The military space business rollercoaster of recent years may soon disappear as a glut of satellite replacement programs tapers out over the next decade, an industry analyst said Oct. 14. The value of unclassified military space contracts in fiscal 2002 jumped 170 percent over fiscal 2001, according to a new report by the Teal Group. The increase continues a series of up-and-down years for military satellite makers and space services providers.
RAYTHEON CO. will provide AIM-9M Sidewinder missiles to the air forces of Oman, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Czech Republic, the company said Oct. 14. The countries have signed letters of offer and acceptance with the U.S. government, Raytheon said. The missiles will equip Oman and UAE F-16s, and the Czech Republics' L-159 aircraft. The total value of the orders is more than $35 million, according to Raytheon.
The newly-completed fiscal 2003 defense appropriations conference report adds hundreds of millions of dollars to the Bush Administration's budget request to upgrade or refurbish legacy aircraft, including the Air Force B-2 bomber, Army CH-47 helicopter and Navy F/A-18 Hornet. Such increases are not uncommon for a defense appropriations bill, as they not only address unmet military needs but also allow lawmakers to help companies they represent.
Raytheon Co. and Rockwell Collins Inc. were chosen by the Defense Department's GPS Program Office Oct. 14 to develop the next-generation of hand-held Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers. A third competitor, L-3 Communications Corp. subsidiary Interstate Electronics Corp., was eliminated from the competition.
EW TESTING: The Air Force's CV-22 Osprey completed electronic warfare testing in the Benefield Anechoic Facility (BAF) at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., earlier this month, the Air Force said. The Air Force tested the Suite of Integrated Radio Frequency Countermeasures, which includes the radar warning receiver and electronic countermeasures.
The United Kingdom has requested eight MH-47G Special Operations Chinook helicopters, spares and related equipment, which could total $535 million, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) notified Congress Oct. 11. "The United Kingdom needs these helicopters to fulfill its strategic commitments for self-defense/coalition activities and to enhance its military capability," DSCA said in a statement. Boeing Co.'s Philadelphia area rotorcraft unit would be the primary contractor for the sale, DSCA said.
YESTERDAY'S DARPA: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) head Tony Tether says he's making progress in returning his agency to its roots in high-risk, "far side" technologies. As defense science and technology (S&T) budgets declined during the 1990s, "DARPA was being pressured more and more to fill the gap in what I would call the product improvement S&T area," Tether says.
FIRST FLIGHT: Lew Aerospace of Las Vegas plans to fly its Inventus unmanned aerial vehicle for the first time on Oct. 21 from a nearby dry lake bed, the company said Oct. 10. The Inventus System One (S-1) is a reconnaissance system using a flying wing platform, with a maximum loiter time of 30 hours, a range of 2,000 miles and a maximum altitude of 10,000 feet, the company said. The UAV has a single-unit cost of $269,000.
MIDEAST SUPPLIERS: Aerospace and defense industry watchers may want to consider what would happen if relations broke down between Arab states, the United States and the United Kingdom following a war with Iraq, a report from Merrill Lynch says. One result could be that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates would reduce arms purchases, according to senior aerospace and defense analyst Byron Callan. "This might impact Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, who are in the midst of supplying F-16 Block 60 fighters to the UAE," Callan says.
The Federal Communications Commission's action last week to block the acquisition of Hughes Electronics by EchoStar Communications could mean more orders for satellite manufacturers, according to two industry analysts. However, unveiling a new subscriber-based broadband satellite service network might be more difficult for two entities rather than one large one, they said.
COMPANY SPECIFIC: Funding allocations in the fiscal 2004 defense budget should give industry watchers a better feel for which companies are likely to perform well in the long term once the Iraq situation is settled, according to a report from Deutsche Bank. "With this budget, the [Department of Defense] should more clearly hone its transformation initiative and, more importantly, begin to cut back on its acquisition plans in some areas in order to remain on budget in later years," senior aerospace and defense analyst Christopher Mecray says.
NASA'S BOOKS: NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe says the agency's bookkeeping already is showing improvement after the Oct. 1 rollout of a new integrated financial management system at Marshall Space Flight Center and Glenn Research Center. Previously, the most up-to-date financial information available to NASA leadership was data on the previous quarter, O'Keefe says. "There isn't a company [out there] that would survive beyond the next quarter if the best you could do on your actuals was last quarter's returns," he says.
ROUGH LANDINGS: European Space Agency scientists have prepared upcoming space probes for some rough landings, although they still may encounter some surprises, ESA says. The Huygens probe, on its way to Saturn's moon Titan, can withstand temperatures of up to 18,000 degrees Celcius (32,432 degrees Fahrenheit) in front of its heat shield, about three times as hot as the sun's surface.
A new study by Forecast International/DMS predicts military customers will spend some $32.7 billion from 2002 to 2011 on developing and buying airborne and space-based electro-optical systems. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are expected to be one of the largest market segments for electro-optical (EO) systems, according to the report.
NASA is confident it can assuage environmental concerns over nuclear-powered spacecraft by launching them with their reactors "cold" and activating those reactors once in space, according to NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe.
The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS) is searching for a new facility in Mississippi in a move to expand its growing presence in the North American defense market, an EADS spokesman said Oct. 11. "EADS is considering a facility in Mississippi," said EADS North America spokesman Lawrence Stein. "The where, what and when have not been disclosed."
WAR RESERVE: The newly completed $355.1 billion fiscal 2003 defense appropriations conference report does not include the $10 billion reserve fund the Bush Administration requested to continue the war on terrorism into FY '03. Appropriators were reluctant to give the Administration $10 billion with few restrictions on how it could be spent. But some lawmakers have suggested that costs arising from the war on terrorism could be paid for later on with a supplemental appropriations bill.
Following the analysis of its first failed flight attempt last June, NASA's Hyper-X program is planning a different trajectory for its second launch attempt next year that should make conditions less harsh for its modified Pegasus booster vehicle. The 12-foot long X-43A hypersonic demonstrator is a scramjet-powered test aircraft designed for launch from the nose of a modified Pegasus rocket, which boosts it after being released from the wing of a B-52.
Oct. 14 - 18 -- The 9th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems. Lakeside Center at McCormick Place, Chicago, Ill. For more information visit www.itsworldcongress.org. Oct. 15 - 17 -- The Precision Strike Association presents the 2002 Precision Strike Technology Symposium, the Kossiakoff Conference Center, The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md. Email [email protected] or go to www.precisionstrike.org.
ICBM WORK: TRW ICBM Systems, of Clearfield, Utah, was awarded a $233.4 million contract modification to perform the second year of work on refurbishing propulsion systems on all three stages of the Minuteman III, the Defense Department announced Oct. 11. The deal exercises an option for the second full rate year of production on the Minuteman III Propulsion Replacement Program.
