APPLIED TECHNICAL SERVICES CORP., Bothell, Wash. Mike Kelly has joined the company as vice president of sales and marketing. BAE SYSTEMS NORTH AMERICA, Rockville, Md. Walter P. Havenstein has been named executive vice president. CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, Washington, D.C. Amy E. Smithson has been named a senior fellow in the CSIS International Security Program. Frank Verrastro has been named director of the CSIS Energy Program. HITCO CARBON COMPOSITES, Los Angeles
NASA plans to contract with a non-government organization to establish an International Space Station Research Institute. The aerospace agency released a draft statement of work for public comment on Sept. 9 on the institute, which would be a liaison for U.S. science, technology and commercial communities seeking to do research on the station.
The Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) on Sept. 8 awarded General Dynamics Electric Boat a contract modification worth nearly $39.5 million. The contract, which was not competitively procured, calls for Electric Boat to conduct design and development studies and integrate new technologies for testing and deployment aboard existing and future submarines and submarine platforms. Work is to be completed by September 2005.
IDECM WORK: The U.S. Navy has awarded BAE Systems a third low-rate initial production contract for the Integrated Defensive Countermeasure System (IDECM) Radio Frequency Countermeasures system (RFCM), the company said Sept. 9. The $46 million contract marks the last LRIP phase for the AN/ALQ-214(V), BAE Systems said.
PRAGUE - The Czech Republic plans to launch a tender for the modernization of up to 18 of its aging Russian-built Mi-24 combat helicopters before the end of the year, The DAILY has learned. Czech defense officials have spent several years talking with their counterparts in Hungary, Poland and Slovakia about a joint Mi-24 modernization project involving dozens of helicopters, in a bid to extend their operational life by up to 35 years.
A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite was severely damaged Sept. 6 when it toppled over at a Lockheed Martin facility in Sunnyvale, Calif. As the NOAA-N Prime spacecraft was being repositioned from vertical to horizontal on the "turn over cart" at approximately 7:15 PDT, it slipped off the fixture. The 18-foot spacecraft was roughly three feet off the ground when it fell.
The Defense Department is urging Congress to reject proposed funding cuts for several major missile defense and military space programs, saying the reductions would cause significant delays for important new capabilities.
The Navy plans to continue making it a priority for contractors to consider human performance when designing their equipment, according to a senior official with the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA). Those requirements may raise the cost of the equipment initially, but the Navy will save money over the long run through reduced operating and maintenance costs, said Gregory Maxwell, director of NAVSEA's Human Systems Integration directorate.
The Pentagon is nearly finished conducting a review of lessons learned at the operational level in the U.S.-led Iraq war, a top military official said Sept. 9. Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee that the study has been focusing on "what happened in theater" at the level of Army Gen. Tommy Franks, who led the war, and at the levels below him.
Northrop Grumman will continue to support the U.S. Air Force Space Command's Ground-Based Electro-Optical Deep-Space Surveillance System (GEODSS) under a $5.7 million contract, the company said Sept. 9. The company's Information Technology (IT) sector will provide operations, maintenance and support services to the Air Force Space Command, 21st Space Wing, for GEODSS sites at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean and Maui, Hawaii.
All Nippon Airways (ANA) plans to install the Connexion by Boeing mobile Internet service on its long-haul commercial aircraft, Boeing said Sept. 9. Representatives from the companies are defining the levels of service that will be offered and a schedule for the installation. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. "We look forward to bringing the benefits of real-time connectivity to our passengers in the very near future," Shinichiro Ito, ANA's senior vice president for marketing, said in a statement.
Nanoelectronics will be a crucial enabler in the continuing move toward taking human beings out of military vehicles, according to James Murday, chief scientist at the Office of Naval Research. By 2020, it is estimated that computers will have the same processing capacity as the human brain, according to Murday. "How well and effectively we use [that] to accomplish our goals remain to be seen, but there's some dramatic changes [coming]," he said in a presentation at The World Nano-Economic Congress in Washington Sept. 9.
Lockheed Martin may double the price of the $400,000-or-less AGM-158 Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) if Congress approves a proposal to cut the program's budget next year by as much as two-thirds, a top U.S. Air Force official said.
A National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) signals intelligence satellite launched on a Lockheed Martin Titan IVB-Centaur rocket at 12:29 a.m. Sept. 9. The $1.5 billion mission had been delayed by more than 18 months. The event marked the final launch for a Titan rocket using older versions of the Pratt & Whitney RL10 upper stage engine. The Titan IVB includes twin 10,000-pound thrust RL10s, which have been in service since 1974. Previous customers have included two Viking lander missions to Mars, Voyagers 1 and 2 and the Cassini mission.
The U.S. Marine Corps' top leader in Iraq on Sept. 9 rebutted reports that the Raytheon-made Javelin anti-tank weapon caused problems for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Marine Lt. Gen. James T. Conway, who briefed reporters at the Pentagon, said he was aware of the published reports but could find no evidence the Javelin caused problems during the campaign. "We didn't have any problems with the weapon," Conway said.
A 190-foot surveillance airship being tested by the U.S. Navy is making its debut in San Diego before an audience of potential customers in the homeland security market. A commercial Skyship 600B airship, equipped with the Littoral Airborne Sensor Hyperspectral (LASH) system, began a three-month test and demonstration period in Southern California Aug. 29, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) said Sept. 5.
Mobile and stationary test vehicles equipped with an active protection system developed by a United Defense Industries-led team have successfully defeated a variety of attacks with live anti-tank missiles, company officials said Sept. 8. The 20-ton vehicles avoided the attacks by using the Integrated Army Active Protection System (IAAPS), which consists of a "hard-kill" active protection system and a "soft-kill" electronic jamming system.
New warfighting roles for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet are emerging as U.S. Navy operators and Boeing engineers begin experiments on the next generation of cockpit upgrades. Boeing has delivered the first F/A-18E/F with a redesigned forward fuselage that can store and cool the Block II sensor configuration. That configuration includes the more powerful Advanced Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar, tactical data link and the Advanced Crew Station (ACS), a dual-mission attack system designed for the two-seater F model.
NEW DELHI - A team of U.S. Defense Department and Navy officials have arrived here to discuss India's planned buy of eight P-3 Orion maritime surveillance aircraft. The team's visit coincides with the arrival of Israeli Prime Minister Arial Sharon, and sources said the U.S. team also will discuss Tel Aviv's planned sale of Phalcon radars to India, which the U.S. approved last month (DAILY, Aug. 13).
