Tanker rebid in summer; more F-35 funds

The Pentagon plans to reopen the competition this summer to replace the Air Force’s fleet of aerial tankers, and Secrtary of Defense Robert Gates still wants to go with one supplier – either Boeing or the Northrop Grumman/EADS North America team. Gates, who announced his proposed fiscal 2010 budget today, also wants to put more money into the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter project. Both projects are important to the Gulf Coast region. The tankers would be assembled in Mobile, Ala., if the Northrop/EADS team wins. Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the designated home of the Joint Strike Fighter Training Center. (Source: Multiple, 04/06/09)

Flight academy aims for funds

PENSACOLA, Fla. - A foundation that wants to build a flight academy at the National Museum of Naval Aviation has raised $17.5 million for the four-story building. Now it’s trying to raise the $8.8 million for equipment. The National Flight Academy is designed as a five-day camp that teaches middle and high school students science and technology in a Navy-themed setting. Some of the most expensive equipment for the carrier-themed facility will be flight simulators. (Source: Pensacola News Journal, 04/05/09) Gulf Coast note: A group in South Mississippi is also raising funds to build a science center, called Infinity, near Stennis Space Center.

Airport eyes new taxi system

NEW ORLEANS, La. - The New Orleans Aviation Board has recruited Dulles Airport Taxi of Virginia to overhaul the taxicab system at Louis Armstrong International Airport. The board has not yet signed a contract. The airport's disorganized network of taxicabs has long been a sore point for the bureau, which often hears complaints from meeting planners and tourists that many of the vehicles are dirty and inconvenient for travel. (Source: New Orleans Times Picayune, 04/04/09)

Murtha, Gates meet to discuss tanker

Rep. John Murtha, chairman of the House defense appropriations subcommittee, met with Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Thursday in an effort to secure Pentagon backing for dividing the $35 billion aerial tanker contract between Boeing Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp. (Source: New York Times, 04/02/09) Gulf Coast note: Northrop teammate EADS North America plans to assemble the tankers in Mobile, Ala., if it wins the contract.

Contractors fret over budget

Defense contractors have converged on Capitol Hill in recent weeks to shore up congressional support for projects, according to Politico. They’re concerned by the pledge by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to reduce military spending. While details of the $534 billion defense budget remain unknown, the ax could fall on some as early as next week. (Source: Politico, 04/02/09) Gulf Coast note: Numerous defense programs impact on the Gulf Coast, which has multiple military bases and defense contractor operations.

Constellation Program cost rises

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The cost of the Constellation Program has gone up, and is likely to keep rising, according to the Orlando Sentinel. The cost and delays may force some rethinking in Washington of America's lunar ambitions and could doom the project as the nation faces an economic crisis and record deficits. (Source: Orlando Sentinel, 04/02/09) Gulf Coast note: Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans and Stennis Space Center in Mississippi are both involved in the Constellation program.

Airport decision expected in May

BATON ROUGE, La. - State leaders will decide by May 1 whether to continue efforts to build a $4.4 billion airport near Donaldsonville. Critics claim the state has spent too much on a 17-year project that has failed to attract private investors. Backers envision an airport with links to water, rail and highways built on a 25,000-acre site. Supporters contend the airport, called the Louisiana Transportation Center, would be the biggest economic development project in state history. Donaldsonville is between Baton Rouge and New Orleans along Interstate 10. (Source: Baton Rouge Advocate, 04/02/09)

EADS launches ad campaign

EADS North America launched an advertising campaign to underscore the company’s role in America’s economy as the largest international commercial customer for U.S. aerospace products. The campaign highlights the $11 billion spent in the U.S. by EADS and its business units in 2008, supporting more than 200,000 American jobs. The initial ad features members of the Mississippi-based American Eurocopter team that produces UH-72A Lakotas. A total of 345 UH-72As are expected to be acquired by the Army through 2016, with nearly 60 of these rotary-wing aircraft already delivered. (Source: EADS North America, 03/31/09) Gulf Coast note: EADS also has an Airbus engineering center and an EADS CASA maintenance center in Mobile, Ala. EADS NA is also teamed up with Northrop Grumman to compete for the aerial tanker project, and plans to assemble them in Mobile if the team wins.

Delta adds flights in Mobile

MOBILE, Ala. - Delta Air Lines will add two more flights to Mobile Regional Airport beginning June 5, bringing its total to nine on weekdays and returning mainline jet service to Mobile for the first time since November. The carrier's total number of seats will increase by just 1.7 percent because Delta will substitute 50-seat regional jets for some of the 70-seat regional jets it is flying. (Source: Mobile Press-Register, 04/01/09)

County moves against city over F-35

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. - Officials in the county where the Air Force plans to locate the Joint Strike Fighter Training Center are taking legal steps to force a city opposed to the center to drop its fight with the Air Force. Okaloosa County commissioners voted Tuesday to initiate the dispute resolution process, the first step for one government agency to sue another in Florida. At issue is Valparaiso’s suit filed Monday against the Air Force seeking to stop the center and its F-35s from locating at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. (Source: Northwest Florida Daily News, 03/31/09)

