Engineers with Northrop Grumman, NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency have demonstrated successfully that modifying an aircraft's shape can reduce its sonic boom, officials from the company and the agencies said Sept. 3. The vehicle, an F-5E fighter with a modified nose section, was tested Aug. 27 at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Calif. Additional modifications included an aluminum substructure and composite skin on the underside of the fuselage.
NEW DELHI - India's Nuclear Command Authority has directed the defense forces to transfer control of the nation's nuclear arsenal to the new Strategic Forces Command. The command was established in January (DAILY, Jan. 8) along with the Nuclear Command Authority (NCA), but officials said the military services have been reluctant to hand over control of the arsenal to a separate command. The new push came as a result of the first meeting of the NCA's political council, which was held Sept. 1 and chaired by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.
NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center have completed a series of evaluation flights for a flight control system that could someday help damaged aircraft make safe landings, the center said Sept. 2.
SIRTF AWAKE: NASA's Space Infrared Telescope Facility has switched on two of its instruments and captured some preliminary images, NASA said Sept. 3. It will take about a month to fully focus and fine-tune the telescope and cool it to its optimal operating temperature, NASA said. SIRTF was launched Aug. 25.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) criticized members of Congress during a Sept. 3 hearing for failing to investigate thoroughly the U.S. Air Force's plan to lease 100 767 aerial refueling tankers from the Boeing Co. But McCain, chairman of the senate committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, acknowledged the deal likely would be approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee in a hearing Sept. 4.
A U.S. Navy amphibious ship controlled for the first time an hour-plus flight by the Northrop Grumman-made Fire Scout drone, the Navy announced Sept. 3. Using the newly installed Tactical Control System software, the USS Denver (LPD 9) commanded the takeoff, landing and maneuvers of the rotor-powered unmanned aerial vehicle, which was based at Naval Base Ventura County, Calif. The flight also marked demonstrations of the Tactical Common Data Link on the Fire Scout and the Unmanned Common Automatic Recovery System Version 2.
The U.S. Air Force leasing plan for 100 Boeing KC-767 tankers suffers from the lack of a formal analysis of alternative approaches, a new government report says. The case for the $16 billion lease plan could have been improved by studying other approaches, such as leasing only enough tankers to satisfy immediate needs before buying the rest using the standard procurement process, the Defense Department (DOD) Office of Inspector General says in a report released Aug. 29.
The U.S. Air Force has turned to industry and government researchers to quickly solve a critical need for a beyond-line-of-sight communications system in Afghanistan. A ground-based system using Iridium satellite relay stations was created more than a year ago to act as a communications link for air traffic controllers elsewhere in the Arabian Gulf to direct military air traffic over Afghanistan. But the system was plagued by failures, mostly caused by the theft and destruction of remote and unguarded relay terminals placed on mountainsides.
The Indian government has approved the $1.7 billion purchase of 66 Hawk 115 Y advanced jet trainers from BAE Systems, bolstering the United Kingdom company's trainer business but dashing the hopes of rival Aero Vodochody of the Czech Republic. Ajay Prasad, India's defense secretary, announced the deal Sept. 3 as part of a defense package that also includes the purchase of five executive jets from Brazil's Embraer for about $154 million.
PRAGUE - An Israeli delegation will visit Aero Vodochody within the next few months to assess the Czech aircraft producer's L-159 advanced jet trainer, according to senior Israeli sources.
BAE SYSTEMS NORTH AMERICA, Rockville, Md. Robert T. Murphy has been named president of the Technology Solutions Sector, succeeding Bruce Hamilton, who has retired. BOEING, Chicago Tod Hullin has been appointed senior vice president of communications, effective Sept. 12. David Ivry, the former Israeli ambassador to the U.S., has been named president of Boeing Israel, based in Tel Aviv. GLOBALSECURE HOLDINGS LTD., Landover, Md.
SPARES CONTRACT: Northrop Grumman's Electronic Systems sector will supply spare parts, repairs and engineering services for company products used by the U.S. Air Force, the company said Sept. 3. The contract, which could be worth up to $707 million over 10 years, includes support and parts for electronic sensors and systems, including components such as radar, electronic countermeasures and antennas. Initial delivery orders under the contract, from the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center at Robins Air Force Base, Ga., are worth about $34 million, the company said.
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe said Sept. 3 that he will try to fulfill a congressional request to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of the agency's human space flight programs. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) requested the study during a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on the Columbia space shuttle disaster, saying lawmakers need to know how much could be learned by resuming human space flight and how much it would cost.
A group of U.S. supplier companies has stepped up its efforts in recent weeks to derail provisions in the House fiscal 2004 defense authorization bill that would place new restrictions on the Pentagon's use of foreign sources. More than 60 members of the Aerospace Industries Association's Supplier Management Council visited 38 House and Senate offices in July to urge bipartisan resistance to the so-called Buy American provisions, AIA revealed late last week.
Australia's top defense official staged a public demonstration Sept. 1 of a new research effort aimed at developing airborne surveillance technologies. The ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) Testbed is a Raytheon Beech 1900C aircraft designed by the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO). DSTO has equipped the platform with radar and infrared technologies it developed, plus a ground station based on the Global Hawk Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) system deployment to Australia two years ago.
A top U.S. Air Force general said the Pentagon's resurgent interest in what has long been considered an operational backwater - close air support missions - can be traced to the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S. and the subsequent planning for an invasion of Afghanistan. Gen. Charles F. Wald, deputy chief at U.S. European Command, arrived in Saudi Arabia a week after the World Trade Center collapsed to begin planning the air campaign.
The U.S. Army's shortage of communications bandwidth is expected to persist even after the service spends billions of dollars on new equipment over the next few years, according to a new report by the Congressional Budget Office.
FIRST FLIGHT: The lead-in fighter trainer (LIFT) version of the T-50 Golden Eagle supersonic trainer made its first flight Aug. 29, co-developer Lockheed Martin Aeronautics said Sept. 2. The LIFT version includes a Lockheed Martin APG-67(V)4 radar and an internal 20mm gun built by General Dynamics.
The Versatile Affordable Advanced Turbine Engine (VAATE) program, intended to come up with a revolutionary new family of aerospace engines by 2017, marks a change in Air Force procurement strategy that the Air Force Research Laboratory says also is revolutionary.
