Multiple bills aimed at countering the threat of bioterrorism will be debated in the Senate in coming weeks, as Congress moves to improve the government's ability to deal with a potential large-scale biological attack. Last week, Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) asked the Administration and the Senate Appropriations Committee to provide an additional $1.4 billion to deal with the consequences of a possible bioterrorist attack.
BVR Systems of Rosh Ha'ayin, Israel, will provide a full mission simulator and three years of logistical support to Aermacchi S.p.A. under a $7.1 million contract. The simulator will be used for the MB339 training aircraft and is scheduled to be supplied in 2002, according to the company. BVR will build the simulator's high-fidelity cockpit replica, and the simulator is also expected to include its advanced simulation software.
General Dynamics Corp. extended its pending offer for Newport News Shipbuilding stock to midnight Oct. 12, the company announced Oct. 8. Rival Northrop Grumman Corp., which is also bidding for the shipbuilder, announced Oct. 4 that it has extended its offer to midnight Oct. 11.
Two BAE Systems Hawk Mk 127 two-seat lead-in fighters arrived at Royal Australian Air Force Base Williamtown last week, completing delivery of the 33 aircraft the air force had ordered in 1997 under an $850 million Australian (about $425 million) contract. The last of Australia's Hawks will undergo delivery preparations before being officially accepted by the air force in a few weeks' time.
The market for manned and unmanned aircraft fitted with advanced electro-optical targeting systems will grow to more than $14.7 billion over the next 10 years, according to a new report by Forecast International Inc. The report estimates that nearly 3,500 new manned aircraft and 3,000 unmanned aerial vehicles with advanced EO systems will be built in the next decade.
Members of the International Space Station's Expedition Three crew conducted a spacewalk Oct. 8 to outfit the station's new Pirs docking compartment. Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin hooked up a cable between Pirs and the station's Zvezda module for telemetry and data transmission from Russian Orlan spacesuits. They also attached handrails, an access ladder and a cargo boom to Pirs, which will serve as both a docking port for Russian spacecraft and as an airlock for spacewalks from the station's Russian segment.
Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) said Oct. 9 that he has strong reservations about a proposal by Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond (R-Mo.) to split production of the Joint Strike Fighter between The Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. Inouye did not rule out supporting the Bond proposal, but told The DAILY he is leaning against it because it would increase the program's cost. "At this moment, I'd be inclined to be against it because of the cost factor," Inouye said.
SIGNAL TECHNOLOGY CORP. announced its Olektron Division has received an $800,000 follow-on order to provide its logamplifiers, which are used in the "Identification Friend or Foe" radar systems in the U.S. Navy's F/A-18-E/F fighter and the Air Force's F-16 fighters. The contract came from a defense contractor the Danvers, Mass., company did not identify.
Military services are supporting the Department of Defense's Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Roadmap 2000-2005, and are developing their own roadmaps to fit within it, a defense official said. The April 2001 document was prepared to stimulate planning, leverage existing technologies, and identify key advancements needed in the years ahead to improve the military's UAVs, said Dyke Weatherington, deputy director of UAVs, sensor and data links for air warfare in the office of the undersecretary of defense for acquisition.
Retired Army Gen. Wayne A. Downing has been tapped by the White House to serve as the president's principal adviser on combating global terrorism, and cyber security expert Richard A. Clarke will coordinate federal efforts to protect computers and information networks from attack, Administration officials announced Oct. 9.
The European Commission's latest report on U.S. barriers to transatlantic defense trade repeats many of the same complaints and allegations about U.S. practices that were made in earlier reports, but it also credits the U.S. for some modest changes. While the report takes a comprehensive look at economic and trade disputes between the U.S. and European Union (EU), defense and aerospace issues have always been among the major issues in the annual report.
DELTA HOME: Boeing dedicated its new Space Launch Complex 37 facility at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., on Oct. 9. The complex will be the home of East Coast operations for the new Boeing Delta IV, the company's contribution for the Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program.
As the U.S. conducted its third day of air strikes in Afghanistan, DOD officials described the Oct. 7 and 8 attacks as "successful" at destroying military targets, even as they emphasized that this portion of the war against terrorism would be limited. While Afghanistan lacks many high-value targets, the current air strikes are still necessary to pave the way for humanitarian actions and further military operations, according to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard B. Myers.
The Air Force has brought the Army and the Navy into the process as it begins development of an Air Superiority Target (AST) to replace the dwindling inventory of F-4 airframes that can be converted to drones to fulfill that role, said Lt. Col. Jeff Robertson, director of the U.S. Air Force Aerial Targets System Program Office at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. Two study contracts have been awarded to Lockheed Martin, and one to Boeing, to explore options for the type of airframe that will be the AST.
October 2, 2001 Pratt&Whitney Military Engines, Hartford, Conn., is being awarded a $5,578,359 firm-fixed-price contract modification to provide for 33 high-pressure turbine modules for the F100-229 engine in support of F-15 and F-16 aircraft. At this time, the total amount of funds has been obligated. This work will be complete November 2003. The Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., is the contracting activity (F34601-01-G-0006-0185). October 3, 2001
BOEING'S Delta IV rocket first stage has arrived at Space Launch Complex 37, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. The Delta IV was carried from the rocket plant in Decatur, Ala., on the M/V Delta Mariner ship. The Delta team is now processing the stage for the first Delta IV launch, slated for next year.
In the heightened security environment at the nation's airports, greater attention is now being given to biometrics - the measurement and analysis of biological features - as a means of enhancing security and verifying passenger identity. Biometric identify verification techniques include measuring and analyzing a person's fingerprints, facial features, voice, or the pattern of their iris.
Britain's military forces in the Middle East, which include two Trafalgar-class submarines that launched Tomahawk land-attack missiles in the initial assault on Afghan targets, were reinforced over the weekend by additional support aircraft and air-lifted personnel and equipment.
Creating a national strategy for defending the United States and ensuring its security is high on the list of Tom Ridge, who took office Oct. 8 as director of the new White House Office of Homeland Security. The mission of Ridge's office is "to develop and coordinate the implementation of a comprehensive national strategy to secure the United States from terrorist threats or attacks," the White House said in a summary of an executive order signed by President Bush.
A common ground control system or architecture will be the heart of the Army's new tactical unmanned aerial vehicle (TUAV) system, said Lt. Col. Kevin Stoleson, the Army's Training and Doctrine Command's Deputy Systems Manager for UAVs. The goal is to have a system that can handle a variety of air vehicles that have different range and payload capabilities to support units from brigade to corps, Stoleson said.
Retired Air Force Gen. Lawrence Farrell Jr., president of the National Defense Industrial Association, said the new Quadrennial Defense Review provides "a real blueprint" for the technologies the Department of Defense hopes to develop in the future.
A Lockheed Martin-built Titan IVB rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 2:21 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time Oct. 5, carrying a classified National Reconnaissance Office payload. Believed to be an imaging satellite, the payload was placed into a sun-synchronous orbit with an inclination of roughly 97.9 degrees to the equator. The launch was the first Titan IV launch from Vandenberg this year.
