The U.S. Navy's older C4 Trident intercontinental ballistic missiles will be completely phased out by this fall in favor of the D5 Trident, according to Rear Adm. Charles Young, director of strategic systems programs.
Northrop Grumman has integrated a Global Positioning System receiver into its laser-guided Viper Strike munition, and successfully demonstrated GPS navigation in flight-tests, the company said June 15. The addition of GPS navigation is intended to provide accurate midcourse guidance, allowing the unpowered Viper Strike to be launched from a greater altitude and longer standoff range, the company said.
LE BOURGET, France - Under a bright blue Parisian sky with the pride of French aerospace displayed overhead, the wraps came off the Neuron unmanned combat aerial vehicle. Neuron is a pan-European UCAV technology demonstration program under the leadership of Dassault. Sweden is the lead partner in the effort, but on June 13 Saab was not enjoying its day in the sun, Aviation Week's ShowNews reported.
FAA is taking three major steps to integrate unmanned aircraft into the U.S. airspace system, according to a top agency official. Nicholas A. Sabatini, associate administrator for aviation safety, also told an industry group in Paris that FAA is "greatly interested" in working with its European counterparts on unmanned aircraft.
FCS REVIEW: The latest Defense Acquisition Board review of the Army's Future Combat Systems has been postponed until June 23, according to a spokeswoman. The meeting originally was scheduled for June 14. FCS is developing a networked suite of new ground vehicles and unmanned aircraft for the Army's future Unit of Action. The House Appropriations Committee recently voted to cut $400 million from the program, which would leave it at about $3 billion for fiscal 2006.
Weight remains a challenge for individual DD(X) destroyer subsystems and the ship as a whole, with the futuristic integrated power system, advanced gun system and integrated deckhouse all proving difficult to keep within weight limits, congressional investigators said June 14.
Lockheed Martin's third retrofitted space shuttle external tank, designated ET-119, is expected to arrive by barge at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 17. The tank left the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans on June 12 after being delayed three days while Tropical Storm Arlene cleared the Gulf of Mexico. The tank either will fly with Atlantis on STS-121, currently scheduled for September, or on the following mission, according to Lockheed Martin spokesman Harry Wadsworth.
LE BOURGET, France - Two U.S. Army helicopter acquisition programs are on the verge of entering key phases. The Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) program has been cleared to conduct a competition for a prime contractor, and the Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) program is expected to make its own contractor selection as early as July, Army and industry officials told The DAILY June 16.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is seeking proposals for the Low Altitude Airborne Sensor System, an airborne package for detecting power infrastructure and underground or hidden facilities in rural or urban environments.
LE BOURGET, France - Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.'s HJT-36 intermediate military jet trainer prototype, making its European debut here, likely will be joined soon by a new and more potent project for advanced and lead-in fighter training, company chairman Ashok Baweja told Aviation Week's ShowNews.
LE BOURGET, France - Offshore Logistics has agreed to purchase up to 59 Sikorsky S-76 helicopters here, one of the largest single commercial helicopter deals in Sikorsky's history. The contract covers 35 firm orders, valued at $250 million, and 24 options. The first aircraft will be delivered later this year. A total of 20 S-76s will be handed over in 2006-07 and the rest in 2008-12.
BearingPoint Inc. of McLean, Va., has been awarded a five-year contract worth up to $27 million to provide technical and advisory services to the U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division (NSWCDD), the company said June 15.
TESTING: Initial flight trials were started in early June by EADS Defense Electronics of its latest AN/AAR-60(V)2 version of the missile-launch detection system (MILDS-F) in a Danish air force F-16 from Aalborg Air Base. MILDS is an advanced sensor system that detects and tracks UV emissions of approaching missiles, particularly shoulder-launched heat-seeking SAMs.
Paul J. Cerjan is stepping down as chairman and will continue as vice chairman. Cerjan is vice president of Haliburton. Harry J. Pearce will succeed Cerjan. Pearce is a former chairman of Hughes Electronics Corp.
The worldwide military surface communications market of the next decade will be dominated by General Dynamics, Rockwell Collins and Thales, according to a new study. The three companies together will represent more than 47% of a $12.8 billion market projected between now and 2015, said the study, by Forecast International, a market research company based in Newtown, Conn.
Peter B. Teets has been elected to the board of trustees. Teets retired as president and chief operating officer of Lockheed Martin Corp. and is a former undersecretary of the Air Force and director of the National Reconnaissance Office.
Northrop Grumman Corp. said it has been successful in trying out its "Hawkeye" port and coastal surveillance system in U.S. demonstrations, and is installing a variant overseas to support a Defense Threat Reduction Agency program. The U.S. Coast Guard installed the Northrop Grumman equipment and software aboard its vessels and those of other law-enforcement agencies to coordinate maritime security during the Organization of American States General Assembly in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., earlier this month.
The U.S. Coast Guard's HH-65 Dolphin helicopters were the focus of renewed attention June 15 when a House subcommittee met to learn more about pressures related to the Guard's law-enforcement duties, including whether it is affecting the aging helicopters. Luis Fortuno, the resident commissioner for Puerto Rico and a nonvoting member of the House of Representatives, said that during a recent visit to Coast Guard operations in the Mona Passage, he was expecting to fly in one of the Dolphins. Instead, he was flown aboard an airplane.
LE BOURGET, France - Charles Edelstenne, Dassault Aviation's chairman and CEO, is celebrating qualified success as his firm rebounds with strong sales evenly split between its Falcon Jet and military product lines from the down times of the late 1990s and earlier this decade.
Language in a congressional report has spurred at least one company to pursue the idea of using ground-based high power microwave technology to defend commercial airliners from shoulder-fired missiles.
LE BOURGET, France - AgustaWestland has made a public commitment that there will be no further job cuts at its Westland facility in Yeovil, United Kingdom. At the same time, the company has once more pointed a finger at the British Ministry of Defence for not placing promised contracts and therefore putting jobs at risk, according to Aviation Week's ShowNews.
