Lockheed Martin's Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) Unitary rocket achieved all objectives in a recent test at White Sands Missile Range, the company said May 20. The GMLRS is an all-weather, precision-guided rocket that is more accurate and reduces by 80 percent the number of rockets needed to defeat a target, the company said.
NASA's chief financial officer defended the agency's ongoing financial reform effort before lawmakers at a hearing in Washington May 19, responding to questions arising from NASA's second troubled audit in the past three years. In January, independent auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers determined that it could not render an opinion on NASA's fiscal 2003 financial statements, citing insufficient documentation. NASA received a similar "disclaimed" audit for FY '01, although it received a clean audit for FY '02 (DAILY, March 21, 2002).
The prime contract to develop the Airborne Laser (ABL) - which may lack "military utility" - could cost $2.9 billion, nearly three times initial estimates, the General Accounting Office said in a highly critical report released May 19.
Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) is seeking to shift $37 million in funding for the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP) and related programs into efforts to improve conventional capabilities and intelligence. Tauscher wants to offer an amendment to the House version of the fiscal 2005 Department of Defense budget authorization bill, which is being considered by the full House.
JSF ASSEMBLY: Northrop Grumman has begun assembly of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter's center fuselage and delivered a software-defined radio to JSF prime contractor Lockheed Martin two weeks ahead of schedule, the company said May 19. The company began the fuselage work by installing a single-piece, composite air inlet duct for the JSF's engine in an assembly fixture at its Palmdale, Calif., facility.
As the House began consideration May 19 of the House Armed Services Committee's version of the fiscal 2005 Defense Department authorization bill, committee member Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.) urged his colleagues to support it, saying it would add money for almost $300 million in military chiefs' unfunded program requirements.
The development of an instrumented boom for inspecting the space shuttle's leading edge panels in orbit continues to jeopardize NASA's goal of returning the shuttle to flight in March or April of next year, according to the Stafford-Covey Return to Flight Task Group.
PRAGUE, Czech Republic - Czech and U.S. officials are refusing to comment on reports that the United States is in talks over the purchase of a high-tech Czech passive radar system known as Vera. The Czech daily newspaper Lidove Noviny reported this week that U.S. defense officials are in advanced negotiations with the Czech arms company Thomas, which holds a license to export the system. The Czech defense ministry, which says Vera is capable of detecting even stealth aircraft, told The DAILY they had no official comment.
NEW YORK, N.Y. - Third- and fourth-tier companies will make up the next consolidation wave in the aerospace and defense industry, executives and industry analysts said this week at the Aerospace & Defense Finance Conference, sponsored by Aviation Week and Credit Suisse/First Boston.
MARIETTA, Ga. - The U.S. Air Force soon could be flooded with industry ideas for improving long-range strike. A recent request for information (RFI) is expected to generate as many as 200 responses describing interim steps the Air Force could take to enhance its global attack capabilities before a next-generation platform becomes available, according to J.R. McDonald, Lockheed Martin's director of Washington operations for the F/A-22 Raptor fighter. Replies to the RFI are due at the end of May.
AEROSPACE INTEGRATION CORP., Crestview, Fla. R. Stanley Shinkle has been named vice president, Airborne Systems Division. INTEGRATED NANO-TECHNOLOGIES, Rochester, N.Y. Gen. Dennis J. Reimer (USA, Ret.), former chief of staff of the U.S. Army, and Richard J. Whitley have been named to INT's Advisory Panel. LOCKHEED MARTIN MARITIME SYSTEMS & SENSORS TACTICAL SYSTEMS, Eagan, Minn.
Systems look good for a May 20 launch of the Republic of China's ROCSAT-2 satellite on a Taurus rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., according to Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Taurus program manager. "The weather looks good ... and we're in the final arming phases right now, so it appears we're going to be in good shape," said Bill Wrobel. ROCSAT-2, a 750-kilogram (1,653-pound) remote sensing satellite built for Taiwan's National Space Program Office (NSPO) by EADS/Astrium, was to have been launched in April.
Lockheed Martin Corp. is expected to announce May 19 that it will build the Loitering Attack Missile (LAM) at its Pike County Operations facility in Troy, Ala. The company plans to start creating a pilot production line at the facility in 2006. Full-rate production is slated to last through 2020.
MARIETTA, Ga. - Lockheed Martin Corp. expects to erase a production backlog for the F/A-22 Raptor by December, company officials said May 18. So far Lockheed Martin has delivered about seven aircraft fewer than planned. But during a press briefing at F/A-22 production facilities here, company officials said they are making significant progress in getting the program on schedule and expect to be caught up less than eight months from now.
OHB-System-AG and Elbit Systems Ltd. will form a joint venture to develop and market electro-optical systems and infrared payloads for spacecraft and Unmanned Airborne Vehicles (UAVs), the companies announced last week. The venture will be called OHB ELectroOPtics, based in Bremen, Germany, and will concentrate its marketing in Europe. Electro-optical sensors use the visible and infrared areas of the spectrum to create images and are used in civilian satellites, meteorological satellites and military reconnaissance platforms.
The Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) completed its formal risk-reduction phase with a system demonstration in Italy earlier this month, prime contractor MEADS International (MI) announced May 18. The United States, Germany and Italy are developing the MEADS mobile air and missile defense system, which will replace the Patriot system in the United States and Germany and the Nike Hercules system in Italy. MEADS will use the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) interceptor missile.
ROCSAT-2: Orbital Sciences Corp. said it is making final preparations for the May 20 launch of Taiwan's ROCSAT-2 remote-sensing satellite atop its four-stage Taurus booster. The satellite will monitor the terrestrial and marine environment of Taiwan and its surrounding waters, and also carries an instrument to observe lightning in the upper atmosphere. The launch is to occur from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.
The Senate continued its second day of debate May 18 on a $422.2 billion Department of Defense authorization bill for fiscal 2005. The Senate bill is $20.5 billion above the amount President Bush requested. If approved, the budget would represent a 3.4 percent overall increase in defense spending over fiscal 2004. The Senate bill's total for defense spending is equal to that approved by the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) last week, but the two bills differ on individual weapon, ship and aircraft program budgets.
Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee's Strategic Forces subcommittee, plans to introduce legislation that will make it easier for the United States to cooperate with its allies on missile defense, Allard said May 18. "Expanding missile defense deployment among our allies and friends ... is a necessary next step in modernizing our arms control strategy while enhancing national security," Allard said during a breakfast in Washington sponsored by the National Defense University (NDU).
Missile system operators "must never allow themselves to become overly reliant" on their machines, investigators of an Iraq War friendly fire incident warn.
TESTING COMPLETE: Kaman Aerospace Corp.'s Kaman Dayron unit has completed testing of the FMU-152 A/B Joint Programmable Fuze (JPF) and begun production. The U.S. Air Force contract for $13.6 million calls for initial production of Lot 1 through 2005 at the Kaman Dayron unit in Orlando, Fla. Options for eight additional years bring the contract total to $169 million. Kaman said the JPF allows aircrews to change fuze settings in-flight, prior to weapon release, and will work with almost every mainstream air-to-surface bomb the Air Force uses.
