Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and ranking Republican John Warner (Va.) urged the Bush Administration's nominee for Air Force acquisition chief to seek more funding for unmanned aerial vehicles. During an Oct. 11 nomination hearing for ITT executive Marvin Sambur, who has been tapped to be assistant Air Force secretary for acquisition, Warner specifically encouraged him to push for unmanned combat systems in the Pentagon budget process.
AVIATION OPEN: The 14th Annual Greater Washington Aviation Open, the largest aviation golf/tennis charity event in the Washington, D.C. area, will be held Monday, May 6, 2002 at Indian Spring Country Club in Silver Spring, Md. At this year's tournament, $83,000 was raised for the Corporate Angel Network, bringing the total raised by the GWAO to over $546,000. Contact Paul Bollinger at 703-684-2700.
PENGUINS ARRIVE: The first operational Penguin Mk 2 Mod 7 anti-ship missiles were delivered to the Royal Australian Navy Oct. 10 by Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace and its Australian industry partners. They will be fitted to the navy's Super Seasprite helicopters.
The Boeing Co. plans to unveil its first modified 747-400 Freighter for the Air Force Airborne Laser program during a Nov. 10 ceremony at the company's military facilities at McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, Kan. The event is expected to draw 2,000 people, including representatives of the military, elected government, the aerospace industry and the news media. Boeing will roll out a plane that looks like a completed ABL from the exterior.
JACOBS ENGINEERING GROUP INC. of Orlando, Fla., announced that a company subsidiary has been selected by NASA to design a propulsion research laboratory at the Marshall Space Flight Center, Ala. The company did not disclose the contract value. Jacobs will provide architectural and engineering design services for the laboratory, which will support the aerospace agency's development of advanced Earth-to-orbit and in-space propulsion technologies. Jacobs will design a multi-function Propulsion Research Laboratory (PRL).
LOCKHEED MARTIN SPACE OPERATIONS has assumed responsibility for the Kennedy Data Network at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., under the Consolidated Space Operations Contract (CSOC). The transfer of authority to CSOC is the first phase of CSOC's Option 3, which consolidates the KSC communications infrastructure for the NASA KSC Spaceport Services organization. NASA awarded Lockheed Martin the $3.6 billion CSOC contract in 1998 as a way to combine NASA-wide space operations work.
Eaton Corp. will build the hydraulic power generation system for Airbus Industrie's A380, a contract with a potential value of $200 million over the next two decades, the company announced Oct. 10. Work under the contract will be done at the company's California, Michigan and Mississippi aerospace units. The A380 hydraulic system will incorporate Eaton's 5,000 psi fluid power technology.
AAR Corp. announced Oct. 10 that it has received more than $16 million in U.S. military orders since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The company, based in Wood Dale, Ill., provides inventory management and logistics support services, such as the supply, repair and manufacture of spare parts and systems, to military and commercial customers. Company officials said recent orders, valued at about $11 million, have been placed for various types of containers, shelters, and integrated command posts.
The U.S. military will spend more than $2 billion by the end of the decade to buy airborne radio communications equipment for the services, according to a report from Forecast International Inc. That is more than double what will be spent in the next five years. The increase will be due primarily to the procurement of radios for the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) and the Multifunctional Information Distribution System (MIDS), according to defense electronics analyst Mark Cowell.
A serious lack of resources - both financial and human - is hampering research that could defend against attacks on the nation's computer-dependent infrastructure, according to a panel of computer experts testifying before the House Science Committee Oct. 10. The Internet already plays a crucial role in linking critical infrastructure networks, thus making them highly attractive targets for attack, according to the panel.
SPAR AEROSPACE LTD. of Toronto will support 32 Canadian Forces CC-130 Hercules aircraft under a new $16 million contract, the company announced Oct. 10. The work will include engineering support and maintenance, repair and overhaul. Work will be done at Spar's Edmonton, Alberta facility
Following meetings held Oct. 1 between senior U.S. officials and Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kavan, the Czech government may be stepping up efforts to export its L-159 subsonic ground-attack aircraft. The L-159 - a global trainer and light attack aircraft - is produced by Czech aircraft manufacturer Aero Vodochody S.A. The aircraft was designed to meet the requirements of the Czech air force as both a fighter and sub-sonic attack trainer.
SWALES AEROSPACE of Beltsville, Md., which provides satellites and associated flight hardware, has acquired a substantial part of the plant, and contracts backlog, of Dynatherm Corp. That company, based in Hunt Valley, Md., is a global supplier of aerospace thermal management systems. The staff and assets of Dynatherm will be integrated into Swales' Beltsville facility. Swales said the acquisition will strengthen its position in the spacecraft thermal management systems market.
