NEW DELHI - Following India's move to pull back some of its troops from the border, Pakistan announced Oct. 17 it will withdraw troops from the disputed international border between the two hostile neighbors.
Northrop Grumman Corp. posted a net loss of $59 million for the third quarter because of charges taken on the sale of businesses within its Component Technologies sector, but sales rose 24 percent over the same period a year ago. Net income for the third quarter, excluding one-time charges, rose slightly from $140 million a year ago to $141 million this year. Earnings from continuing operations rose from $100 million a year ago to $154 million this year.
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.
TEAMS: Two new teams will compete for the $10 million offered by the X Prize Foundation for private spaceflight, the foundation said. Armadillo Aerospace of Dallas and Aeronautics and Cosmonautics Romanian Association (ARCA) of Bucharest have joined more than 20 teams competing for the prize. The winning team must privately finance, build and fly a three-person spacecraft to the edge of space, return it safely, and fly it again within two weeks.
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.
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 U.S. Army's plans for transformation are necessary, but the transformation should be phased in over a long period, said Gen. Wesley Clark, the former military commander of NATO. "In the Future Combat Systems, there has to be a phased program, starting with technology that doesn't look too dissimilar to what we have now and moving out from there," he said in an Oct. 17 interview with The DAILY. The Army's attempt to develop an electric gun is one example of the difficulty in developing advanced technology, he said.
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 DELHI - India is mediating in a Russian-Israeli dialogue that could result in a royalty-sharing agreement if India taps Israeli companies to upgrade Russian equipment. A senior Indian defense ministry official told The DAILY that Indian officials have been working with Israeli and Russian officials for the last six months on the issue. India wants to use Western and Israeli electronic technology, but also wants to continue to buy platforms from longtime equipment supplier Russia, the official said. Phalcon sale
APPROVED: The Senate approved the fiscal 2003 defense appropriations conference report by a 93-1 vote Oct. 16, clearing the way for President Bush to sign the legislation, which includes $3.5 billion to develop the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and billions more to buy 23 Lockheed Martin F/A-22 Raptors and 46 Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornets. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.), a frequent critic of Pentagon spending on weapon systems, was the lone dissenter. The House approved the conference report Oct. 10.
The European Commission on Oct. 16 approved the $7.8 billion proposed merger between Northrop Grumman Corp. and TRW Inc., saying it would not pose competition concerns. Northrop Grumman spokesman Randy Belote said the commission reviewed the possible effects of the merger in a number of areas, including satellite systems, military command-and-control systems, military aircraft and associated systems and information technology.
ON HOLD?: The House was debating late Oct. 16 whether to leave town until after the fall elections, which would delay completion of the fiscal 2003 defense authorization bill, FY '03 NASA appropriations bill and FY '03 intelligence authorization bill until at least November. The defense and intelligence authorization bills are before House-Senate conference committees. The House and Senate still are working on separate versions of the NASA bill.
LAUREL, Md. - A lack of data system tools to support decision-making is preventing military planners from immediately thrusting the effects-based planning concept into operation, a top joint forces testing official said Oct. 16. Those findings are the result of the first few lessons provided by the Joint Forces Command's [JFFCOM's] massive Millenium Challenge 2002 experiment, held July 24-Aug. 15, said Russell Richard, director of JFFCOM's Project Alpha, which analyzes the joint potential of new operations concepts.
Authors of the fiscal 2003 defense appropriations conference report rejected or scaled back proposed funding cuts for several weapon systems, including the MK-54 Lightweight Hybrid Torpedo (LHT), the Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) and the Titan space booster, after receiving written appeals from the Defense Department to fully fund those programs.
DEFENSE INDUSTRIES INTERNATIONAL, Los Angeles John E. Krings has been named as lead U.S. defense industry consultant. EADS, Amsterdam Pierre de Bausset has been appointed senior vice president of investor relations and financial communication. Fabrice Bregier will become president and CEO of Eurocopter, as of April 1, 2003. He will succeed Jean-Francois Bigay. Bregier also will become deputy to the president of Eurocopter as of Jan. 1, 2003. Marwan Lahoud will become president and CEO of MBDA.
PRAGUE - BAE Systems reacted sharply Oct. 15 to Czech press reports that said the British company had investigated its own office in Prague over concerns that some managers were "too close" to representatives of a weapons company BAE Systems has expressed interest in buying. The Czech newspaper Lidove Noviny reported that the London headquarters of BAE Systems, which has carried out due diligence on weapons manufacturer Omnyx, "did not have full trust" in their Czech representatives.
MOSCOW - An unmanned Russian Soyuz-U rocket exploded shortly after liftoff Oct. 15 due to a first-stage malfunction, dooming the Foton M-1 research satellite it was carrying. Both the 14,300-pound spacecraft and the Soyuz-U launcher were built by the TsSKB-Progress space center of Samara. News reports said one person was killed and eight were injured on the ground from the explosion. The Foton M-1 carried 44 international experiments supported by the European Space Agency, and was the latest research satellite in the Foton series.
Space Shuttle Atlantis undocked from the International Space Station Oct. 16 and its crew is preparing to return to Earth Oct. 18. During its stay, Atlantis crewmembers installed and activated the station's Starboard One truss, part of the station's external truss segment that will allow future station expansion. The station's Expedition Five crew is slated to return to Earth in November aboard the shuttle Endeavour, which NASA said is slated to launch Nov. 10 or later.
LAUREL, Md. - Buying more airplanes and ships isn't what the Navy needs to achieve its transformation goals, Secretary of the Navy Gordon England said Oct. 16. Addressing the Precision Strike Technology Symposium here, England said the Navy would do better to invest in network-centric warfare capabilities than to spend money increasing its inventory of air and sea platforms.
NEW DELHI - India unilaterally decided Oct. 16 to withdraw some troops from its border with Pakistan. Indian defense ministry spokesman Pradipto Bandyopadhyay told The DAILY that the withdrawal will not include troops along the Line of Control in the contested state of Jammu and Kashmir, claimed by both countries.
The Boeing Co. lowered its delivery estimate of commercial aircraft for 2003 and said that for the first time in the company's history, revenue from defense-related sales likely will exceed revenue from commercial sales next year. During an Oct. 16 conference call with investors and analysts, Boeing officials said net income for the third quarter fell nearly 43 percent from a year ago due to slower commercial aircraft sales.
