Lockheed Martin has won a $30-million contract to supply integrated electronic warfare equipment for Omani and Chilean F-16C/Ds. Specifically, the company will integrate ITT's Advanced Integrated Defense Electronics Warfare Systems and the ALE-47 dispenser.
USAF Maj. Hank Griffiths (right), a test pilot for the 416th Test Sqdn. at Edwards AFB, Calif., and Rocky Mountain Bureau Chief William B. Scott discuss features of the USAF/Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control Sniper targeting pod prior to an F-16/Sniper demonstration flight (see p. 52). Sniper's wedge-shaped sapphire window provides a +35-deg. (uplook) to a -155-deg. (down and aft-looking) field of regard.
In another AIAA honor, Eclipse Aviation President/CEO Vern Raburn received the Piper General Aviation Award for 2004, which is presented for "contributions leading to the advancement of general aviation." Raburn was cited for "revolutionizing personal air transportation [and] creating the opportunity for low-cost, on-demand, point-to-point travel that will open up tremendous new opportunities for consumers, businesses and aircraft manufacturers in the next century of flight."
Orbimage has been named a key supplier of high-resolution commercial imagery to the U.S. military. The National Geospatial Intelligence Agency awarded a contract to DigitalGlobe in 2003 under the NextView program. But to ensure the viability of the commercial imaging satellite industrial base, the Pentagon opted to fund a second contractor and tapped Orbimage on Sept. 30. The contract could be worth up to $500 million. Orbimage will provide imagery with at least 0.5-meter resolution. It will rely on the OrbView-5 satellite to help fulfill the contract.
USAF's Advanced Targeting Pod is destined for deployment to combat zones in the near future (see p. 52). Designated "Sniper XR" by its developer, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, the relatively compact targeting system is carried on an F-16's right engine-inlet chin station. It gives pilots the luxury of detecting, acquiring and designating targets from long standoff ranges, keeping them out of antiaircraft threats' reach.
As President Bush readies to declare the first U.S. national missile defense system operational, the issue may finally emerge from the shadows of Iraq in this year's presidential election campaign. For U.S. aerospace companies, the outcome of the race between Bush and U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) has long held potentially huge implications.
Sir Richard Branson has created another airline: Virgin Nigeria. Virgin Atlantic has filed with the Nigerian government to form a new carrier that, pending approval, will launch domestic and international services by mid-2005 from Lagos Airport. Nigerian institutional investors, who have provided about $50 million, hold the 51% majority stake and Virgin Atlantic, which has invested about $24.5 million, holds a 49% share, according to Virgin Atlantic. Details about the new airline's aircraft, routes and fares are to be announced in the next few weeks.
The British Defense Ministry will use the ScanEagle lightweight long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle as part of its Joint UAV Experimentation Program. Part of the JUEP work for 2005 is to look at naval UAV applications.
Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. has completed final environmental testing on NASA's two Deep Impact spacecraft, and will ship them to Cape Canaveral in late October. A December launch will set the mated "flyby" and "impactor" vehicles on a trajectory to intercept Comet Tempel-1 next summer. The impactor is designed to smash into the comet at 23,000 mph. on July 4, spewing material from the resulting crater and giving scientists their first looks at pristine substances linked to the origins of life on Earth.
NASA and Lockheed Martin engineers believe they're over the hump in redesigning the space shuttle external fuel tank, but still expect it won't be certified until after it's delivered late this year from the Michoud Assembly Facility here. Open issues will need to be addressed by the time of the flight-readiness reviews that will occur shortly before the shuttle returns to space.
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Boeing has received a $300-million U.S. Air Force contract for support of its KC-10 refuelers. The deal also covers work on the Netherlands' KDC-10s. The company also won a $30-million contract for the first of five years of logistics support for Air Force One.
Peter Smith has become a non-executive director of British Airways Regional Cargo. He is retired chief executive of Menzies Aviation and had been deputy marketing director of British Airways.
