Gen. Larry Welch (USAF, ret.), head of the federally funded Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), gave his endorsement June 4 to House legislation that would create a commission to develop a broad strategy for the nation's nuclear arsenal. Welch, a former Air Force chief of staff, said such a commission would help "focus attention" on nuclear weapons programs, which require long-term planning because of their complexity.
DAYTON T. BROWN, Bohemia, N.Y. Douglas K. Mang has been appointed vice president, Engineering and Test Division, and senior manager of the company's Washington, D.C. operations. DEFENSE FINANCE AND ACCOUNTING SERVICE, Arlington, Va.
LOCKHEED MARTIN will continue to perform phased depot maintenance for U.S. Navy P-3 Orion aircraft, the company said. The work will be done under a one-year contract with four one-year options, which could boost its value to $434 million. The company, which originally built the anti-submarine warfare and maritime surveillance aircraft, will perform the work at its Greenville Aircraft Center in South Carolina.
Telemedicine systems that allow doctors to communicate with aircraft remotely via satellite are beginning to save lives and money, according to manufacturers Remote Diagnostic Technologies (RDT) Ltd. and TeleMedic Systems.
NEW DELHI - The Indian air force lost another MiG-21 fighter in a crash during a routine exercise in Rajasthan, which killed the pilot. A court of inquiry has been set up to investigate the incident, the latest in a string of Indian MiG crashes. Sources said the problem has been linked to the aircraft's engine. The air force has lost more than 200 MiGs in the last decade and there has been frequent criticism in the press and in parliament about the high accident rate, particularly for MiG-21s.
The U.S. Air Force on June 3 opened the competitive phase of a plan to develop a battle management command and control (BMC2) suite for the future E-10A Multi-sensor Command and Control Aircraft (MC2A). The system identifies moving ground targets and cruise missiles by fusing tracking data from an onboard advanced radar and a wide range of other surveillance nodes, including unmanned aerial vehicles.
The U.S. Army is moving forward on plans to develop the Viper Strike missile made by Northrop Grumman after the Senate passed an authorization bill adding funds for the program. Northrop Grumman and Army officials planned to meet late June 4 to discuss plans for starting a system development and demonstration program in fiscal 2004, said John Miller, the company's Viper program missile manager.
Hoping to capitalize on its success with the U.S. Navy, Italian engine maker Isotta Fraschini Motori is seeking to generate additional business with other navies. Isotta Fraschini and FDGM Inc., subsidiaries of the Italian shipbuilding giant Fincantieri, built the non-magnetic diesel engines for the U.S. Navy's Avenger-class (MCM) and Osprey-class (MHC) minesweepers, beginning in the mid-1980s. Many of the 24 Avenger- and Osprey-class ships participated in minesweeping operations in the Persian Gulf as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
MH-53 UPGRADE: Modern Technologies Corp. will upgrade U.S. Air Force MH-53 Pave Low helicopters to the MH-53M configuration under a $46.7 million task order from Warner Robins Air Logistics Center's Special Operations Forces Program Office, the company said June 4.
Stork Aerospace of the Netherlands has delivered the first complete tail section for NH Industries' NH90 helicopter, marking the start of series production for the program by Dutch industry, the company said. Dutch industry is contributing tail sections, cabin doors, wheel housings, landing gear and a software module for the main computer, Stork said. Final assembly of the helicopters will take place in NH90 partner countries France, Germany and Italy. The first series production helicopter is scheduled to fly in 2004.
The head of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency is traveling to Asia later this month to address Japan's possible purchase of new anti-missile systems, according to U.S. and Japanese officials. Air Force Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish, MDA's director, will meet with Japanese officials "to discuss technical aspects" of their potential acquisition, U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said June 3 during his own visit to Tokyo.
The U.S. Navy, Air Force and NASA are moving ahead in an effort to demonstrate the high-speed flight and performance needed for expendable supersonic vehicles. Technical proposals for the effort - Revolutionary Approach to Time Critical Long Range Strike Project (RATTLR) - are due July 7, cost proposals are due July 15, and up to six contracts will be awarded between September and December 2003. Thirty-six months of flight tests will follow.
Northrop Grumman Chairman and CEO Ronald Sugar said June 3 that terrorist attacks against "soft targets" and missile attacks remain the greatest threats to U.S. national security. Three things must be done before the problem of terrorist attacks can be fully addressed, he said at the National Press Club in Washington.
Nuclear power and propulsion technologies such as those being developed under NASA's Project Prometheus will be essential to any future human mission to Mars, according to NASA's associate administrator for space science.
LONDON - Britain's Tanker & Transport Service Co. Ltd. (TTSC) has confirmed the selection of Cambridge-based Marshall Aerospace to convert Boeing 767-300ERs from the British Airways fleet into air-to-air refueling tankers for the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence's Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft (FSTA) program. The first two development aircraft will be modified by Boeing, which also will undertake the conversion design and aircraft certification.
EMS SATCOM of Ottowa, Canada, has received Inmarsat type approval for its new Fleet 55 maritime satellite terminal, the company said. The terminal provides global voice and data services and is the flagship product for the company's new Maritime Group. EMS Satcom is a division of EMS Technologies, of Atlanta, Ga.
Although Operation Desert Storm has been called the first "space war," Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) made the military's dependence on space assets even clearer, according to Maj. Gen. Robert Dickman (ret.), deputy for military space at the Office of the Undersecretary of the Air Force. "The former chief of staff of the Air Force at that time said Desert Storm was the first space war," Dickman said at the 2003 Inmarsat Aero conference in Tysons Corner, Va., June 3. "Iraqi Freedom probably was much more so."
A handful of systemic failures plague the U.S. Defense Department's $18 billion yearly budget for military space programs, the General Accounting Office says in a new report. "The majority of satellite programs cost more than expected and took longer to develop and launch than planned," according to the report, entitled "Military Space Operations: Common Problems and Their Effects on Satellite and Related Acquisitions," dated June 2.
The chairman of the House Science Committee said June 3 that he expects the space shuttle will return to flight but doubts the aging spacecraft will remain in service for 20 more years as some NASA "optimists" have suggested.
Prototypes designed by Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics will compete to win a contract for the U.S. Marine Corps' next-generation Shoulder-launched Multipurpose Assault Weapon (SMAW), industry and government officials said June 3. The downselect by the Marine Corps Systems Development Command launches a 15-month, $6.8 million system integration phase to design the Follow-On to the SMAW (FOTS).
Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is urging the Pentagon to help shore up the U.S. semiconductor industry, saying the sector's decline threatens the development of new military systems, including missile defenses, unmanned aerial vehicles and space-based communications.
PATENTED: Lockheed Martin Corp. has been granted a patent for a three-axis flap control system that could "revolutionize" the steering of rocket-launched, hypersonic and supersonic re-entry vehicles, the company said June 3. Such vehicles could be used to defeat hard and deeply buried targets, the company said. The patent was issued Jan. 7.
