The weapon that meets requirements of the Marine Corps' Joint Advanced Weapon System (JAWS) initiative and the Army's Modernized Hellfire effort may also go into the Air Force inventory, via the Joint Strike Fighter. The Marines want to launch the future weapon from helicopters and fixed wing aircraft, including JSF, which will also be used by the Navy and AF. An analysis-of-alternatives is underway to decide which weapons JSF will carry.
The U.S. Navy has decided to evaluate a British-made aircraft oxygen generation system largely because it could be used on aircraft of one, two and four seats. The USN evaluation of the Molecular Sieve Oxygen Generator (MSOG), made by Normalair-Garrett, is one of only a couple of new Foreign Comparative Test (FCT) programs the Pentagon is sponsoring this year. The Navy is leading the effort, which is being conducted with the Air Force Research Laboratory, according to John Hollingsworth, the Naval Air Systems command official overseeing the activity.
The Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS), which will make the 2.75-inch rocket smart by giving it a seeker and a guidance system, could also benefit the 5-inch Zuni rocket, according to a DOD official, who says there is interest in using the modification on both weapons. He says both would be ideal for targets in an urban environment, where collateral damage must be kept to a minimum.
A future airstrike on Iraq would make quick work of the country's air defenses, if comments of British Defense Secretary George Robertson are any guide. He tells reporters that Iraqi air defenses "were in many cases very vulnerable" to attack earlier this month, when a major air campaign was aborted at the last minute. Robertson also says that better missions, with less risk of the loss of manned aircraft, can now be planned because "We know an awful lot more about Iraq [now] than we did during Desert Storm" in 1991.
The Pentagon's Defense Requirements Board, chaired by Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre, today is slated to conduct a major requirements and budget review on a number of acquisition programs, including some major ballistic missile defense efforts. The fate of the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile will be on the table, as will the future of the multi-national Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS), which Pentagon officials have said they can't afford as currently envisioned.
The U.S. Army has declared its first AH-64D Apache Longbow unit combat ready after several months of training. The 1st Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment, based at Ft. Hood, Tex., underwent 15 months of pilot and maintenance training and eight months of company- and battalion-level evaluation in the attack helicopter, according to AH-64D prime contractor Boeing. Four live fire exercises and over 2,500 flight hours were completed before certification.
The Pentagon on Friday reported for the first time that the U.S. Navy's buy of CH-60 helicopters will cost $3.2 billion. It also notified Congress about cost growth in one Air Force program, the Global Broadcast System, and two Army programs, the PAC-3 missile defense system and the Forward Area Air Defense Command, Control and Intelligence (FAAD C2I) effort.
The U.S. Coast Guard wants to evaluate vertical take-off and landing unmanned aerial vehicles in the near future to determine if they could used for drug interdiction missions. The Coast Guard now uses the HH-65A Dolphin helicopter to spot drug runners. However, a Coast Guard official said the service wants to use UAVs to augment the Dolphin, and has set aside about $3 million to take a closer look at the idea.
Pentagon acquisition chief Jacques S. Gansler has told the U.S. Air Force that if the costs of the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) grow excessively, he is prepared to buy another missile. "Should JASSM become unaffordable," the program will be scrapped and another cruise missile will take its place, Gansler said in the acquisition decision memorandum that cleared the Lockheed Martin weapon for the engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) phase.
Russia has now signed on to conduct monitoring flights over Kosovo in support of NATO's mission of verifying the cease fire from the air, NATO Secretary General Javier Solana tells reporters. But don't expect Russia to provide critical information. Solana says they may use aircraft that otherwise are used for open skies verification, and that would be relatively limited for the Kosovo job. The value of Russian participation? "Symbolically, it's very important," Solana says.
NATO's International Sea Sparrow program office may consider establishing a level of membership that allows countries to monitor program developments without having to contribute funds. Full members have a vote on program management decisions, but also have to ante up funds for the program. Rempt says there may be a way to have observer members who can't vote, but who don't have to pay, either. The observers would stay apprised of developments with the Sea Sparrow or Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile.
