Britain will deploy a 1,700-person battle group in support of U.S.-led combat operations against Al Qaeda and Taliban forces in Afghanistan. The core of the force will be 45 Commando Royal Marines. The unit is embarked on the helicopter carrier HMS Ocean, already in region, at the heart of a Royal Navy task group. RAF Chinook helicopters are being deployed into theater by C-17 airlifters.
The Pentagon's plans for an expanded anti-missile shield should crystallize this summer when a recently anointed team of industry experts is to express its views on a new missile defense architecture.
Becoming a public company isn't a bed of roses, as EADS and Thales are discovering. Complying with reporting requirements last week, they had to tell stockholders that the bottom line sank well into the red last year. However, the future may be brighter. The outlook for the two companies is better than many investors realize, according to some analysts, who think the aerospace and avionics enterprises are underrated.
Robert J. Aaronson has been named director-general of the Geneva-based Airports Council International, effective Apr. 2. He has been executive vice president-Americas for Lufthansa Consulting. Aaronson succeeds Jonathan Howe, whose term of office has expired.
China's Xian Aircraft Co.'s MA-60 turboprop received a boost last week when Wuhan Airline Co. leased three of them--through Shenzhen Financial Leasing Co.--for services to begin in April. The 60-seat aircraft, a derivative of Xian's Yun-7, is similar to the Dash 8-300. Wuhan is to replace seven Y-7s with the MA-60.
Kenya Airways, as part of its long-haul fleet modernization program, last week placed a firm order for three Boeing 777-200 ER aircraft.The Nairobi-based carrier will retire its last Airbus A310 next month from its fleet that includes 767-300ER and 737-200/-300/-700 aircraft. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines holds a 26% stake in the carrier, international and local investors, 52% and the government, 23%. Kenya operates regional and international passenger and cargo services from Nairobi and Mombasa to Europe, India and the Middle East.
The first 10 Minuteman III ICBMs to be furnished with fresh propellant were declared operational by U.S. Air Force Space Command on Mar. 15. Now standing alert at Malmstrom AFB, Mont., the missiles are the first of 500 Minuteman IIIs being upgraded under a $2.4-billion Propulsion Replacement Program (PRP). The effort was undertaken to maintain the system's reliability by replacing aging propellant. Achieving initial operational capability also means the PRP is on schedule for completion in about 2008, ensuring the nuclear ICBM will be supportable through 2020.
Russia is reevaluating its ability to provide Progress resupply spacecraft to the International Space Station as a result of Russian budget cuts and industry layoffs. U.S. managers believe the planned launch of seven Progress missions through 2003, one less than planned earlier, should still be adequate for station support. The new Progress P-7 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Mar. 21 was to dock with the ISS on Mar. 24, replacing the Progress P-6 that undocked from the station on Mar. 19 and was commanded into a destructive reentry.
The U.S. Navy Seal who fell from an MH-47 helicopter in Afghanistan survived that incident, but then died after fighting Al Qaeda forces single-handedly in a close-quarters pistol duel until he was almost out of ammunition.
Gordon Dudley has been promoted to general manager of the Planning and Communications Div. of The Aerospace Corp.'s Chantilly, Va., office. Scott Pozza has become general manager of the Facilities Div. in the El Segundo, Calif., headquarters. Dudley was principal director of the Planning and Communications Div. Pozza was corporate director of physical resources and administration for Logicon.
Nancy J. Knipp has become Tokyo-based managing director for Japan for American Airlines. She succeeds Katsuya Yonemoto, who has retired. Knipp was regional managing director for Asia and the South Pacific, based in Hong Kong.
Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Electronic Systems Sector has won a $20-million contract to provide AN/AAQ-24(V) Nemesis directional infrared countermeasures systems for Australian Defense Force AWACS aircraft being acquired under Project Wedgetail.
Joining an industry consensus, the FAA forecasts that U.S. airline traffic will pull through its decline this year, rebound strongly in 2003 and grow steadily during the rest of the decade and beyond. But devils threaten this optimistic outlook and, as usual, they are in the details.
