Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control said April 2 it has received a $40 million contract from United Defense Industries to develop a long-range projectile for the Navy's DD(X) destroyer. Under the contract, Lockheed Martin and its team members will develop a tactical baseline design for a long-range guided projectile for the ship's Advanced Gun System.
A battle for Baghdad could increase interest in development of electronic intelligence and chemical/biological payloads for unmanned aerial vehicles, according to industry observers. UAV payload work in recent years has been driven by demands for imagery, but the emphasis could shift if fighting in the Iraqi capital shows a need to detect enemy transmitters whose signals may be reflected by buildings, and if chemical or biological weapons are used, they said.
General Dynamics Corp. has completed an acquisition company officials say likely will improve the company's chances of receiving additional information technology contracts from the intelligence community. General Dynamics announced March 31 it had acquired Creative Technology Inc. (CTI), of Herndon, Va. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. CTI provides network engineering services and software systems for digital imagery analysis, data integration, information assurance and protection, and information management.
The U.S. Air Force is competing a contract to demonstrate a semi-autonomous search and attack munition after rival bids emerged to challenge a sole-source award to Lockheed Martin.
AEROSONIC, Clearwater, Fla. David M. Vosen, president of Southtrust Bank, Tampa, Fla., has been named to the board of directors, replacing Todd Beard, who recently resigned. AROTECH, New York Leon S. Gross has resigned from the board of directors. AURA SYSTEMS, El Segundo, Calif. David Slaughter has been appointed director of military and homeland security sales. BAX GLOBAL, Singapore Sheila Cook has been named vice president, global accounts, Asia/Pacific. BOEING, Chicago
MOSCOW - On April 2, Russia's space forces launched a 3,660-pound Molniya-class military communications satellite from the Plesetsk launch center. It was the 28th launch of a Molniya satellite built by Reshetnyov NPO PM of Siberia. According to company representatives, the Molniya-1T spacecraft has an on-orbit lifetime of seven to eight years and could work for three to four years after the end of its nominal life.
The U.S. Air Force plans to formally ask Congress in about a year for "relief" from the production cost cap for the F/A-22 Raptor, a service official said April 2. If the F/A-22's testing and production efforts stay on track, the Air Force intends to seek that relief as part of the fiscal 2005 defense authorization bill, which Congress likely will begin writing about a year from now, said Lt. Gen. John Corley, principal deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition.
A "carrier panel" may have separated from the Space Shuttle Columbia's wing during its second day of flight, according to members of a panel investigating the Feb. 1 loss of the shuttle. Testing of components at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, indicates that a carrier panel "looks like our best candidate so far" for a piece of the shuttle that apparently came loose, Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) member Gen. John Barry said April 1 at a press conference in Houston.
The House Appropriations Committee is urging the Defense Department to consider using money from the fiscal 2003 supplemental appropriations bill to replace Special Operations MH-47 helicopters and Marine Corps CH-46 helicopters lost in recent military operations.
E.C. "Pete" Aldridge, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, has announced plans to retire on May 23 after what analysts describe as a uniquely effective two-year tenure. A permanent successor has not been named, but a smooth transition is expected after the Pentagon tapped Aldridge's principal deputy, Michael W. Wynne, to serve during the transition as acting undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics.
NEW DELHI - The Indian government has approved a $197 million budget for three operational Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) flights in the next five years. The Indian Space and Research Organization (ISRO) began the GSLV program in 1990 to gain the capability to launch geosynchronous satellites. In the first developmental test flight, in 2001, a GSLV placed a 1,540 kilogram (3,400 pound) experimental satellite in orbit (DAILY, April 19, 2001). The second developmental flight is scheduled for May.
NEW DELHI - The Indian air force has decided to a take another look at a proposal from Poland's Cenrex Trading Co. to upgrade its Pechora air defense systems. A team from the air force will visit Poland in May to re-evaluate the equipment the state-owned import/export company is offering, according to a defense ministry official.
