Roger Krone will become vice president of Strategic Projects. Patrick Shanahan will succeed Krone as vice president and general manager of U.S. Army programs for Boeing Military Aircraft and Missiles Systems. Francisco Escarti has been named vice president, business development, Europe. Tim Neale has been named director of communications.
Northrop Grumman Corp. has received a $38.4 million Air Force contract for advanced procurement of the 17th E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) aircraft, the company announced April 3. Refurbishment and conversion work on the former U.S. Air Force EC-18 Advanced Range Instrumentation Aircraft began this week, according to the company.
COUNTDOWN: Space Shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to launch between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. EST on April 4 on the 13th mission to the International Space Station. According to NASA, the forecast calls for a 70-percent chance of favorable weather at launch time.
NASA has agreed to require better accounts of spare parts it buys from the Boeing Co. for the International Space Station (ISS), according to a new agency inspector general report. NASA's Office of Inspector General audited ISS spare parts costs and determined that "NASA generally did not properly acquire and account for ISS spare parts," says the report, released April 2.
The Army's howitzer-launched QuickLook unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is on schedule for its first full-system demonstration in September. QuickLook is an expendable, GPS-guided loitering UAV capable of transmitting imagery, providing target coordinates, and performing battle damage assessment for up to 45 minutes.
Norway is interested in joining the development phase of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, according to Norway's minister of defense, even as the United States considers reducing its buy of the aircraft. Appearing with U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon April 2, Norwegian Minister of Defense Kristin Krohn Devold said although no final decision has been made, Norway "wants to take part" in the JSF's system development and demonstration (SDD) phase.
The airborne infrared countermeasures market will nearly triple in size over the next 10 years as military forces seek ways to counter the threat from shoulder-fired guided missiles, according to a forecast report from the Teal Group. "The infrared countermeasures (IRCM) market will almost triple over the next decade to $700 million annually by 2008, for a total value of $5 billion this decade," said David Rockwell, senior electronics analyst and author of the Teal Group's Military Electronics Briefing.
HAWKEYE ARRIVES: Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Integrated Systems sector has delivered a third E-2C Hawkeye 2000 to the U.S. Navy, a month ahead of schedule, the company announced. The company said it is using lean production techniques to cut Hawkeye construction time from 42 to 24 months.
Russia's Space Troops launched an Oko ("Eye") early warning satellite on April 2. The 6,000-pound spacecraft, designated Kosmos-2388, was delivered to a high elliptical orbit by a Molniya-M launcher from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome. The launch had been planned for March 26, but was delayed. Oko satellites make up the first level of the national early warning system, with the second level based on geostationary Prognoz satellites.
SPIRENT SALE: Spirent of London has completed the sale of its aerospace component businesses to Curtiss-Wright Corp. of the U.S. for $60 million, the company announced.
The Pentagon's interest in repackaging existing nuclear payloads on earth-penetrating weapons may not violate the 1994 congressional ban on developing new nuclear weapons, according to Gen. John A. Gordon, the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and undersecretary of energy for nuclear security. The Department of Defense is interested in concepts that could fit its requirement for defeating hard and deeply buried targets, including the use of repackaged nuclear weapons, Gordon told defense reporters in Washington April 2.
BAE Systems' win of a $12.7 million U.S. Army contract for the Common Missile Warning System (CMWS) is a milestone that may convince overseas customers to buy the device, a company executive said. "This is a big milestone for us, the first U.S. production [contract]," said Christopher Ager, business development manager for BAE Systems' Information and Electronic Warfare Systems unit in Nashua, N.H.
Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Integrated Systems Sector has completed installation of the wing center section for the second EA-6B Prowler Increased Capability III (ICAP III) system development aircraft. The work was performed at Northrop Grumman's Airborne Early Warning and Electronic Warfare Systems facility in St. Augustine, Fla., the company said April 1.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center has begun testing a new reaction control engine (RCE) developed in support of the agency's Space Launch Initiative (SLI). The RCE, developed by TRW Space and Electronics of Redondo Beach, Calif., is designed to accomplish on-orbit maneuvers such as docking, re-entry, and attitude control.
The Senate Armed Services Committee plans to consider its version of the fiscal 2003 defense authorization bill in early May, a committee spokeswoman said April 2. The House Armed Services Committee has announced it would hold its defense authorization bill markup in late April and early May (DAILY, April 2). The House Science space subcommittee, meanwhile, plans to take up its NASA reauthorization bill sometime in May, according to committee spokespersons. Full committee consideration is expected in early June.
The Rand Corp. has been hired by the Defense Department to conduct an aircraft industrial base study that could give ammunition to those who argue Lockheed Martin Corp. should be forced to split production of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter with the Boeing Co. An aide to Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond (R-Mo.), who pushed for the study, said April 2 that DOD and Rand, the Santa Monica, Calif.-based think tank, recently reached agreement on how the study would be conducted. The results of the Rand review could be available by September.
Discarded satellites in Russia's Glonass navigation constellation could eventually pose a threat to their operational brethren and to Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites, according to studies by the Aerospace Corporation. When disposed of, satellites in medium Earth orbit (MEO) are typically moved into different orbits or left where they are, rather than de-orbited. However, gravitational perturbations in MEO tend to cause orbits to become more eccentric, or oval-shaped, over time.
Although prime aerospace and defense contractors are starting to involve suppliers in the early developmental phases of a complex weapons system, that practice currently benefits only a few top-tier suppliers, according to one industry expert. Bill Lewandowski, vice president of supplier management for the Aerospace Industries Association, said the practice of including suppliers in the early development phase was borne out of the need to meet the stringent requirements spelled out in performance-based contracts.
AGREEMENT: GE Aircraft Engines and Woodward Governor Co.'s Aircraft Engine Systems business have signed a long-term delivery and pricing agreement for production engine fuel delivery system components through 2008, Woodward announced. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
