Aerospace Daily affiliate AviationNow.com has created a special website to provide coverage of the war with Iraq and informational links. For updated daily coverage from The DAILY and other Aviation Week publications, please visit http://www.AviationNow.com/gulfwar.
SLAMRAAM PROPOSALS: The Army is targeting April 30 as the day to release a request for proposals for the surface-launched version of the Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM), according to the service. The Army previously had said it would issue the SLAMRAAM RFP sometime in April (DAILY, March 11). SLAMRAAM is intended for short-range air defense and will be launched from vehicles. It is designed to protect a wider area than the Stinger missile and address growing threats from cruise missiles, rockets and manned and unmanned aircraft.
ALTERNATIVE WARFARE: U.S. adversaries are likely to turn to unconventional tactics rather than compete head-on against U.S. forces with conventional weaponry, according to aerospace and defense analyst Byron Callan of Merrill Lynch. "Iraq's most effective tactics against the U.S. and U.K. forces appear to center on the same sorts of tactics that have been used against Israel by Hezbollah and Palestinian forces and by Chechen rebels against Russian forces," Callan says.
U.S. Navy minesweepers heading toward the Persian Gulf are running on engines developed by a niche Italian engine maker. The company, Isotta Fraschini, based in Bari, Italy, designs and manufactures non-magnetic diesel engines for minesweepers serving in navies around the world. Minesweeping ships need non-magnetic engines to avoid detonating magnetic influence mines. Magnetic influence mines detonate after sensing a change in the surrounding magnetic field caused by the iron in a passing ship's hull.
ESTOL IN APRIL: The X-31A flight test program expects to conduct the first automated, thrust-vectored extremely short takeoff and landing (ESTOL) maneuver on a real runway by the end of April, according to Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR). On March 22 the program completed the final flight of its "up-and-away" test phase, which was devoted to conducting ESTOL landings on a simulated runway at 5,000 feet altitude (DAILY, Nov. 21, 2002).
Nearly a decade after the first C-17s entered service, the U.S. Air Force heavy airlifters have completed the first combat insertion of paratroopers in the aircraft program's history. A flight of 15 C-17s flying in formation inserted the 173rd Airborne Brigade, with nearly 1,000 paratroopers and their equipment, into the Kurdish-controlled area of northern Iraq on the night of March 26, opening up a small second front on the ground, Air Force officials said.
RC-135 WORK: Northrop Grumman's Navigations Systems Division will upgrade the navigation system on the U.S. Air Force's RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft fleet, the company said. The Air Force will test the software and prototype LN-120G navigation units in 2005, and production equipment is scheduled to be delivered beginning in 2006.
AGING TANKERS: KC-135 tankers rank among the U.S. Air Force's oldest platforms, but aircrews in the Iraqi theater have been astonished by how the airframes are holding up despite a hectic operational pace. "They seem to fly better when they're flown a lot," says Staff Sgt. Matthew York, a KC-135 boom operator for the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing based in the region. "Whatever bugs they have seem to work themselves out." But the grueling operational pace and the exposure to highly corrosive sand in the region are expected to exacerbate the "aging aircraft" problem.
SUPPLEMENTAL ACTION: Congress seems to be on track for speedy approval of the Bush Administration's request for a $75 billion supplemental appropriations bill, including $3.7 billion for munitions (DAILY, March 26). The House Appropriations Committee plans to vote on the legislation April 1, just a week after lawmakers received the Administration's proposal. The Senate Appropriations Committee tentatively is scheduled to consider the request April 1.
PRAGUE - The Czech Republic is exploring future protection of its airspace with Britain, Czech deputy defense minister Jan Vana told The DAILY. Vana, who recently met with British officials, said discussions are at an early stage but there is a willingness on both sides to consider the possibilities.
The Warner Robins Air Logistics Center is taking steps to eliminate record-keeping deficiencies that an Inspector General (IG) investigation said led to inventory errors worth $30.2 million. "Our center's comprehensive actions are specifically aimed at improving the accountability and control of materiel, and have been commended by the DOD Inspector General," Col. Larry Eriksen, deputy director of the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center Maintenance Directorate, said in a statement to The DAILY.
ICAP ASSESSED: The U.S. Navy has completed the operational assessment series of test flights of Northrop Grumman's Increased Capability (ICAP) III electronic attack weapon system one month ahead of schedule, the company said March 27. Successful completion of that assessment is a critical step leading to low-rate initial production of ICAP III. That decision is expected this spring, Northrop Grumman said. A team led by Northrop Grumman's Integrated Systems sector developed the system for the EA-6B Prowler and the EA-18.
PRAGUE - Pilot error was solely to blame for the crash of a Czech-made L-159 light combat fighter aircraft in February, Czech army officials said at a press conference March 26. The pilot, who died in the crash in central Bohemia, was flying too low when he attempted a loop shortly before he was due to test fire the prototype Czech-made Plamen 20mm air cannon. Officials said he undertook the maneuver at less than 7,000 feet, when he was supposed to carry it out at 8,500 feet.
SDS INTERNATIONAL will help the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Warfighter Training Division in Mesa, Ariz., develop a satellite simulation training system, the company said. The work will be performed by SDS International's Advanced Technologies Division of Orlando, Fla., and will build on a previous company contract to develop the software for a prototype Satellite Operations Simulation System (SOpsSim). Under the new contract, the company will integrate the SOpsSim with existing Air Force software that can improve satellite and space operations training.
The U.S. Army needs to continue making electronic upgrades to its inventory of A3 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, according to a senior service official. "We have to continue to transform the Bradley," Maj. Gen. William Bond said at a March 27 defense conference in Northern Virginia. "The ongoing operations that we have in Iraq have proven to us the power of digitization, taking what we have and putting digitization not only on our other assets we have over there, but also what the Brits have."
NEW DELHI - India and Pakistan conducted tests of short-range missiles on March 26. India's Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) conducted the first test of a multifunctional warhead on a mobile surface-to-air Prithvi missile, which was followed the same day by a Pakistani test-launch of its nuclear-capable Abdali short-range missile.
The Russian-American Observation Satellite (RAMOS) program is nearing a preliminary design review (PDR), but funding shortfalls and barriers to international travel could impede the program's progress, according to an industry source.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - An Air Force Space Command study of ways to be more responsive to warfighters in launching satellites started this month and will lead to a briefing in May 2004 for Peter B. Teets, Air Force under secretary for space, the head of the study said March 27.
ENGINEERED SUPPORT SYSTEMS will repair and upgrade 14 AN/APQ-159(V)-5 radar systems for the F-5 fighter program of an unidentified country in the Americas, the company said. The multi-million contract for the work was awarded by Derco Aerospace. It includes major radar components, test equipment and logistics support, which is intended to extend the radar system's life through 2015.
NEW DELHI - Russian officials have assured India that the planned upgrading of the Indian Navy's Ilyushin IL-38 anti-submarine warfare (ASW) aircraft will begin in the next two months. Work on configuring the first of three IL-38s to the IL-38-SD configuration should be completed within six months, said an Indian navy official. Work on the two remaining IL-38s should be finished by next year.
Raytheon Co. announced March 27 it has completed its acquisition of Solipsys Corp. Raytheon officials said the acquisition strengthens the company's portfolio of integrated technologies used across missile defense, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, precision engagement and homeland security programs. Solipsys, based in Laurel, Md., specializes in the production of software for data fusion, tracking and display. The company will become part of Raytheon's Integrated Defense Systems division.
