BANGALORE, India - India is hosting the Aero Expo 2003 here Feb. 5-9 just as its military is planning one of the biggest acquisition plans since the nation's independence. The Indian air force is attending the show with a shopping list for $25 billion worth of aircraft to meet its needs over the next 15 years, including some 360 transport, combat and airborne warning and control aircraft, as well as unmanned aerial vehicles.
A precursor to a potential new booster vehicle for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system was launched Feb. 6 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., a spokesman for the Missile Defense Agency said. The Orbital Sciences Corp. vehicle left its launch platform at 4:01 p.m. EST, and all three stages ignited properly, said Air Force Lt. Col. Rick Lehner, the MDA spokesman.
An unmanned bomber could offer advantages over manned aircraft for long-range strike missions, Boeing's chairman suggested Feb. 6 in an interview. Boeing, in conjunction with the U.S. Air Force and the Defense Advanced Projects Agency, is developing the X-45 Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle technology demonstration system. The X-45A demonstrator aircraft first flew May 22, 2002.
EDO BUY: EDO Corp. said it has acquired Advanced Engineering and Research Associates, Inc., for $38 million in cash. The Alexandria-based company provides information technology, engineering and logistics support to several military programs, including the U.S. Marine Corps' Commercial Enterprise Omnibus Support Services and the Coast Guard's Deepwater program. The company will become part of EDO's Systems and Analysis Group. EDO said last year the company planned to become "substantially larger" through acquisitions (DAILY, Aug. 7, 2002).
The fiscal 2004 budget cycle marks the first time the Pentagon combined its program and budget review processes, and more changes could be ahead, according to a senior Defense Department official. DOD's former procedure required a program review at the beginning of the process and a budget review for the same program months later, Pentagon Comptroller Dov Zakheim told reporters Feb. 3. "We're trying to finally clean up all the instabilities that have piled up for 30 or more years," he said.
AEROSPACE INDUSTRIES ASSOCIATION, Washington Jerry Mack of the Boeing Co. has been elected chairman of AIA's Civil Aviation Council. Michael Romanowski of Sikorsky was elected vice chairman. Phyllis Piano of Raytheon Co. was elected chair of the Communications Council. Harry A. Pearce of Northrop Grumman has been elected chair of AIA's International Council. Richard G. Kirkland of Lockheed Martin was elected vice chairman. James L. Sanford of Northrop Grumman has been elected chair of AIA's Procurement and Finance Council.
WORK BEGINS: Northrop Grumman's Ship Systems sector has begun construction of DDG 100, the 50th ship in the DDG 51-class of Aegis destroyers, the company said Feb. 6. The company has delivered 17 Aegis destroyers to the U.S. Navy, with the delivery of the 18th scheduled for Feb. 28.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted unanimously Feb. 5 to approve a U.S.-Russian treaty that would slash each country's nuclear arsenal. Committee Chairman Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) said he hopes to have the full Senate ratify the treaty within the new few weeks. The Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT), or Moscow Treaty, calls for the U.S. and Russia to cut their arsenals of deployed strategic nuclear weapons to 1,700 to 2,200 warheads each, or about two-thirds below current levels, by 2012.
The V-22 Osprey will not get another chance to prove itself if the current round of testing for the Bell-Boeing tilt-rotor aircraft is not successful, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Feb. 5. "In the event it proves not to be a successful test, obviously, it would be terminated," Rumsfeld testified before the House Armed Services Committee during a hearing on the Bush Administration's fiscal 2004 budget request. "To the extent it proves successful and everyone is persuaded that it brings value, then we would intend to go forward."
In an attempt to avoid misunderstandings about nuclear-sized explosions, the military should tap its classified streams of data on near-Earth objects and incoming asteroids, national security analyst Randall Correll said in a Feb. 5 interview. Some countries lack the sensors to distinguish between Hiroshima-sized nuclear explosions and asteroid impacts of equal size, a possible security risk as more nations get nuclear weapons, said Correll, a consultant to Science Applications International Company and former Air Force researcher.
BANGALORE, India - The Indian air force's much-delayed buy of an advanced jet trainer (AJT) will be cleared by the country's cabinet soon, Defence Minister George Fernandes said Feb. 5. A new tender is expected soon. "We are on the threshold" of making a decision on the AJT, Fernandes told The DAILY after inaugurating the fourth Aero Expo 2003 here.