The U.S. Transportation Dept. appointed the first eight of an eventual 429 federal security directors (FSDs), one for each of the nation's airports. Each FSD will manage and be responsible for all aspects of security at his or her airport.
Stability isn't something the Pentagon's missile defense efforts are known for. No surprise, then, that more changes are in store for both the long-range, anti-ICBM shield and the primary short-range terminal defense program.
The German parliament will decide within the next few weeks the fate of the country's indigenous land-attack cruise missile development, while a critical decision also looms for Germany on a log-jammed pan-European air-to-air missile program. A parliamentary decision on whether to approve production of the KEPD-350 land-attack standoff missile is likely no later than the end of April. The program suffered a setback recently with the failure of a test launch.
Scheduled-service flight operations at Washington Reagan National Airport will return to their pre-Sept. 11 level, about 800 flights per day, on Apr. 15. Reagan National was shut down until Oct. 4, 2001, longer than any other commercial-service airport in the nation, and has increased operations in phases since then, always under heightened security.
An FAA request for additional inspections of Airbus A300-600 vertical stabilizers could come as early as this week pending results of an evaluation of the aircraft's service history data now underway. The agency and Airbus are ``working swiftly'' to complete their review to identify -600s involved in ``maneuver events or upsets'' with unusually high lateral loads that may have damaged the composite tail, according to the FAA.
Symetrics Industries will provide its MD-1295/A improved data modem (IDM) to Turkish Land Forces (TLF) under a $1.25-million order. TLF will integrate the IDMs as part of an upgrade program for Turkey's UH-60 Black Hawk and AH-1 Cobra helicopters.
House lawmakers and the Transportation Dept.'s Inspector General are warning that airline ticket tax revenues are likely to be 20% short of expectations next year, forcing deep cuts in safety-critical FAA functions unless the agency reins in its spending habits. ``We're heading into a huge problem,'' said House Appropriations transportation subcommittee Chairman Harold Rogers (R-Ky.), at an FAA hearing Mar. 13. ``This is going to require that there be some enormous cost control measures.''
Astronaut and Marine Maj. Gen. Charles F. Bolden, Jr., is heading back to Marine Air Station Miramar, Calif., where he commands the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, after seeing his hopes to become deputy NASA administrator dashed in a welter of Washington turf wars. Bolden, a veteran Vietnam combat and space shuttle pilot, looked like a cinch for Senate confirmation the day before his scheduled confirmation hearing, only to have his nomination yanked by the White House.
The Japanese navy is expected to select the AgustaWestland EH-101 as the first acquisition in Fiscal 2002, which begins Apr. 1. The Italian-U.K. heavy-lift helicopter is pitted against the Sikorsky S-92 for an initial purchase of five aircraft, two for a navy minesweeping role as replacements for MH-53s and three as support aircraft for Japanese activities in Antarctica to replace S-61s. An additional nine are projected for the next five-year defense plan, beginning in Fiscal 2006. Kawasaki Heavy Industries is expected to assemble the helicopters.
A consortium of major Quebec-based aerospace companies and universities is forging ahead with a provincially assisted research initiative after similar proposals for federal funding were unsuccessful. Consortium Research Innovation Aerospatial Quebec (CRIAQ) has secured commitments of $35.2 million in funding over five years to pursue collaborative, precompetitive research in six areas: low-cost manufacturing and materials, modeling and simulation, icing and acoustics, systems integration, avionics, and microelectronic and mechanical systems.
British-based aerospace and engineering group Smiths plc's interim results released last week showed the scars of the commercial aerospace sector downturn, though the reduction in operating profit was somewhat less than initially feared. Smiths also revealed it has an acquisition war chest on the order of 2.5 billion pounds ($4.55 billion), amid speculation it would be a prime candidate to acquire TRW's Aeronautical Systems Group. TRW is looking to sell as it tries to fend off a hostile takeover from Northrop Grumman.
