November 6, 2001 McDonnell Douglas Corp., Long Beach, Calif., is being awarded a $19,359,999 firm-fixed-price contract modification. This action modifies the production of 35 C-17 aircraft (lots 13-15) by providing for the incorporation of Terrain Awareness Warning System hardware and software into the aircraft. At this time, $9,560,220 has been obligated. The Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-96-C-2059, P00138).
November 9, 2001 Lockheed Martin Corp., Marietta, Ga., is being awarded a $5,000,000 cost-plus award-fee and firm-fixed-price with economic price adjustment contract modification to provide for fiscal year 2002 engineering manufacturing development effort for the C-5 Avionics Modernization Program. At this time, the total amount of funds has been obligated. This work will be complete November 2001. The Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-98-C-0006, P00041).
NASA has selected 10 scientific investigations for the 2005 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), a spacecraft that will be "the closest thing to being there we're going to get until we land," according to Jim Garvin, NASA's lead scientist for Mars exploration. The MRO will carry six primary instruments that will aid NASA in the search for evidence of water and the investigation of future landing sites on Mars.
November 8, 2001 Lockheed Martin Corp., Sunnyvale, Calif., is being awarded a $7,729,817 cost-plus-award-fee contract modification which provides for award-fee earned for Evaluation Period 18 (March 1, 2001 - Oct. 31, 2001) for performance of Milstar Block II satellite production efforts. The Space and Missile Center, El Segundo, Calif., is the contracting activity (F04701-92-C-0049, P00308).
Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) is getting a seat on the House Armed Service Committee. Miller, whose congressional district includes Pensacola Naval Air Station and Eglin Air Force Base, was recently elected to replace Rep. Joe Scarborough (R-Fla.), who resigned from Congress (DAILY, May 30).
The U.S. Army and Lockheed Martin conducted the first engineering development flight test (EDT) of a Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) rocket Nov. 7 at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. Major test objectives included the successful launch of the missile from the canister, nominal motor performance, tail fin deployment and rotation, as well as telemetry, guidance and control system performance.
READY FOR REDUCTIONS: Two recent Russian launches may be aimed at showing the Pentagon that Russia is in a good position to negotiate warhead reductions. To negotiate strategic reductions, Russia needs to show it has a sufficient inventory of strategic missiles so that it isn't forced to reduce them below START II levels unilaterally, and it needs an early-warning capability, military sources say. Russia launched an RS-18 ICBM from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstant Oct.
SAMBUR CONFIRMED: ITT executive Marvin Sambur has received a congressional thumbs-up to become assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition. The Senate confirmed him late Nov. 8. The Senate also confirmed congressional aide Les Brownlee as undersecretary of the Army, former Energy Department official Mary Walker as Air Force general counsel, and academic Dale Klein as assistant secretary of defense for nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs.
While the Army has now accelerated its Future Combat System (FCS) by two years, the air transport platform of choice remains the C-130 and not a notional Joint Tactical Rotorcraft (JTR), said A. Michael Andrews, the Army's chief scientist and deputy assistant secretary for research and technology. Asked at a Nov. 8 press briefing about the possibility of developing a joint rotorcraft to transport the FCS, Andrews said such an aircraft poses a "difficult problem, both affordability wise, as well as survivability wise."
SATELLITES UP: Wall Street skittishness about investing in satellite companies will change dramatically over the next 12 to 18 months, predicts SG Cowan analyst Manish Thakur. "We are actually now at a historical inflexion point in this industry, where the real industry leaders that up until now have been non-public - Inmarsat, Eutelsat, Intelsat - are finally coming to market," Thakur says.
With chemical propulsion systems rapidly approaching the theoretical limits of their efficiency, NASA scientists are looking ahead to electric propulsion concepts to power long-duration interplanetary missions, where slow and steady acceleration wins the race. The basic principle of electric propulsion is identical to that of traditional chemical rockets, according to Les Johnson, manager of the in-space transportation investment area of NASA's Advanced Space Transportation Program (ASTP) at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
RACE FOR JSF: The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps hope to get their versions of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter before the Air Force gets its version, according to Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Jones. "Without question, the biggest move in the Navy department has been the desire ... to be the first to acquire the Joint Strike Fighter," Jones says. The Air Force is scheduled to be first to get the F-35, the conventional take off and landing (CTOL) version.
