Blue Angels trim practice

PENSACOLA, Fla. – Because of budget constraints, the Navy is cutting one day of practice for the Blue Angels flight demonstration team. The F/A-18 Hornets will no longer practice on Tuesday, but will continue Wednesday sessions. None of the remaining air show appearances are being canceled. The team is based at Naval Air Station Pensacola. (Sources: Pensacola News Journal, AP via Miami Herald, 05/27/09) Note: After cutting two Tuesday practices, the team later return to a full schedule, according to reports.

Contract: Far East Const., $13.8M

Far East Construction Corp., Pensacola, Fla., was awarded a $13,750,756 contract for construction of parking lots and infrastructure. Buildings to be constructed include the group support battalion logistics, tactical equipment maintenance facility, organization equipment storage facility and more. Work is to be performed in Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., with an estimated completion date of May 22, 2010. Corps of Engineers Mobile Regional Contracting Center, Mobile, Ala., is the contracting activity. (Source: DoD, 05/27/09)

Contract: Broadmoor, $5.9M

Broadmoor LLC, Metairie, La., is being awarded $5,950,000 contract under a previously awarded contract for design and construction of a jet engine maintenance shop addition and an aircraft test cell foundation at Naval Air Station - Joint Reserve Base, New Orleans. Work will be performed in Belle Chase, La., and is expected to be completed by June 2010. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southeast, Jacksonville, Fla., is the contracting activity. (Source: DoD, 05/27/09)

Tanker now in active wing

Boeing says three KC-767J aerial tankers have achieved initial operational capability and are now in an active air wing in the Japanese air force. The tankers were designated operational after a yearlong technical evaluation. A fourth plane will be delivered in the first quarter of 2010. (Source: Boeing, 05/26/09) Gulf Coast note: The KC-767 is expected to compete against the Northrop Grumman/EADS KC-45 for a $40 billion Air Force aerial tanker contract. Northrop hopes to build its planes in Mobile, Ala.

Airports get FAA funds

Mississippi airports will share $4.7 million in grants from the Federal Aviation Administration, according to Sens. Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker. Among them, Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport will get $2.2 million for a covered walkway from the parking area to terminal building. (Source: AP via Sun Herald, 05/27/09)

Eglin fuzed weapon test successful

WILMINGTON, Mass. - Textron Defense Systems said its Sensor Fuzed Weapon smart munition system completed three successful flight tests at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. The tests used SFW units assembled at the new McAlester Army Ammunition Plant in Oklahoma. The Textron SFW, a cluster munition, has a redundant system - three modes - that cause warheads to self-destruct if they fail to find a target or are rendered inactive through the depletion of electrical firing energy after hitting the ground. (Source: Business Wire, 05/26/09)

Bolden nominated NASA chief

Veteran space shuttle commander Charles F. Bolden Jr. has been nominated by President Obama to serve as NASA’s administrator. It's been four months since the departure of former administrator Mike Griffin, a rocket scientist appointed by the Bush administration to oversee the shuttle’s 2010 retirement and development of the Constellation Program, designed to return astronauts to the moon and beyond. (Source: Multiple, 05/23/09) Gulf Coast note: Stennis Space Center in Mississippi and Michoud Assembly Facility and the National Center for Advanced Manufacturing, both in New Orleans, are involved in NASA programs.

Eglin impact study draft ready

The first draft of a study on the compatibility between Eglin Air Force Base and the surrounding communities has been released and a series of public meetings has been scheduled. The study reviews the impact Eglin's mission and the base's projected growth stemming from the Base Realignment and Closure act. Comments from the meetings will be incorporated in the final version expected to be completed by July. (Source: Northwest Florida Daily News, 05/22/09. The study can be accessed at the Daily News web site.)

StenniSphere sports new exhibit

STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss. – The visitor center at NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center, StenniSphere, has unveiled its latest permanent exhibit: Science on a Sphere, a 68-inch global presentation of planetary data of the past, present and future. StenniSphere is the third NASA visitor center to offer Science on a Sphere, a computer system that uses four projectors to show dynamic, revolving, animated views of Earth’s and other planets’ atmosphere, geography and more. Science on a Sphere was developed by NOAA about five years ago. Stennis is the 36th site to house the exhibit. (Source: NASA, 05/23/09)

Jet noise topic of meeting

NICEVILLE, Fla. – Sixty residents attended Eglin Air Force Base’s second town hall meeting to discuss the Joint Strike Fighter Training Center. About a third of Maj. Gen. C. R. Davis' presentation addressed plans to bed down the F-35s at Eglin and the options for noise mitigation. Davis assured the audience that the Air Force was doing all it could to consider ways to decrease noise. He said locating the center at other areas “begging for the airplane” is not an option. (Source: Northwest Florida Daily News, 05/21/09)

Low-flying jet tests radar system

MOBILE, Ala. - A Coast Guard jet made six low passes – 300 to 500 feet – over the Mobile River near Austal USA Thursday, allowing radar tests aboard the littoral combat ship Independence. Austal is part of a General Dynamics Corp.-led team competing to build dozens of the warships. The Independence and a second LCS on order have aluminum trimaran hulls. A team led by Lockheed Martin Corp. delivered the first of its steel-hulled ships to the Navy in the fall and is working on a second vessel. (Source: Mobile Press Register, 05/22/09)

