As a March 2 combat death in Afghanistan spurs new fears of a "friendly fire" incident, a small team is mustering more than 4,000 U.S. troops for a two-week test of combat identification systems. More than 60 combat identification systems - used to distinguish between forces friendly and foe - will be scrutinized during tests in military training areas along the U.S. Gulf Coast April 15-26, said Air Force Col. Greg Brown, vice commander of the Joint Combat Identification Evaluation Team (JCIET), which is sponsoring the exercise.
INTEGRATION: All of Northrop Grumman's acquisitions in 2001, including Newport News Shipbuilding, have been successfully integrated into the company, officials announced April 1. In 2001, the company acquired Litton Industries, Aerojet General Corp.'s Electronic and Information Systems Group and Newport News. It is now seeking to acquire TRW Inc. (DAILY, Feb. 25).
March 25, 2002 Northrop Grumman Corp., San Diego, is being awarded a $247,000,000 (not-to-exceed) cost-plus-award-fee contract modification to provide for engineering and manufacturing development stage IIB activities for the Global Hawk program including communications, signals intelligence and sensor suite upgrades. At this time, $34,579,000 of the funds has been obligated. This work will be completed December 2006. The Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-01-C-4600, P00004).
A story in the March 26 edition of The DAILY gave an incorrect date for the commissioning of NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-8, which will be April 22. Also, although the cost of further replacement satellites would be $100 million each, TDRS-H, I, and J were more expensive.
NASA Missions NASA Missions - Kennedy Space Center - Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida (NET indicates a tentative launch date) Date/2002 Vehicle Pad Mission April 4 OV-104(Atlantis) 39B KSC STS-110/International Space Station (ITS SO, MT) May 31 NET OV-105(Endeavour) 39-A KSC STS-111/International Space Station (UF2) T0: TBD
The Technical Research and Development Institute of Japan's Self-Defense Agency is starting development of a new indigenously designed high-bypass ratio turbofan engine for the MPA aircraft. The MPA, also called P-X, is a next-generation anti-submarine warfare aircraft for the Maritime Self-Defense Force, intended to replace the Lockheed Martin/Kawasaki P-3Cs currently in service. About $92 million for the engine effort is included in the fiscal 2002 defense budget. Japan's fiscal year 2002 began April 1.
The impact of the Air Force's March 29 decision to drop Airbus from consideration for its tanker needs and focus on Boeing's offer of modified 767s remains to be seen, according to industry analysts. Paul Nisbet, senior aircraft analyst with JSA Research, said the leasing proposal - pushed by congressmen from states with major Boeing aircraft facilities - is highly irregular, in that no money was appropriated to lease the tankers.
The Air Force has awarded two contracts worth nearly $300 million to Northrop Grumman Corporation for enhancements to the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), including increasing the aircraft's payload capacity to 3,000 pounds. This increase will help enable "plug and play" payload flexibility for Global Hawk without compromising its ability to meet performance requirements, according to Northrop Grumman spokeswoman Cynthia Curiel.
A Proton K rocket successfully carried Intelsat 903 into orbit March 30, marking the first launch of a commercial satellite on a Proton this year. Intelsat 903 will be positioned at 325.5 degrees East longitude over the Atlantic Ocean region, and will provide Internet, broadcast, voice and data services to North and South America, Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) is constructing a plant in Brazil to build the main wing for Embraer's ERJ-195. KHI is building a 24,000-square foot plant at Embraer's existing facility in Sao Paulo, and plans to assemble 40-48 wings a year. The KHI plant is expected to be completed by next October, and wing assembly will begin in 2003. KHI will manufacture parts and components of the wing in its plant in Gifu, near Nagoya, and will ship them to Sao Paulo.
A NASA assessment team and a project advisory panel have given a green light to NASA's MESSENGER project, the first mission intended to orbit Mercury. The MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging (MESSENGER) program passed a four-day review last week, according to Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), which manages the $286 million project and will build and operate the spacecraft.
MLRS AWARD: Harris Corp. will provide Improved Fire Control System (IFCS) electronics for the U.S. Army's Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) M270A1 launcher under a $19 million contract from Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. The contract, for the fifth low-rate initial production lot, is a follow-on to IFCS contracts awarded in 1992.
The U.S. House plans to finish work on its version of the fiscal 2003 defense authorization bill by early May, according to a recent memo by House Armed Services Committee (HASC) Chairman Bob Stump (R-Ariz.).
NASA, the San Bernadino, Calif., sheriff's department and the National Association for Search and Rescue (NASAR) will fly a simulated search and rescue mission in California mountains later this month using a synthetic aperture radar built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AIRSAR) will fly on NASA's DC-8, based at Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif., according to NASA. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., is the agency's Search and Rescue Mission Office and is coordinating the mission.
As Lockheed Martin attempts to chip away at Raytheon's dominance in the ship-based missile market, officials at Lockheed Martin's missiles division seek to fill a niche for the Navy's unfunded advanced land attack missile (ALAM) requirement.
OFFER EXTENSION: Northrop Grumman has extended its exchange offer for all outstanding shares of TRW Inc. stock until April 12, the company announced. TRW's board of directors has said Northrop Grumman's offer is "inadequate." About 2.1 million shares of TRW stock had been tendered to Northrop Gru-mman as of March 28, the company said.
The AIM-54 Phoenix air-to-air missile is an example of a weapon system that could be dropped so the Navy could free money to buy new systems, Vice Adm. Joseph W. Dyer, commander of Naval Air Systems Command, said March 28.
AAW MISSILE: The Navy is considering its options for a new active over-the-horizon anti-air warfare (AAW) missile, according to John Young, the assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition. Depending on the funding available, the Navy would like to have a competition for the new missile, he says. The missile could be a Standard Missile 5, a repackaged Standard Missile 2 Block IVA using a PAC-3 seeker, or some other option, he suggests. "There's a good competitive space," he says.
