The U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) plans to continue with initial production of the AN/ALQ-211 electronic defensive system despite a fresh warning that the $1.5 billion manufacturing plan should be halted until more testing is complete.
A four-day round of negotiations to complete the terms of a U.S. Air Force proposal to lease 100 Boeing 767 tankers continued late May 5 with no resolution, a Pentagon spokesman said. Representatives from the Air Force, Boeing and the Office of the Secretary of Defense still are debating terms of the lease agreement, which has been the subject of negotiations for 18 months. A senior Pentagon official indicated that any solution proposed during the talks so far only generated new problems to correct, the spokesman told The DAILY.
NEW DELHI - India's Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) was named Tejas by the Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee at a ceremony May 4 in Bangalore. Two Tejas demonstrators, TD-1 and TD-2, flew at the event. An Indian air force official said the Tejas will be comparable to the latest versions of the U.S. F-16 Fighting Falcon or the French Dassault Mirage 2000. The official said the aircraft's small size and extensive use of composite equipment also make the aircraft more agile and stealthier than its counterparts.
LAUNCH TECHNOLOGY: Northrop Grumman will continue development of the TR107 liquid oxygen/kerosene reusable engine under an 18 month, $21 million NASA contract, the company said May 5. The work is part of NASA's Space Launch Initiative, and the company said engine components will be subjected to hot fire testing under the contract.
The U.S. Navy plans to test a new type of submarine steering system next month at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Carderock that uses shape memory alloys (SMA) to direct the outflow from the sub's propeller. The "Smart Duct," which encloses the propeller, changes shape after an electrical charge is applied to it. SMA actuation eliminates the need for traditional hydraulic actuators, provides enhanced maneuvering and control at low speeds, and offers a reduced acoustic signature, according to developer Continuum Dynamics, Inc. of Ewing, N.J.
ACQUISITION: Aerojet-General Corp., a subsidiary of GenCorp, will acquire the propulsion business of Atlantic Research Corp. (ARC) for $133 million in cash, the company said May 5. ARC develops and builds advanced solid rocket propulsion systems, gas generators and auxiliary rocket motors for space and defense markets. The transaction is expected to close this summer, the company said.
The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is funding two companies to explore new methods for generating electrical power from the natural motion of ocean waves. When Marine Corps units establish a beachhead, typically the power generation infrastructure in the area has been disrupted or destroyed, according to Edward Patton, business area manager for Scientific Applications & Research Associates (SARA), Inc., of Huntington Beach, Calif.
MOSCOW - A Soyuz TMA-1 capsule carrying the International Space Station's Expedition Six crew landed in northern Kazakhstan May 3, about 276 miles away from its target location.
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence late May 1 approved its version of the fiscal 2004 intelligence authorization bill, which would authorize funds for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA), the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and other intelligence agencies. The bill also includes a requirement for a report on intelligence lessons learned in the war with Iraq, the committee said in a statement.
CLEAN COCKPITS: The U.S. military should begin developing "semi-clean" cockpits that are resistant to chemical and biological agents, rather than buy chem/bio suits for pilots, according to Cmdr. Andrew Cibula, director of the Joint Aircraft Survivability Program Office (JASPO). "When's the last time you saw a pilot ... get out of his aircraft and then he trips and falls because he's wearing a chem/bio suit?" Cibula says. "You don't see that ... because they don't wear the chem/bio suits. They're big, they're bulky ... you can't conduct your mission with them.
NATO BUDGETS: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee supports the addition of seven more countries to NATO, but committee members want to make sure those nations are meeting their defense commitments. The committee is recommending that the full Senate approve a requirement that the U.S. president give Congress an annual report for three years indicating whether Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia have adequate defense budgets. The full Senate is expected to approve the committee's suggestion, as well as the NATO expansion.
Two major aspects of the Missile Defense Agency's approach to developing anti-missile systems came under close scrutiny at a closed-door hearing of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, according to a source who attended the May 1 meeting.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The combat power, intelligence and command and control used in Operation Iraqi Freedom constitute a "new American way of war," according to Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The war revealed "what I'll call a deliberately decisive force that's more capable" than the one used over a decade ago against Iraq, "and it means the way we fight is very different," Myers said in a May 1 address to the Air Force Academy here.
