The U.S. drive to know everything about its battlespace hasn't been ignored by other countries, which now may try to block the goal. "China, Russia and India may invest in leap-ahead technologies, [including] major investments toward directed energy, EMP [electro-magnetic pulse], HPM [high power microwave], and cyberweapons systems designed specifically to undermine the U.S. concept of dominant battlefield knowledge warfare," according to the latest "Strategic Assessment" by the National Defense University.
The Pentagon Comptroller's office estimates it will cost several hundred million dollars more for the future class of amphibious ship, the LPD-17, than the Navy is projecting, and says this could threaten delivery schedules or number of ships to be bought.
Kaman Aerospace International Corp. said ground was broken Friday on what will become a support center for the Royal Australian Navy's future fleet of SH-2G(A) Super Seasprite helicopters. Kaman will be the first tenant in the new Aviation Technology Park located next to HMAS Albatross near Nowra, New South Wales, the air station where the Super Seasprites will be based. Work on the 33,000-square-foot facility is slated to be completed in September 1999.
The Pentagon has offered to sell Greece $306 million worth of Maverick missiles, GBU-24 bombs, Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS) and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS). The ATACMS deal would be worth $245 million, and would include 18 MLRS and 146 MLRS extended range rocket pods. Greece would also get 81 ATACMS missiles, 11 M577 command post carriers, 162 M26 rockets, 94 radios, night vision equipment, trucks and other hardware.
Boeing is looking to test two key aspects of its Dragonfly Canard Rotor Wing vehicle later this year to help refine the design of two prototypes it will build during a 37-month development program for the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Around December or January, a 75% scale model of the demonstrator is slated to be tested in a wind tunnel, a Boeing official said. The vehicle will operate in helicopter mode, and fixed-wing mode when the rotor is locked in place.
Ka-band satellites will offer new opportunities for transferring data, but an equal number of problems will have to be addressed, according to members of a panel at a conference in Washington yesterday. Jeremy Rose, a senior consultant with the U.K.-based Communications Systems, said at the 20th Annual Satellite Communications Expo and Conference that a study by his company for the U.K. government and British Aerospace a decade ago concluded that "you will have to drag people to Ka-band kicking and screaming."
The unspecified amount the White House has told the Pentagon it can expect for future budgets will have to be shared by several competing interests, which could limit funding for modernization. Lt. Gen. Michael Williams, U.S. Marine Corps deputy chief of staff for programs and requirements, said in one of the first public reactions by a top military officer that it's "a good news story." He pointed out, however, that there are many priorities for the unspecified amount the White House says it will provide in fiscal 2000 and beyond.
LUFTHANSA firmed up options for six more Airbus A312-200s powered by International Aero Engine's V2500, IAE reported yesterday. The aircraft will begin joining the Lufthansa fleet in December 1999.
Northrop Grumman has completed a study of unmanned combat air vehicles for the U.S. Navy. Engineers at the company's Advanced Systems and Technology unit, Pico Rivera, Calif., developed several concepts in response to a request for ideas on unmanned naval strike aircraft, and recommended more detailed work on a few of them. Boeing and Lockheed Martin already have completed their studies. The Navy is interested in a UCAV that could be operated from surface ships and submarines.
The House yesterday approved the compromise $270.5 billion fiscal 1999 defense authorization and sent it to the Senate for final congressional approval. The House vote for the bill was 373-50. Meanwhile, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) has told his Senate colleagues that he opposes language in the fiscal year 1999 defense authorization bill on tritium production and intends to place a hold on the bill, delaying a final Senate vote.
Aviation Sales Co. (AVS), Miami, completed the acquisition of Triad International Maintenance Co. (Timco) from Primark Corp. for $70 million in cash. Timco, based in Greensboro, N.C., operates an FAA licensed repair station specializing in the overhaul and modification of narrow-body and widebody aircraft and reported revenues of $113.3 million in its 1997 fiscal year. AVS said the acquisition is expected to boost earnings slightly in fiscal 1998.
U.S. support of Israel's Arrow anti-missile missile program is more important now than ever before given the increase in ballistic missile development and testing around the world and particularly in the Middle East, Israeli officials said yesterday. The officials, members of an Israeli Ministry of Defense and industry team visiting Washington, are briefing congressional and Pentagon officials on a successful test last week of the Arrow system in Israel.