Airport dumps taxi deal

NEW ORLEANS, La. - Just before a federal court was to finish hearing a claim that the New Orleans Aviation Board rigged a competition for curbside taxicab management, airport officials killed the deal and promised to revise their procurement process. (Source: New Orleans Times-Picayune, 05/21/09)

AF likely to get tanker oversight

A Pentagon official said the Air Force is expected to resume control over the aerial tanker competition between Boeing and the Northrop Grumman/EADS team, according to Reuters. The Pentagon chief weapons buyer was given control over the program last summer after auditors faulted the Air Force's handling of the competition. Early this week, Aviation Week reported that the Pentagon had not decided if the Air Force or Pentagon acquisition chief would manage the upcoming competition. (Source: Reuters, 05/21/09) Gulf Coast note: Northrop/EADS plan to assemble the planes in Mobile, Ala., if they win the contract.

TSA gets more Rapiscan scanners

The Transportation Security Administration has awarded Rapiscan Systems a follow-on order of about $3 million for its Rapiscan 620DV Advanced Technology X-Ray scanning systems. The award for the baggage and parcel screening system for airports is one of the first made by TSA that uses economic stimulus funds. Rapiscan, of Torrance, Calif., is a global supplier of security inspection systems. (Source: Business Wire, 05/21/09) Gulf Coast note: Rapiscan has a manufacturing operation - Ferson Technologies/Rapiscan - in Ocean Springs, Miss.

Ares I parachutes tested

The first test of the Ares I rocket’s three main parachutes was completed Wednesday at the Yuma Proving Ground near Yuma, Ariz. The largest rocket parachutes ever manufactured – 150 feet in diameter and weighing 2,000 pounds each – they slow the descent of the rocket's spent first-stage motor, permitting recovery for use on future flights. Ares I, the first rocket in NASA's Constellation Program, is designed to launch explorers aboard the Orion crew capsule on journeys to the International Space Station, the moon and beyond. (Source: NASA, 05/20/09) Gulf Coast note: Stennis Space Center in Mississippi and Michoud Assembly Facility, New Orleans, are involved in the Constellation program.

AF retiring 250 fighter jets

The Air Force announced plans to eliminate some 250 fighter jets – including some from Eglin and Tyndall air force bases in Florida - from its inventory to free up money for next-generation aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles, according to a news release. The move would save $355 million in fiscal 2010 and $3.5 billion over the next five years. The service would retire 112 F-15s, 134 F-16s and three A-10s. Five additional fighter aircraft already had been designated to go out of service in the next fiscal year. Under the proposal, Tyndall Air Force Base would lose 48 F-15s but retain 28 F-22s. Eglin Air Force Base, which is scheduled to become the home of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Training Center, would lose two F-15s and retain five. (Source: Stars & Stripes, European edition, 05/20/09. AF press release)

EADS edges out Boeing

Europe’s multi-country EADS edged out U.S.-based Boeing as the biggest aerospace and defense company in the world in 2008, based on revenues. A study from Deloitte released Tuesday said Boeing had led EADS in 2007, but a strike of machinists in Boeing's commercial division last fall allowed EADS to move ahead. Deloitte's study of 67 aerospace and defense companies or divisions of companies found that European companies grew faster at 9.56 percent in revenue than U.S. firms, which grew at 6.3 percent. (Source: PRNewswire, Defense News, 05/19/09) Gulf Coast note: EADS and Boeing are competing to build the next generation of aerial tanker. Boeing wants to build them in Washington State and EADS wants to assemble them in Mobile, Ala.

Combat controller gets Bronze Stars

HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. - A combat controller was presented with two Bronze Stars with valor during a recent ceremony at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. Master Sgt. Ken Huhman, a special tactics recruiter in San Antonio, received the medals for his actions during a 2007 deployment to Afghanistan while assigned to the 23rd Special Tactics Squadron at Hurlburt Field, Fla. (Source: AFNS, 05/19/09)

F-35 engine completes test

The Pratt & Whitney F135 short takeoff/vertical landing propulsion system exceeded thrust performance expectations in recently completed tests, providing more vertical power than required by the F-35 Lightning II STOVL aircraft. The testing was conducted at a hover pit at Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth, Texas. There are three variants of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, including the vertical takeoff and landing version. (Source: Pratt & Whitney, 05/18/09) Gulf Coast note: Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is to be the home of the Joint Strike Fighter Training Center.

Niceville unit achieves rating

General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems’ Niceville Operations in Florida has achieved CMMI Maturity Level 3 for systems engineering. The Niceville Operation specializes in the design, development and production of warheads for tactical missiles, rockets, ammunition and bombs. The designation means the operation incorporates CMMI best practices into its system engineering processes throughout product life cycles. GD Ordnance and Tactical Systems is a business unit of General Dynamics of Falls Church, Va. (Source: General Dynamics, 05/19/09)