Next spring, the Navy plans to demonstrate the ability to control a Predator unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from a control station on a manned aircraft. The manned aircraft will be the "Hairy Buffalo" test aircraft based at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. Hairy Buffalo is a modified, experimental P-3 aircraft featuring a fiber-optic bus that can easily accommodate the switching of sensor payloads.
Lockheed Martin Corp., the prime contractor for the F-22 Raptor, should have a similar role if the Air Force builds the FB-22, a bomber version of the Raptor, according to Sen. Zell Miller (D-Ga.). In an Aug. 9 letter to Air Force Secretary James Roche, Miller endorsed pursuing the FB-22, now in the conceptual phase. But he expressed "extreme concern" about published reports indicating that the Air Force may ask the Boeing Co. to build the FB-22 in St. Louis (DAILY, July 30).
NEW DELHI - Even as New Delhi continues to negotiate the acquisition of the Arrow missile defense system from Israel, the Indian air force has asked the Indian ministry of defense to buy Python-4 and Derby air-to-air missile systems from Israel. The missiles would be mounted on the Indian air force's Jaguar and Mirage aircraft. The air force is seeking about 100 missiles.
Portugal canceled a 34 million euro ($33.2 million) order for nine EC-635 fire support and search and rescue helicopters after failing to come to terms with Eurocopter on a compensation package. On Aug. 9, Portugal's Ministry of National Defense demanded 4.3 million euros and refresher pilot training after Eurocopter's delivery schedule lapsed by more than a year. But both sides failed to reach an agreement on the compensation package, according to published reports.
Some Navy nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) have migrated to a commercially based operating system for the first time, according to Rear Adm. Dennis Dwyer. "We needed to go to an open system architecture," Dwyer, currently the program executive officer for aircraft carriers, told The DAILY. The new software is part of ongoing technology upgrades to the Navy's fleet of SSBNs.
The Navy's program executive officer for aircraft carriers is calling for industry to supply technologies that can address a variety of costly problems plaguing the fleet. During a presentation at the Naval-Industry R&D Partnership Conference in Washington Aug. 14, Rear Adm. Dennis Dwyer said he is open to suggestions on any technologies that will reduce the total ownership cost of America's carrier fleet.
TRW INC.'s gel-propulsion engine has successfully completed cold test firings at U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM) facilities in Redstone, Ala. The system was subjected to multiple cold-temperature firings from ambient temperature to -40 degrees Fahrenheit, TRW said.
The Department of Defense has selected 27 new start projects and 13 continuing projects to receive fiscal 2003 funding under the Foreign Comparative Testing (FCT) program, DOD announced Aug. 14. The FCT program, authorized by Congress since 1980, "demonstrates the value of using non-developmental items to accelerate the acquisition process and cut rising development costs," DOD said in a statement.
An article in The DAILY of July 18 incorrectly interpreted the conclusions of the Transformational Communications Study (TCS). The study does not specifically recommend canceling Advanced EHF (AEHF) satellites 4 and 5. Rather, the study found that the alternative communications system is technically feasible and would meet or exceed the capability provided by AEHF satellites 4 and 5. The TCS study was not constrained by cost or resource limitations. As stated in the story, a decision on whether to proceed with AEFH 4 and 5 will be made in November 2004.
BOEING, Chicago, Ill. Anne Eisele has been appointed director of media relations. GENERAL DYNAMICS, Falls Church, Va. Nicholas D. Chabraja, chairman and CEO, has agreed to the board of directors' request that he extend his employment contract with the firm until the end of 2005. LOCKHEED MARTIN, Bethesda, Md. David A. Kier has been appointed vice president and managing director, missile defense. NORTHROP GRUMMAN, Herndon, Va.
The chief of naval operations told an audience that Sea Power 21 - his plan for shaping the Navy's future capabilities - will change the way the service equips its forces, but offered only a few ideas on what shape that future will take. When he announced Sea Power 21 during a June speech at the Naval War College, Adm. Vern Clark said it would provide "a strategic framework to guide our Navy into the 21st century."
A series of hairline cracks in the aft deck of some Air Force B-2 Spirit aircraft eventually could affect the entire fleet of stealthy bombers, according to a senior service official.
MOSCOW - The loss of the fifth-generation fighter program to Sukhoi won't hit the bottom line of Russian aircraft builder MiG, which has been bolstered by strong international sales, the company's director told the Independent Weekly Review here. MiG General Director Nikolai Nikitin said the company got five international aircraft supply contracts and four maintenance contracts this year, offsetting lower domestic orders, which made up only 1 percent of total MiG sales.
Industry should lease naval aviation research and development facilities rather than buy its own, Vice Adm. Joseph Dyer, commander of Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), said Aug. 13 at a Washington conference.
President Bush indicated Aug. 13 that he will not spend some of the aerospace-related funds Congress provided in the recently enacted fiscal 2002 supplemental appropriations act, including $25 million for Very High Frequency (VHF) band radios for Air Force F-15s and $200 million for the Coast Guard acquisition of Lockheed Martin C-130Js and other aircraft.
NEW DELHI - India has decided to place a satellite in lunar orbit, according to a senior scientist with the country's Department of Science and Technology. The program will be undertaken by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), which will aim to reach the moon within five years, the scientist said. The decision was based on a report submitted to ISRO Chairman K. Kasturirangan last month, which concluded India has the technical expertise to place a satellite in lunar orbit.
The collaboration between industry and the Army in managing the Future Combat Systems program could serve as a model for all future Army procurement activities, according to a senior official of the program's lead systems integrator team. Bob Mitchell, the Boeing Co.'s director of strategic development for the FCS program, said industry and senior Army officials have worked together since the program began.
President Bush has appointed Vance Coffman, chairman and chief executive officer of Lockheed Martin Corp., as chairman of the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC). Coffman succeeds Daniel Burnham, chairman and CEO of Raytheon Co., who had led the committee since September 2000. NSTAC chairmen usually serve terms of 18 to 24 months.
A helium leak in the interceptor used in the Defense Department's missile defense system has pushed back the schedule for the next integrated flight test, according to sources familiar with the issue, although officials from the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) said it was not technically a delay. The leak was identified in the helium tank of Raytheon's Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV), the interceptor used as part of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system. The leak, according to sources, has pushed back plans for a mid-August flight test.
HAMILTON SUNDSTRAND of Windsor Locks, Conn., will supply Advanced Flight Control Computers for Black Hawk helicopters under a contract from the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command. The work could be worth up to $70 million, according to the company. The upgraded computers are "plug-in" replacements that offer advanced capability, reduced weight, lower life cycle costs and higher reliability, the company said.
Money problems at German airship company CargoLifter AG won't affect the Boeing Co., which contracted with CargoLifter for a study of high-flying airships that could be used for homeland defense and other jobs, a Boeing spokesman said. CargoLifter was forced to lay off 200 workers when the German government declined to help it raise money for a rescue plan, The Associated Press reported Aug. 12 from Berlin. Only 30 people kept their jobs, AP said. It said the staff originally numbered 450 workers.
ARIANESPACE has moved an Ariane 5 launch vehicle from the launcher integration building to the final assembly building in final preparation for its Aug. 27 flight to carry two satellites to orbit. The Ariane 5 is scheduled to launch Eutelsat's Atlantic Bird 1 telecommunications satellite and the MSG 1 weather satellite, which will be operated by a joint European Space Agency (ESA)-European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) program. The Ariane 5's payload and protective fairing will be installed at the final assembly building.
