FARNBOROUGH, England - It was once among the largest air forces in the world, and even when the current commander of the Swedish air force, Maj. Gen. Jan Andersson, joined up in 1976, his nation could boast 28 squadrons of Swedish-built jet fighters.
LOWRANCE ELECTRONICS, Tulsa, Okla. David A. Craig has been promoted to senior vice president of engineering and manufacturing. Larry B. Toering has been appointed senior vice president of sales and marketing.
FARNBOROUGH, England - Lockheed Martin Corp., the prime contractor for the U.S. Defense Department's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, has developed a proposal that mostly would solve the aircraft's problems with excess weight, a company official said July 21.
The INTERNATIONAL SPACE BUSINESS COUNCIL (ISBC), in cooperation with the American Stock Exchange (Amex), has launched a new proprietary index to benchmark the performance of securities in the defense, homeland security and space marketplace. The SPADE Defense Index is made up of publicly traded companies that meet objective screening critera, ISBC said.
NEW DELHI - The election of a new government in India has spurred anxious Israeli defense suppliers to ask India to fast-track 21 projects by the end of August that were finalized by the previous government. Otherwise, the suppliers say they'll be forced to sell to other countries. The equipment includes surveillance and communication systems, precision-guided munitions and equipment for anti-submarine warfare and deep-sea surveillance.
ACULIGHT CORP. of Bothell, Wash., has developed a 60-watt large mode area (LMA) fiber laser system that could be used for military and medical imaging, large area displays and other uses, the company said. The company developed the technology for a military customer but plans to further develop it for the commercial market. "There was an opportunity to leapfrog beyond the existing technologies to something that had even higher performance in all of the dimensions that our customers wanted," Aculight Vice President Roy Mead said in a statement.
A $416.2 billion fiscal 2005 defense budget appropriations conference report, released July 21, would make a slight cut to President Bush's request of $417.8 billion but is $25.4 billion over the FY '04 level, not counting a $25 billion wartime supplemental appropriation. The House and Senate conferees, who completed their work late last week, found fault with several defense programs, including the Air Force's Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM), which conferees agreed to fund at $140 million.
The first flight of a U.S. Air Force Space Test Program (STP) mission on an Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) will deploy seven satellites at two altitudes and inclinations, according to the Air Force.
NASA arranged for a fuel inerting system to be installed on a NASA Boeing 747 so the system, intended to reduce the chance of an explosion inside an airplane fuel tank, could be flight-tested. The work is part of ongoing research being conducted by the FAA and NASA. Researchers from NASA's Glenn Research Center, Ohio, used the B747-100 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft based at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in California, NASA said.
FARNBOROUGH, England - Boeing's claims about Airbus subsidies may make nice rhetoric, but they don't reflect the facts, said Ralph Crosby, who runs the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co.'s (EADS) North America operation. Boeing CEO Harry Stonecipher has charged Airbus, which is owned by EADS, with being out of compliance with the 1992 European Union-U.S. agreement on support for large civil aircraft (DAILY, July 21). Boeing is trying to undo the agreement. "There is a lot of noise about an issue that is poorly understood," Crosby said.
TRIUMPH GROUP, INC., Wayne, Pa. John B. Wright II has been appointed vice president, general counsel and secretary. He succeeds Richard M. Eisenstaedt, who has retired. Terry D. Stinson has been elected to the board of directors.
NASA, Washington Orlando Figueroa has been named deputy associate administrator for programs. Allison L. McNally has been named deputy associate administrator for management.
AXSYS TECHNOLOGIES, Rocky Hill, Conn., Scott B. Conner has been named vice president for strategic planning and corporate development. He replaces Kenneth F. Stern, who resigned to start his own management-consulting firm.
FARNBOROUGH, England - "We've installed our electric brake system on the Boeing X-45A Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle [UCAV], flown it, and more importantly, landed and stopped," according to a Honeywell official.
TITAN CORP., San Diego, Calif. Peter A. Cohen has been elected lead director of the company's board of directors. Lawrence J. Delaney has been named executive vice president of operations.
HEADWALL PHOTONICS' Hyperspec VS hyperspectral imaging platform has been given an R&D 100 Award from R&D Magazine. The awards recognize the most technologically significant products introduced into the marketplace in the past year. The company said its Hyperspec VS platform is suitable for a wide range of applications, including military, homeland security, medical, commercial and industrial. The Hyperspec family of products offer high spatial and spectral resolution with a large field of view and minimal distortion, the Fitchburg, Mass.-based company said.
MOSCOW - Russian and Indian officials have agreed to discuss using Indian launch vehicles to put Russian Glonass navigation satellites in orbit, a Federal Space Agency official here said. Anatoly Perminov, head of the space agency, met with Sri G. Madhavan Nair, head of the Indian Space Research Organisation in Moscow this week to discuss closer space cooperation. Space agency press officer Vyacheslav Davidenko said the two sides will explore launching Glonass spacecraft "by Indian launch vehicles from India's territory."
