The Senate voted 96-0 May 8 to approve adding seven new members to NATO: Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. The Senate approved a requirement that the U.S. president give Congress an annual report for three years indicating whether the seven countries have adequate defense budgets (DAILY, May 5). Nanotechnology
ANTENNA WORK: Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems will continue the modernization of the B-2 Spirit bomber's radar under a U.S. Air Force contract worth $85.9 million. In this phase, scheduled to be completed in August 2004, the company will establish specifications and design new and modified components. The modernization program consists of replacing the B-2's radar antenna with a Ku-band active electronically scanned array antenna.
The U.S. Defense Department is resisting a call to rewrite the rules that set aircraft availability goals despite a new General Accounting Office (GAO) report showing most military aircraft types failed to reach their objective over a five-year period.
Key members of Congress said May 8 that they are advancing legislation that would impose new restrictions on two major Air Force aircraft programs: the F/A-22 Raptor and a proposed lease of Boeing 767 aerial refuelers.
The U.S. Defense Department's principal effort to glean lessons learned from the Iraqi battlefield will not include a detailed assessment of each weapon system's performance, but will focus on larger joint warfighting issues. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has ordered the U.S. Joint Forces Command, headed by Adm. Edmund P. Giambastiani Jr., to lead a rapid analysis of Operation Iraqi Freedom. An initial briefing is due in mid-June and a full report should be delivered before September, Giambastiani said May 8.
Textron Systems, which builds precision strike weapons, surveillance equipment and other military systems, said May 7 it has established an International Business Development organization to expand its marketing efforts in the Pacific region. The organization will be supported out of the company's office in Kauai, Hawaii, the company said, and Bob Mullins has been named director of Pacific region business development to head it.
NEW DELHI - India and Iran are holding more discussions on increasing defense ties between the two countries. Iran's Brig. Gen. Seyed Reza Pardis, head of the air force, met Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes on May 6 during a five-day visit to India that began May 4. Pardis also was to visit Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) facilities in Bangalore. An Indian air force official said Pardis has been discussing the acquisition of HAL's Advanced Light Helicopter and the possibility of having HAL officials upgrade Iran's MiG-29s.
Alliant Techsystems (ATK) announced May 8 that Paul David Miller, the company's chairman and CEO, would step down from his post on Oct. 1. Miller, who will remain as board chairman, will be replaced by Dan Murphy, the current group vice president of the company's Precision Systems unit.
NEW DELHI - India's defense minister said May 7 that the nuclear-capable ballistic missiles Agni-1 and Agni-2 will be deployed this year. India already has inducted the Agni-2, which has a range of 2,000 kilometers (1,243 miles) into its military, and is producing them at Bharat Dynamics Ltd. in Hyderabad. The Agni-1, which has a range of 700 kilometers (435 miles) still is being tested. The Indian army and air force have projected a requirement for 200 Agni-1 systems over the next five years.
In a House subcommittee hearing May 8, Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) called on NASA to end manned space shuttle flights and suggested the agency study the option of using the orbiters as unmanned cargo vehicles for supplying the International Space Station (ISS). "I don't want to put the orbiter back up with men and women on it," Barton said during the hearing of the House Science Committee's space and aeronautics subcommittee. "I just don't think it's safe and I don't think you can make it safe."
The House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee agreed May 7 to scale back the Missile Defense Agency's new boost-phase interceptor program but add more than $200 million to the Bush Administration's fiscal 2004 budget request for the Patriot and THAAD anti-missile systems.
NEW YORK - The Fire Scout unmanned vertical takeoff and landing vehicle program is not dead, a senior Northrop Grumman executive said May 6, despite the U.S. Navy's decision not to fund the program past the low-rate initial production phase. Other military services recently have expressed interest in Fire Scout variants, Northrop Grumman President and CEO Ronald Sugar said.
NLOS-LS: Raytheon Co. will transition its Non Line of Sight-Launch System (NLOS-LS) Precision Attack Missile and launcher prototype designs into a systems design and demonstration phase under a U.S. Army contract, the company said May 7. The $15 million, one-year risk-reduction contract was awarded by the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, Raytheon said.
LONDON - The managing director of the European consortium chosen to build the engines for the A400M airlifter told The DAILY that profit margins in the multi-billion-dollar program will be extremely thin. Günter Kappler said maintaining the margins would require each of the partners to work with EuroProp International (EPI) to streamline their administration and practices as much as possible.
NEW YORK - Revenue generated by the sale of combat vehicles for the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program would not entirely offset losses stemming from the discontinuation of the M2A3 Bradley Fighting Vehicle upgrade program, according to a United Defense Industries (UDI) official.
Amid growing indications a deal is days from being decided, U.S. Defense Department officials are continuing a round of talks that started May 2 on a U.S. Air Force proposal to lease 100 Boeing 767 tankers.
HELLAS-SAT: International Launch Services (ILS) plans to launch the Hellas-Sat satellite from Cape Canaveral, Fla., aboard an Atlas V on May 12, ILS said May 7. The satellite had been scheduled to launch in March but that was postponed after Lockheed Martin decide to replace the booster's Centaur upper stage (DAILY, Feb. 28).
U.S. Air Force and Army war planners expect to start using in 18 months the first "point-and-click" battlefield map that combines sensor data from air, land, sea and space systems. An early version of the web-based, situational awareness capability - called the Family of Interoperable Operational Pictures (FIOP) - is being developed now under a nearly $4 million contract awarded May 6 to Lockheed Martin, company spokesman Matt Kramer said.
The House Armed Services projection forces subcommittee approved a fiscal 2004 defense authorization bill May 7 that adds hundreds of millions of dollars to the Bush Administration's budget request to jumpstart development of a new bomber aircraft, boost procurement of the Affordable Weapon and Tactical Tomahawk cruise missiles, and partially undo a decision to retire part of the B-1B Lancer bomber fleet.
President Bush announced his intention on May 7 to nominate James G. Roche, currently secretary of the Air Force, to be secretary of the Army. Bush also said he will nominate Colin R. McMillan, chairman and CEO of Permian Exploration Corp., to be secretary of the Navy. Roche would succeed Thomas White, who was dismissed April 25 by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.
The X-50A Dragonfly unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) should have its first flight at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona "any day now," according to Van Olinger, who manages the project for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Working out of a small trailer in the desert, the flight team is engaged in "a very slow, methodical process in which the final version of the flight software is installed on the vehicle and then a number of ground tests are taken," Olinger told The DAILY.