An $8 million cut in the HyFly hypersonic missile demonstrator program mandated by Congress last fall has caused the test flight schedule to slip several months and to lose one of its originally planned 11 flights. Congress cut HyFly's $27 million request for fiscal year 2003 by $8 million, over DOD's protests that such a cut would delay the program's flight tests, which had been scheduled for FY '04, to FY '06 (DAILY, Oct. 17, 2002).
Loral Space & Communications reported net losses for the fourth quarter and year of 2002. Net loss for the fourth quarter totaled $501.6 million, compared with a net loss of $30.5 million a year ago. Net loss for 2002 totaled about $1.47 billion, compared with a net loss of about $196.5 million in 2001.
The chief of naval operations said April 1 that he is looking at ways to remedy a shortage of Tomahawk missiles. The task has been made more urgent by the Iraq war, which has depleted the Navy's inventory of Tomahawk missiles. "Clearly, we're going to need more Tomahawk," Navy Adm. Vern Clark testified before the Senate Armed Services seapower subcommittee during a hearing on the service's fiscal 2004 budget request.
FIRE SCOUT TEST: Northrop Grumman and Schweizer Aircraft Corp. successfully tested a four-blade rotor that will improve the performance of the RQ-8A Fire Scout unmanned aerial vehicle, Northrop Grumman said April 1. The Fire Scout UAV currently uses a three-blade rotor.
Funding for the U.S. Coast Guard's Deepwater modernization program has fallen below targeted levels, resulting in the delayed delivery of some key assets, a senior General Accounting Office (GAO) official told House lawmakers April 1. The funding increase requested by the Coast Guard in its fiscal year 2004 budget won't help matters much, said JayEtta Hecker, director of the GAO's physical infrastructure team.
Seeking to avoid another friendly fire incident involving the Patriot missile system, U.S. Air Force pilots hunting for Iraqi missile batteries are now performing an additional procedure before pulling the trigger, Air Force Secretary James Roche said April 1. Strike planes flying suppression of enemy air defense missions routinely lock on to potential targets by tracing signals from their radar systems. In Iraq, pilots are now instructed to shift to a second, more discriminatory system to confirm the enemy target, Roche said.
The Stryker combat vehicle's growing weight threatens its ability to deploy on a C-130, but it remains the "right way to go" for the U.S. Army, E.C. "Pete" Aldridge Jr., the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, told a House panel April 1. The Army sold lawmakers on the Stryker program by saying it could deploy within 96 hours on C-130s, said Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. "You've got to be a little bit dismayed," Hunter said.
Aided by a significant boost in its fiscal year 2004 budget request, U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) is preparing to take a lead role in future operations and transition from a "supporting" to a "supported" command, according to Marshall Billingslea, principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for special operations/low intensity conflict.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - A study of payloads to be completed in late April or early May will feed into an analysis of alternatives of operationally responsive spacelift, said Col. Pamela L. Stewart, who is directing the spacelift study for Air Force Space Command. Payloads that can begin working quickly once in orbit are just as important as new rockets that can be launched faster, Stewart said March 27 in a telephone press conference from Peterson Air Force Base here.
AEROSPACE AWARD: The National Space Club has presented teams of scientists and engineers from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and Northrop Grumman Corp. the 2003 Nelson P. Jackson Aerospace Award for their work on NASA's Aqua Earth Observing System satellite. The award is presented annually for outstanding contributions to the missile, aircraft and space fields. Aqua, which is studying the Earth's water cycle, was launched in May and began returning data a month later (DAILY, June 25, 2002). The spacecraft was built by TRW Inc., now part of Northrop Grumman.
Several technologies envisioned for deployment with the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program were tested successfully in a recent "simulated demonstrations" at Fort Knox, Ky., according to company officials involved with the program. Called Capstone, the simulation was conducted by nearly 50 soldiers from across the Army's command structure.
