The U.S. Army is set for a week-long simulation exercise to assess options for its Strike Force, intended to fill the gap between light and heavy divisions. The exercise, called SIMEX, starts today at Ft. Knox, Ky., and runs through Nov. 8. The first field exercise will be conducted in late 2000. The 2nd Armored Cavalry regiment is expected to be designated the experimental Strike Force.
RAYTHEON CO. was awarded a $172.8 million U.S. Air Force contract for the third phase of the AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) upgrade program. The work is scheduled to be completed by January 2003. The effort will improve the AMRAAM sensor and replace the missile's 1970's-vintage processor.
Moody's Investors Service ratings on the debt BE Aerospace intends to use in its acquisition of SMR Aerospace are held down by uncertainty about whether and how the company will end or reduce its involvement in in-flight entertainment (IFE) systems, Moody's said.
The more technically advanced armed forces will have a harder time finding people to use the technology without improving their recruiting efforts, according to Jason Wilkenfeld of Maxwell Technologies Inc., who headed up the GEIA's Science and Technology outlook. "We need to find a way to make recruiting more attractive," he says. "When the Air Force is competing with Microsoft [for employees], personnel costs have to go up as part of modernization."
Germany's new government, sworn in last week after the formal election of Gerhard Schroeder as chancellor, includes Rudolf Scharping as defense minister; Franz Meuntefering as transport minister; and Edelgard Buhlman as minister of education and research, with responsibility for space programs. Scharping is viewed as a moderate in the Social Democratic Party, of which he is a former chairman. Meuntefering helped orchestrate the SPD win of the general election campaign.
The Pentagon should set aside a pot of "playing around money" so system developers can experiment with commercial information technology systems, Kaminski says. The money would be used to buy a few examples of a system, use it to see if it has any military value, and then either discard it or press ahead with a larger buy.
RAYTHEON announced four executive appointments, all at Raytheon Systems Co. Frank S. Marchilena was promoted to Raytheon senior vice president. He is an RSC executive VP and general manager of the C3I segment. Christine Davis, Glenn Hood and Philip T. LePore were each named Raytheon executive VPs. Davis is an RSC executive VP and general manager of the Sensors and Electronic Business Systems segment. Hood is an RSC senior VP and general manager of the Aircraft Integration Systems segment.
Responsibilities of the U.S. Atlantic Command, which have just increased, may grow still more. The command, based in Norfolk, Va., recently assumed responsibility for oversight of the Joint Command and Control Warfare Agency, Joint Communication Support Element, Joint Battle Center, Joint Warfare Analysis Center, and Joint Warfighting Center. Brig. Gen. Jerry W. McElwee, director of C4 at ACOM, says there is some talk that the command's role may be further expanded. Any changes would be made as part of the next Unified Command Plan, which is being worked on now.
The Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency on Friday said two consortia will develop advanced networking testbeds for the follow-on Internet. ONRAMP, the Optical Networking for Regional Access with Multiple Protocols, and NTON, the National Transparent Optical Networks, each received a $10 million contract for a three-year effort.
An inability of the Joint STARS aircraft to identify friendly ground troops is being addressed, says Navy Capt. Richard T. Rushton, chief of C4 plans and policy at the U.S. Atlantic Command. When Joint STARS was recalled from Bosnia duty, it was largely because it couldn't receive Army EPLRS (Enhanced Position Location and Reporting System) data to identify friendly ground troops. A bridging technology has now been identified to let Joint STARS receive that data. It is slated to be demonstrated next year at a major combat ID exercise.
Increasingly sophisticated infrared missiles are posing a serious threat to U.S. military aircraft and driving advances in missile detection and countermeasures systems. "Anyone who ignores the IR threat is bound for disaster," Bill Taylor of the Air Force Research Lab's sensors directorate, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, told the Association of Old Crows' annual symposium here last week.
Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.), who upset former Rep. Bob Dornan two years ago and took his seat on the House National Security Committee, has opened up a double-digit lead on Dornan in what is the most expensive House race this year. Latest pre-election reports filed with the Federal Election Commission show Dornan having raised $3.027 million and Sanchez $2.367 million. House Speaker Newt Gingrich has raised the most money ($5.279 million), Dornan is second, Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt (Mo.) is third with $2.495 million, and Sanchez is fourth.
