NEW DELHI - The soon-to-be-formed Thales India is part of the company's strategy to consolidate all its activities in India under one roof. Francois Dupont, currently the country director, will be chairman of the new company. Thales has been awarded some high-profile contracts in India, including a roughly $3 billion contract for six Scorpene submarines under a technology transfer agreement. Delivery of the first sub, to be built at the state-owned Mazagon Dockyard in Mumbai, is set for 2012, Dupont said.
EAGLE TRAINING: Boeing has opened a new F-15E Mission Training Center at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C. It offers two high-fidelity, dual-cockpit F-15E simulators with 360-degree visibility. They have been upgraded with head-tracked, area-of-interest visual display systems that can be linked to provide four-ship training, which in future will be linked with two medium-fidelity manned combat stations. The site soon will be connected into the Air Force's distributed mission operations training network. Boeing also will open an F-15E site at RAF Lakenheath.
U.K. MILSPACE: British space industry executives will be looking to the government's upcoming space strategy for hints as to whether the U.K. is actually going to pursue the development of a military space reconnaissance capability. The strategy document is expected to be made public in February. A revised version of the Labour Government's Defense Industrial Strategy had been due for release in December, and was widely touted to include a chapter on military space. Its publication, however, has been delayed until April.
To ensure that lost, stolen or exported weapons systems are not reverse-engineered or tampered with, the Pentagon needs to issue department-wide directives to avoid a piecemeal approach, a congressional study concludes. In an update of a 2004 report on Defense Department anti-tamper policy, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) says progress has been made - including development of a Web site with anti-tamper information, online learning and research.
FLATTOP WORK: U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command has awarded Northrop Grumman Newport News a $596 million contract modification for more CVN 78-class aircraft carrier design, long-lead-time material procurement and non-nuclear advance construction for the lead ship of the class, Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78). The award includes system development, engineering services and feasibility studies for the Future Aircraft Carrier Program.
NEW BOSS: Anatloy Belov is to become general director of Russia's MiG fighter manufacturer. Belov was formerly employed by Irkut, where he held a senior post in the development of the Su-30MKI version of the Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker. Belov takes over the role from Sergei Tsivilev. Belov is a Hindi speaker, according to Russian press reports. MiG is offering India the MiG-35 development of the MiG-29 Fulcrum to meet its multi-role combat aircraft competition.
Historical experience and current public perception show the U.S. government will have some rough seas to navigate in establishing democracies in Iraq and Afghanistan, a recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report says. "The high military and opportunity cost of some activities currently associated with democracy promotion is criticized by many observers, especially when democracy is imposed by outsiders rather than initiated by local citizens," the Dec. 26 report says.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected] Jan. 14 - 17 -- Advanced Airlift Tactics Training Center's 27th Annual Tactics Symposium, "Revolutionary Integration." St. Joseph, Mo. For more information go to www.aattc.org Jan. 14 - 18 -- Cranfield (England) University Short Course: "Airport Operations and Safety Management." For more information call +44 (123) 475-4192, fax +44 (123) 475-4193 or go to www.cranfield.ac.uk
CARRIER DELAY?: With the British Defense Ministry's equipment planning round now entering its final stages, there is increasing nervousness within industry concerning its outcome. There is renewed speculation the ministry is trying to eke out some savings on its next-generation carrier program, possibly by delaying the project up to 18 months according to a story in the British Financial Times. A Defense Ministry official says: "There is no suggestion that the program will not go ahead.
NEED FOR CHANGE: The final report of the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves will be delivered to Congress and the Secretary of Defense and released publicly on Jan. 31. The independent commission has spent two years developing recommendations for changes in laws and policies to allow the National Guard and Reserves to fulfill their missions more effectively. Commissioners say their review has unearthed "overwhelming evidence of the need for change," as U.S. troops try to fight the global war on terror and secure the U.S. homeland.
The head Republican on the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) - who is also a GOP presidential candidate - has warned NATO member countries to step up their contributions to Afghanistan operations or risk losing U.S. defense dollars.
ATK ARRAY: Alliant Techsystems (ATK) will design, develop and build UltraFlex solar arrays for NASA's next generation Orion crew exploration vehicle under a contract awarded by Orion prime Lockheed Martin. The value of the initial design and development contract is expected to exceed $50 million. Program management, design, engineering, analysis, manufacturing, assembly and test work for the solar arrays will be conducted at ATK's facility in Goleta, Calif.
CRUISE MISSILES: Cruise missile defense has long been a stepchild in the Pentagon's air-and-missile defense community, with some officials feeling the Defense Dept. is not organized properly to deal with the growing threat of a cruise missile attack abroad or, especially, on U.S. territory. Now that may be changing. "They are beginning to talk seriously" about a new approach to the cruise missile defense problem, says Dave Kier, Lockheed Martin vice president for missile defense.
ATV SCHEDULE: Europe has tentatively scheduled three days of proximity operations at the International Space Station (ISS) with its Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), beginning Mar. 6 and winding up with the 20-ton space freighter docked to Russia's Zvezda service module on Mar. 15. The whole schedule, starting with launch from Kourou, French Guiana, no earlier than Feb. 22, will depend on progress getting the space shuttle fleet flying again, but plans call for the first approach and test of the vehicle's automatic escape maneuver on Mar. 6. On Mar.
CHINA'S AMBITIONS: China plans the launch of 14 unmanned space missions in 2008, in addition to its third manned Shenzhou flight. The 15 total launches are to orbit 17 spacecraft. The 2008 manifest also marks a revitalization of China's commercial launch program. Three large communications spacecraft are planned for launch, including ChinaSat 9, APStar 6B and a Venezuelan spacecraft.
SUB SCRAPE: The Indian navy's INS Sindhughosh submarine - one of the three diesel-powered submarine classes in the navy - scraped into a foreign merchant vessel, MV Leeds, 140 miles northwest of Mumbai on Jan. 7. The accident took place north of Mumbai when the Sindhughosh, one of the few Indian navy submarines that can launch anti-ship and anti-land missiles, was on operational deployment. A navy spokesman told Aerospace Daily that the sub suffered superficial damage, including bent aerials, as it returned under its own power to Mumbai.
TOKYO - New data from Japan's Selene moon probe has reconfirmed the viability of two of the mission's instruments - the Lunar Radar Sounder (LRS) and the Laser Altimeter (LALT). The data was released by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Jan. 10. The LRS and LALT, along with many sensors, are in the midst of creating the first comprehensive map of the moon.
BOISVERT BAILS: Veteran public servant Guy Bujold will head the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) for the next year or so as interim president after former Telesat Canada CEO Laurier Boisvert left the post nine months into an expected three-year term. Bujold, formerly an assistant deputy minister at Industry Canada, quietly assumed the job on New Year's Day, after Boisvert stepped down Dec. 20 "for personal reasons." Speculation in Canada centered on a link to the unexpected announcement that Alliant Techsystems (ATK) would buy MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates.
The U.S. Navy's highly anticipated Remote Minehunting Vehicles (RMVs), originally designed to detect and deal with sea mines, are seeing their embryonic missions already expanded to include anti-submarine warfare and maritime reconnaissance, Naval Sea Systems Command has said.
As the U.S. Army begins to shape its future concept of operations for vertical systems, the service needs to begin thinking more creatively about new designs and technology if it is to advance its rotorcraft capabilities, aviation program officer Paul Bogosian says.
