Raytheon Co. reported delivery to the Navy of the first production AIM-9X short-range air-to-air missile. The delivery, on May 1 in a ceremony at the company's Tucson, Ariz., facility, marks the beginning of an 18-year production plan, Raytheon said on May 23.
May 29 - 30 -- National Defense Industrial Association presents 10th Annual NDIA/MCCDC War Game Expeditionary Warfare Committee (EWC). The number of participants will be limited to 75 players on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information fax Holly Mason at (703) 522-1885 or email [email protected]. May 29 - 30 -- National Defense Industrial Association presents the 2nd Annual Intelligent Vehicle Systems Symposium - Grand Traverse City (ACME), MI. For more information contact Angie De Kleine at (703) 247-2599 or email [email protected].
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.
EVIDENCE: Lt. Gen. Brian A. Arnold, commander of the Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center, says prosecutors at The Hague will have access to surveillance data that will help implicate former Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic. Arnold says at a symposium at Peterson AFB, Colo., that, "...we're able to provide some great capabilities for everything from...airlifting into relief efforts all the way down to providing data for the war cases that are going on in The Hague right now. And Milosevic says 'You've got no data on me if you try to send me to jail.' Baloney!
LONDON - Introduction of the Eurofighter into service with the British Royal Air Force has been delayed by about six months, the U.K. defense minister, Lord Bach, told Parliament May 23. BAE Systems, which plays a key role in developing the Eurofighter, has acknowledged the delays. Bach's statement officially confirmed the delay.
The Senate plans to begin considering its version of the fiscal 2002 supplemental appropriations bill June 3, after a week-long congressional recess for Memorial Day. The House approved a supplemental appropriations bill May 24 that provides $15.8 billion for defense, including the Bush Administration's $377 million request to speed up production of Boeing Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) (DAILY, May 7, 21). The Senate bill provides the requested $14 billion for defense, including full funding for JDAMs (DAILY, May 23).
RIGHT WAY, WRONG WAY: If the Senate decides to approve a recommendation from the Defense Science Broad to streamline the oversight of the military services' testing and evaluation facilities, there's a right way and wrong way to do it, according to Phil Coyle, former director of the Defense Department's Operational Test & Evaluation office. The right way would be for the Test and Evaluation Resource Enterprise, as the new controlling entity would be called, to allocate money to the services for regular infrastructure maintenance and repair of the facilities.
With a June 4 deadline drawing near, the services are prepared to present Pentagon acquisition czar E.C. "Pete" Aldridge a joint solution to the military's electronic warfare needs, a senior Air Force official said. "It'll be a collection of programs, some of which are platforms and some of which are capabilities," Maj. Gen. Dan Leaf, the Air Force's director of operational requirements, told The DAILY in a May 24 interview. While the services won't yet discuss which specific options they will present, Leaf said that it would be a joint program.
PORTSMOUTH, Va. - Northrop Grumman's X-47A Naval Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV-N) demonstrator is set to begin taxi tests at the Naval Weapons Center in China Lake, Calif., next month, as the program builds to a first flight in late summer. "We're going to get ready to do low-speed taxis ... by the end of next month," Program Manager Dave Mazur said at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics' 1st Unmanned Systems Conference here May 22. "We'll progress and do a high-speed taxi, and then we'll do first flight."
The Missile Defense Agency is gearing up for several events over the next two to three months that will be important to its efforts to develop a system that can shoot down enemy missiles in their midcourse stage of flight.
ASIA SECURITY: Top defense officials from the U.S. and other Asia-Pacific countries are scheduled to meet in Singapore May 31 to June 2 to discuss regional security issues, including China's military doctrine and security, U.S. strategy in the region and Europe's role in Asian security. U.S. representatives at the conference are to include Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, Senate Armed Services Committee member Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Senate Foreign Relations Committee member Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), according to Reed's office.
PORTSMOUTH, Va. - Northrop Grumman's Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is well-suited to perform high-altitude atmospheric science missions as well as its usual military surveillance role, according to an engineer who helped developer the aircraft. Greg Loegering, chief engineer for the Naval Global Hawk program, gave that assessment at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics' 1st Unmanned Aerospace Vehicles, Systems, Technologies, and Operations Conference here May 22.