The losing performance of F-15Cs in simulated air-to-air combat against the Indian air force this year is being perceived by some, both in the U.S. and overseas, as a weakening of American capabilities, and it is generating taunts from within the competitive U.S. fighter community. The Cope India exercise also seemingly shocked some in Congress and the Pentagon who used the event to renew the call for modernizing the U.S. fighter force with stealthy F/A-22s and F-35 Joint Strike Fighters.
The fourth budget airline to begin operations from Singapore, Qantas-owned Jetstar Asia, may kindle the country's commitment to make way for carriers other than home-grown Singapore Airlines for rights to fly to India and China. Jetstar Asia, said to have requested authority for India and China routes, will start flying to destinations within 5 hr. of Singapore by year-end.
Edward N. Luttwak, Senior Fellow (Center for Strategic And International Studies, Washington, D.C.)
Deputy Under Secretary of Defense Suzanne D. Patrick's reassurance that all is well with the U.S. defense industrial base would have been more comforting if her first paragraph had not contained the following: "The largely government-owned ammunition industrial base has averaged roughly 40% capacity utilization since the end of the Cold War. Underutilized facilities cannot compete on a cost basis with healthier rivals."
The Boeing Co. is adopting a new strategy of conducting regional campaigns at key supplier locations to build support for the 7E7 and make a case against government subsidy of competitors. The strategy was evident last week as Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Alan R. Mulally joined top U.S. policy advisors to dedicate GE Transportation's new Learning Centre in Cincinnati's suburbs. Mulally stressed Boeing's role in Ohio where it has 772 suppliers whose 2003 purchases exceeded $3.7 billion.
Lockheed Martin engineers built the Sniper XR targeting pod with reliable operation and ease-of-maintenance near the top of their priority list. Those objectives have translated to good inflight performance.
Ball will start work on a spacecraft bus for the Global Precipitation Measurement mission, a constellation of weather-monitoring satellites under development by NASA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and other agencies. Ball's work, procured by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, will support a spacecraft selection in January 2005 and a core-satellite launch "by the end of the decade," according to NASA.
The Export-Import Bank of the U.S. last week approved a direct loan of up to $70.2 million to support the export by U.S. suppliers of equipment and services to build a new international airport near Quito, Ecuador. The airport will be located at a lower elevation than the existing facility, to accommodate larger aircraft.
In trying to come up with new long-endurance, high-altitude aircraft designs, officials at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio, have flown for the first time a scaled-down model of the unmanned Joined-Wing Technology Demonstrator.
Edward M. Bolen, the National Business Aviation Assn.'s new president and CEO, faces a challenge: stabilizing an organization still reeling from its first major management shakeup. Since its founding in the post-World War II era, NBAA has enjoyed rock-solid leadership--until Apr. 1, when President and CEO Shelley A. Longmuir and Executive Vice President Robert P. Warren departed after serving just under a year. On Aug. 3, NBAA leadership suffered another blow when long-time Vice President of Operations Robert Blouin resigned. On Sept.
French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie says talks have been virtually wrapped up on a 27-ship Franco-Italian multimission frigate program, and full-scale development and construction of the 12 first vessels--eight for France, four for Italy--is likely to be launched by the end of this month. The program will be the first large-scale procurement in France to be funded through a private financing initiative, enabling scarce near-term procurement funds to be earmarked for other urgent requirements.
Michael P. Mena has been appointed director of advanced cockpit programs, Brian Miller sales director for key accounts in the Los Angeles area and Jeff Vilkers sales director for the Midwest U.S. for Gulfstream Aerospace, Savannah, Ga. Mena was director of the G550 program, while Miller was vice president-new technologies marketing for Tyler Technologies. Vilker was an account manager for Cisco Systems.
Soon, the U.S. Air Force's frontline F-16s, F-15Es and A-10s will be equipped with advanced targeting pods that see farther, display sharper, more detailed images--day or night--and enable more accurate weapons delivery than legacy systems. That means life is about to get a lot tougher for any terrorist, Iraqi insurgent or other adversary who attacks U.S. forces.
