The military response to the Sept. 11 attacks should sustain the upward trend of defense spending and may improve the profitability of some defense companies in the intermediate term, according to a report released Aug. 28 by Standard & Poor's.
Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.) is urging the Boeing Co. to stop threatening to shut down its commercial airplane operations if workers go on strike, saying such "inflammatory rhetoric" could sour efforts to produce a new labor contract. Boeing's threats are "irresponsible and certainly not in the best interests of contract negotiations," Tiahrt wrote in an Aug. 23 letter to Boeing Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Phil Condit. "I am hopeful that cooler heads will prevail and that an equitable agreement will be achieved."
NASA set a world record for the largest balloon successfully flown on Aug. 25, when it flew a 60 million cubic foot behemoth carrying a 1,500-pound scientific payload to the fringes of space. The single-cell disposable balloon, which stood 1,000 feet tall at launch, was made of polyethylene material as thin as sandwich wrap. After slowly lifting off from the northwest region of Manitoba, Canada, the balloon reached a peak altitude of 161,000 feet (49 kilometers) - roughly the same altitude as a typical sounding rocket.
A majority of the service documents associated with fiscal 2004 budget cycle have been turned into the Pentagon's civilian leadership, according to a top Rumsfeld aide. Stephen Cambone, the newly appointed director of program, analysis and evaluation (PA&E), said about "60-odd percent" of the services' Program Objective Memorandum (POM) documents have been turned over to the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) for review. "The POM, unfortunately, does not come in one nice, neat bundle," Cambone told The DAILY in an Aug. 27 interview.
ACQUISITION: General Dynamics has acquired Command Systems Inc. (CSI) of Fort Wayne, Ind., for an undisclosed amount, the company said Aug. 27. CSI provides command and control software and hardware to U.S and international military markets. The company will become part of General Dynamics C4 Systems, based in Taunton, Mass. That unit specializes in rapid deployment and development of command and control systems, the company said.
NEW DELHI - India and United States are close to clinching a deal on the sale of P-3 Orion maritime surveillance aircraft, according to an Indian ministry of defense official. The official told The DAILY Aug. 26 that a team from India visited the U.S. last week to discuss the sale of an unspecified number of the aircraft. The deal could be concluded by the end of the year, the official said.
Northrop Grumman Corp. has won a $36.9 million Navy contract to develop the Rapid Airborne Mine Clearance System (RAMICS), intended to protect ships against floating and near-surface mines. Naval Sea Systems Command chose Northrop Grumman over Raytheon Co. for the three-year contract, awarded Aug. 23. Production would begin after completion of the development phase, but Jim Stratford, a Northrop Grumman spokesman, said he didn't know how many systems would be produced.
UAV COMPONENTS: Aurora Flight Sciences of Bridgeport, W.Va., will fabricate Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle tails, aft fuselages, nacelles, fairings and new tooling under a contract from Northrop Grumman Corp. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The company is a member of Northrop Grumman's Global Hawk industry team and has produced structural components for the six vehicles delivered so far.
The Air Force has completed the first test of releasing the Wind Corrected Munition Dispenser (WCMD) from the B-1B bomber, according to an official involved in the program. In mid-June, the Air Force completed developmental testing and operational testing on the WCMD integration and the new avionics computer as part of the Block E upgrades to the B-1B, according to Air Force Lt. Col. Gordie Neff, the B-1's Block E program manager.
CONTOUR TEAM: NASA Chief Engineer Theron M. Bradley Jr. will lead a team investigating the loss of the Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR) spacecraft, which apparently broke up after an engine burn on Aug. 15. The team will include internal NASA investigators and external experts with experience in accident investigations, according to NASA. The group is expected to report its initial findings in six to eight weeks.
The Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) is scheduled to complete a report on alternatives for long-range strike warfare by November 2003, according to a spokeswoman for the Defense Department, which commissioned the study (DAILY, Aug. 19).