REVIEW PENDING: Three weeks before a scheduled decision on the future of the program, the Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey has completed a year-long flight test program designed to disprove doubts about the aircraft's high-rate-of-descent and ship-deck landing capabilities, U.S. Navy spokesman Ward Carroll says. V-22 officials believe they have developed a "compelling case" to present May 20 to the Defense Acquisition Board, headed by E.C. "Pete" Aldridge Jr., the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, Carroll says.
NEW DELHI - Bharat Dynamics Ltd. (BDL), India's sole missile producer, will export anti-tank missiles to "friendly nations," including Botswana, Singapore, Oman, Malaysia, Ghana and Indonesia, officials here said. BDL builds anti-tank missiles and ballistic missiles including the short-range Prithvi and the medium-range Agni-2. The company hopes to boost profits by increasing exports, although a defense ministry official said there is no plan to export ballistic missiles.
PRIORITIES: The U.S. Air Force plans to funnel a greater share of its $1.2 billion annual weapons budget to new priorities over the next five years, particularly long-range strike and miniature bombs, Air Force weapons program manager Judy Stokley says. Among the priorities are Lockheed Martin's Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missile-Extended Range and the Small Diameter Bomb, she says.
NEW DELHI - After more than two months of delays, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has scheduled the launch of its second demonstration Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-D2) for May 8. GSLV-D2 is to carry scientific instruments and the GSAT-2 experimental satellite, which has one four-channel C-band fixed satellite service (FSS) transponder, a two-channel Ku-band FSS transponder and a mobile satellite service transponder.
HASC SCHEDULE: The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) has announced a revised schedule for its consideration of the fiscal 2004 defense authorization bill. Under the new plan, the strategic forces, projection forces and total force subcommittees will meet May 7, followed by the tactical air and land forces, terrorism and readiness subcommittees May 9. The full committee is slated to take up the legislation May 13.
Lockheed Martin will participate in the June 2003 Paris Air Show, but will send 70 fewer people than it did it in 2001 and will not display or fly any of its aircraft, a spokesman said May 2. "We're going," Tom Jurkowsky said in response to a reporter's question. "We're just going to have a reduced presence." In 2001, Lockheed Martin sent 200 people to Paris for the show, but this year only 130 are to attend, he said. By comparison, in 1997, 450 people from the company attended.
10-YEAR TREND: Investors looking at the U.S. aerospace and defense market should take a long-term view and not expect big gains from the war in Iraq, according to senior aerospace and defense analyst Eric Hugel of Stephens Inc., an investment bank based in Little Rock, Ark. "In our opinion, we are only at the beginning of a 10-plus-year trend in increased military spending to rebuild and transform U.S military capabilities," Hugel says.
Air Force Secretary James Roche could face opposition in the ranks if he is nominated to head the Army, but he also could bring his transformation-oriented background to bear, according to several analysts. "Roche is a card-carrying member of the OSD transformation club," senior analyst Jay Korman of DFI International said.
GRIP: The first major modification of a C-17 Globemaster III at Warner-Robins Air Logistics Center, Ga., is complete, Boeing said May 2. The work was done under the Global Reach Improvement Program (GRIP), an annual modification and retrofit plan to update operational C-17s, the company said. Previous GRIP modifications were done at Boeing Aerospace Support Center in San Antonio, Texas.
A modified Wind-Corrected Munitions Dispenser (WCMD) packed with 3,700 non-explosive penetrator rods made its first combat appearance in Iraq after a rushed 98-day, $40 million development effort, a U.S. Air Force official said May 2. The Air Force is only now disclosing details of the new CBU-107 Passive Attack Weapon (PAW), which a senior acquisition official first made public in testimony before House lawmakers last month.
NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif., has completed the first flight phase of its Active Aeroelastic Wing (AAW) program, after a total of 50 flights flown in a unique F/A-18A outfitted with flexible wings that literally twist in the wind.
