RECRUITS: The Indian air force also has launched a marathon recruitment drive to overcome a prolonged shortage of skilled personnel. Air Marshal Narayan Menon, the air force's chief of personnel, says the service will recruit 7,000 new employees a year for the next three years. Menon says the service particularly needs new workers with a flair for technology, as the air force is inducting new systems including airborne and early warning radars, mid-air refueling aircraft and the latest fly-by-wire fighters.
PRAGUE - The Czech government is open to any offers of supersonic fighter aircraft before the end of the year, government spokeswoman Anna Starkova told The DAILY Oct. 18. The government is awaiting a list of options from defense minister Jaroslav Tvrdik after abandoning plans to purchase 24 Gripen fighters from the BAE Systems/Saab consortium. Tvrdik has made it clear he will consider all possibilities, including buying fewer Gripen fighters than originally planned, leasing aircraft or buying secondhand fighters.
A Defense Department panel has decided to cut procurement of the RAH-66 Comanche from 1,213 helicopters to 650, but it has encouraged the Army to try to equip the Boeing-Sikorsky aircraft to control unmanned aerial vehicles, a congressional source said Oct. 18.
The aerospace unit of Kaman Corp., of Bloomfield, Conn., posted a 15 percent drop in sales in third quarter, but the results released Oct. 18 also signal the company's gradual shift away from its stagnant helicopter business. Kaman's two major helicopter platforms - the Navy SH-2G Super Seasprite and the K-MAX external cargo lifter - again failed to drum up new business. The aerospace unit's sales dropped to $65.2 million from $77.1 million during the same period a year ago, while operating profits slipped from $8.1 million last year to $7.2 million.
BILL SIGNING: President Bush says he plans to sign the fiscal 2003 defense appropriations bill that Congress recently passed, even though it does not contain the $10 billion reserve fund he requested to continue the war on terrorism. The bill, which funds the purchase of 46 F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, 23 F/A-22 Raptors and 15 C-17s, will provide U.S. troops with "the best equipment," Bush says.
Spending for homeland security and defense won't compete with defense spending even if another terrorist incident occurs on U.S. soil, according to security and defense information analyst Tim Quillin. "It's an interesting idea, but I don't see it as an either/or proposition," said Quillin, of the investment-banking firm Stephens Inc., based in Little Rock, Ark.
BAT SUPPLY: The likely cancellation of Northrop Grumman's Brilliant Anti-Armor (BAT) submunition (DAILY, Oct. 10) won't pose a problem for TRW, which recently demonstrated deploying armed BATs from its Hunter unmanned aerial vehicle, the company says. "If we get to the point where they [the military] say, hey, we want to put these on Hunter and deploy them, I would think there would be an adequate supply in inventory now," says Ron Kline, TRW's program manager for the Hunter.
The Air Force hopes to iron out an acquisition strategy for its new Air Force Signals Intelligence Payload (ASIP) program by the end of December, according to a service official. ASIP is aimed at providing a signals intelligence (SIGINT) capability for the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle, as well as improving existing SIGINT capabilities on the U-2 manned reconnaissance aircraft.
Oct. 21 - 23 -- The Association of the United States Army holds its annual meeting, Marriott Wardman Park Hotel and the Omni Shoreham Hotel, Washington, D.C. For more information call Ilse Dorman at (800) 336-4570, extension 681, email [email protected] or go to www.ausa.org.
PRAGUE - Czech and U.S combat aircraft staged a joint exercise in the Czech Republic Oct. 17 to prepare for the possibility of a terrorist attack during next month's NATO enlargement summit. The exercise, which involved L-159 light combat fighters, Czech MiG-21s, Mi-24 helicopters, an Airborne Warning and Control System radar plane, and several U.S. F-16s based in Germany and Italy, was approved Oct. 16 by a special meeting of the Czech cabinet.
AEROSPACE BILLS: The House and Senate have left town to campaign for the Nov. 5 elections and are not expected to return until Nov. 12. Aerospace-related bills that lawmakers still have to finish include the fiscal 2003 defense authorization and intelligence authorization bills, and the FY '03 NASA appropriations bill.
COMPLETED: The Boeing Co. has completed its acquisition of FlightSafety International's interest in FlightSafety Boeing Training International, the company said Oct. 18.
LICENSING: Arms exporters will have access to an early version of an electronic licensing system soon, says Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. The long-awaited e-government initiative to convert the licensing process into an electronic environment is set to launch a pilot program. "We are close to offering you fully electronic licensing for defense exports," Armitage says.
The beating investors gave to defense stocks Oct. 17 following the release of Northrop Grumman's disappointing earnings report does not reflect the industry's fundamental soundness, two aerospace and defense analysts said. "The fundamentals have not changed one iota," aerospace and defense analyst Paul Nisbet said. Nisbet, of JSA Research, said Northrop Grumman's unexpected $59 million net loss for the third quarter started a chain reaction from investors known as arbitrageurs.
THE NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION (NOAA) plans to give hikers and outdoor adventurers access to satellite personal locator beacons already used by aviators and mariners. The Federal Communications Commission approved NOAA's request for frequency access to use Cospas-Sarsat system in the continental United States for personal locator beacons, beginning July 1, 2003. Cospas-Sarsat is a search and rescue system that uses U.S. and Russian satellites to detect and locate emergency beacons indicating distress.
JSF WORK: Volvo Aero Norge of Norway will provide low-pressure turbine shafts for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter's F135 engine under a contract from Pratt & Whitney. The contract is the first issued to Norwegian industry for JSF work, Pratt & Whitney said Oct. 16. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
More than 140 House members have signed or are expected to sign a letter urging Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to begin building the CVNX next-generation aircraft carrier in fiscal 2006.
The federal government should help shore up the nation's space transportation and remote sensing companies by becoming a more reliable customer of commercial space products and by curbing regulation of the industry, according to the Space Enterprise Council of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
NEW DELHI- India's state-owned aeronautics giant, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL), has forged a marketing partnership with Israeli Aircraft Industries (IAI) to market its Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) internationally. HAL officials here said several companies, including Eurocopter of France, Elbit Systems of Israel, Bell Helicopter of the United States, GKN Westlands of the United Kingdom and IAI submitted proposals to HAL to export the ALH to third countries.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. - The Joint Strike Fighter's [JSF's] arms export license, sent to Capitol Hill last month for review, marks a breakthrough for an obscure yet key reform for the defense licensing process, government and industry officials said Oct. 17. State Department officials notified Congress of the license on Sept. 4, which launched a six-week review by the lawmakers' staffs.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said Oct. 17 that State officials are moving ahead of schedule on a review of the munitions list, which governs the types of weapons that can be sold or transferred overseas. The first seven categories have been completed, he said. "We are now turning our attention to category eight, which is aircraft and aircraft parts," he said. "We plan to cut some of the red tape that is now tying up legitimate exports of aircraft parts by increasing the dollar maximum ... tenfold."
NEW FACILITY: BAE Systems dedicated a new 130,000 square foot complex in Reston, Va., on Oct. 17. The complex is the headquarters for the company's Integrated Systems business, launched in December 2001. Integrated Systems provides systems engineering and integration support for intelligence agencies, homeland security programs and the Department of Defense.
