STAUNCH SUPPORTER: A bipartisan group of lawmakers are hosting a U.S.-Italy "military and aerospace industry conference" on March 30, aimed at boosting collaboration on defense technology programs. "Italy has been a staunch supporter of the United States in the global war on terror and was a vital ally in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. In the past, the United States and Italy have cooperated on numerous defense and aerospace programs," says Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), one of the lawmakers hosting the event.
A European Union (EU) decision to end its 15-year ban on military sales to China would significantly hinder the U.S. defense industry, two industry analysts told The DAILY. EU heads of state decided at a summit in Brussels last week to delay a decision about the ban until EU foreign ministers discuss it in a meeting scheduled for this week, said Heritage Foundation senior policy analyst John Hulsman.
AIR DEFENSE: Russia's minister of defense, Sergey Ivanov, says the country's future air and space defense system will "consolidate all the state's resources, including civilian aviation." This could mean that civil air traffic management will be consolidated under military control, Russian observers say. Some military officials have complained about Western countries competing to provide air traffic management systems in Russia's far east and central region. Ivanov spoke to the media last week after observing an air attack simulation in the Tver region.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - U.S. Army researchers say they plan to expand the kinds of weapons fired in tests from unmanned aerial vehicles. The use of armed Predator UAVs by non-Army U.S. forces in recent military operations has helped fuel the Army's interest in such platforms. "Certainly, the weaponization of UAVs is a very hot and interesting topic right now, and we're doing some things along those lines, too," said Col. William Gavora, commander of the Army's Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD), based at Fort Eustis, Va.
The U.S. Air Force is negotiating with Boeing to lay the legal groundwork necessary to lift the sanctions levied against the company for ethical misconduct, according to Peter Teets, Air Force undersecretary for space.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - U.S. Army aviation will need more spare parts, diagnostic equipment and other tools to sustain the high readiness rates it will need to have in future years, a service official said March 25.
Members of the House Armed Services Committee's readiness subcommittee asked whether a round of base closures in 2005 is justified, a day after Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld certified to Congress that a new round of military base closures could save billions by 2011. "Ultimately, we must be able to answer the question: Is 2005 the right time for another round of base closures? Should Congress consider delaying or even canceling the next BRAC round?" Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Joel Hefley (R-Colo.) asked in his opening statement.
J-UCAS DROP: As expected, Boeing's X-45 Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems X-45A technology demonstrator has dropped a 250-pound inert Small Diameter Bomb. The vehicle released an unguided SDB while flying at 35,000 feet over Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The drop of a guided munition is expected next month (DAILY, March 22).
The U.S. Air Force does not plan to make many of the billions of dollars in improvements to the F/A-22 Raptor that the General Accounting Office recently suggested were planned to enhance the Lockheed Martin aircraft's ability to attack ground targets, according to two service officials.
PRAGUE, Czech Republic - Czech aircraft producer Aero Vodochody is to pay the Czech ministry of defense almost $28 million in penalties for the late delivery of L-159 fighters to the Czech air force. Defense spokesman Ladislav Sticha told The DAILY March 22 that the fines were agreed upon after an arbitration hearing. The air force received the last batch of 72 ordered aircraft last fall, at least 18 months after the original deadline set in a contract signed in 1997.
Over the next 10 years, the Eurofighter team is expected to surpass U.S. companies in sales of "fighter/attack/jet trainer aircraft," says a recently released market analysis by a defense research group, Forecast International (FI). Lockheed Martin will lead the field in terms of unit production, but the analysis sees the Eurofighter team overtaking the U.S. company in value of production before the end of the forecast period. This projection assumes the multinational Typhoon requirement is not cut back.
A team of defense experts should review tactical air funding requirements over the next two decades to try to prevent continued budget shortfalls, Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) said March 25.
Sikorsky is laying off approximately 100 employees who had been working on the Army's RAH-66 Comanche helicopter program, the company announced March 25. About 700 Sikorsky employees were working on Comanche before the Army's cancellation of the program last month (DAILY, Feb. 24). Two hundred of those employees already have been reassigned to other efforts within the company, according to Sikorsky President Steve Finger.
Funding basic research and science and technology is important to enable the development of future military capabilities, Department of Defense science and technology (S&T) officials said March 25 at a House hearing. The fiscal 2005 budget request for basic research is $1.3 billion. The DOD request for science and technology (S&T) in fiscal 2005 is $10.6 billion, an increase of about 1.5 percent increase over the fiscal 2004 budget request, said Ronald Sega, director of DOD Defense Research and Engineering.
The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) announced March 25 that is has founded a Russian subsidiary that will promote cooperation with that country's aerospace industry. One of the goals of the new venture will be to increase the amount of subcontracting work performed by Russian companies for Airbus, according to EADS Russia President and CEO Vadim Vlasov.
DENVER, Colo. - Industry is sorting out how to handle the architectures that will be key to interoperabilty in network-centric warfare - whether they should be owned by industry or by the government, according to attendees at a conference here. One group says industry should own the architectures, another says they should be owned by the government.
It is important for the U.S. Department of Defense to continue to invest in non-nuclear strategic defense capabilities, said witnesses at a March 24 hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee's strategic forces subcommittee. DOD needs to enhance its intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities to find hidden targets, which could be camouflaged or protected by robust air defenses, said Navy Adm. James Ellis, commander, U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM).
WCMD: Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control-Orlando will produce 1,677 Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser (WCMD) tail kits under an $11 million contract from the U.S. Air Force, the Department of Defense said March 24. WCMDs are kits designed for the precision release of cluster weapons.
DENVER - The upcoming appointment of the director of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) to head a new global network operations task force for U.S. Strategic Command should help simplify the way the government acquires capabilities for network-centric operations, according to Lt. Gen. Robert Shea, USMC. "We need to change" the way such systems are bought, said Shea, director of C4 Systems for the Joint Staff.
The start of a key testing phase for the F/A-22 Raptor was delayed about a month to allow more time for software testing, maintenance planning and training, an Air Force official told a Senate panel March 24. Separately, the Air Force announced it has reached a tentative deal with Lockheed Martin for the purchase of another batch of F/A-22s.
NEW DELHI - A test flight of India's new 14-seat transport aircraft Saras is scheduled to occur within a month, said a scientist with the Bangalore-based National Aerospace Laboratory, which is developing the aircraft. Last-minute ground tests are underway at the Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment at Bangalore, the scientist added. The aircraft is intended to boost the civilian aircraft industry in India, according to the government, but also will be used by the military.
