CHANGING ROLE: The Joint Staff's role in the weapons acquisition system has changed, the Pentagon says. The Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System (JCIDS) now is in effect, replacing the Requirements Generation System. That means that obtaining the Joint Staff's seal of approval for a weapons program has changed from being one of the last steps in the acquisitions process to being one of the first. The process also requires the Joint Staff to identify and describe capabilities gaps in U.S.
The Senate Appropriations Committee has added $202 million to the Coast Guard's $500 million fiscal 2004 budget request for the Deepwater modernization effort, an increase that proponents say is needed to keep the program on track.
VXX STUDY: Sikorsky is delivering a study to the U.S. Marine Corps on how the company's S-92 helicopter could be adapted to serve as a presidential transport, according to S-92 Program Manager Nick Lappos. Competing contractor Lockheed Martin delivered a similar report on the Lockheed/AgustaWestland/Bell Helicopter US101 in June. Sikorsky expects a total buy of up to 23 aircraft in the program, known as the Vertical Lift Aircraft (VXX).
LITTLE IMPACT: A proposed joint venture between BAE Systems and Finmeccanica is unlikely to have a major impact on the defense electronics market, according to defense electronics analyst David Rockwell of the Teal Group. The joint venture is unlikely to affect the U.S. market, Rockwell says, because it's unclear how Finmeccanica can assist BAE Systems with some of its electronics programs. The effect on the European market also is unclear because many European countries have their own suppliers, as France does with Thales, he says.
Contracts for the first satellites to be built for Europe's Galileo satellite navigation system were signed July 11, the European Space Agency (ESA) said. The contracts are for two experimental satellites, forerunners of the system's in-orbit validation phase. One is to be launched in 2005 to secure the frequencies reserved for the Galileo system with the International Telecommunications Union, ESA said.
NEW DELHI - The first two Raytheon AN-TPQ/37 Firefinder weapon-locating radars bought by the Indian army arrived last week aboard a U.S. Air Force C-17. The radars are part of a buy of 12 India made last year (DAILY, April 19, 2002) under a $190 million fast-tracked Foreign Military Sales contract. The contract includes radar sets, AN/VRC-90E SINCGAR radios, generators, communications and Global Positioning System equipment, training equipment and support personnel, an Indian defense ministry official said.
PRAGUE - The Czech Republic will protect its airspace over the next five years with 12 older supersonic fighters and two training aircraft, the government agreed at a meeting on July 9.
The U.S. Defense Department says several of its missile defense and space programs will be delayed or constrained if Congress approves certain proposals that lawmakers are considering as part of the fiscal 2004 defense authorization bill.
The U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) believes several research and development programs related to undersea warfare look promising for further development, according to Rear Adm. John Butler, the Navy's program executive officer for submarines. Most systems being studied relate to the detection and identification of potential threats rather than actual weapons technology, he said. "There are a couple of areas we find promising," Butler told a group of defense reporters in Washington late last week.
CCIS TRIALS: EDO Corp. of New York has completed sea-acceptance trials of its Command, Control and Information System (CCIS) aboard three Norwegian Coast Guard vessels, the company said July 11. The exercises, conducted in June, complete the program's 18-month delivery and acceptance schedule, the company said. A fourth Norwegian ship under contract for CCIS installation is scheduled to begin its modernization in 2004.
BMC2 DELAY: The deadline to submit bids for the Battle Management Command and Control (BMC2) component of the E-10A Multi-sensor Command and Control Aircraft (MC2A) has been postponed about four weeks to Aug. 4, according to U.S. Air Force acquisition documents. The Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., which is managing the contract, has not offered a reason for the delay. The original deadline to respond to the request for proposals was July 8.
July 15 - 17 -- Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, 2003 Unmanned Systems Symposium and Exhibition, Baltimore Convention Center, Baltimore. For more information, call (703) 920-2720, email [email protected] or go to www.auvsi.org. July 15 - 17 -- 3rd Tri-Service Power Expo & Conference, "Power On the Go for Today's Armed Forces," Norfolk Waterside Marriott, Norfolk, Va. For more information go to www.ndia.org.