PRAGUE - Czech aircraft manufacturer Aero Vodochody hopes to boost its chances of selling 66 L-159B two-seat light combat fighters to India during a four-day trade mission to the country starting Aug. 28. Aero president Antonin Jakubse flew to India Aug. 27 accompanied by Czech industry and trade minister Jiri Rusnok. Others invited to hold talks with Indian officials and businessmen include the new Boeing Ceska president Tomas Ryan and other Boeing officials, as well as representatives of Honeywell.
Northrop Grumman Corp. and Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG (HDW), the German shipbuilder, are close to signing a cooperative business agreement, officials from both companies said Aug. 27. "It's not just to look at [cooperation on] submarines. It's a broader issue," Northrop Grumman spokesman Randy Belote said. "There are a number of business areas we may be interested in exploring together."
PRAGUE - The United States may be given another opportunity to sell fighter aircraft to the Czech Republic after the Czech government agreed to postpone its decision on replacing its aging MiG-21 fleet until after the November NATO summit in Prague. The Czech government has made it clear that after paying bills to recover from the recent devastating floods, it will no longer be able to afford to buy 24 Jas-39 Gripen fighters from BAE Systems/Saab at a cost of about $2 billion.
The Air Force Research Laboratory's Directed Energy Directorate, the Department of Defense's center of expertise for laser development, is seeking to develop and demonstrate a 25-kilowatt solid-state laser by the end of 2004 as a potential precursor for a new weapon system. If the laser project goes well, the directorate plans to pursue development of a 100-kilowatt laser, which some experts believe is the power level needed to produce an effective weapon.
General Dynamics Corp. has agreed to sell two business units from its Ordnance and Tactical Systems sector to Aerojet-General Corp., which Aerojet said could help double its size.
COBRA FLIES: The first completely upgraded Marine Corps AH-1Z Super Cobra helicopter made its first flight Aug. 27 at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. Dubbed "Zulu Three," the aircraft is the first Z-model Super Cobra complete with the integrated all-digital cockpit featuring liquid crystal display panels and the new "Hawkeye" targeting system (DAILY, Aug. 22). The one and one half hour checkout flight followed several days of rotor track and balance work.
The Air Force and Northrop Grumman have conducted drop tests to demonstrate the feasibility of releasing a Brilliant Anti-Armor (BAT) submunition from a Predator unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), Northrop Grumman announced Aug. 27. The tests took place July 25 and Aug. 13 at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., using a UH-1N helicopter as a UAV surrogate. The helicopter was equipped with an MA-4 rack and carriage system for dispensing the BAT UAV ejection tube (BUET). The tests were conceived by the Air Force and sponsored by its UAV Battlelab.
AEA FLIGHT: Boeing has completed two more flight demonstrations of its EA-18G Airborne Electronic Attack (AEA) concept aircraft, the company said Aug. 26. The EA-18G, an F/A-18F Super Hornet equipped with jamming pods, is one of the aircraft being considered to replace the EA-6B Prowler fleet (DAILY, June 7). The latest flights took place Aug. 20 and 22, Boeing said. Other flights took place earlier this year and late last year.
The Department of Defense plans to launch a pilot program in the next fiscal year aimed at studying ways to protect military installations against chemical and biological attacks, a senior official in the Office of the Secretary of Defense said Aug. 26. Senior Program Analyst Paul Bergeron said the program, called the Joint Service Installation Pilot Project, would take place at nine installations throughout the continental U.S., at a cost of about $32.9 million.
Expedition Five Commander Valery Korzun and Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev completed a five-hour, 21-minute spacewalk on Aug. 26 from the International Space Station, NASA said. During the spacewalk, Korzun and Treschev swapped out Japanese space exposure experiments and a Russian experiment that measures jet thruster residue on the exterior of the station's Zvezda service module. The next station spacewalk is planned for October, according to NASA.