AEHF WORK: Titan Corp. will develop "a significant portion" of the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) Mission Planning Element software, and provide systems engineering support, the company said Feb. 4. The work will be done under a contract from Lockheed Martin's Management and Data Systems, which has a value of $29 million through March 2008, the company said. Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space is the prime contractor for the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Center's AEHF program.
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said Feb. 5 that her proposal to require military-style anti-missile systems for commercial aircraft would rule out using flare systems, which she considers dangerous to people on the ground. The legislation instead favors laser-based or lamp-based systems, which use energy to defeat missiles, she said.
The Navy's larger defense contractors must do a better job of incorporating new ideas into their designs and allowing small contractors to play a bigger role in the acquisitions process, according to the chief of naval research. Unlike military aviation, which has been transformed over the last 30 years through the use of composite technologies, shipbuilding remains tied to the "iron age," Rear Adm. Jay Cohen said Feb. 4 at the 2003 Defense Excellence conference in Washington, sponsored by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
NASA is convinced that the piece of foam debris shed by the shuttle Columbia's external tank that apparently hit the left wing during launch Jan. 16 could not have resulted in the loss of the orbiter, according to Shuttle Program Manager Ron Dittemore. During an assessment of the damage, performed while Columbia was still in orbit, NASA engineers deliberately overestimated the weight of the debris, its speed, and the possible impact damage, Dittemore said.
MOU: Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) and Nelco Ltd. of India signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Feb. 6 to work together to develop, market and sell electronics-based systems to the Indian military. Nelco, owned by the Tata Group, builds electronic systems based around standardized modules, subsystems and software, according to IAI. The MOU was signed at the Aero India 2003 expo in Bangalore.
To reduce the problem of defeating mobile targets, the Air Force is calling for proposals to develop the first of a new family of near-autonomous munitions that can loiter in an area and strike when a target is detected. Dubbed the "Dominator," the proposed weapon is the product of the Area Dominance Program (ADM) at Air Force Research Laboratory's (AFRL's) Munitions Directorate at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.
The Bush Administration is threatening to veto legislation containing the fiscal 2003 NASA appropriations bill if Congress approves non-defense spending that exceeds a previously agreed upon level.
Raytheon Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. are teaming to compete for the contract to upgrade the Navy's Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) system, the companies said Feb. 5. The CEC system fuses tracking data from sensors installed on multiple ships and aircraft and distributes that data in the form of a single, common air picture. The system can then feed the data to a combat system like Lockheed Martin's Aegis Combat System, where weapon system operators can use it to engage threats.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The Pentagon office charged with developing a military network that ultimately would allow any user to get only the information required, and at just the right time, has three goals, an official of the office said. Owen Wormser of the office of the assistant secretary of defense for C3I said the goals are removing bandwidth as a constraint to military operations; posting information before processing it; and protecting the information infrastructure.
After being delayed, the blade-stopping X-50A Dragonfly unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is nearing a first flight in late March, and could become the first helicopter to deliberately stop its rotor in flight by June. The unique hybrid UAV has an unusually wide rotor that can be slowed down and stopped in flight, becoming a fixed wing, and allowing the aircraft to fly as a jet (DAILY, April 12, 2002). The fuselage, tail, and canards on the nose provide additional lift in fixed-wing mode.
The U.S. market for defense electronics is expected to grow to more than $181 billion over the next 10 years, according to a study by Forecast International/DMS. Much of that market growth will be related to the war on terrorism, senior military electronics analyst Richard Sterk says in the report, entitled "Overview of the U.S. Defense Market."
Pentagon auditors say halting a $100 million acquisition program four years into its development was a prudent move by Army officials. The Defense Department's Office of Inspector General (OIG) last fall opened a review of the development and acquisition of aerial Sythentic Aperture Radar/Moving Target Indicator (SAR/MTI) sensors.
NASA's fiscal year 2004 budget request, released Feb. 3, allocates $550 million for work on the Orbital Space Plane (OSP), intended to provide crew return capability for the International Space Station (ISS) by 2010. The funding supports technology demonstrators such as the X-37 (DAILY, Nov. 22, 2002), as well as advanced design studies. During 2004, NASA plans to drop test the X-37 from a carrier aircraft to demonstrate autonomous landing capability.