UCAV REFUELING: Although airborne refueling is "not a technology demonstration that we're currently pursuing," the Air Force's X-45A Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) team hopes to eventually perform a refueling demo by 2006-2007 as part of follow-on activities, according to Program Manager Col. Michael Leahy. He says the demo would utilize one of the upcoming larger X-45B model aircraft, which will be more characteristic of the eventual operational system than the current demonstrator.
MISSILE TALKS: Presidents Bush and Putin last week said the U.S. and Russia would begin exchanging information on missile defense programs and observing each other's missile defense tests. The two countries also agreed to study possible cooperation in missile defense, including expansion of joint missile defense-related exercises and programs for joint research.
TRIPLE REDUNDANCY: The main reason Northrop Grumman's Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is upgrading from dual- to triple-redundant avionics is to allow it eventually to operate from commercial airports, according to Greg Loegering, chief engineer for the Naval Global Hawk program. "One of the reasons we're increasing [redundancy] is to be able to fly in and out of Los Angeles International Airport," Loegering says. The original goal for the system was one loss out of every 200 flights, although "folks in the civilian community ...
MILLENIUM CHALLENGE: U.S. Joint Forces Command (JFCOM) is preparing to conduct the 2002 Millennium Challenge experiment. Set for July 24 to August 15, the exercise will bring together the military services, various Department of Defense Agencies, and Special Operations Command in a wide-range of live and virtual combat situations. "The overall experiment really focuses on this notion of how do I leverage the information revolution to improve the way I do military planning and execution," says Air Force Brig. Gen.
U-2 RESTART? Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. has given the Air Force a confidential proposal for restarting production of the U-2 manned reconnaissance aircraft in Palmdale, Calif., according to company spokeswoman Dianne Knippel. The company submitted the proposal in response to a request from the Air Force, which has recently expressed interest in possibly restarting U-2 production if unmanned reconnaissance aircraft get too expensive (DAILY, May 24). The last U-2 was delivered to the Air Force in 1989, but Lockheed Martin still does upgrade work on the U-2 fleet.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Rear Adm. James D. McArthur Jr., director of operations for U.S. Space Command, said that while some have assumed that a merger of his organization and U.S. Strategic Command is all but assured, there's new appreciation for the complexities of the U.S. Space Command mission, and that this and other factors will be carefully considered before any steps are taken.
The U.S. Army's plans for deploying its Future Combat Systems will stimulate a worldwide demand for light tracked armored vehicles over the next decade, according to a report from Forecast International/DMS. Gregory Fetter, a senior defense weapons systems analyst, says in the report that he expects 16,400 vehicles to be produced over the decade. Sales of these vehicles will generate close to $16 billion, the report says.
Though the deal between the Boeing Co. and South Korea for the purchase of F-15 Eagle fighters may not be unusual as far as today's offset agreements go, don't expect Boeing to offer similar deals to other potential buyers, analysts say. "South Korea is a very unique case," said Richard Aboulafia, senior aircraft analyst with the Teal Group of Fairfax, Va. "They're the last of the Japan wannabees," he said, referring to the government's financial support of the country's aerospace industry.
The Defense Department has asked Congress to approve moving around hundreds of millions of dollars in budgeted fiscal 2002 funds, including shifting $48.3 million to the Air Force to sustain the KC-135 tanker fleet. The Air Force has determined that some of its KC-135s need more depot work than expected, DOD wrote in its FY '02 omnibus reprogramming request, recently submitted to lawmakers. Some aircraft could be grounded if the additional work, including rewiring, is not completed, DOD asserted.
Congress could receive by June a final version of the deal between the Air Force and the Boeing Co. to lease 767 tankers, according to a senior Boeing official. Jerry Daniels, president and CEO of Boeing's Military Aircraft and Missile Systems division, said the terms of the deal are still being negotiated. But efforts are underway to draft an agreement that the Air Force could take to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in June, he said.
After data gathered during the May 22 maiden flight of the Air Force's X-45A Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) demonstrator is analyzed, the team hopes to fly the aircraft again before the end of June, according to the program manager, Col. Michael Leahy. Although the team's goal is to fly the aircraft every two to three weeks, a significant gap could occur between the second and third flight to accommodate a major revision in the UCAV's flight control software, Leahy said.