City files suit to block F-35

VALPARAISO, Fla. - The Valparaiso City Commission filed suit in U.S. District Court Monday seeking an injunction blocking the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Training Center from coming to Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.. It asks the courts to halt all ground breakings, movement of aircraft and personnel, and claims the Air Force violated federal rules by not considering other locations on Eglin that would have less noise impact on Valparaiso. In two related matters, a lawyer told WEAR-TV that a suit will be filed in state court against Valparaiso, claiming a violation of sunshine laws. And Florida Freedom Newspapers reports that the Bay County commission has sent a letter to Air Force Secretary Michael Donley offering Tyndall Air Force Base near Panama City, Fla., as a good location for the training center. That base is losing two F-15s squadrons by the end of 2010. (Sources: Florida Freedom Newspapers, WEAR-TV, WJHG-TV, 03/30/09)

Air show expects 70,000

BILOXI, Miss. – Officials expect as many as 70,000 spectators Saturday and Sunday for the first air show at Keesler Air Force Base since Hurricane Katrina. Thunder on the Bay will include the Thunderbirds, the Air Force flight demonstration team, returning to the Coast for the first time in 15 years. Other military aircraft and stunt flyers will perform during the two-day show. (Source: The Sun Herald, 03/30/09)

Contract: L-3, $11M

L-3 Communications Aerospace LLC, Madison, Miss., was awarded an $11,069,296 time and material contract for aircraft production support. Work is to be performed at Corpus Christi, Texas, with an estimated completion date of January 8, 2010. Corpus Christi Army Depot, Corpus Christi, Texas, is the contracting activity. (Source: DoD, 03/27/09)

Contract: EDO, $49.5M

EDO Corp., Panama City Operations, Panama City, Fla., is being awarded a $49,545,446 contract to provide services and materials for repair, modification, and overhaul of the Organic Airborne Mine Countermeasures System. This procurement is in support of depot level repair, overhaul, and modification of the MK-105 Magnetic Minesweeping Gear, Precision Navigation System, Organic Airborne and Surface Influence Sweep System, and the MH-53 Airborne Mine Neutralization System components. Work will be performed in Panama City and is expected to be completed by March 2014. The Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City is the contracting activity. (Source: DoD, 03/27/09)

Contract: Bates, $20M

Bates Engineers/Contractors Inc., Bainbridge, Ga., was awarded a $20,048,601 contract for the design and build of a Joint Communications Support Element Squadron Facility at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla. Work is to be performed at MacDill with an estimated completion date of June 10, 2012. Corps of Engineers, Mobile District, Mobile, Ala., is the contracting activity. (Source: DoD, 03/27/09)

Lockeed, UF to develop mini satellites

Lockheed Martin has partnered with the University of Florida to develop and launch five miniature satellites to test innovative space concepts. Lockheed will fund $450,000 of research and development projects at the university this year. The satellites will be used to investigate, among other things, miniaturized, space-hardened GPS electronics and state-of-the-art intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities. The satellites, called CubeSats, are cube-shaped, measuring less than four inches per side and operating on a power output similar to a cell phone. The work will complement work of the UF-led Advanced Space Technologies Research & Engineering Center, ASTREC. (Source: Lockheed Martin, 03/26/09) Gulf Coast note: UF has several engineering-related research programs in Shalimar, near Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.; The Institute for Human and Machine Cognition in Pensacola, Fla., is a participating member of ASTREC.

Special Forces groundbreaking held

EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. - An indoors groundbreaking was held at Eglin Air Force Base Thursday for the Army’s 7th Special Forces Group. It was the second groundbreaking in a week following last week’s event for the Joint Strike Fighter Training Center. The 600,000-square-foot campus near Duke Field will include a gymnasium, dining facility and two group headquarters on 500 acres. (Source: Northwest Florida Daily News, 03/26/09)

Murtha develops own defense budget

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Absent a 2010 defense budget from the Pentagon, the chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense has fashioned his own military spending plan. Key elements of Rep. John Murtha’s plan: A new refueling tanker is the top Air Force priority, and splitting the buy between Boeing and Northrop Grumman is his priority. Murtha also wants a second engine option for the Joint Strike Fighter, even if the Air Force doesn’t. (Source: Defense News, 03/25/09) Gulf Coast note: If Northrop Grumman and partner EADS win some of the tanker competition, planes will be assembled in Mobile, Ala.; The Joint Strike Fighter training center is being built at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.

Guard finds support to replace planes

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Senate appropriators offered support for the Air National Guard in its effort to gain new tactical aircraft. Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye told the director of the Air National Guard this week that appropriators will do their best to make sure replacement fighters are in the budget. The Guard uses F-16s and F-15s. The Government Accountability Office reported in January that if the planes aren’t replaced by 2020, 11 of 18 domestic air sovereignty alert sites could be without aircraft. (Source: Aviation Week, 03/25/09)

Orion crew module recovery tested

WASHINGTON, D.C. - A full-scale mockup of NASA's Orion crew module is being tested in water under simulated and real landing weather conditions as part of the Constellation Program designed to return astronauts to the moon and beyond. A Navy-built, 18,000-pound Orion mockup is being tested in a pool at the Naval Surface Warfare Center's Carderock Division in West Bethesda, Md. Ocean testing will begin April 6 off the coast of NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (Source: NASA, 03/25/09) Gulf Coast note: Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans and Stennis Space Center in Mississippi are both involved in the Constellation Program.