Information warfare is the most difficult type of warfare, according to Vice Adm. Arthur Cebrowski, president of the Naval War College. The problem is that there are no measures of effectiveness, he tells the Government Electronics and Information Technology Association's Annual Ten-Year Forecast in McLean, Va. "This is a very fruitful area of research, and one we should take," he says. He also says work on tactical sensors will yield a big payoff.
The U.S. Defense Dept. needs to develop better models to determine the value of electronic warfare equipment, Money and former Pentagon acquisition chief Paul Kaminski tell the Association of Old Crows. Those models have to answer the question, "What is one pound of EW worth," Money says. Without the models, it will continue to be difficult for the systems to buy their way onto aircraft. Kaminski notes that the models are also needed to strike the right balance between EW and stealth. The modeling shortfall applies to information technology as well as EW, he adds.
The defense supplemental enacted by Congress was either $6.8 billion (according to the House Appropriations Committee) or $9 billion (according to House and Senate sources), but there is no difference in the funding of programs. Unlike the Senate, the HAC figure does not include embassy security ($1.8 billion) or an anti-drug program ($690 million) in its accounting for expenditures on defense.
Boeing, the lead system integrator (LSI) for the Pentagon's national missile defense (NMD) program, will select the contractor to design the kill vehicle for the program next March. However, the losing contractor will remain involved in the program for some time after the selection is made.
AlliedSignal said wheels and brakes for Russia's Ilyushin 96T aircraft made by its Rubix joint venture exceeded all performance requirements during a test last month in Russia. In the Rejected Take Off (RTO) test at Russia's Gromov Flight Research Institute, the pilot of the Il-96T accelerated to full speed, then applied brakes just before the point of takeoff, AlliedSignal said. It said that with the brake discs fully worn, the Rubix brakes halted the 270-ton airliner 300 meters short of the required limit. Thrust reversal was not used.
NASA researchers achieved "100% success" on the agency's first hypersonic flight experiment since the X-15 program ended 30 years ago, a wing-glove sensor bed that flew on last week's Pegasus launch of a Brazilian satellite. Data from the Pegasus Hypersonic Experiment was radioed to the ground using advanced data acquisition and compression techniques after the Pegasus was air-launched from Orbital Science Corp.'s L-1011 carrier aircraft last Thursday (DAILY, Oct. 26).
Howard Wesoky was named the FAA's first chief scientific and technical adviser for environment in the Office of Environment and Energy. He will advise the agency on environmental issues related to aircraft operations, including noise, sonic boom and engine emissions. Wesoky spent 34 years at NASA, most recently as team leader for environmental compatibility assessment in the Office of Aero Space Technology.
Orbital Sciences Corp., Dulles, Va., reported earnings of $8.6 million on record sales of $193.5 million in its 1998 third quarter. In the third quarter last year, the company had earnings of $6.1 million on sales of $164.7 million. Orbital's space and ground infrastructure systems sector reported sales of $166.4 million, up 11% from a year ago, while net income grew 52% to $20.6 million.
SCOTT SEYMOUR has been appointed sector vice president-Air Combat Systems of Northrop Grumman's Integrated Systems and Aerostructures (ISA) Sector. The business area includes the B-2, F/A-18, Joint Strike Fighter, unmanned combat air vehicles and aerial targets, Kistler reusable space launch structures and product support and services. Seymour has served as vice president and program manager of the B-2 program since 1996.
Northrop Grumman is developing an all-laser infrared countermeasures system for U.S. customers as an outgrowth of its Directed IRCM (DIRCM) program, known as Nemesis. Northrop Grumman has been developing a laser system to complement the arc lamp-based Nemesis for some time, but quietly started an effort to move to an all-laser system about 18 months ago, Ron Langietti, director for advanced systems at Northrop Grumman's Rolling Meadows, Ill., facility said here Wednesday at the annual symposium of the Association of Old Crows.
A European Ariane 4 orbited two communications satellites late Wednesday from the Guiana Space Center near Kourou in the third launch from the South American facility this month. Liftoff of Ariane flight 113 came at 5:16 p.m. EST. The Ariane 44L, with four liquid-fuel strap-on boosters, proceeded normally to payload deployment, according to the Arianespace launch services consortium.