U.S. air strikes over Afghanistan continued for a third straight day Oct. 9, but the number of targets were reduced significantly compared with the first day of strikes, according to information provided by the Defense Department. Six targets were hit Oct. 9, using five to eight land-based bombers and eight to 10 naval strike aircraft, according to an official release issued Oct. 10 by the Pentagon. This is down from the 31 targets hit Oct. 7 and 13 targets hit Oct. 8.
STAR ONE, a Brazilian satellite operator, has selected France's Alcatel Space to build a new regional telecommunications satellite system in the Ku-band for Latin America. Based on a SpaceBus 3000B3 platform, the satellite will be delivered in 27 months and positioned at 67 degrees west longitude. It is the first of a series intended to provide multimedia and high-speed Internet capacity to South America.
The Brazilian air force is set to begin a series of meetings at the end of October with companies competing for Brazil's $300 million P-3 fleet modernization program, according to Brig. Gen. Fernando Cima, chief of program and projects at the Brazilian Aeronautics Ministry. Italy's Alenia, the European consortium EADS and Lockheed Martin of the U.S. are competing for the contract to upgrade about 12 of Brazil's P-3 maritime patrol and antisubmarine aircraft.
FAIRCHILD SEMICONDUCTOR INTERNATIONAL of South Portland, Maine, has licensed the processing technology to manufacture micro-electro mechanical systems (MEMS) from the Sandia National Laboratories. The company will offer the technology to third parties and will use it for new in-house product development. The company licensed Sandia National Laboratories' Sandia Ultra planar Multilevel MEMS Technology (SUMMiT) IV technology, which it described as the world's most capable micro-machining process.
The U.S. Air Force has purchased two Raytheon Co. Enhanced High Band Subsystems, plus spares, to upgrade two EC-130H Compass Call jamming aircraft, Raytheon announced Oct. 10. Compass Call aircraft can suspend enemy air defenses by blocking their defense systems, while collecting information about the enemy at the same time. The Enhanced High Band Subsystem increases the Air Force's ability to process the information the airplanes gather.
Two U.S. defense electronics firms - Raytheon Co. and L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. - are likely to benefit from the increased public support for defense spending, according to a new report by Salomon Smith Barney, the investment banking arm of Citigroup. Munitions maker Alliant Techsystems (ATK) is also expected to do well, according to the report.
Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) is urging Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to stop delaying the design contract award for the DD-21 next generation destroyer now that the Defense Department has finished the 2001 Quadrennial Defense Review. In a letter dated Oct. 1 and sent to Rumsfeld Oct. 4, Snowe wrote that the QDR reinforces the need for the DD-21 by concluding that the U.S. military should have new capabilities and must maintain a sizeable and dominant surface force. DOD released the congressionally mandated report Oct. 1.
INTELLIGENCE POST: House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence ranking Democrat Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) was chosen by her colleagues Oct. 10 to replace Rep. David Bonior (D-Mich.) as House minority whip in January, but a Pelosi spokesman had "no comment" when asked whether she will keep her intelligence post. House rules would not force her to give up the intelligence job, but being whip, the No. 2 House Democratic leadership post, is a time-consuming assignment. Bonior is stepping down to run for governor.
Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport is studying the idea of immediately grounding all flying aircraft when a hijacking or other act of terrorism occurs. Aircraft would be directed to land at the nearest airport through computer instructions. The current air traffic control system sends out landing instructions on an aircraft-by-aircraft basis, giving enough time for second or third hijackings to occur before all planes are down, according to the ministry.
RS Information Systems of McLean, Va., will provide engineering and technical services for the Coast Guard's Aircraft Repair and Supply Center in Elizabeth City, N.C., the company announced Oct. 10. The company will operate and maintain all of the aviation information systems used for the logistics and maintenance support of more than 200 Coast Guard aircraft at 25 air stations in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. The five-year contract is worth $17.8 million.
Austria's ministry of defense released its long-awaited Request for Proposals Oct. 10 for the air force's $1.6 billion fighter modernization program. The Austrian government has formally requested written proposals from Lockheed Martin for the F-16, Boeing for the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet, France's Dassault for the Mirage-2000, the European consortium EADS for the Eurofighter Typhoon, and Gripen International for the JAS-39 Gripen.
Nanogen Inc. will develop miniaturized electronic devices for isolating and detecting biological warfare agents from human blood samples under a three-year, $1.5 million Army grant. The San Diego-based company will use its electronic microarray technology for the work, according to company CEO Randy White. No live micro-organisms associated with biological agents will be analyzed or handled at the company's facilities. The work will be overseen by the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease at Fort Detrick, Md.
