ESCORT SERVICE The Pentagon backs off its plan to provide fighter escorts for RC-135 Cobra Ball and Rivet Joint intelligence-gathering aircraft monitoring North Korea. Instead, the aircraft are flying tracks farther out to sea, beyond the reach of short-range MiGs. Meanwhile, the Air Force sends the first of what could eventually total six B-2s to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, where they will be within rapid striking distance of Iraq. B-1s are already in Oman and Guam.
Thales has been tapped to provide Britain's next-generation integrated infantry system, further cementing its place in the U.K. defense community and boosting prospects for increased growth in its flourishing defense electronics business.
The full-blown financial crisis in which the U.S. airline industry seems hopelessly entwined could soon start to look more like a death spiral than an economic tailspin, depending on how an Iraqi war plays out. For the first time, some leading analysts and industry officials are talking about the possibility--if not the probability--that virtually every major U.S. carrier will be forced to file for protection under Chapter 11 bankruptcy laws. The lone exception: Southwest.
UAV UNIVERSITY The U.S. Air Force's 46th Test Group at Holloman AFB and New Mexico State University's Physical Science Laboratory (PSL) have teamed to create a joint regional Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Test Center (UTEC). Plans call for the two organizations to share expertise, capabilities and infrastructure over a period of five years with the goal of becoming a national resource for the military and federal agency UAV community, according to Kathy Hansen, PSL's director of business development.
Thomas E. Romesser, vice president-technology development for the Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Space Technology Sector, Redondo Beach, Calif., has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering. The academy recognized Romesser for his pioneering contributions to high-power laser technology and isotope separation.
France will build an experimental early warning satellite system as a prelude to an expanded missile defense system capable of protecting European territory and population, not just battlefield forces, from attacks by rogue states. Acquisition of an advanced warning capability is considered the key to such a system, which NATO agreed to study at a summit in Prague last November (AW&ST Dec. 2, 2002, p. 34).
EUTELSAT IPO Meanwhile, Eutelsat has reopened discussions with the European Commission on conditions for an Initial Public Offering. Under an agreement with the EC when the company was privatized in 2001, an IPO for 30% of equity must be initiated by mid-2003 as part of a mandate to dilute shareholdings and avoid possible conflicts of interest between investors and distributors.
USAF Col. (ret.) Michael R. Gallagher (Sacramento, Calif.)
Air Combat Command chief Gen. Hal Hornburg says he'd like to see a capability to shut down the ignition systems of enemy armor, so air forces could destroy them (AW&ST Feb. 24, p. 19). With the ignition systems out, the armor is effectively destroyed and air forces could more productively go after other targets.
Expecting a 10-15% drop in capacity, the best airlines can do in this worst of times is to make the prospect of travel more attractive to travelers, who, jittery with prospect of war and terrorist attack, are reluctant to wander far from home. With that in mind, U.S. carriers this month announced short-term, international and domestic travel policy changes they will put into effect in the event of start of military action or a Homeland Security call for a "code red alert."
Investors are taking a beating on U.S. major airline stocks still in play, with the biggest hits coming against shares in AMR Corp., parent company of struggling American Airlines. In terms of market valuation, the company has lost a lot of ground--41.5% in the first three days of last week. The stock closed at 1.50 on Thursday, up 9 cents a share.
The number of commercial aircraft in long-term desert storage has declined during the past year, but it's a trend due more to an increase in aircraft being permanently grounded than to the growing number of transports being returned to revenue service, according to an aviation research firm.
The European Commission has issued a set of proposals promoting the establishment of a European defense market to support European Security and Defense Policy goals. The proposals, adopted at the urging of the European Parliament, include measures for enhanced standardization and common trade procedures and extending existing competition rules to the defense sector. The EC also suggests it be given the right to participate in export control regimes, and that a common defense equipment policy be drafted to push joint arms research and procurement.
FEELING THE HEAT Smoked out by civil libertarians (AW&ST Mar. 3, p. 21), the Transportation Security Admini- stration (TSA) says privacy will have equal priority with security as the agency develops and fields CAPPS II, the next-generation Computer-Assisted Passenger Prescreening System, in the coming year. CAPPS II data-gathering plans continue to draw criticism, but TSA chief James Loy says his agency will amass no more than it needs and less than many people fear. For example, parking tickets or a poor credit rating won't ever be the basis for extra scrutiny.
