(Editor's note: The following is excerpted from the written responses by Pacific Fleet commander Adm. Thomas B. Fargo, who is nominated to be commander-in-chief, U.S. Pacific Command, to written questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee. Fargo testified April 26.) Q: In your view, what are the major challenges that will confront the next commander-in-chief, United States Pacific Command?
PROPHET TEAM: Titan Systems Corp. of San Diego and Thales Defence Ltd. of the United Kingdom are teaming to pursue Block II/III upgrades to the U.S. Army's Prophet Ground System. The Prophet, or AN/MLQ-40, is a signals intelligence service mounted on a ground vehicle, which can be used to help create electronic maps of battlefields.
TOKYO - Space Systems/Loral likely will cancel a contract that calls for launching eight of its communications satellites on H-IIA boosters, the president of Rocket Systems Corp. (RSC) said. RSC markets launches on Japan's new H-IIA booster, but its president, Yoshihisa Tsuda, told Japan's Space Activities Commission that high launch costs likely will kill the Loral deal. That would leave RSC with only one launch contract, for the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's MTSAT-1.
April 22, 2002 Lockheed Martin Corp., Naval Electronic and Surveillance Systems, Archbald, Pa., is being awarded a $6,600,000 modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract (N00019-99-C-1648) to exercise an option for the procurement of an additional 3,300 laser guided training rounds. Work will be performed in Archbald, Pa., and is expected to be completed by March 2004. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.
The European Aeronautic and Defence and Space Co. (EADS), stung by the U.S. Air Force's decision last month to explore tanker leasing options with Boeing instead of Airbus, is pressing ahead with development of an advanced refueling boom it says will be available beginning in 2005.
TRW Inc. said "several interested parties" have signed confidentiality agreements and soon would begin reviewing non-public information about the company as part of the due diligence process. The announcement followed a series of exchanges last week between the company and Northrop Grumman Corp., which has offered to exchange each share of TRW stock for Northrop Grumman stock at $53.
LACK OF INTEGRATION: The on-orbit technical problems that developed last fall in several Boeing satellites were the result of systems integration failures, according to a senior Boeing executive. The company didn't pay enough attention to integrating new technology into the 601 series and 702 series satellites, originally built by Hughes Space and Communications, he says. "The [cause of] those anomalies was driven by one thing, it was lack of good systems engineering. It was great technology ...
MISSILE THREAT: North Korea's development of ballistic missiles remains a "significant" threat to U.S. forces and allies on the peninsula, according to Army Lt. Gen. Leon LaPorte, President Bush's nominee to head the United Nations Command in South Korea. North Korea has more than 500 Scuds that can threaten the entire peninsula, and it continues to produce and deploy No Dong missiles capable of hitting Japan and U.S. bases there, LaPorte says.
JSF DELAY: The Dutch cabinet April 26 postponed a decision on whether to reaffirm its recommendation to parliament to join the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. The delaying action follows two tie votes in the parliament on whether to reject the cabinet's recommendation.
AIRCRAFT SHORTAGE: U.S. Pacific Command needs more refueling and transport aircraft and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) assets to meet operational demands, according to Navy Adm. Thomas Fargo, commander of U.S. Pacific Fleet and President Bush's nominee to head Pacific Command. Navy Adm. Dennis Blair, the current head of Pacific Command, made similar comments in March (DAILY, March 6).
DRS Technologies plans to enter the market for unmanned aerial vehicles with its purchase of a UAV business from Meggitt Defense Systems-Texas, Inc. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but DRS chairman, president and CEO Mark Newman said in a statement that "the acquisition of this small UAV business positions DRS in the growing UAV market supporting special military operations and civil applications."
NASA is trying to determine what it would need to do to keep the space shuttle flying in case a replacement vehicle does not become available in 2012 as planned. Fred Gregory, NASA's associate administrator for space flight, testified before the House Science space subcommittee recently that he has told the shuttle program to assess what upgrades would be needed to keep the shuttle flying through 2020.
April 29 - May 1 -- National Defense Industrial Association presents 2002 NDIA-U.S. Coast Guard Innovation Expo, the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront, Baltimore, MD. For more information contact Angie De Kleine at (703) 247-2599 or email [email protected], or visit www.ndia.org. April 30 -- Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association presents Sky Forum 2002: Advancing the Future, the Waldorf-Astoria, 301 Park Ave., New York, NY. For more information call (800) 541-5981 or email [email protected].
TECHNOLOGY BOOST: France soon will launch a satellite carrying technology the country hopes will boost its competitiveness in space telecommunications. The 2.4 ton Telecommunications Satellite for New Technology Experiments in Orbit (STENTOR) is slated to launch in July from the Kourou launch center in French Guiana. The satellite carries a host of new technologies, according to the French Technology Press office, including an active antenna and advanced thermal control and plasma thrusters. The government decided to build the satellite in 1994.
NEWSAT-USA, headquartered in New Jersey, has signed a transponder lease with iSkySat, an Atlanta-based company that provides worldwide Internet connectivity via satellites and land connections. The three-year contract is for a 36 MHz transponder on NewSat1, a C-band spacecraft located at 42.5 degrees east longitude over the Indian Ocean. iSkySat will use the capacity to deliver Internet connectivity and digital video to customers in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia.
MARKET ALTERNATIVES: The U.S. military should consider some of MBDA's missile technologies to meet its needs, says company CEO Fabrice Brégier. "I don't pretend we are better than the major U.S. [defense] companies. But I believe we have technologies some of them don't have," he says. An example, he says, is the Meteor missile, a highly flexible, visual- and beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile. "I don't say 'buy Meteor off the shelf.' But at least ... be interested in the technology and ... see whether MBDA, together with a U.S.
A Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile successfully intercepted and destroyed an incoming tactical ballistic missile (TBM) target during an April 25 test, although a second PAC-3 failed to launch. The test was intended to be a simultaneous engagement using the first PAC-3 missile against a Patriot-as-a-Target (PAAT) TBM, and the second PAC-3 against a Storm II ballistic missile target. An investigation is underway to determine why the second missile didn't launch.
Sukhoi Design Bureau won the tender for Russia's fifth-generation fighter April 26 after its bid was approved by the government's commission on military industry. The decision came in a closed meeting chaired by Prime Minister Mikhail Kasianov, and the result was announced by Iliya Klebanov, the minister of industry, science and technology. Sukhoi's team on the program will include MiG and the Yakovlev Design Bureau. MiG had presented its own design for the fighter.
MISSILE THREAT: North Korea's development of ballistic missiles remains a "significant" threat to U.S. forces and allies on the peninsula, according to Army Lt. Gen. Leon LaPorte, President Bush's nominee to head the United Nations Command in South Korea. North Korea has more than 500 Scuds that can threaten the entire peninsula, and it continues to produce and deploy No Dong missiles capable of hitting Japan and U.S. bases there, LaPorte says.
F-22 NEEDED: The F-22 shouldn't be cast aside based on the future promise of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, according to Air Force Secretary Jim Roche. "Personally, I distinguish between something that's flying and passing all its key tests compared to a viewgraph that looks really cute," Roche says. "The systems work is just now beginning on the F-35. It's at this stage of the plane that the baby looks cute as can be, [but the] terrible twos are coming." Although the JSF will be a "very good plane," he says, "the F-22 is here now. It's time to produce it.
