Attack, not defense, will reshape electronic warfare. A magazine filled with electron pulses, information scrambling data streams and invasive algorithms may arm the Next-Generation Jammer (NGJ).
Qatar Airways has put its synthetic fuel program on a dual-track with its announcement last week of a joint move to develop and produce a sustainable biofuel. The carrier, together with Qatar Science & Technology Park and Qatar Petroleum, says it will start seriously exploring biomass-to-liquid projects.
Opposing camps within the U.K. Defense Ministry are debating the extent of procurement reform, a fight that advocates of implementing radical change previously lost.
Long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away, accountants and lawyers were waging war against the peace-loving and productive engineers and entrepreneurs. They were outflanked by documentation and the bottom line with coordinated frontal assaults of overhead, which were eating up any extra hours designated for design improvements and visionary thinking. The planet of Economics 101 was buckling under the stress and unable to sustain the large amount of paper that was being generated.
USN Rear Adm. (lower half) Joseph P. Aucoin has been appointed commander of Carrier Strike Group Three, Bremerton, Wash. He was deputy director of the Air Warfare Div. in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations in Washington.
MDA Corp.’s unmanned air systems, too, uses the IAI Heron, in this case for a Royal Australian Air Force mission. Flight operations are now officially underway from Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan, where is it supplying the RAAF with intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance information directly to ground commanders in real time.
Flavio Renfer has been named Frankfurt-based vice president-business development and customer relations of European Cargo Services . He was director for Western Europe for Delta Air Lines.
U.S. airports have managed to dodge the credit market’s woes, raising billions of dollars for upgrades and expansions. But the environment could become much more challenging after 2010 if a tax exemption on airport bonds is not extended.
Analyst Michael Derchin’s comment (AW&ST Dec. 14, 2009, p. 42) that United Airlines has always selected Boeing aircraft for its twin-aisle fleet is not correct. In the 1970s, United purchased dozens of McDonnell Douglas DC-10s that it operated for years. During the late 1980s, United also operated a few Lockheed L-1011s for a brief time, obtaining them along with some routes from ailing Pan Am. United didn’t really want the L‑1011s, but they came in the package.
Patrick DeWitt (see photo) has become chairman and retired as CEO of Space Systems/Loral , Palo Alto, Calif. He has been succeeded by John Celli, who was president/chief operating officer.
Engineers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center are sifting ideas received last week on applying in-space servicing techniques pioneered with the Hubble Space Telescope to “previously impossible” science, exploration and other space missions.
Italy will deploy to Afghanistan three additional AW129 attack helicopters, for a total of nine, and three more AB412/212 helos for medical evacuation, bringing that fleet to seven rotorcraft. Moreover, three C-27J airlifters will be detached to augment Italy’s single C-130J in the region, with a plan also to add two further Predator unmanned aircraft. But additional fixed-wing strike or reconnaissance assets are not being dispatched.
Remembering the late 1970s, the Ariane space booster’s early history looks like a fairy tale. Today, aging pioneers only remember where the heavy-lift launcher came from: It resulted from the costly failure of an early attempt to give Europe independent access to space. Arianespace, the cross-border company in charge of marketing and selling Ariane, will soon celebrate its 30th anniversary. However, the first Ariane was launched on Dec. 24, 1979, several months before Arianespace was established.
Lockheed Martin has delivered the first two of seven upgraded P-3C Orion maritime surveillance aircraft to the Pakistan navy. The ex-U.S. Navy aircraft have updated mission computers, electro-optical and infrared sensors, communications, data management and acoustic processing systems. The first of 17 new C-130J Hercules transports for the Canadian Forces, meanwhile, has rolled out of the paint shop at the company’s Marietta, Ga., plant.
Jim Gaughan (see photo) has become senior vice president/general manager of advanced research and engineering services for Metron Aviation , Dulles, Va. He was director of the MTA IESS/C3 Program for the Lockheed Martin Corp.
The USAF KC-X tanker program appears to be a disaster in the making. After reading the report on Pentagon acquisition czar Ashton Carter and the Pentagon civilian KC-X procurment board, there are too many people in high places making questionable decisions on the procurement of this airplane, which will drive the cost higher (AW&ST Nov. 30, 2009, p. 30).
Intense use and limited control of communications, radar and jamming of explosive devices in Iraq, particularly around Baghdad, have turned the electronic environment toxic. Communication link ranges for coalition unmanned aircraft and other uses have been cut to a fraction. Introduction of new devices regularly interferes with those already in operation. The volume of communications has clogged the airwaves.
After generations of talk but little success, integration and commonality of digital sensors among operational forces of the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force are showing surprisingly vibrant signs of life. A competition was kicked off late last year to design, build and demonstrate prototypes of the Joint and Allied Threat Awareness System (Jatas) to protect Navy and Marine Corps helicopters and tiltrotor aircraft from both dumb and smart weapons. The two remaining competitors are Lockheed Martin and the team of Alliant Techsystems (ATK) and BAE Systems.
The desire for the U.S. Navy Next- Generation Jammer (NGJ) to perform many missions may rekindle interest in a sensitive, tactical computer network attack program that was developed by the Air Force and tested in Iraq. Contractors are looking at offering a Suter-like technology—designed initially for the electronic attack of integrated air defenses—as an add-on application to NGJ.
Jim Veler has been named president/CEO of Abrisa Inc. , Santa Paula, Calif. He was vice president/general manager of Agilent Technologies’ Wireless Manufacturing Organization, Santa Rosa, Calif. Jim Hooker and Kevin Liddane have been appointed Eastern U.S. and Western U.S. sales managers, respectively.
The U.S. Army’s modernization program will not include a Class IV unmanned aerial vehicle, according to the service’s official notice of cancellation to Congress Jan. 11. The Class IV UAV, which was to be a Northrop Grumman Fire Scout, “is no longer required,” say Army documents. “The current force Shadow [UAV] can meet future Army requirements with product improvements.” The Class IV UAV was a remnant of the defunct Future Combat Systems, retooled as Brigade Combat Team Modernization.
NASA is hunkering down for the coming Fiscal 2011 budget release, which is expected to contain the agency’s marching orders for future human spaceflight. Jeff Hanley, head of the Constellation program that is developing the next generation of human exploration vehicles, had accepted an invitation to speak on the subject at a Space Transportation Assn. breakfast in Washington Jan. 15. But NASA’s management scuttled Hanley’s appearance.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is dispatching its Gulfstream IV research aircraft to the Pacific with an aim to improving winter storm forecasting for North America. The twin-engine turbofan jet will be stationed at Yokota (Japan) AB through February and then reposition to Honolulu in March.