William S. Ayer, chairman/president/CEO of Alaska Airlines, has been elected chairman of the board of directors of Minneapolis-based AirLifeLine. He had been treasurer. Jon Wurtzburger was named chairman emeritus.
Way back in late 1940, the Soviet MiG-3 fighter entered production with a fuel tank inerting system that used engine exhaust gas pumped into the fuel tanks as fuel was taken out. More than 3,000 of these propeller-driven fighters were produced during World War II (AW&ST Jan. 6, p. 37).
TURKISH DILEMMA WHILE TURKEY'S PARLIAMENT HAS REJECTED THE USE OF ITS BASES AND AIRSPACE FOR A U.S.-LED ATTACK ON IRAQ, THE COUNTRY'S LEADERS WANT TO MAKE SURE THEY ARE A PART OF WHAT HAPPENS AFTER ANY CONFLICT. "IF THINGS WORK OUT, WE WANT OUR TROOPS INSIDE IRAQ" TO PROTECT THE TURKMAN MINORITY, SAID U.S.-EDUCATED TURKISH AMBASSADOR FARUK LOGOGLU. "THE BEST SCENARIO IS FOR THE U.S. AND TURKEY TO BE ABLE TO ACT TOGETHER IN . . . NORTHERN IRAQ. IF THE TURKISH PARLIAMENT DOESN'T APPROVE [A U.S. FORCE STRIKING FROM TURKEY], TURKEY AND THE U.S. WILL STILL BE ALLIES.
USN Cdr. (ret.) Arthur R. Lee (Santa Cruz, Calif.)
The recent arrest at New York LaGuardia Airport of an airline pilot for attempting to carry a loaded handgun in the cockpit could have been avoided. To not allow cockpit crews to have weapons to protect aircraft and passengers is ridiculous. A 5-min. course could teach them to load, aim and fire, if they weren't qualified.
Had NASA known the shuttle Columbia was hurtling toward its doom, agency managers and engineers would have moved heaven and Earth to rescue the crew, agency officials said last week, contending the true scope of the problem wasn't known until it was much too late.
Lt. Gen. Datuk Abdullah Ahmad has become chief of the Royal Malaysian Air Force and will become a full general. He succeeds Gen. Datuk Seri Suleiman Mahmud. Abdullah was deputy RMAF chief and has been succeeded by Maj. Gen. Nik Ismail Nik Mohamed, who will be a lieutenant general.
The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Assn. has launched a general aviation airport security program, in partnership with the Transportation Security Administration, that enlists pilots to report anything suspicious that might signify criminal or terrorist activity.
CHICXULUB CRATER Data collected by a synthetic aperture radar on board the space shuttle Endeavour in February 2000 have given scientists a better look at the ancient impact crater where an incoming asteroid or comet hit Earth 65 million years ago, wiping out the dinosaurs and 70% of the other species living then. Dubbed Chicxulub, the crater on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula has been deduced from geological data for 20 years, but the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission produced images that show the outline of the 112mi.-wide feature for the first time.
ROTO ROOTER The rotorcraft industry "is at a crossroads" and future funding for research and development by Congress "may very well determine if the United States maintains its lead in military and civilian rotorcraft." So says John Murphey, the chairman and CEO of Bell Helicopter Textron. Testifying last week before the House Armed Services Committee, Murphey said that of the $2.5 billion that may be earmarked for purchase of helicopters for homeland defense, half could go to EADS subsidiary Eurocopter.
In the wake of a legislative initiative to revise its missile defense law, Japan has begun studying introduction of sea-launched anti-ballistic missile defenses and modifications of its four Aegis cruisers to accommodate such defenses. If the legislative initiative is accepted, the Aegis program would be funded a year from now in fiscal 2004. The subject of missile defense has been a long-running debate in the Japanese Defense Agency, but it was largely theoretical until North Korea began a series of missile tests. On Mar.
PanAmSat is mounting a focused attack on the U.S. government satellite services market, anticipating a spurt in demand from the pending war in Iraq and its fallout in the years to come, and from the war on terrorism at home.
