The new undersecretary of defense for intelligence will be given a broad task - evaluating and improving the product of the military intelligence community - and a small staff, said a senior aide to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Details of the controversial office's purpose and structure have been rare, but Richard Havers, Rumsfeld's special assistant for intelligence and an architect of the new office, provided new insight and a heated defense of the concept in remarks to the Shephard's UAV USA conference on Dec. 13.
WASTED TIME: A key aide to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld blasts the military for what he says was at least three decades of slow progress on developing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Richard Havers, Rumsfeld's special assistant for intelligence, says "we would have been far ahead of where we are today if the department had consistently kept a strong focus and desire to make this technology work." Havers spoke at a UAV conference in Virginia last week.
HOMELAND PROTECTION: U.S. Northern Command is preparing a plan to protect the homeland in case it comes under attack during a potential U.S. invasion of Iraq, Anderson says. The command intends to conduct an exercise in February to validate the plan. "If, in fact, a decision is made to invade Iraq, we believe that we need to make sure that we are ready here in case there is some kind of activity that may be generated and directed toward our homeland," Anderson says.
MORE FIRE SCOUTS: Chances are "rising" that the Navy will fund the production of additional Northrop Grumman Fire Scout unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), according to Paul Meyer, the company's vice president for business and strategy development. "It appears that the possibility is rising that the Navy will fund some additional systems in 2004 to continue exploitation of the technology and the capability," Meyer says. The Navy canceled production of the Fire Scout late last year.
ACQUISITION: Textron has acquired the helicopter skid shoe business of Carbide Technology Inc., to expand its presence in the helicopter parts and service market, the company said Dec. 12. Skid shoes protect helicopter landing gear and other equipment from abrasion damage from contact with hard surfaces. The Calimesa, Calif.-based company will become part of Edwards & Associates, a Textron unit that provides parts, service and customization for the helicopter market, Textron said. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
RETIRE 'C4ISR': Although it proved useful for organizing military thinking in the past, the term "C4ISR" (command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) is now "damaging," according to Keith Masback, director of ISR integration at Army headquarters. The term is damaging, he says, "because we start to blend and confuse this idea of pipes and routers and switches, with [the] knowledge that has to travel on it.
NEW DELHI - India's largest military contractor, state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL), is launching a drive to export MiG aircraft spares and subsystems to 30 nations. HAL already exports MiG spares to 17 countries under an Indo-Russian protocol that allows the export of armament systems manufactured under license, but this is not enough, a HAL executive said in a Dec. 12 interview. HAL plans to expand its marketing deals for spares and systems to 30 countries, which could bring in more than $150 million a year, the official said.
ARLINGTON, Va. - The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) plans to nearly triple spending on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) over the next five years, reaching $2.1 billion in fiscal year 2007. According to Diane Wright, deputy director for air warfare at the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), the department spent roughly $360 million on UAVs in 2001. That level reached $760 million in 2002, and the department plans to spend $1.6 billion in 2003, she said.
A U-2 spy plane veered off the runway in a touch-and-go landing last summer due to a maintenance error, according to an Air Force report released Dec. 12. The 9th Reconnaissance Wing aircraft was conducting touch-and-go landings Aug. 15 at Beale Air Force Base, Calif., when the mishap occurred. The pilot lost control of the aircraft and rolled off the runway before stopping, according to the Air Combat Command (ACC) Accident Investigation report. The pilot was not injured.
ARLINGTON, Va. - Europe's three largest militaries - those of the United Kingdom, Germany and France - are seeking unprecedented levels of modularity and interoperability for a new generation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) each plans to field within 10 years. Europe has used small tactical UAVs since the Balkan conflicts in the early 1990s, but interest is building for real-time sensors and long-endurance UAVs.
Aerospace and defense companies around the world are adopting tough new ethical guidelines regarding the use of foreign representatives, according to an aerospace and defense attorney in Washington. Much of that interest stems from the fear aerospace and defense companies have about inadvertently violating the laws of jurisdictions in which they operate, according to Alexandra Wrage, senior counsel with Northrop Grumman Corp.
The Navy, NASA, and AeroVironment Inc. plan to propose an advanced concept technology demonstration (ACTD) in which a variant of AeroVironment's solar-powered Helios unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) would be used to extend the communication range of ships at sea. Dubbed "TheaterNet," the partners hope the project will be chosen by the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) as a fiscal year 2004 ACTD, according to AeroVironment Vice President Bob Curtin.
An investigation into the failed launch of Arianespace's new heavier-lift Ariane 5 on Dec. 11 will begin Dec. 16, according to a senior company official. The company is putting together an independent team of investigators to look into the matter, Arianespace CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall told space industry reporters in a Dec. 12 conference call.
EL PASO, TEXAS - An Air Force program to demonstrate a 25-kilowatt solid-state laser in the laboratory likely will spawn programs that seek to turn such technology into actual weapons, according to a representative of TRW Inc., one of two companies developing the laser for the Air Force.
EL PASO, TEXAS - The Defense Department's joint program office for the Ground-based Missile Defense (GMD) system has come up with 37 proposals for enhancing the GMD test bed, deputy program director Thomas Devanney said Dec. 12.
TEACHER IN SPACE: Educator Barbara Morgan has been named to a space shuttle crew to fly in November 2003, NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe said Dec. 12. Her flight will be the first of several NASA plans for its new Educator Astronaut program, scheduled to be revealed early next year. Morgan was selected as the backup candidate for NASA's Teacher in Space program in 1985, which was suspended after the Challenger accident the following year.
PRAGUE - Czech officials are remaining tightlipped about a Canadian newspaper report saying Canada's defense department is negotiating the sale of up to 15 CF-18 fighters to the Czech Republic. The Canadian daily National Post, quoting sources from the country's defense department, said Dec. 12 that the fighters are to be declared surplus in the Canadian Air Force.
NEW DELHI - India soon will send out new requests for proposals for its planned buy of advanced jet trainers, according to a defense official here. India had planned to buy 66 BAE Systems Hawk 100s, but the Czech Republic offered Aero Vodochody's L-159 at a lower price - about $12 million a copy, compared with the $21 million BAE Systems wants for the Hawk (DAILY, Nov. 22). "The Indian government now is left with no option but to re-tender the entire [trainer] procurement program," the official said.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Air Force Space Command's plan for fiscal 2004 and beyond calls for the introduction of at least one transformational capability in each of its five basic mission areas. In one mission area, counterspace, transformational capabilities are planned across the board.
The Department of Defense (DOD) is pushing the Air Force and Navy to collaborate more closely on their respective Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) programs - a push that could lead to the establishment of a joint UCAV program office. This process also could result in the production of a single UCAV for both services, according to Dyke Weatherington, deputy in charge of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Planning Task Force at the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD).
MOSCOW - Creation of a new rocket and space company was announced during the second international Siberian aerospace industry salon in Krasnoyarsk. According to plans for general aerospace industry restructuring, the new company is based on Reshetnyov NPO PM of Zheleznogorsk, the country's largest designer and manufacturer of telecommunication satellites.
