Four incoming House members from Alabama, Georgia, Ohio and Oklahoma indicated Nov. 8 that they have been promised membership on the House Armed Services Committee. Reps.-elect Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), Jim Marshall (D-Ga.), Michael Turner (R-Ohio) and Tom Cole (R-Okla.) received assurances from congressional leaders before the Nov. 5 election that they would be appointed to the committee if they won their House seats.
International Launch Services (ILS) has signed a contract with the Hellas-Sat consortium to launch the first domestic communications satellite for Greece and Cyprus on an Atlas V rocket early next year. Based in Nicosia, Cyprus, Hellas-Sat Consortium Ltd. plans to offer voice, Internet, video and broadcast services to European and Balkan markets. After launch in the first quarter of 2003, the Hellas-Sat satellite should be in service for the Summer Olympics in Athens in 2004, according to ILS.
NEW DELHI - India will train Laotian defense personnel and pilots and upgrade its MiG-21 aircraft under a new agreement, reached during Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's visit to Laos last week. Douangchar Phichit, the Laotian defense minister, requested pilot training when he met with Vajpayee, according to an Indian defense ministry official.
NO EAA: The lame-duck Congress is unlikely to finish legislation to overhaul the Export Administration Act (EAA), says Patrick McCartan, director of legislative affairs for the Aerospace Industries Association. That's because the post-election session, which begins Nov. 12, is expected to be brief, and lawmakers already have plenty of appropriations bills and other legislation they have to address. AIA hopes an EAA bill can be passed in the new 108th Congress in 2003.
An F/A-22 Raptor fighter successfully intercepted an aerial target with an AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) while both the aircraft and the target were flying faster than the speed of sound, F/A-22 builder Lockheed Martin Corp. said Nov. 8. The test met one of the Defense Department's milestones for the program before it can receive a Lot 3 production contract, the company said.
RECORD ACTIVITY: A record number of merger and acquisition deals should be signed in the aerospace and defense industry over the next few quarters "due to the sheer volume of transactions necessary for consolidating the defense industry 'food chain,'" according to Quarterdeck Investment Partners Chairman and CEO Jon Kutler. But the value of merger deals will begin to decline late in 2003 as the number of sellers increases dramatically and the number of buyers remains constant and more focused, he says. Quarterdeck also expects "U.S.
WARMING TREND: Are defense relations between the United States and Germany warming only two months after a bitter standoff over U.S. statements on Iraq? Defense Department Secretary Donald Rumsfeld hosted his German counterpart, Minister of Defense Peter Struck, at a Pentagon ceremony and press conference Nov. 8. In September, Rumsfeld refused to meet with Struck during a defense ministerial meeting in Poland, which came amid Germany's close political elections that featured high-level protests against the U.S. policy on Iraq and the war on terror.
FCS FIREWALL: A "firewall" has been set up around the Boeing/SAIC-led Future Combat Systems (FCS) program to ensure the company doesn't have an unfair advantage in the ongoing Unmanned Combat Armed Rotorcraft (UCAR) competition, according to Steve Glusman, director of engineering for Army unmanned systems at Boeing Integrated Defense Systems. Although not formally a part of FCS, the UCAR program will have to interoperate seamlessly with FCS equipment when it enters service in 2012. "We certainly are keeping abreast of all the FCS efforts," Glusman says.
JSF WORK: Astronics Corp. has signed a memorandum of agreement with Lockheed Martin Corp. to develop and supply the exterior lighting system for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the company said Nov. 7.
Loral Space & Communications said Nov. 11 revenues for the third quarter dropped 19 percent due to slower sales from the company's fixed satellite and data services sectors. Revenue for the third quarter, which ended Sept. 30, fell from $261 million a year ago to $211 million. Loral's net loss for the quarter improved from $64.3 million a year ago to $52.3 million this year.
NASA's Galileo spacecraft put itself in "safe mode" after a close flyby of Jupiter's moon Amalthea, most likely as a result of the radiation that bombarded the spacecraft as it delved deeper into Jupiter's magnetic field than ever before.
