Contract: Boeing, $6.8M

Boeing Co., St. Louis, Mo., was awarded a $6,760,660 contract which will provide fiscal 2010 and fiscal 2011 option year sustaining support to the Lot 6 production contract. At this time, $3,371,832 has been obligated. 681 ARSS/PK, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity (Source: DoD, 04/30/10)

Contract: Raytheon, $53.1M

Raytheon Co., Tucson, Ariz., was awarded a $53,100,000 contract which will provide for the engineering and manufacturing development for the Miniature Air Launched Decoy-Jammer. This includes the associated engineering, program management, supportability, mission planning, modeling and simulation, hardware fabrication, production readiness, software and testing. 692 ARSS/PK, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity (Source: DoD, 04/30/10)

Joint F-35 EW squadron set up

EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. - The squadron serving as the sole Department of Defense provider of electronic warfare support for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter activated April 23 in a ceremony at Eglin. The 513th Electronic Warfare Squadron stood up as a first step toward preparing airmen, sailors and Marines with the latest electronic warfare data for all three variants on the F-35. The squadron, which currently has 32 technicians and engineers, will grow to 130 personnel at full strength and will operate the $300 million United States Reprogramming Laboratory, which tests all aspects of the Joint Strike Fighter's electronic warfare capability. Half will be airmen and half Navy and Marine personnel. Eglin is the home of the JSF training center. (Source: Eglin Air Force Base, 04/29/10)

FEMA chief visits Hurricane Hunters

KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. - Craig Fugate, who was appointed last year to head up the Federal Emergency Management Agency, visited the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron Hurricane Hunters at Keesler Air Force Base Thursday. He saw the C-130Js and got an update of the squadron's missions. The hurricane season begins June 1. (Source: Sun Herald, 04/29/10)

Blue Angels name 2011-12 leader

PENSACOLA, Fla. - The Navy's Blue Angels flight demonstration team announced the commanding officer for the 2011 and 2012 teams will be Cmdr. David E. Koss. He was chosen by a panel of admirals and former Blue Angels. Koss is commanding officer of Strike Fighter Squadron 14, the "Tophatters." The Blue Angels are based at Naval Air Station Pensacola. (Source: NNS, 04/29/10)

Keesler gets new medical group leader

KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. - Brig. Gen. Dan Wyman passes leadership of the 81st Medical Group to Brig. Gen. Kory Cornum during a change of command ceremony at 9 a.m. Friday in front of Keesler Medical Center. Wyman will become the command surgeon for Air Combat Command at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. Cornum comes to Keesler after serving as ACC command surgeon since 2007. Wyman assumed command of the 81st Medical Group in June 2008 following a two-year tour of duty as command surgeon of Pacific Air Forces and 13th Air Force surgeon at Hickam AFB, Hawaii. (Source: Sun Herald, 04/28/10)

Contract: Satterfield, $22.5M

Satterfield & Pontikes Construction Inc., Houston, Texas, is being awarded a $22,540,000 firm-fixed-price contract for construction of a 202-room combat systems officer bachelor housing at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla. Work is expected to be completed by June 2012. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online Web site, with 21 proposals received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southeast, Jacksonville, Fla., is the contracting activity. (Source: DoD, 04/27/10)

NG picks Virginia for HQ

Northrop Grumman will locate its new corporate office in Virginia, ending a search that also included the state of Maryland and the District of Columbia. Northrop Grumman is negotiating with several building owners in the Falls Church/Arlington area. The company expects to initiate operations in the new corporate office in the summer of 2011 with about 300 people. The move of corporate headquarters from Los Angeles to the Washington area is designed to let the company be closer to its primary customer, the Pentagon. Northrop Grumman has 120,000 employees and is involved in the aerospace, electronics, information systems, shipbuilding and technical services sectors. (Source: Northrop Grumman, 04/26/10) Gulf Coast note: Northrop Grumman has a major presence on the Gulf Coast, including shipyards and an unmanned systems center.

Italian military gets F-35 training update

EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. - Representatives from the Italian air force and navy visited the 33rd Fighter Wing recently to check the progress of the first F-35 integrated training center and learn more about this new coalition venture. "A lot of work has been done. A lot of work has to be done," said Rear Adm. Paolo Treu, director of Naval Aviation Department and commander of the Italian Fleet Air Arm. Italy is one of the partner nations that will be training Joint Strike Fighter pilots and maintainers at the 33rd FW. (Source: Eglin Public Affairs Office, 4/23/2010)

EADS launches tanker Web site

EADS North America has launched www.kc-45now.com, a new website about the company’s KC-45 aerial tanker that it’s proposing to build for the Air Force. The new site features video and photography of the KC-45 tanker in flight conducting refueling operations, as well as facts and information about the aerial refueling system. EADS North America announced last week it's re-entering the competition against Boeing, which is offering the 767. If selected, the tanker will be built in Mobile, Ala. (Source: EADS, 04/23/10)

F-35 composite work earns award

FORT WORTH, Texas - Lockheed Martin, Magestic Systems Inc. and Nikon Metrology jointly won a first-place JEC Innovation Award in composites manufacturing for technology used in the production of the F-35. The 2010 JEC Innovation Award was presented in Paris earlier this month in recognition of the cured laminate compensation process, a composite manufacturing process for achieving precision, as-built laminate thickness without post-cure machining. The new process is used in the production of composite parts for the F-35 and was developed to pre-measure and correct the thickness of cured composite wing skins for the F-35. (Source: PRNewswire, 04/26/10) Gulf Coast note: Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is scheduled to become home of the F-35 training center; fabrication and research into advanced materials is a key sector in South Mississippi.

