Fiscal year 2003 budget request The fiscal year 2003 budget request released Feb. 4 by the Administration included status reports on selected programs. This report covers some of NASA's programs. Source: Budget of the U.S. government. Program Assessment Explanation Discovery and Effective Space science missions Explorer Programs competitively selected from
GLOBAL HAWK: Northrop Grumman Corp. will provide two low-rate-initial-production Global Hawk air vehicles under a $101 million Air Force contract, the company announced Feb. 5. The mission control element will be completed in June 2003, followed by the first air vehicle in September. The second air vehicle is scheduled to be completed in December 2003.
Although science and technology funding as a percentage of the overall Department of Defense budget inched up from 2.65 to 2.68 percent, most of the increases were for DOD-wide programs, according to DOD budget documents. The Administration has said that eventually it wants to have 3 percent of the defense budget dedicated to science and technology programs, but this year's science and technology budget is only "a slight increase" a senior defense official told reporters at the Pentagon Feb. 1.
Transforming the U.S. military to meet the new threats of the information age will require a shift in how companies view and manage risk, Adm. Arthur Cebrowski, director of Force Transformation, said Feb. 5.
One of Britain's five operational Tornado F.3 air defense squadrons, which has been on alert to protect London since Sept. 11, will be disbanded by January 2002 due to a shortage of fast-jet pilots, according to the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence. The MOD said other quick-response aircraft would be positioned at an air base near London in place of No. 5 Squadron, which is based at Coningsby, in Lincolnshire.
The Bush Administration should spell out how it proposes to spend the $10 billion war reserve fund it has requested as part of its $379 billion fiscal 2003 defense budget, according to Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee. In a statement on the Feb. 4 release of the Administration's budget, Skelton said Congress should have a say in how the contingency fund is spent. "Instead of expecting a blank check, the Pentagon should present Congress with a well thought out proposal," Skelton said.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration - FY 2003 budget request (in millions) 2001 Estimate Actual 2002 2003 Spending: Discretionary Budget Authority: Human Space Flight 7,198 6,797 6,173 Space Shuttle 3,119 3,273 3,208 Space Station 2,128 1,722 1,492
NASA will move space shuttle orbiter major modifications (OMM) work from Boeing's Palmdale Manufacturing Facility in California to Florida's Kennedy Space Center, the aerospace agency announced Feb. 5. The Palmdale facility has been the manufacturing site for all orbiters, and the primary location for periodic maintenance and upgrades, since the shuttle program began. However, when shuttle Discovery enters its periodic structural inspection and maintenance period early this spring, the work will be done at KSC.
The Central Intelligence Agency says the chance of a surprise attack by weapons of mass destruction is increasing. Proliferation of such weapons, according to a new report from the agency, "continues to change in ways that make it more difficult to monitor and control, increasing the risk of substantial surprise." The unclassified report on chemical, nuclear, biological and radiological weapons is the latest edition of a study released every six months at the request of Congress. It covers the period Jan. 1 to June 30, 2001.
The goal of the Air Force and NASA combining forces to field an operational reusable launch vehicle (RLV) system by 2006 is "too ambitious," according to Brett Alexander of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. In October, then-NASA Administrator Dan Goldin commissioned a 120-day study, scheduled for completion this month, to determine the feasibility of such a joint project (DAILY, Jan. 25).
The U.S. Navy plans to buy fewer Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and ships in fiscal 2003 than it would like because of the urgent need to reduce shortfalls in its readiness accounts, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) Feb. 5.
LOWERED RATINGS: Standard&Poor's lowered its ratings on the Boeing Co. and Boeing Capital Corp. on Feb. 5 and removed them from CreditWatch. The ratings service said the downgrades "reflect significantly weaker commercial aerospace intermediate-term business prospects" due to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and "a soft global economy."
Congress cut the Bush Administration's fiscal 2002 procurement request for the Air Force C-5 Galaxy by $70.5 million to reflect development delays in the cargo jet's Avionics Modernization Program (AMP). The reduction is in the FY '02 defense appropriations act, which Congress approved in December and President Bush signed into law in January. In light of the development delays, lawmakers sought to reduce program risk by cutting procurement before the completion of flight testing.
An article about the Navy's fiscal 2003 budget request that ran in some issues of the DAILY's Feb. 4 special report contained the wrong number referring to Applied Research and Advanced Technology Development accounts. They will decline by almost $450 million, according to budget documents. The story about the overall DOD request also had an incorrect figure. It should have said the budget contains $68.7 billion for procurement.
CHILE F-16s: Chilean officials signed a letter of offer and acceptance for 10 F-16C/D aircraft on Feb. 2, according to F-16 maker Lockheed Martin Aeronautics. Chile had announced its selection of the F-16 to modernize its air force last year (DAILY, Jan. 5, 2001). The sale is worth $500 million, according to the company. The aircraft will be delivered between mid-2005 and mid-2006.
With the Pentagon committed to using realistic costs estimates for its weapons programs, senior Defense Department officials are warning service officials that they also must use better cost estimates or risk having their programs cancelled. In the fiscal year 2003 budget request submitted to Congress Feb. 4, the Pentagon has added $3.7 billion to account for more realistic cost estimates of weapons systems, DOD Comptroller Dov Zakheim said Feb. 4 at a Pentagon briefing.
January 29, 2002 TRW Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) Systems, Clearfield, Utah., is being awarded a $9,224,816 (estimated) contract modification to provide for the Central Data Acquisition and Analysis System Replacement Program on the ICBM Prime Integration contract. At this time, $8,464,758 of the funds has been obligated. This work will be complete December 2005. The Ogden Air Logistics Center, Hill Air Force Base, Utah, is the contracting activity (F42610-98-C-0001). January 30, 2002
Some members of Congress said Feb. 4 that the Bush Administration's fiscal 2003 defense budget does not do enough to reduce shortfalls in military modernization and readiness.
The President's fiscal year 2003 budget request for NASA, released Feb. 4, cuts the budget for human spaceflight from $6.83 billion in fiscal year 2002 to $6.13 billion, while boosting funds for science, aeronautics, and technology research to $8.84 billion from the previous year's $8.05 billion.
