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.
Scott Kuechle has been appointed vice president/controller of the Goodrich Corp., Charlotte, N.C. He was vice president/treasurer and succeeds Bob Koney, who has resigned.
NASA's decision to delay the space shuttle's return to flight by at least two months to no earlier than May will give hurricane-weary launch teams and accident recovery engineers more breathing room, but tightens the margins on International Space Station (ISS) support. The launch of the new U.S./Russian Expedition 10 crew to the ISS on a Soyuz from Baikonur Cosmodrome has also been delayed three days to Oct. 14 because of minor hardware problems in Russia.
Japan's fiscal 2005 defense budget, which bets heavily on missile defense, also provides enough money for the military to buy 39 new aircraft, with helicopters representing the vast majority of those acquisitions. Sikorsky's Black Hawk family fares the best in the $2.7-billion aircraft procurement arena. The total $45.3-billion defense budget calls for the company and its Japanese partner Mitsubishi to deliver one UH-60JA rescue helo to the army, nine antisubmarine-warfare SH-60Ks to the navy and two UH-60Js to the air force for search and rescue.
The government of Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt late last week was seriously threatened by controversy surrounding nighttime operations at Brussels-Zaventem airport. The dis-pute erupted in the wake of a DHL Worldwide growth plan in Belgium.
High-level U.S.-India talks in Delhi next week aim to establish mutually acceptable end-user verification processes for space and defense equipment. A joint implementation group is expected to be formed to address technology control issues when U.S. Commerce Undersecretary Kenneth Juster meets with Indian government and industry officials. The talks, which are part of a burgeoning relationship between the two governments, represent the second phase of the Next Steps in Strategic Partnership (NSSP) initiative.
Hot on the heels of its proposed $595-million purchase of government information technology provider DigitalNet, U.K.-based BAE Systems is continuing its expansion in the U.S. market with a deal to acquire a small but highly specialized contractor to the Defense Dept. and intelligence agencies. BAE Systems said last week that its U.S. subsidiary would pay $88.4 million in cash for Alphatech, a privately held, 322-employee company based in Burlington, Mass.
George L. Bergeron, 3rd, has been named chief technology officer of Metal Storm Ltd., Arlington, Va. He has been senior vice president-product development. Bergeron succeeds company founder Mike O'Dwyer, who will remain a technical adviser, consultant and board member.
Heinz L. Butner (see photos) has been promoted to principal engineer from Delta IV systems director in the Delta IV Program Directorate of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Div. of The Aerospace Corp. in El Segundo, Calif. Steve Pavlica and Thomas A. Ramberg have been promoted to principal engineers in the Electronic Programs Div., Chantilly, Va. Pavlica was a director for national satellite systems, while Ramberg was a senior project leader.
Alitalia's emergency rescue plan, which was ratified by union leaders, will be implemented in the next few weeks. The workforce will be cut to 17,300 from 21,000. Flight operations will be separated from ground services.
It doesn't happen often, but the Government Accountability Office has essentially told a congressman to go away. Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), chairman of the House Government Reform national security, emerging threats and international relations subcommittee, asked for a GAO review of security clearance requirements for maintenance of the presidential helicopter fleet.
AgustaWestland announced it holds more than 20 orders for its Grand light twin, unveiled at the Farnborough air show, including three from offshore operator Houston-based Seacor Holdings Inc. (AW&ST July 26, p. 45). Separately, the company says it delivered two more A109 Power helicopters to the Nigerian navy, in addition to two delivered in July, along with the first of two AB-139s for Namibia.
Aerospace giant EADS is playing a long, and possibly high-risk, hand as it aims to position itself at the developmental heart of European unmanned combat and reconnaissance air platforms. It's also espousing a fundamentally different approach to that being pursued in the U.S.
A group of U.S. and foreign defense and information technology companies aims to bring order to the Pentagon's network-centric warfare efforts. But it will be months before a detailed implementation plan is devised that will provide a glimpse into whether the initiative has a chance at success.