The Tactical Tomahawk program is preparing to conduct its first launch from an underwater rig in the U.S. Navy's Pacific test range later this month, a Navy spokeswoman said. "We are on track and there should be launch soon," said Sandy Schroeder, spokeswoman for the Naval Air Warfare Center at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. Schroeder declined to specify a date for the test, but said the Navy's original plans for an early November test still are "hopeful."
The Air Force plans to release requests for proposals on about Nov. 22 for its projected Multi-sensor Command and Control Aircraft (MC2A), of which it ultimately could buy more than 50. The service initially plans to buy at least one and as many as five Boeing 767-400ER airliners modified for the MC2A mission, as well as options for up to 10 years of contractor support for each plane. A contract would be awarded in June 2003, according to a Nov. 6 Federal Business Opportunities notice.
Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) said Nov. 7 that he expects to become chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee's science, technology and space subcommittee with the Republican takeover of the Senate, potentially boosting his efforts to increase funding for aeronautics research and development. Allen has been ranking Republican on the subcommittee. "It always helps to be on the majority side to get anything through," an Allen spokeswoman said.
In their bid to build the Army's Unmanned Combat Armed Rotorcraft (UCAR), competing contractor teams are being required to put together a unique "day in the life" presentation showing how their system will behave when deployed in the field. This pivotal briefing "could be really imaginative," Steve Glusman, director of engineering for Army unmanned systems at Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, said. "It has to go through and actually illustrate how a UCAR would go through its cycle of deployment."
ON THE TEAM: Harris Corp. has joined the Boeing Co.'s team for the Unmanned Combat Armed Rotorcraft (UCAR) program, the company said Nov. 7. It will support concept development of the UCAR's communications system.
LONDON - United Kingdom Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon opened a new headquarters for General Dynamics (U.K.) Ltd., following its win last year of a 1.9 billion pound ($3 billion) Ministry of Defence contract for the British army's Bowman digital battlefield communications system. After touring the Oakdale site, Hoon said Bowman is the army's top equipment priority, and also is important to the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force.
Aerospace and defense industry investors are likely to be disappointed if they believe Congress will continue to increase defense spending for procurement and research and development (R&D) over the long term, according to a report from Standard & Poor's. The bi-annual report, prepared by S&P aerospace and defense analyst Robert Friedman, says the Defense Department's 5.9 percent projected growth for procurement may be too optimistic.
The U.S. Marine Corps is studying increasing the size of the flight decks on its amphibious ships to accommodate the short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) F-35B Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), Marine Commandant Gen. James Jones said Nov. 7. That option is being considered as the Marine Corps plans to incorporate F-35B STOVLs, F-35C carrier-based aircraft or a mixture of the aircraft into its fleet sometime after 2012.
COMBAT READY: The U.S. Army's seventh AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopter battalion has been certified combat ready after extensive training at Fort Hood, Texas, Apache builder Boeing said Nov. 6. Soldiers in the battalion completed three live-fire exercises and about 3,200 flight hours during training at Fort Hood, where the battalion will be based.
NEW DELHI - China handed over the first front fuselage of a K-8 Karakorum trainer and light attack fighter to the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) at a ceremony in Kamra on Nov. 5. PAC will continue development of the fuselage. Pakistan and China are developing the K-8, which had its first flight in 1991. The two countries signed a technology transfer agreement in 1999 to build the aircraft.
Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), who expects to regain the reins of the Senate Armed Services Committee with the Republican takeover of the Senate (DAILY, Nov. 7), says he plans to give renewed attention to the development and fielding of unmanned vehicles.
DRS Technologies, maker of advanced electro-optical systems and ruggedized computers, said Nov. 6 that recent acquisitions helped boost the company's net earnings for the second quarter of 2003, which rose 71 percent over the same period a year ago. Net income for the company's second quarter, which ended Sept. 30, rose from $4.5 million a year ago to $7.7 million this year. Sales for the quarter rose 39 percent over a year ago, from $116.2 million a to $161.2 million this year.
