A group of U.S. supplier companies has stepped up its efforts in recent weeks to derail provisions in the House fiscal 2004 defense authorization bill that would place new restrictions on the Pentagon's use of foreign sources. More than 60 members of the Aerospace Industries Association's Supplier Management Council visited 38 House and Senate offices in July to urge bipartisan resistance to the so-called Buy American provisions, AIA revealed late last week.
NEW DELHI - Pakistan has scheduled the first flight test of its JF-17 Thunder aircraft for the week of Sept. 1, said a diplomat with the Pakistani embassy here. The JF-17, previously known as the Super-7, is being built by the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex and China's Chengdu Aircraft Co. It is intended to replace Pakistan's aging fleet of Mirages, F-7s and A-5s, the diplomat said.
SHUTTLE HEARING: The Senate Commerce Committee is moving up its first hearing on the final report of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB). Instead of Sept. 16, as previously announced, the hearing now will be held Sept. 3. A witness list was being developed at press time. The House Science Committee is scheduled to hold its own first hearing on the CAIB report on Sept. 4, with testimony from board Chairman Harold Gehman.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency has delayed the initial fielding of the terrestrial version of the Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI) by two years because it now appears that developing the anti-missile system will be more technologically challenging than originally thought, according to a Defense Department official.
AGING STRATEGY: The Joint Council on Aging Aircraft (JCAA) is developing a "national strategy" for combating age-related wear on aircraft, according to JCAA Chairman Bob Ernst of Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR). The strategy will be presented at the 7th Joint DOD/FAA/NASA Conference on Aging Aircraft, which will take place Sept. 8-11 in New Orleans. The JCAA is finding out "what's being done and what's not being done ... so we can see where our gaps are," Ernst says.
The idea of a submarine-launched intermediate range ballistic missile is being studied by the Navy's Strategic Systems Programs (SSP) unit. SSP wants industry input on such a weapon by Sept. 16, according to an Aug. 26 FedBizOpps notice. Conventional and nuclear payloads should be considered, the notice says.
The Department of Defense (DOD) completed the one-day Quantum Leap 1 demonstration on Aug. 27, the first in a series intended to evaluate web-enabled network-centric warfare (NCW). The live demo took place simultaneously at the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) in Falls Church, Va., the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center (SPAWAR) in Charleston, S.C., and the McKenna Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT) Site at Fort Benning, Ga.
Sept. 4 - 5 -- DoD Training Transformation Technologies: Developing, Distributing & Assessing Joint Knowledge, Hilton Alexandria Mark Center, Alexandria, Va. Call (703) 247-9471, fax (703) 243-1659, email [email protected] or go to www.trainingsystems.org/events. Sept. 8 -- Long Island Technology Day, Northrop Grumman, Long Island, New York. For more information call Margaret Gilmartin at 516-575-4334.
HILL BILLS: After a month-long recess, Congress returns the week of Sept. 1-5 to try to finish the year's legislative business, including the fiscal 2004 defense authorization, defense appropriations and intelligence authorization bills, each of which is before a House-Senate conference committee. Lawmakers have further to go on the FY '04 NASA appropriations bill. The House has approved its version of the NASA bill, but the Senate Appropriations Committee has yet to begin action on the legislation.
NEW DELHI - Indian officials are balking at Washington's request to inspect any P-3 Orions that Lockheed Martin may sell to India, and may instead choose to produce ATR-42MP maritime surveillance aircraft under license from Italy's Alenia Aeronautica.
INTEGRATION: Former Teledesic executive Craig McCaw probably is reviewing ways of integrating the satellite networks of ICO Global Communications with Globalstar, according to Phil McAlister, director of space and telecommunications for Futron Corp. McCaw and a team of international investors brought IC out of bankruptcy in May 2000. Globalstar, another mobile telecommunications provider, filed for Chapter 11-bankruptcy protection in February 2002. ICO gained a controlling interest in Globalstar in April 2003.
The U.S. Air Force has awarded a series of contracts to press development of a family of aircraft engines that would have 10 times the performance and be 10 times more affordable than current engines. Airframers as well as engine companies are involved in the 15-year effort, a significant departure from earlier programs in which collaboration was not emphasized.
The Aerospace and Aircraft Maintenance unit of 3M became a division last week, largely due to the amount of business being generated by the company, 3M officials said. Aerospace and Aircraft Maintenance previously was designated as a department, a smaller unit in 3M's organizational hierarchy.
NASA's troubled space shuttle program is the subject of two studies by the General Accounting Office, The DAILY has learned. One study, requested by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.), is looking at the impact of the shuttle fleet's grounding on the International Space Station.
ARV OPTIONS: The U.S. Army and its contractors for the Future Combat Systems program will study over the next six to 12 months which capabilities should be incorporated into its Armed Reconnaissance Vehicle (ARV). Currently, two variants are planned, one for assault and one for reconnaissance. But Boeing FCS program manager Dennis Muilenburg says the Army and its contractors are considering whether to combine both capabilities in one vehicle.
F/A-22 ENGINE BUY: The U.S. Air Force intends to award Pratt & Whitney of East Hartford, Conn., a contract for 48 new F119 low-rate initial production (LRIP) Lot 5 aircraft engines, along with field support and training. Deliveries will begin in Feb. 2006 at a rate of four a month. "Pratt & Whitney ... is the only known firm with the knowledge, experience, and technical data to integrate the F119 Engine without substantial duplication of effort and cost to the government, and unacceptable delays in meeting the Air Force requirements," the Air Force says.
TRANSPONDERS: Herley Industries will supply AN/DPN-90 C-band transponders to Naval Air Systems Command Weapons Division under a $9.4 million contract, the company said Aug. 20. The radar-tracking transponders, to be supplied over the next seven years, are used in aerial weapon systems training and target operations.
NOT ADEQUATE: The U.S. Air Force should modify its Security Assistance Management Information System to avoid selling classified or controlled spare parts to countries not eligible to receive them, the General Accounting Office says in a new report.
LICENSED PRODUCTION: India again is seeking to build tactical air-to-air missiles under licenses from companies in France, Israel and Russia, to cut down on its imports of missiles. The defense ministry has sent letters to France's Thales, Israel's Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) and Elbit Systems and Russia's Irkutsk seeking licensed production of missiles to arm its fighters and helicopters. India is assuring the countries that it will pay royalties on the weapons and will not export them.
Boeing has been picked to build the U.S. Air Force's 250-lb. class precision guided Small Diameter Bomb (SDB), beating out rival Lockheed Martin for the work, which could be worth about $2.5 billion over 15 years, the Air Force announced Aug. 28. Marvin Sambur, the assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, said Boeing's McDonnell Douglas subsidiary will get the $188 million system development and demonstration contract for the program.
Space analysts predict no sweeping changes in NASA's relationship with its contractors in the wake of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) report, although they agree the agency will have to increase its active participation in day-to-day shuttle operations. Faced with shrinking budgets, NASA in the mid-1990s partially consolidated its 86 separate space shuttle contracts under one contract - the Space Flight Operations Contract (SFOC) - as a means of controlling costs.