Second-quarter financial results for most aerospace and defense companies should reflect strong business fundamentals, despite a lack of investor interest in defense stocks, according to financial analysts. The divergence between the defense sector's performance and investor interest is "disturbing" given the high visibility, improving returns and stable cash flow of most of companies in the sector, senior aerospace and defense analyst Christopher Mecray said.
BIG CUTS: Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), a longshot candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, says he would slash defense spending to free up money for education. "We are arming ourselves to the teeth, and we are missing a chance to make sure our children have decent education," Kucinich says. He would kill the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, F/A-22 Raptor, V-22 Osprey, RAH-66 Comanche, Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system, Space Based Infrared System-High (SBIRS-High) and Space Based Radar. He also would significantly reduce spending on shipbuilding.
NEW DELHI - The Indian defense ministry has invited tenders for a transport aircraft for the prime minister, to replacing two aging Boeing 737-200s. This is in addition to the purchase of aircraft for transporting other government leaders. India announced last month it will buy four Embraer Legacy aircraft for that purpose (DAILY, June 27).
PROBABLE CAUSE: With its on-site investigation in Hawaii completed, the NASA five-member Mishap Investigation Board probing the loss of the Helios unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) now is turning its attention to determining the probable cause of the June 26 accident, according to NASA. The 247-foot solar-electric Helios flying wing was performing test flights at the Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai to demonstrate a prototype fuel cell system.
CLASSIFIED EXPERIMENTS: Some of the classified experiments the U.S. Navy will be conducting later this year or early next year with the SSN-23 Jimmy Carter may involve unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs), says Rear Adm. John Butler, the Navy's program executive officer for submarines. The Jimmy Carter, the last of the Seawolf-class submarines, has been redesigned for classified research and experimentation, Butler says. "The Carter has a large open interface available to us. So we'll be looking at things like large UUVs," he says.
CARRIER WORK: Northrop Grumman Corp. will continue pre-system development and design work on the U.S. Navy's future aircraft carrier program, CVN 21, under a $107.6 million contract, the company said July 10. The contract is a modification to a previous contract, bringing the work's worth to $303.5 million, Northrop Grumman said.
The FAA commissioned the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) at midnight on July 9, marking the formal beginning of the agency's effort to enable precise satellite navigation for aircraft flying anywhere in the U.S.
Senior officials with the U.S. and Taiwanese navies have agreed on preliminary plans to design and develop eight diesel-electric submarines for sale to Taiwan. The plans were agreed upon last month when Taiwanese navy officials visited Washington, according to Rear Adm. John Butler, the Navy's program executive officer for submarines. Taiwan must allocate funding for the program before the U.S. Navy will issue a request for proposals (RFP) to U.S. defense contractors to build the submarines, he said.
The Senate Appropriations Committee has added tens of millions of dollars to the Pentagon's fiscal 2004 budget request for the Arrow missile defense system and the Fire Scout unmanned aerial vehicle, but slashed funding requested for the National Aerospace Initiative and the Joint Programmable Fuze.
The U.S. Navy echoed the Air Force July 10 in saying it does not intend to put weapons on the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle, despite an Army general's recent comments suggesting the Defense Department will try to arm the Northrop Grumman-made surveillance aircraft. "At this time, we have no plans to arm the Global Hawk aircraft," a Navy spokesman told The DAILY.
The Army's lead systems integrator (LSI) team of Boeing and Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) has chosen 15 companies to help develop key technologies and systems for the Future Combat Systems program. The new partners will lead a team of about 70 companies in developing key systems during the program's $15 billion systems development and demonstration (SDD) phase. FCS, made up of 18 systems and the soldiers that control them, is a key program in the Army's transformation plans.
