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.
There's "no basis to question" the Department of Defense's need for another round of military base closures, the General Accounting Office said in a report issued days after the House Armed Services Committee recommended suspension of the base realignment and closure (BRAC) process until 2007. "While clear limitations exist in DOD's assessment of excess capacity, it does point to some areas that warrant additional analysis - and the current BRAC process is an appropriate forum for doing so," the investigative arm of Congress said in a May 17 report.
PRAGUE, Czech Republic - Czech defense officials have rejected claims in the Czech press that the Gripen JAS-39 aircraft has serious shortcomings. The Czech government is preparing to sign an agreement with Sweden on the 10-year lease of 14 Gripen fighters. An article in the May 14 issue of daily Mlada Fronta Dnes quoted unnamed "experts" as saying that the Gripen cannot carry the AMRAAM medium-range missile, and will not be equipped with NATO-compatible IFF (Identify Friend or Foe) systems.
The Satellite Industry Association (SIA) is spearheading a series of ad hoc meetings between DOD organizations and representatives of the commercial satellite communications industry that will help shape the military's use of commercial satcom.
NEW YORK - Raytheon Co. made procedural changes in the last nine months to reduce corporate risk, said Edward Pliner, the company's senior vice president and chief financial officer.
SpaceDev Inc. registered a fifth consecutive quarter of revenue growth in the first quarter of 2004, with revenue of $1,015,000 for the three months ending March 31 compared to $902,000 in the fourth quarter of 2003. Profit from operations was $12,000 in the first quarter of 2004 compared with a loss of $364,000 in the first quarter of 2003 and a loss of $12,000 for the fourth quarter of 2003.
NEW DELHI - Pirate attacks increased alarmingly in the first quarter of 2004 and raised fears of maritime terrorism in the Singapore Straits and the Malacca Straits, according to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB). The maritime industry needs enhanced security measures in the Malacca and Singapore Straits to detect and deter possible attacks, the IMB said. Maritime security experts predict that the pirates' success may spur terrorists to hijack ships and ram them into other ships or shore facilities in a seagoing replay of Sept. 11, 2001.
SPACEHAB Inc.'s revenue continues to suffer from NASA's postponement of space shuttle missions. Executives cited the shuttle mission drought and termination of the company's Flight Crew System Development contract with NASA as key reasons that revenue for the third quarter of fiscal 2004 was $14.8 million compared with $26.4 million for the same quarter in the previous year. Net income was $300,000 for the most recent quarter compared with a net loss of $62.7 million for the same period in the previous year.
The AIM-9X Sidewinder missile has been approved for full-rate production, Naval Air Systems Command's (NAVAIR) Air-to-Air Missile Program Office (PMA-259) announced May 17. John Young, the assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, signed the Acquisition Decision Memorandum for the program on May 15. Production through 2018
The U.S. Army and the Canadian Air Force are starting to define separate but similar programs for buying new light-transport planes. The U.S. effort, which is being referred to as both CXX and the Future Cargo Aircraft, could get under way formally by this summer with the issuance of a solicitation for information from potential competitors. A request for detailed proposals is expected to follow in the first quarter of calendar 2005.
NASA will launch two missions in 2006 to explore the Aurora Borealis and mysterious high-altitude clouds, the agency announced May 6. The first mission, the Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere Small Explorer, will determine the causes of the clouds that occur 50 miles above the polar regions every summer. Similar clouds have been observed on Mars. The second mission, the Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions During Substorms, will send five small spacecraft through geomagnetic disturbances that cause the Northern and Southern Lights.
A Patriot missile's destruction of a British Royal Air Force Tornado in the Iraq war underscores the need to give aviation and missile forces a better view of the battlespace, according to new reports released by U.S. Central Command and the British Ministry of Defence. "The airspace is very crowded," the U.S. report says. "More effort needs to be expended in finding ways to deconflict that airspace and ensure that everyone's situational awareness is complete."
Intelsat Ltd. will acquire Lockheed Martin's COMSAT General business for $90 million in cash or a combination of Intelsat stock and $50 million in cash. Lockheed Martin expects the deal will close by year-end and not have any material effect on the company's results. Intelsat also will purchase an Atlas launch vehicle from Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services for a future satellite launch. COMSAT General employs 30 people in its headquarters in Bethesda, Md., and in offices in Clarksburg, Md., Paumalu, Hawaii, and Landstuhl, Germany.
NEW YORK -- The Department of Defense (DOD) is restructuring the way it conducts acquisition, management and logistics, said Michael Wynne, the acting undersecretary of defense responsible for those functions. Wynne spoke at the Credit Suisse First Boston/Aviation Week Aerospace & Defense Finance Conference here May 17.
Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. of Denver, Colo., on May 14 shipped the final launch vehicle in the Atlas II family. The Atlas IIAS is on its way to Cape Canaveral for a launch scheduled for June 30. The Atlas II series accomplished 61 consecutive successful missions over the last 13 years but was replaced by the larger Atlas III and Atlas IV. While the launch of the last Atlas II vehicle must wait for next month, the penultimate Atlas IIAS launch is set for May 19 with the AMC-11 telecommunications satellite on top.
