Two House lawmakers have asked the General Accounting Office (GAO) to assess the amount of time the U.S. Coast has spent repairing aging assets, and how much of those costs fell outside its scheduled maintenance operations.
The test bed for the Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser (MTHEL) is slated to take aim at a new type of target April 29, according to the U.S. Army. For the first time, the test bed will target large-caliber rockets during an exercise at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. The Army said the "primary objective" of the event is to use the test bed to track fast-moving, large-caliber rockets in flight. But shoot-downs of those rockets will be attempted if the tracking goes as planned.
MOSCOW - The launch of a Zenit-2 vehicle carrying a military payload, most likely a Tselina electronic intelligence satellite, has been postponed until mid-May at the earliest. Russia's Space Forces had been trying to launch the satellite since April 25, but encountered technical difficulties with ground support systems.
A congressional group that advocates electronic warfare (EW) capabilities plans to focus on several relatively new issues this year, including how EW could defend commercial airliners against missiles and protect U.S. troops from improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
Boeing's earnings climbed during the first quarter of 2004, bolstered by "key transformational programs" in its Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) segment and orders for its commercial 7E7 aircraft, the company reported April 28. Boeing reported a net income of $623 million on revenues of $12.9 billion. That compares with a net loss during the first quarter of 2003 of $478 million on revenues of $12.3 billion. The first quarter of last year included goodwill impairment charges of $913 million, the company said.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee plans to consider two bills April 29, one of which addresses finance laws regarding aircraft and another that is intended to speed the development of missile defense systems for commercial aircraft. The committee will hold a hearing and then mark up the Cape Town Treaty Implementation Act of 2004, which would extend commercial finance laws already in place in the United States to international transactions involving aircraft and aircraft engines.
NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) have completed their originally planned 90-day missions and have moved on to what the agency calls "extra-credit assignments." Opportunity finished its 90th day at Meridiani Planum on April 26, according to NASA, having traveled 811 meters (more than half a mile) and sent home 15.2 gigabits of data. Last month, the rover found geological evidence that a shallow, salty ocean once covered its landing site (DAILY, March 24).
U.S. Marine Corps officials are expected to decide on an armoring package for large transport trucks by the end of the week, according to Armor Systems International, which developed the Peel & Stick Armoring System for Humvees and other military vehicles. The peel and stick kits are composed of a semi-flexible composite material with a hard strike plate and adhesive sealed in a waterproof casing. The panels can be applied to any surface, the Washington state-based company said. Support
Aging facilities, systems and equipment and a lack of resources for upgrades is the biggest threat to the nation's nuclear weapons program, according to Jerald S. Paul, nominated for the new position of deputy administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration.
A U.S. Air Force-sponsored study of the National Aerospace Initiative (NAI) has concluded that it is worthwhile, but underfunded at current budget levels. Begun in 2001, NAI is a joint initiative by the Depart-ment of Defense and NASA aimed at advancing cutting-edge aerospace technology in the U.S. It targets advances in three "pillars" - hypersonic airbreathing flight, access to space, and space technologies. NRC report
T-38 PROPULSION: CPI Aerostructures Inc. will provide an additional five shipsets of structural inlets for the T-38 Talon trainer aircraft's Propulsion Modernization Program, the company said. The $828,000 U.S. Air Force order brings the value of the company's contract to $5.7 million, the company said April 27.
Lockheed Martin reported "very strong" first quarter results for 2004, saying net earnings were $291 million, compared with $250 million in the first quarter of 2003. Net sales were $8.3 billion, an 18 percent increase over first quarter 2003 sales of $7.1 billion, and earnings for all five business segments grew 21 percent, the company said April 27. Of the five business segments, aeronautics had the largest net sales, $2.9 billion, followed by electronic systems at $2.1 billion.
Lockheed Martin's Maritime Domain Awareness Center (MDAC), built to integrate C4ISR capabilities in the U.S. Coast Guard's Deepwater recapitalization program, has been operating for six months although it had a formal ribbon cutting just last week.
Industry teams competing to develop the Joint Common Missile (JCM) are awaiting an announcement on the program's fate. Acting Pentagon acquisition chief Michael Wynne led an April 22 program review that is expected to give the go-ahead for starting the system development and demonstration (SDD) phase and picking a prime contractor. But Wynne's office has not revealed a decision.
The U.S. government hopes to decide in the next year or so whether to build a third interceptor site for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system, according to the head of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA). Air Force Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish, MDA's director, told the Defense Writers Group April 27 that Europe is the main area being explored for the potential third site.
Starting this summer, the FAA's Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO) will begin forming "action teams" of government and industry representatives to begin implementing the office's plan for America's next-generation air transportation system. "This summer we will be asking government and industry for enough people ... to populate five or six action teams [of] maybe 10 people a team," JPDO Director John Kern said at a luncheon sponsored by the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) in Washington April 27. "So it becomes a real program this summer."
The U.S. Navy says it plans to begin development next month of a ship-launched missile that is to provide an improved capability against aircraft and cruise missiles. The Extended Range Active Missile (ERAM), also known as the Standard Missile-6 (SM-6), is intended to defeat fixed and rotary wing aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles and anti-ship and land attack cruise missiles at longer ranges than existing air defense weapons.
PRAGUE, Czech Republic - Czech police are investigating the contents of a letter that questions the propriety of a deal involving Russia transferring Mi-24 and Mi-17 helicopters to the Czech Republic instead of transport aircraft as part payment of Russian debts. The allegations were made in a letter sent recently to Czech prime minister Vladimir Spidla and defense minister Miroslav Kostelka by AKM Group, a company that represents Russian aerospace company Ilyushin's civilian program in the Czech Republic.
The Integrated Deepwater Program will not provide the U.S. Coast Guard adequate assets and capabilities to fulfill demands for traditional missions and emerging responsibilities, according to a RAND Corp. study released April 26. The study concluded that the Coast Guard would need twice the number of cutters and 50 percent more aircraft to carry out its mission than it has been planning to procure over the next 20 years.
CONNEXION: Connexion by Boeing will be the high-speed Internet provider for Korean Air, the Boeing mobile communications unit said April 26. First installation of the service is scheduled for the airline's long-haul 747-400s and 777-ERs in early 2005, with service scheduled to begin shortly after that, Boeing said. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