Fitch Inc., the international credit ratings agency, upgraded the debt ratings for Lockheed Martin Corp. in a report released Nov. 7. Analysts said the move was based on the company's continued success in reducing debt and its success in obtaining the $18.9 billion contract for the Joint Strike Fighter.
NEGOTIATING TOOL: Ken Vlach, vice-president of the integrated supply chain for Honeywell International's Electrical Systems, says the company is increasingly turning to electronic auctions as negotiating tools in buying equipment from suppliers. "I think we have to recognize that auctions are a fundamental negotiating tool, they're a fundamental productivity tool, and if you want to be in the game, you're going to reach a point when the product becomes close to a commodity, then it's going to be offered in an auction," Vlach says.
The Lead Systems Integrator (LSI) for the concept and technology development phase of the Army's Future Combat System must include a team of companies capable of integrating a variety of technologies and combat systems in time for the Army to field its objective fighting force by the decade's end, senior Army officials said Nov. 9.
ARMS CUTS: The Defense Department has proposed legislation to repeal a law that bars the president from cutting the U.S. arsenal below the START I Treaty level of 6,000 strategic nuclear weapons. Repealing the law "would allow the president to retire the [Air Force's 50] Peacekeeper [intercontinental ballistic missiles] immediately, and make further reductions in U.S. strategic nuclear delivery systems," according to an analysis that accompanied DOD's proposal.
LCA TO FLY: The second prototype of India's indigenously produced Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) is set to take flight by the end of November, according to officials at India's Aeronautical Development Agency. Flight tests on the first LCA prototype were completed earlier this year. While the second prototype will still use U.S.-origin General Electric 404 engines, ADA says it intends to produce the LCA with Indian-made Kaveri engines. The LCA originally involved extensive U.S. cooperation, with U.S. companies providing both hardware and software for the LCA. After the U.S.
The failure of the Commerce and State departments to clearly establish which agency has jurisdiction over sensitive missile technology-related items may be adversely affecting U.S. national security interests as well as the interests of U.S. exporters, according to a report released by the General Accounting Office Nov. 8.
House Science space subcommittee Chairman Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) has asked NASA to outline its plans for the X-37 flight demonstrator now that the Air Force has decided not to spend money on the program, a spokesman for the congressman said Nov. 9. Rohrabacher requested the information in a conversation with NASA officials last month and hopes to get a written response as early as the week of Nov. 12, the spokesman told The DAILY. A NASA spokesman said the agency is still drafting its response.
F-22 COMMONALITY: F-22 contractors are taking pains to ensure that the aircraft's avionics, including the display technology, will remain uniform, according to Ross Smith, co-founder and VP of Sales&Marketing at Quantum3D. "The Air Force wants any F-22 pilot to be able to go to any F-22 and fly it," says Smith. "You have a revision level of avionics that are in the aircraft, just like you have a revision level for tires and jet engines, [so] that they're all uniform, either at the squadron level or above, [and] everything is the same.
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, is proposing to boost spending in the fiscal 2002 defense authorization bill by an additional $32.4 billion to address military shortfalls in such areas as command and control, force protection, intelligence and munitions.
JSF COOPERATION: Lockheed Martin and The Boeing Co. met for initial discussions Nov. 9 on how Boeing might contribute to Lockheed Martin's Joint Strike Fighter program. Lockheed Martin representatives agreed to consider Boeing's participation further, in relation to cost and schedule constraints. The companies plan to meet again, but haven't set a date.
Common standards will be essential if the remote sensing industry is to create comprehensive geospatial maps to aid in homeland defense and counter-terrorism, according to a panel of industry leaders speaking at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington Nov. 8. "It used to be that a picture is worth a thousand words," said Leo Hazlewood, corporate vice president of SAIC Corp. "A fly-over is worth even more than that. Showing people the nature of the terrain they are attempting to monitor or protect makes an enormous impact."
