays, a program official said April 20. JSF already is slated to carry up to eight SDBs internally, as well as 16 externally, but the program office wants the aircraft to have more firepower when it carries its weapons internally to maximize stealth, said Air Force Maj. Gen. Jack Hudson, who oversees JSF for the U.S. Defense Department.
UCAR TEAM: Raytheon Co. has joined Lockheed Martin's team competing for the Unmanned Combat Armed Rotorcraft (UCAR) program, Lockheed Martin said April 19. Raytheon will develop and deploy sensors and related technologies for the program. A team led by Northrop Grumman is competing with Lockheed Martin for the program. Both were selected to move into Phase II of the program last year, and one is expected to be picked later this year to build a flying demonstrator system.
BAE Systems will build high-frequency transmitters for use in an ionospheric research program, the U.S. Department of Defense said April 19. The company was awarded a $35.4 million delivery order under a previously awarded contract to build transmitters for the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP), DOD said. The transmitters will be installed in the HAARP's Gakona, Alaska, phased-array antenna system.
Airdrome Holdings LLC of of Long Beach, Calif., which builds aerospace tube fittings and components, has acquired AF AEROSPACE LTD. of Rugby, England, the company said. AF Aerospace (AFA) builds pneumatic and hydraulic components for aerospace applications. "Joining forces with AFA ensures that we will meet all the financial strength requirements of our key customers through all types of market conditions," James Eaton, president and CEO of Airdrome Holdings, said in a statement.
SURVIVABILITY SOFTWARE: Lockheed Martin will develop software to boost the survivability of manned and unmanned rotorcraft in combat situations, the company said April 19. The work will be done under a $7.8 million research and development contract from the U.S. Army Aviation Applied Technology Directorate at Fort Eustis, Va.
PRAGUE, Czech Republic - The United States has asked the Czech government not to export a high-tech radar system to China, a source told The DAILY. Last January, the Czech industry and trade ministry granted arms trading company Omnipol licenses to export at least six Vera radar systems worth tens of millions of dollars.
Boeing's X-45A unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) released an inert Global Positioning System-guided Small Smart Bomb April 18, successfully hitting a ground target at the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division Range at China Lake, Calif.
The F/A-22 Raptor remains on track to start a key test phase in about a week and a half, according to a U.S. Air Force official. The upcoming phase, known as the initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E), is projected to begin on or about April 30 with the expected conclusion of "final entry events," including the completion of maintainer and pilot training and the certification to Congress that the avionics software is stable, the Air Force official told The DAILY last week in a written response to questions.
Cost and geography were major factors in Boeing's selection of General Electric and Rolls-Royce engines for the 7E7 Dreamliner, according to aerospace analysts. Earlier this month, Boeing picked engines from those companies over an entry from Pratt & Whitney (DAILY, April 8).
Lockheed Martin issued a broad industry announcement April 16 seeking proposals in connection with the Norwegian New Frigate Offset Program. Lockheed Martin is under contract to Spanish Shipbuilder IZAR to supply the Aegis combat system for the frigates.
The Joint Planning and Develop-ment Office (JPDO) is proceeding "with real alacrity" and will deliver its long-term plan for air traffic modernization to Congress by the end of this calendar year, according to Jeffrey Shane, undersecretary of transportation for policy at the Transportation Department.
An analysis of alternatives (AOA) that focused on the ground moving target indicator (GMTI) of the projected Space Based Radar will figure in SBR concept development contracts awarded last week, according to a U.S. Air Force official. Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman got 24-month, $220 million Air Force contracts for concept development of the projected system on April 16 (DAILY, April 19).
The U.S. Army is looking for a directed energy (DE) weapon or weapons that could be developed relatively quickly to generate more enthusiasm for the technology, according to a service official.
B-2 COATING: Northrop Grumman has for the first time applied a specially formulated coating to an operational B-2 stealth bomber that is intended to reduce its radar signature, the company announced April 19. Known as alternate high-frequency material (AHFM), the coating was developed for application to the aircraft in areas where regular maintenance is performed. The bomber's stealth characteristics require a smooth outer surface without gaps that could reflect radar waves and reveal its position.
