Although congressional cuts ended ambitious plans for an integrated flight experiment of the Space Based Laser, the Air Force is seeking to conduct near-term experiments to advance the use of lasers in space for missile defense, according to a contract solicitation issued May 24. The Space Based Laser Project Office, based at the Air Force's Space and Missiles System Center in Los Angeles, is asking for study proposals that could lead to experiments demonstrating the use of lasers in space, according to the May 24 solicitation.
DRS Technologies announced May 28 it has signed an agreement with Eaton Corp. to acquire its Navy Controls Division for $92.2 million in cash. The acquisition, said DRS Chairman, President and CEO Mark Newman, will enable DRS to capitalize on the Navy's shift to electric-drive propulsion, a prominent feature of the Navy's DD(X) next-generation destroyer.
NEW DELHI - Visiting United Kingdom Foreign Secretary Jack Straw reassured Indian defense authorities that there is no move underway to cancel the U.K.'s proposed sale of 66 Hawk 100 Advanced Jet Trainers to India, or impose an arms embargo on New Delhi in the wake of increased tensions with Pakistan.
As part of a rapid, Defense Department-wide push to develop mid-air refueling capability for unmanned aircraft, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is sponsoring a program with NASA that could begin flight tests as early as this summer.
PRAGUE - The Czech government decided May 29 to postpone signing a contract for the purchase of 24 Jas-39 Gripen fighters until the end of September. The decision came two days before the country's senate was to debate the issue.
The Aerospace Industries Association faces an uphill battle to derail a congressional proposal that would shift weapon systems work from the private sector to the federal government, an AIA official said May 29.
The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is developing non-metallic structure and engine flow technologies for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in an effort to stay ahead of technology requirements for unmanned systems well into the next century. David Lanman, focus area lead for UAV technology at AFRL, works with the Air Vehicles Directorate and other organizations within the lab to roadmap technologies that will be needed for unmanned systems both in the short term and as far out as 2050.
The night before the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft's first flight after being grounded almost 18 months ago, engineers and program officials were examining one last line clearance concern, according to Marine Corps Col. Dan Schulz, the program manager.
Standard & Poor's has placed United Defense Industries on CreditWatch with negative implications following the company's announced plans to acquire a large marine repair business for $316 million. The action comes at a time when the Defense Department has recommended that Congress cancel funding for the Crusader self-propelled howitzer, which United Defense is developing for the Army. Revenue from the program accounted for 20 percent of the company's total fiscal 2001 revenues.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Air Force Undersecretary Peter B. Teets said he is optimistic about a new acquisition plan for military space systems, and said as the Defense Department's executive agent for space, "I'm confident we can make some real headway" in putting the system in place. "We are very much in the process right now of establishing what I would hope to be a faster, more agile, responsive acquisition system for the nation's national security space programs," Teets said May 22 at a symposium at Peterson Air Force Base here.
NEW DELHI - In the face of increasing tension between India and Pakistan, Pakistan successfully test-fired its nuclear-capable Ghauri (Hatf-5) missile on May 25, and a day later test-fired its Ghaznavi (Hatf-3) missile. The Ghauri has a range of up to 1,500 kilometers (932 miles) and the Ghaznavi has a range of 290 kilometers (180 miles).
MOSCOW - Rosaviakosmos representatives 'strongly doubt' that a third space tourist will be able to ride on the Soyuz TMA-1 taxi mission this fall with Sergey Zalyotin and Belgian Frank de Winne.
Denmark became the third country to join the system development and demonstration phase of the Joint Strike Fighter program, U.S. and Danish officials said May 28 at a Pentagon ceremony. "Our participation in the program will give the Danish armed forces the opportunity to contribute to the development of the aircraft itself and also to the development of the logistic aspects and concepts of the program," said Danish National Armaments Director Jorgen Hansen-Nord.
MOSCOW - A delegation from the South Korean space agency, the Korean Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), is in Russia seeking a vehicle to launch the Korea Multipurpose Satellite-2 (Kompsat-2).
Aerospace and defense analysts with Deutsche Bank have not changed their short-term outlook for the Boeing Co., despite the company's recent announcement that it will deliver fewer aircraft than expected in 2003. Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEO Allan Mulally said during the company's recent investors conference that Boeing will remove eight wide-body aircraft from its production schedule due to sluggish growth in long-haul traffic. The expected delivery of 275-300 aircraft for 2003 remains unchanged.
PRAGUE - Czech defense minister Jaroslav Tvrdik on May 24 angrily dismissed Friday a Belgian offer to sell the Czech Republic 24 used Lockheed Martin F-16 fighters. Tvrdik told journalists in Prague that the offer, made by the Belgian ministry of defense at the beginning of May, amounted to "interference" in Czech internal politics, because the country's senate is about to debate the purchase of 24 Gripen fighters from the BAE Systems/Saab consortium.
Amid growing concern over the possibility of jamming, the Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite constellation should have its signal effectively boosted by 2009 under the current launch schedule, according to Col. Doug Loverro, system program director of the NAVSTAR GPS Joint Program Office.
The United Kingdom put defense exports to India and Pakistan on hold May 24 in response to increasing tensions on the Indian-Pakistan border, the government there announced last week. Trade and industry secretary Patricia Hewitt signed the order May 24, placing a temporary hold on all defense exports to the region. Following nuclear tests conducted by India and Pakistan in 1998, the U.K. placed broad sanctions on the export of defense articles to India and Pakistan. Many of those sanctions were lifted earlier this year.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Lt. Gen. Brian A. Arnold, commander of Air Force Space Command's Space and Missile Systems Center, said now that a new baseline has been given to the effort to develop the Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS), every program managed by his satellite development operation at Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif., can be executed. He also said it might not be easy. An underestimation of software work boosted the cost and delayed the schedule of SBIRS, intended to be the next generation early warning satellite system.
WATER FOUND: Instruments on NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft have found enough frozen subsurface water on Mars to fill Lake Michigan twice, NASA said. The spacecraft's gamma ray spectrometer indicated water ice in the top three feet of soil in a region surrounding the planet's south pole.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the U.S. Army have selected the four contractor teams that will compete in Phase 1 of the Unmanned Combat Armed Rotorcraft (UCAR) program, DARPA announced May 28. Each team will receive approximately $3 million for a 12-month concept development and system trades phase. The teams are: * Lockheed Martin Systems Integration of Owego, N.Y., and Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. of Fort Worth, Texas.
LOOKING CAREFULLY: Boeing Chairman and CEO Phil Condit said during last week's annual investors conference that Boeing management is "looking very carefully" at acquisition possibilities. "There are going to be new opportunities," Condit says. "I do not perceive them to be high-capital requirement activities, but there may be some that are." Even so, Boeing will not make any acquisitions that decreases the value of the company or impedes the performance of existing business units.