NASA MADE PLANS yesterday to move Space Shuttle Discovery off the launch pad and return it to the Vehicle Assembly Building to ride out the passing of Hurricane Georges. Bad weather not associated with the hurricane delayed the planned trip until 10 p.m. Thursday night, the spokeswoman said. The return to the VAB will not delay the planned Oct. 29 launch because NASA had a week's worth of contingency time built into the schedule. The shuttle should be back on the pad early next week.
President Clinton's suggestion that the U.S. can cooperate on ballistic missile defense with Japan is misleading, according to a key member of the House National Security Committee. Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), a proponent of missile defense programs and chairman of the HNSC panel on research and development, told The DAILY that Clinton is misleading the Japanese into believing the U.S. can work jointly with them on missile defense when Clinton refuses to adequately fund U.S. missile defense programs already in the works.
The Medium Extended Area Defense System was barely kept alive by the fiscal 1999 defense appropriations conference, which funded the U.S.-German-Italian program at $10.027 million, about a quarter of the Administration's request, congressional sources said yesterday. The choice for the appropriations conferees was a go or no-go decision since the Senate had zeroed the Administration's $43 million MEADS request.
The National Airspace Baseline Architecture '98, set for release in late October or early November, will be substantially better than Version 3.0, put out for comment a year ago, but it's not the final word, according to Michael J. Harrison of the FAA.
The U.S. Marine Corps is moving away from focusing self-protection mechanisms for ground systems from high-end threats to those more likely to be encountered, a move that the service's aviation component won't necessarily match.
Logicon Inc. won a five-year U.S. Navy contract to support the Aegis Training and Readiness Center, Dahlgren, Va. Under the cost-plus-fixed-fee contract from the Naval Surface Warfare Center, the customer can spend up to $38.8 million for services over the five-year period, Logicon said.
The Kaynar and Microdot divisions of Kaynar Technologies Inc. (KTI), Orange, Calif., signed a strategic agreement with Blanc Aero, a division of GFI Industries, for representation in France, Kaynar reported. KTI designs, develops and makes specialty components and tooling systems and provides related services used primarily by original equipment makers and their subcontractors in the aerospace and defense industries.
Canada's Bombardier Aerospace hopes to acquire a stake of up to 40% in Taiwan's Aerospace Industrial Development Corp. (AIDC) in a deal that could be worth as much as $145 million, according to reports carried by several Taipei daily newspapers. According to the reports, Bombardier has set a number of conditions for the purchase, including tax concessions and assurance of the Taipei government that the company will be awarded contracts to provide maintenance services for Taiwan's Air Force.
Miami-based Wood Group Turbopower is now a designated Quick Engine Change (QEC) repair center for Lockheed Martin C-130/L-100 Hercules, P-3 Orion and L-188 Electra aircraft, Lockheed Martin Aeronautical Systems reports.
An analysis of 621 fatal accidents involving airliners around the world between 1980 and 1996 showed that 41% occurred due to lack of positional awareness, according to the head of safety analysis for the U.K.'s Civil Aviation Authority. Adrian Sayce, speaking Tuesday to the McGraw-Hill Aviation Week Group's Global Aviation Safety&Security Conference in Washington, said half the accidents occurred during approach and landing. He said design shortcomings and post-crash fire were causal factors in 10% of all the accidents.
The U.S. Secretary of State was directed by the fiscal 1999 defense authorization conference agreement to report to Congress by Jan. 1 on the steps needed for "timely and orderly processing" of satellite export licenses. The conference report, made public yesterday, made the move to deal with the biggest objection of the satellite industry to the conference's decision to shift licensing of commercial exports from the Commerce Dept. back to State: that it would delay the licensing process from weeks to as much as six months, industry sources said.
The space segment of the 28-satellite Orbcomm data communications network was completed yesterday with launch of the final eight satellites on a Pegasus XL rocket. Orbital Sciences Corp. said the rocket, launched by its L-1011 aircraft flying off the coast of Virginia, put the satellites into their targeted orbit of about 818 kilometers. It was the 14th successful mission for the Pegasus launch system, dating to 1996, and the 23rd overall mission for the airborne space launch vehicle, Orbital said.
