Northrop Grumman has publicly unveiled part of its proposed design for the Missile Defense Agency's boost-phase Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI) program. At an Oct. 21 press briefing, company officials revealed that Northrop Grumman's proposal includes a prototype launcher consisting of an aircraft-transportable Oshkosh M983A2 tractor equipped to carry two interceptor missiles.
RISK REDUCTION: Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter team launched the first phase of the JSF's data fusion risk reduction flight-test program with recent successful flights over the Naval Air Warfare Center Patuxent River, Md., the company said Oct. 21. The JSF's fusion capability is to combine and prioritize information gathered on onboard and off-board sources. The tests used a Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems BAC 1-11 flying test bed and targets including a Sabreliner aircraft.
The Marine Corps has developed a plan for replacing aircraft it lost during the Iraq war, a service official said Oct. 21. Some aircraft will be replaced in the near term, while others will be succeeded by systems still under development, said Gen. William Nyland, assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, who testified before the House Armed Services Committee's readiness panel during a hearing on reconstituting U.S. military forces.
Intelsat Ltd. won the right to purchase nearly half the satellite fleet of Loral Space and Communications in an auction, Loral officials announced Oct. 20 after the close of trading. Intelsat, which bid $1.1 billion to purchase the five satellites, was one of only two bidders, Loral officials said in a statement. EchoStar Communications Corp. was the other bidder.
Lockheed Martin's Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) has been certified for operational use by the JASSM Joint Program Office and the B-52 Systems Program Office, the company said Oct. 21. JASSM, a 2,000-pound cruise missile with a dual-mode penetrator and blast-fragmentation warhead. In addition to the B-52, JASSM is planned for deployment on the B-1, B-2, F-16 and F/A-18, Lockheed Martin said.
ALCATEL SPACE, a subsidiary of Alcatel, will provide payloads for the fourth-generation Arabsat 4-A and 4-B satellites for EADS Astrium, the prime contractor for the Arabsat program. The satellites are scheduled to enter service in 2006. The satellites will be used by the Arab League's telecommunication organization for direct TV broadcasting, telemetry and data transmissions in North Africa, the Middle East and part of Western Europe, the company said.
More Blue Force tracking units will have to be deployed with ground forces for the system to be completely effective, a panel of military leaders told members of Congress Oct. 20. Vehicles equipped with Blue Force tracking systems also need to have a complementary identification friend or foe (IFF) system to guard against friendly fire, the officials said.
NEW DELHI - Saudi Arabia has agreed to buy an unspecified number of Super Mashak attack and training aircraft from Pakistan. The decision was announced by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, the deputy premier and commander of the Saudi Arabia's national guard, during his visit to Pakistan this week to meet with President Pervez Musharaff in Islamabad. A special defense exhibition was organized for Abdullah, a Pakistani diplomat here said Oct.21.
OPTIONS: In a report released last week, the General Accounting Office reviewed several options the U.S. Air Force could use to acquire 100 Boeing 767 tanker aircraft. The following charts provide an "approximate illustration" of how the options affect the funding requirements for future refueling aircraft purchases beyond the first 100.
Lockheed Martin Corp. received a $560 million Air Force contract for seven space launch missions using its version of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV). Boeing Co. was to have carried out the missions, but it lost the job because of unethical conduct by some employees when it was developing its variant of the EELV. The Air Force suspended Boeing Launch Services, Boeing Launch Systems and the Delta Program on July 21 (DAILY, July 25).
Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) has signed an agreement with the Russian company Saratov Aviation to begin developing an experimental unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) derived from Saratov's "EKIP" flying disc technology. A former supplier for the Russian military, Saratov Aviation has produced the Yakolev (Yak) series of military aircraft as well as various components for MiG fighters. The company also builds the Yak-42 series passenger jetliner.
PRAGUE - Struggling Czech aircraft manufacturer Aero Vodochody will lay off 200 employees before the end of the year, the company has announced. Aero, which laid off 180 workers last spring, said most of the dismissals would involve white-collar workers. Further job losses may follow next year under proposals being considered by Aero's management.
Boeing Co. has been awarded a $188.3 million contract to proceed with work on the Small Diameter Bomb. The company was chosen over Lockheed Martin Aug. 28 for the system development and demonstration phase of the 250-pound weapon, but the contract wasn't awarded until Oct. 20. The U.S. Air Force said earlier that the award couldn't be made until "all actions required for initiation of the SDD phase" were completed, and until this had been confirmed by the Defense Acquisition Board (DAILY, Aug. 29).
The Senate has provided $500 million in the fiscal 2004 supplemental appropriations bill to help the military and NASA finish recovering from Hurricane Isabel, with several million dollars of that amount slated to repair damage to wind tunnel equipment and facilities at NASA Langley Research Center in Virginia.
General Dynamics is creating a new combat vehicle business unit in Vienna, Austria, called General Dynamics European Land Combat Systems, company officials announced Oct. 20. The unit, which will be part of General Dynamics' Combat Systems business group, will consist of Mowag AG, in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland; General Dynamics Santa Barbara Sistemas, in Madrid, Spain; and Steyr Spezialfahrzeug, based in Vienna, Austria.
TEAM SHADOW: BAE Systems Australia and AAI Corp. will compete as Team Shadow for the Australian Defence Force's JP 129 program, which seeks to use unmanned aerial vehicles for surveillance, the companies said Oct. 20. Their entry is based on AAI's Shadow 200 tactical UAV.
In an effort to persuade naysayers and help military leaders make investments that will better support network-centric warfare (NCW), the Pentagon's Office of Force Transformation (OFT) is sponsoring a series of case studies that will refine the theory behind NCW and quantify its benefits. Armed with the studies, OFT will then be able to "tell the story" of NCW to military leaders who still are focused on platforms rather than networked capabilities, according to John Garstka, assistant director for concepts and operations at OFT.
After launching from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Oct. 18, the Expedition 8 crew has arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) to begin their six-month tour in orbit.
October 14, 2003 ARMY EAI Corp., Abingdon, Md., was awarded on Sept. 30, 2003, a $22,683,224 modification to a firm-fixed-price contract for Antiterrorism/Force Protection Tier 3 Upgrades. Work will be performed in Abingdon, Md., and is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2004. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This was a sole source contract initiated on Sept. 12, 2003. The U.S. Army Robert Morris Acquisition Center, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., is the contracting activity (DAAD13-03-C-0042).
Sea Launch plans to offer launch services from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, in addition to its sea-based equatorial launches, the company said Oct. 20. The new services, under the name Land Launch, are a collaboration between Sea Launch, which is 40 percent owned by Boeing, and Space International Services of Russia.
NEW DELHI - India's defense ministry has approved a $150 million mid-life upgrade program for 10 of its aging Sea King helicopter fleet, used for anti-submarine warfare in the Indian Ocean. The Indian navy has 32 Sea Kings, which are unable to carry out their missions effectively because they cannot fly long distances at sea, navy officials said.
