FARNBOROUGH, England - Northrop Grumman is hoping its RQ-8A Fire Scout unmanned aerial vehicle, abandoned earlier this year by the U.S Navy, could get new life in Europe. The company announced July 22 at the Farnborough Air Show that it is offering the Fire Scout to the United Kingdom for the British army's upcoming UAV program. Although Northrop Grumman was expected to bid on the program, company officials waited until Farnborough to announce their choice of UAV platform.
FARNBOROUGH, England - Sikorsky expects its world customer service business to hit its target of $1 billion annually by next year. The company recently acquired Derco Holdings, which has about 1,200 customers in 66 countries for its logistic support activities. Operating in both commercial and military fields, the company services and supports products ranging from S-61 helicopters to C-130/L100 Hercules.
F-22 AWARD: Aviation Week named the F-22 Program Team the winner of the 2002 Quality Center Award, which identifies and celebrates the industry's ability to initiate quality practices in developing and building products. The F-22 Program Team winners are: Brig. Gen.
Development of NASA's ISTAR (Integrated Systems Test of an Air-Breathing Rocket) engine is proceeding ahead of schedule as the team works to ensure the engine is ready for its chance to fly on the X-43B hypersonic demonstrator before the end of the decade. An exhaustive system requirements review (SRR) for ISTAR was completed in June, several months ahead of schedule, according to NASA.
FARNBOROUGH, England - Sikorsky expects to receive FAA type certification for the S/H-92 large-cabin helicopter at the end of the year. Three aircraft are taking part in the flight test program, which has logged 1,250 hours of a planned 1,500 hours of testing.
PRAGUE - The incoming Czech government is making the BAE Systems/Saab consortium sweat it out over whether it will reactivate proposals to purchase 24 JAS 39 Gripen fighters. The previous Social Democrat-led government, headed by Milos Zeman, remained enthusiastic about the deal, but it faltered at the last legislative hurdle last month when the Czech senate rejected the proposal by a single vote (DAILY, June 14).
LONDON - With the commercial aviation market in decline, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS) is putting a high priority on bolstering its military revenues and again is looking to the United States as the best prospects for expansion. "Our strong interest is the U.S. market, and that is for obvious reasons," Tom Enders, EADS' executive vice president for defense and civil systems, told reporters in London July 22 (see related EADS story on Page 5). "It's the single biggest defense market in the world."
FARNBOROUGH, England - Elbit Systems of Israel and Tbilisi Aerospace Manufacturing (TAM) have teamed up to offer a modernized version of the Sukhoi Su-25KM, named Scorpion. The companies are offering Scorpion as an upgrade package for more than 800 Su-25s still in operational service, or as a new aircraft from TAM's production line at Tbilisi, Georgia.
AGREEMENT: An Acquisition and Cross Servicing Agreement (ACSA) between the United States and Sri Lanka is expected to be signed this week, during the U.S. visit of Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. The ACSA agreement would permit the U.S. to use Sri Lanka's ports, airports and airspace. In return, Sri Lanka would receive military assistance, including for training facilities and equipment. Wickremesinghe also is expected to strike a deal with the U.S. for the supply of two surveillance aircraft fitted with advanced radar.
FARNBOROUGH, England - Westland Helicopters and Thales Avionics Ltd. have signed a collaborative agreement to address the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence's Battlefield Light Utility Helicopter and Surface Combatant Maritime Rotorcraft programs.
UGCV AWARD: DARPA has awarded Carnegie Mellon University's National Robotics Engineering Consortium and Boeing a $5.5 million contract to build and test a prototype unmanned ground combat vehicle. The 18-month contract calls for the team to build and roll out a prototype by the end of the year, then test it in 2003.
KILLARNEY, Ireland - As the Defense Department prepares to embark on an ambitious plan to introduce a laser relay system to its military satellite communications system, the European satellite company Astrium is planning a third demonstration of this type of technology.
Aerospace and industry analysts said July 22 they generally were not surprised by last week's second quarter earnings results, although they did find a few exceptions. Paul Nisbet, senior aerospace and defense analyst with JSA Research in Newport, R.I., said most of the results posted by the larger companies fell within analysts' expectations. However, the Boeing Co. posted strong results despite the downturn in the commercial aerospace market, he said. "I was surprised by Boeing's strong margins on commercial airplanes," Nisbet said.
The final version of the fiscal 2002 supplemental appropriations bill provides $35 million to replace a Northrop Grumman Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle that crashed last December, but a new House committee report warns that the UAV program could be in trouble if its costs continue to grow.
FARNBOROUGH, England - Russia's Ulan-Ude Aircraft Plant (UUAZ) is supplying 12 Mi-171 civilian helicopters to Pakistan under a $40 million contract. The first four were delivered to Karachi in June by An-124 heavy-lift transports. The remainder will be delivered before the end of the summer. Iran will continue buying helicopters from UUAZ, according to Goliamrez Shafei, Iran's ambassador to Russia. Since 1998, the plant has delivered 25 Mi-171 helicopters to Iran, and will export another seven before the end of the year.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Gen. Richard B. Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the creation of the new U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) in Omaha, Neb., won't diminish space activities here. Air Force Space Command and Army Space Command will remain at Peterson Air Force Base, although they will report to STRATCOM at Offutt Air Force Base, Myers said. "This hub of space activity is not going to diminish because of" STRATCOM, a merger of U.S. Space Command, now based here, and the current Strategic Command at Offutt, near Omaha.
KILLARNEY, Ireland - Despite the U.S. Air Force's rejection of an Airbus proposal to replace the service's aging fleet of KC-135 tankers, Airbus is not going to throw in the towel to Boeing on air-to-air refueling aircraft, according to senior executives at the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS).
FARNBOROUGH, England - The United Kingdom's Ultra Electronics group could supply France's Rafale fighter with a new technology - pneumatic weapon ejection - that won't appear on other aircraft until the U.S. Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) enters service in 2006 or later. Paris-based weapon rack specialist Rafaut is developing a smart bomb rack for Rafale, capable of carrying and releasing either a pair of 1,000-pound weapons (such as the GBU-16), or three smaller weapons such as the new Sagem Armement Air-Sol Modulaire (AASM).
Helping restore NASA's fiscal credibility would be one of his top priorities if confirmed, Frederick Gregory, former astronaut and nominee to be the NASA's new deputy administrator, said at a Senate confirmation hearing in Washington July 19.
Satellite telephony provider Globalstar is lobbying the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to allow the company to use terrestrial cellular networks in areas where direct satellite signals are unavailable, such as inside buildings. Satellite phones suffer in urban environments and indoors, where a direct line of sight to a spacecraft is rare. Ancillary Terrestrial Components (ATC) technology will supplement satellite service with a ground-based network.
FARNBOROUGH, England - As part of its commitment to the system design and development (SDD) phase of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, BAE Systems has disclosed a planned 40 million pound ($64 million) investment in key JSF manufacturing and assembly facilities in the United Kingdom.
NASA faces "significant challenges" in reforming its management of International Space Station costs, according to a new report by the General Accounting Office.
LESSONS LEARNED: The military will "immediately" use anything it learns during this week's Millennium Challenge '02, the largest warfighting experiment in history, says Gen. William Kernan, commander of U.S. Joint Forces Command. The exercise, which runs from July 24-Aug. 15, will involve 13,500 people in a combination live-action and simulated exercise, meant to mimic a regional conflict that could escalate into a major theater war. "Information operations is a big piece of this - a major piece of it," Kernan says.
