The U.S. Army is poised to proceed with awarding a contract to Northrop Grumman Corp. to develop the Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser (MTHEL) now that no one has challenged the service's plan to forgo a formal competition.
NOT SO BAD: Despite grim headlines for Boeing lately, the company's business outlook is bright, according to analyst Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute. "... By the standards of a market-driven culture, almost everything that 'disgraced' Boeing CEO Phil Condit did on his watch makes sense," Thompson says. Instead of making huge investments in a new family of airliners to compete with Airbus, Condit steered the company to the domestic defense business, Thompson says.
NEW DELHI - BAE Systems has agreed to resume providing spares for Indian navy Sea Harriers. The company had halted spares deliveries after the United States applied sanctions to India following its nuclear tests in 1998, because some major Sea Harrier components, including its engines, radars and avionics, come from the United States.
SPECIAL DELIVERY: In addition to delivering weapons, the Electromagnetic Rail Gun being developed jointly by the U.S. Navy and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) could be "dialed down" and used to launch supplies, according to Rear Adm. Jay Cohen, chief of Naval research. Powered by 64 megajoules of electricity, the gun will be capable of sending a 49- to 97-pound weapon 300 miles at Mach 7 to strike time-critical targets, according to Cohen. "Or, we can dial down the energy" on the gun, he says.
UNMANNED COUNCIL: Raytheon Co. has established a corporate-wide Unmanned Systems Leadership Council to provide netted ground systems for command and control and other purposes as well as "integrated sensors to meet the growing customer requirements for unmanned systems," the company said.
ISIS: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has just begun developing a new surveillance airship that uses the structure of the airship itself as its radar antenna, according to DARPA Director Tony Tether. Traditionally, "you build the airship and you say, 'OK, we've got to put a payload on this,'" Tether says. "And the payload never really is very much. So we said ... let's put the payload into the structure." The development program will be called the "Integrated Sensor is the System" (ISIS).
Bell Helicopter's Eagle Eye unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) eventually may be deployed on the Navy's Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) as a follow-on to the Fire Scout UAV, according to Chief of Naval Research Rear Adm. Jay Cohen. "As we're going forward with the Littoral Combat Ship, we [need] an appropriate device to go ahead and give us the reach, the weapons-carrying capability, the sensor implantation, etc.," Cohen said at Shephard's UAV USA conference in Arlington, Va., Dec. 5. "The initial choice, I believe, will be the Fire Scout."
Combat experience has prompted the U.S. Air Force to discard its original concept of the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) as an autonomous platform, and instead operate it as a remotely piloted aircraft capable of rapidly responding to changes on the battlefield, according to Brig. Gen. Rudy Wright, commander of the Air Force's 9th Reconnaissance Wing. The Air Force began rethinking the concept of operations (CONOPS) for the Northrop Grumman-built high-altitude surveillance UAV during a deployment to Australia in 2001, Wright said.
The GoldenEye unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) will conduct a flight demonstration for the Department of Energy (DOE) early next year equipped with a new radiation sensor, according to GoldenEye manufacturer Aurora Flight Sciences of Manassas, Va.
ALLIANT TECHSYTEMS (ATK) will improve the design of the Selectable Lightweight Attack Munition (SLAM) under a $4.2 million contract, the company said Dec. 2. The contract from the U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC) at Picatinny Arsenal, N.J., calls for an improved user interface, more reliability and greater ease of production over previous M2 and M4 SLAM designs, the company said. Deliveries of the improved SLAM, which uses advanced passive infrared fusing and sighting instrumentation, will begin in 2005.
JASSM LAUNCH: The launch of a Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) was the first launch of a conventional guided missile from a B-1B bomber, Lockheed Martin said Dec. 4. The launch took place Oct. 30 over China Lake, Calif. The B-1B is one of JASSM's intended platforms and could carry 24 of the weapons.
PRAGUE, Czech Republic - Czech defense equipment trading company Omnipol is to be taken over by its parent company Omnyx at the end of this year in a move that Omnyx said would remove "an unnecessary interlink." BAE Systems, which bought Omnyx's estimated $28 million in debt from a Czech bank a year ago, said Dec. 4 that the move would not affect its long-standing relationship with the company.
Alliant Techsystems (ATK) will produce MK 90 propellant grain for General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products for use in the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS), the company said Dec. 4. The work will be done under a $32.9 million contract at the Radford Army Ammunition Plant (RAAP) in Radford, Va. The APKWS contract, combined with other RAAP work, are helping ATK transform RAAP into a flexible munitions, energetics and propellant manufacturing center, ATK Ammunition and Power President Wayne Farley said in a statement.
NEW DELHI - The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Russian aviation and space agency, Rosaviakosmos, have agreed to cooperate on a lunar probe and other space missions, an ISRO official said. "India and Russia will pool efforts for an unmanned space mission to the moon and also set up a space navigation system," the official said. India already has announced plans for an $80 million mission to place a spacecraft, Chandrayan-1, in lunar orbit within five years (DAILY, Sept. 18).
NAVAL IMPROVEMENTS: Australia plans to invest more than $555 million to improve its naval defense capabilities, defense minister Robert Hill said Dec. 4. It will spend $370 million to upgrade the anti-ship missile defenses in the navy's Anzac-class frigates and $185 million to buy new lightweight MU 90 Impact anti-submarine torpedoes for FFG and Anzac frigates, Seahawk and Sea Sprite helicopters and the AP-3C Orion patrol aircraft.
Lockheed Martin Corp. demonstrated an air battle management system at its Colorado Springs, Colo., facility Dec. 4 that it said would enable warfighters to react immediately to changing situations. The Total Integrated Warfare Capstone system combines proven systems with experimental technologies developed by the company that, it said, promises "unprecedented capabilities for real-time battle management and execution."
Northrop Grumman Corp., the newly announced prime contractor for the Missile Defense Agency's ground- and sea-based Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI) program (DAILY, Dec. 4), plans to begin missile shoot-down tests in about 2009, according to company officials. Orbital Sciences Corp. will develop the interceptor's booster and Raytheon Co. will supply the kill vehicle. Raytheon also will handle interceptor integration.
PRAGUE, Czech Republic - The United States has not given up on its attempt to sell used F-16 fighters to the Czech Republic, despite finishing last in a review by a commission analyzing competing entries, according to U.S. sources. A nine-member technical commission voted unanimously Dec. 1 to recommend Sweden's offer of 14 new Jas-39 Gripen aircraft, leased for up to 10 years (DAILY, Dec. 2). The Czech government is to examine the recommendation before Christmas.