SSC said "critical" for NASA

Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., says he's "gained assurances" that NASA's Stennis Space Center in South Mississippi will have a robust future as a testing facility whether or not Congress agrees to the sweeping changes proposed for NASA by the Obama administration. Cochran questioned NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr. about Stennis during a hearing to review the FY2011 budget request for the space agency. Bolden stressed the need for a "robust testing program," and and pointed to $312 million for commercial space testing, some of which will take place at Stennis. "Stennis is critical," Bolden testified. (Source: Mississippi Business Journal, 04/26/10)

FWB Boeing engineers C-130 tanker

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. - A new fuel tanker aircraft designed and engineered at the Fort Walton Beach Boeing office has been delivered to the Japan Air Self-Defense Forces. Boeing Fort Walton Beach partnered with Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Cobham Mission Systems to convert a C-130H into a flying refueling station. The project got its start with work Boeing Fort Walton Beach completed for the Air Force Special Operations Command, converting 20 C-130Hs into tankers. That caught the eye of the Japan, which needed tankers for UH-60 rescue helicopters. (Source: Northwest Florida Daily News, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX and TradingMarkets, 04/25/10)

Space UAV launched

CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, Fla. - A Boeing-built unmanned orbital vehicle called X-37B was successfully launched Thursday aboard an Atlas V rocket into low-earth orbit. The Orbital Test Vehicle's mission is classified. The X-37B is designed to return from space and land on its own. The vehicle will be used to demonstrate a reliable, reusable unmanned space test platform for the Air Force. The Atlas V is powered by the RD AMROSS RD-180 booster engine and a Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne RL10 upper-stage engine. (Sources: Boeing, PRNewswire, 04/22/10) Gulf Coast note: Unmanned aerial systems are built in part in Moss Point, Miss; Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne has an operation at Stennis Space Center, Miss.

AF F-35 completes flight test

FORT WORTH, Texas - The Air Force version of the F-35A flew for an hour Tuesday from Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base, Texas, becoming the seventh F-35 Lightning II to fly. AF-2, the conventional takeoff and landing aircraft, is the Air Force's version of the Joint Strike Fighter. This fifth-generation fighter is the first one to carry an internal GAU-22/A 25-millimeter Gatling gun weapon system. (Source: AFNS, 04/22/10) Gulf Coast note: Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is scheduled to become home to the Joint Strike Fighter training center.

Building named for Doolittle Raider

EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. - A building at Eglin Air Force Base has been renamed to honor one of the Doolittle Raiders. Building 68 was named the Horton J-Primes Test Facility in honor of retired Master Sgt. Ed Horton, who passed away in 2008. Horton was a gunner on one of the B-25s that launched from a carrier to bomb Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Horton was among the group that trained at Eglin for the risky mission. (Source: Eglin Air Force Base, 04/21/10)

County won't pay city's legal fee

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. - Okaloosa County rejected paying Valparaiso's legal fees in a lawsuit over the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Valparaiso sought to be reimbursed $61,000. The county sued Valparaiso in April 2009 to halt the city's lawsuit against the Air Force over the possibility of the F-35s coming to Eglin Air Force Base. The lawsuit was settled in February. (Source: Northwest Florida Daily News, 04/21/10)

SSC commemorates Apollo 13 mission

STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss. - NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center marked the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 13 flight with exhibits and remembrances from Biloxi native Fred Haise Jr., who served as lunar module pilot on the mission. During an afternoon of activities, Stennis hosted employees and area senior citizens to tour Apollo 13 exhibits, take photos with Haise, collect NASA-related items and offer their own remembrances of the mission. Apollo 13 launched April 11, 1970 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Two days into the flight, the command module spacecraft was crippled by an oxygen tank explosion, forcing a free-trajectory return to Earth. The astronauts were forced to power down the command module and use the lunar module as a space "lifeboat." (Source: NASA, 04/21/10)

787 undergoing Eglin testing

EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. - A Boeing 787 is at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., to undergo extreme weather testing at the Air Force's McKinley Climatic Laboratory. According to Boeing, the 787 flight-test fleet logged its 500th hour of flying April 16. The 787 at Eglin is designated ZA003. (Source: Boeing, 04/20/10) The plane will experience temperatures as high as 115 degrees Fahrenheit and as low as minus 45 degrees Fahrenheit. Cold-weather testing is being done first. Additional extreme-weather testing will be conducted later in the flight test program. A crew of about 100 people traveled from Seattle to support the test operations on ZA003. The testing in Florida is expected to last nearly two weeks. (Source: PRNewswire, 04/22/10) The McKinley Climatic Lab is part of the 46th Test Wing. In addition to Air Force testing, it can be used by other government agencies and private industry. It can create any climatic environment in the world.

EADS to enter tanker battle

EADS North America announced today that it intends to submit a proposal by July 9 for the U.S. Air Force's tanker program and will offer the KC-45. EADS is in discussions with potential U.S. partners. Reuters first reported Monday that EADS would likely submit a bid, and the company confirmed it today. EADS said that in addition to the tankers, it plans to build and modify A330 commercial freighters at a site in Mobile, Ala. The tanker will be competing against the Boeing 767, a smaller aircraft, for the $40 billion contract. EADS' former partner, Northrop Grumman, dropped out of the competition on grounds the Air Force request for proposals favored the smaller tanker. (Source: EADS, 04/20/10)