The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and the U.S. Navy plan to conduct the fifth test of the Sea-Based Midcourse Defense (SMD) June 13, the same day that the United States will withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty. "It's a fluke that it's on the day of the withdrawal," Chris Taylor, an MDA spokesperson, told The DAILY, adding that nothing is being done in the June 13 test that would have violated the treaty.
Israel has begun operating the second battery of its Arrow missile defense system, but the unit is "not at its full capacity," according to an Israeli official in Washington.
DRS Technologies of Parsippany, N.J., will build flight control computers for EH-101 helicopters under a $2.6 million contract from Smiths Aerospace Electronic Systems. Smiths Aerospace, a unit of Smiths Industries of the United Kingdom, will supply the computers to AgustaWestland, which is supplying the EH-101s to Denmark. The company's DRS Flight Safety and Communications unit, based in Carleton Place, Ontario, will build the systems, the company said June 11. Deliveries are expected to begin in May 2003 and continue through 2005.
ABM SUIT: Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) June 11 endorsed a lawsuit by 31 House members seeking to prevent the Bush Administration from pulling out of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. The lawsuit, spearheaded by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), contends that congressional consent is required for the withdrawal, which takes effect June 13. As expected, the House members filed the suit June 11 (DAILY, June 11).
PARIS - Thales Airborne Systems officials said June 11 that the company is evaluating what electronic systems payloads it could develop for unmanned aerial vehicles. "We want to address this market not only as an equipment supplier but also as a high-level solutions provider," Loic de La Bourdonnaye, director of business development, told a group of visiting aerospace journalists.
The international Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) soon may refine its list of restricted exports, a U.S. State Department official told a congressional panel June 11.
SATELLITE PLANS: China plans to launch a constellation of ocean-monitoring satellites by 2010, government officials said recently. Following the successful launch of the HY-1, the first in the series of satellites, China plans to place another remote-sensing satellite in 2004. The HY-1, launched May 15, is the country's first oceanic satellite and is expected to be ready for use by the State Oceanic Administration in a few months. Further ocean-monitoring satellite launches are planned for 2005 and later.
NASA has selected an industry team led by the University of Arizona, Tucson, to provide the primary near-infrared science camera for the Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST). The team will be led by Marcia Reike of the University of Arizona, and includes Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center, Palo Alto, Calif.; EMS Technologies, Ottawa, Canada, and COMDEV Ltd., Cambridge, Canada.
Israel may need to buy additional batteries of the Arrow Weapon System to protect itself against growing threats from ballistic missiles, according to a missile defense expert from Israel. Israel currently plans to deploy three batteries. The first one, located in the central part of the country, became operational in 2000, and two more batteries are slated for deployment in northern and southern Israel.
MOSCOW - A Proton K booster launched a new satellite for Russia's national telecommunications constellation on June 10. The Express-A1R satellite was delivered to geo transfer orbit to occupy a 40 degree East orbital slot.
THE GE-P&W ENGINE ALLIANCE, a joint venture between GE Aircraft Engines and Pratt & Whitney, will provide GP7000 engines to Emirates, the international airline of the United Arab Emirates, to power its Airbus A380-800 aircraft. Emirates is the main launch customer of the A380-800 double-decker aircraft, with 22 on order and 10 options. The engine order is worth $1.5 billion, including options.
Under continued pressure to cut costs, International Space Station (ISS) officials now say they have enough funding to carry the program through the "U.S. core complete" state in February 2004. However, during a June 11 meeting of the NASA Advisory Council (NAC) in Washington, NAC member Roger Tetrault expressed doubts that NASA could achieve its cost targets. "If you don't continue to pursue the cost items, and get the cost out of the program now, you won't be able to get to the end of the program," Tetrault said.
The Navy's trainer programs, which have long suffered the brunt of cuts in the department's budget wars, may get the funding they need to push forward with modernization plans, according to the chief of Naval Air Training.
NEW DELHI - India's government has begun talks with France's Dassault Aviation to both purchase Mirage 2000-5 multirole fighters and build them under license. A senior Indian defense ministry official told The DAILY June 11 that company executives gave a presentation on the Mirage 2000-5 to Indian air force officials last month.
APACHE DELIVERY: The Boeing Co. has delivered the final AH-64D Apache helicopter to the Netherlands' air force under a 1995 contract, the company announced June 10. The 30th Apache bought under the contract was delivered to Dutch officials at a ceremony at Boeing facilities in Mesa, Ariz.
China's leading spaceship designer said in Beijing recently that the successful mission of the unmanned Shenzhou III spacecraft in March gives him confidence China could launch a manned space mission in the near future.
Lockheed Martin Corp. has added Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers to the Defense Department's tethered aerostats that guard the southern U.S. border, according to the company. Operated by Lockheed Martin for the Air Force, the Tethered Aerostat Radar System (TARS) consists of a number of blimp-like balloons that monitor the border. Although their primary mission is drug interdiction, the radars on the aerostats are used to track a number of possible threats to the United States.
MOLSHEIM, France - Officials with Messier Bugatti said June 10 they expect to have the certification process for the company's wheel and brake system for the C-17 Globemaster completed by the end of this month. Boeing awarded Messier Bugatti the contract for the aircraft's wheel and carbon disc brake system in 2000. At least 120 Air Force C-17s will be retrofitted with the brake system once the certification process is completed.
The Pentagon's National Communications System (NCS) office is the only Defense Department function to be transferred to the newly created Department of Homeland Security, according to a Defense Department spokesperson.
NASA's Propulsive Small Expendable Deployer System (ProSEDS) experiment will launch no earlier than mid-September, according to Principal Investigator Les Johnson. ProSEDS, which will attempt to demonstrate in-space propulsion using an electrodynamic tether (EDT), is scheduled to fly as a secondary payload on a Delta II rocket carrying a Block II replacement Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite. That launch originally was to take place in June.
The Army has confirmed a plan to proceed with procurement of the CH-47F helicopter, a modernized version of the current CH-47D Chinook helicopter, and the MH-47G Chinook for Special Operations units. The service's Aviation and Missile Command said in a June 5 notice to industry that it is planning for low-rate initial production of the Boeing helicopters, and that it wants a total of 30 in Lots 1 and 2. "This is for a long-lead contract to initiate modernization of [the] CH-47F/G," Boeing spokesman Jack Satterfield said June 10.
As part of a new "statement of capabilities" released following the NATO defense ministers meeting last week, the member states proposed several joint initiatives to beef up the alliance's defense against weapons of mass destruction. NATO member states suggested creating a prototype deployable nuclear-biological-chemical (NBC) analytical laboratory; a prototype NBC Event Response Team; a virtual "center of excellence" for NBC weapons defense; a NATO biological and chemical defense stockpile; and a disease surveillance system.
MOSCOW - A list of new space companies to be formed by 2006 as part of an ongoing government restructuring of the military and space industry here has been released. Although the federal consolidation program for 2002-2006 is still considered classified, the list shows several new space-related concerns the government intends to create. According to the list, the Khrunichev Center will become State Corporation Khrunichev, and will include eight companies.