Russia's cash-strapped space program is trying to milk its Mir orbital station for every kopek of value left in it, looking for private investors to save it from reentry next summer and, failing that, pressing NASA to use a Space Shuttle to salvage scientific gear from the 13-year-old facility and deliver it to the new International Space Station.
The U.S. will increase its airlift capability in Latin America to support relief operations following Hurricane Mitch. The operations, which have cost $35 million so far, will be expanded from six intratheater transports - C-130s and C-27s - to 10. The helicopter force will grow from 39 to 59. The number of dead following the storm has reached nearly 10,000, with more than 13,000 still unaccounted for.
Several countries have expressed interest in buying the upgraded Rolling Airframe Missile being developed by the U.S. Navy and Germany, says Rear Adm. Ron Rempt, who is in charge of Navy Theater Combat Systems. The Block 1 missile is undergoing tests, some of which have been observed by officials of the U.K. and Spain, Rempt says. The U.S. Navy next year plans to make a production decision on its upgraded RAM, which will be able to attack helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft and surface targets, in addition to ships.
DRS TECHNOLOGIES INC., Parsippany, N.J., won $33.5 million in contracts from Lockheed Martin Tactical Defense Systems, Eagan, Minn., to make additional AN/UYQ-70 Advanced Display Systems and computer peripheral equipment for the U.S. Navy.
The Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory have teamed to sponsor an R&D program aimed at better engagement of moving surface targets with airborne sensors. Under a program known as Moving Surface Target Engagement (MSTE), the two organizations plan to spend up to $40 million on an effort that could allow targets to be destroyed without expensive smart weapons.
NASA has rescheduled launch of the Landsat-7 Earth remote sensing satellite to April 15, 1999, to accommodate a design change in the power supply for the satellite's instruments. Originally the Delta II launch was to have been next month, but the power supply for the Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM Plus) failed twice during thermal vacuum tests at the instrument level. NASA says the ETM Plus, designed and built by Raytheon (formerly Hughes) Santa Barbara Remote Sensing, to continue a database of Earth imagery going back to 1982, has been redesigned and rebuilt.
An effort to allow European countries to act militarily without necessarily involving the United States will have to be backed by investments in military equipment, NATO Secretary General Javier Solana told reporters Friday. "I do think there is concurrence now among the governments that if they want to move forward with [a European defense initiative] beyond rhetoric, that is not free of charge," Solana said in Washington.
The U.S. Air Force has taken a first cut at identifying the initiatives it will include in next year's Expeditionary Force Experiment (EFX '99). The AF's Electronic Systems Center said the list of 18 projects could change, depending on Year 2000 compliance issues, funding, contract negotiations and other variables. Many of the initiatives promote the ability to make and carry out battle plans more rapidly.
Europe and the U.S. plan to cooperate on collecting weather data gathered by polar-orbiting satellites under an agreement signed yesterday in Washington. The agreement between the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) calls for a "Joint Polar System" consisting of common instrument sets on U.S. and European polar-orbiting weather satellites to provide data continuity and compatibility.
Controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory postponed testing the xenon ion engine on the Deep Space 1 probe until next week at the earliest after the spacecraft put itself into safe mode again, this time during a test of its autonomous navigation system.
In the Aerospace Daily Calendar, published in the Nov. 2 issue, the phone number to call for more information on the Jan. 28-29, 1999, AIAA Acquisition Reform Conference is 800-639-2422.
The "Blue Dogs," a group of 29 moderate-to-conservative Democrats in the House, are pushing Speaker-elect Bob Livingston (R-La.) to revise committee ratios to more accurately reflect what they say is the makeup of the House. Among the proposed changes, the Blue Dogs want to see three more Democrats on the House National Security Committee, one more on the Intelligence Committee and two more on the Science Committee.
A CONSORTIUM of Raytheon and Thomson-CSF signed a $290 million Phase II/III contract with the Swiss Defense Procurement Agency to install the Florako air defense system, the companies reporte yesterday. Under the eight-year program, the consortium will provide new radar sensors, new communication equipment throughout Switzerland, and will renovate existing C2 centers. The new system will be implemented and funded incrementally. In December 1997, the consortium won a Phase I award for prototyping and risk reduction.
