Orbital Sciences Corp. said Aug. 6 it was awarded the initial phase of a $25 million satellite manufacturing contract from a team led by Hampton University (HU) of Hampton, Va. HU's James M. Russell III is the principal investigator of the Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) program. The University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) in Boulder is managing satellite development for HU. Orbital will complete the design and development and build the spacecraft at its Dulles, Va., facility, the company said.
LM BONDS: Lockheed Martin Corp. will offer up to $850 million in bonds, the company said. The bonds would be convertible to shares of Lockheed Martin common stock if certain conditions are met and the company decides not to settle such a conversion with cash, the company said Aug. 6. Initial buyers will have the option to buy an additional $150 million in bonds, the company said. Lockheed Martin also said it plans to buy back up to $1.15 billion in outstanding debt.
Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) pledged his continued support for international cooperation on defense programs in a speech in Washington Aug. 6, while reiterating his assertion that Congress will back off from "Buy American" legislation that critics say would restrict such cooperation. Weldon chairs the House tactical air and land forces subcommittee and is a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee under Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), the leading House sponsor of the "Buy American" provisions.
It's not clear what impact a United Kingdom buy of BAE Systems' Hawk trainers will have on India's pending decision on which advanced jet trainer to buy. The U.K. announced last week it would buy new Hawk Mk. 128s for $1.3 billion (DAILY, July 31). U.K. defense industry sources said the sale may have improved BAE Systems' chances for selling Hawk 100 trainers to India, which has been negotiating with the company for years.
MINUTEMAN LAUNCH: An unarmed Minuteman III ICBM was successfully launched Aug. 6 as part of a flight test for Force Development Evaluation, according to Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The launch was conducted by the 30th Space Wing and a combined task force from the 341st Space Wing at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont., and the 576th Flight Test Squadron at Vandenberg.
Curtiss-Wright Corp. of Roseland, N.J., said it has acquired Peritek Corp., a company that builds video and graphic display boards and counts Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Raytheon, BAE Systems and General Dynamics among its customers. "Acquiring Peritek is consistent with our desire to expand our presence in the electronic systems arena," Martin Benante, chairman and CEO of Curtiss-Wright, said in a statement.
Tera Tech Inc. of Pasadena, Calif., a consulting and engineering company, said Aug. 5 it is acquired Engineering Management Concepts Inc. (EMC), which provides engineering and program support to U.S. Defense Department weapons test ranges. The Camarillo, Calif.-based company also provides systems logistics support and information technology support to the DOD, Tera Tech said. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
WRIGHT COINS: The U.S. Mint is producing a series of gold, silver and copper-clad coins to commemorate the centennial of the Wright Brothers' flight. The coins are on sale now and a portion of the proceeds will go to repair, refurbish and maintain the Wright Brothers National Memorial Park in North Carolina.
Nonlethal weapons and underwater mine detectors are crucial technologies needed by U.S. military forces, a Marine Corps official said Aug. 5 at the Naval-Industry R&D Partnership conference in Washington. Maj. Gen. Kevin Kuklok, assistant deputy commandant for plans, policies and operations, offered industry members a short wish list of things that are "simple to talk about and not simple to do.
The U.S. Navy launched the development phase of the E-2 Advanced Hawkeye (AHE) program late Aug. 4, awarding a $1.9 billion contract to Northrop Grumman Systems Corp. The 10-year system development and demonstration (SDD) phase includes upgrading two E-2 Hawkeye 2000 aircraft to the AHE configuration.
NEW DELHI - The Indian air force has begun buying simulators for all its major military aircraft, in response to a recommendation from a parliamentary committee that said buying flight simulators should be done with "urgency." The equipment includes simulators for MiG-27s, MiG-29s, Jaguars, upgraded MiG-21 bis, Sukhoi Su-30s and other aircraft. India plans to buy at least $200 million worth of simulators and has sought bids from companies in France, Israel, Russia and the United Kingdom.
U.S. Army leaders have ordered warfighting experts to perform a fresh review of currently sanctioned tactics that allow AH-64 Apache attack helicopters to penetrate deep behind enemy lines. "We are taking a look at aviation doctrine and if it still makes sense to us," Gen. John M. Keane, vice chief of staff of the Army, said Aug. 5 at a Defense Writer's Group breakfast. Deep-strike missions are one of the fundamental combat roles of the military's attack helicopters, both the AH-64 and the U.S. Marine Corps AH-1 Cobra.
Mission Technologies Inc. of San Antonio, Texas, will provide three miniature unmanned aerial vehicles to the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command at Fort Monmouth, N.J. The work will be done under a $5 million contract, the Defense Department said Aug. 5, and is expected to be completed by July 31, 2004.
The Bush administration is pursuing a nuclear weapons policy that could jeopardize America's long-term national security, according to researchers with the Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR). The policy involves the development of new types of small tactical nuclear weapons that could be used to pre-emptively strike adversaries before they attack, a new regime of nuclear weapons testing, and the deployment of a missile defense system, PSR officials said.
IBM and Raytheon Co. say they will cooperate in the design of custom semiconductors and systems for defense and aerospace applications and market the results. The relationship links Raytheon's expertise in defense electronics technology and aerospace and defense and IBM's leadership in such areas as chip design, software development, large systems computer architecture and network integration, the companies said in an Aug. 5 statement.
U.S. Navy officials on Aug. 5 outlined several technical challenges related to the Navy's Sea Base concept that industry could help solve. Sea Base, or Sea Basing, is one of the three pillars of the Navy's SeaPower 21 transformation strategy. Sea Basing often is characterized as the use of multiple sea platforms to execute and sustain joint operations across thousands of square miles of ocean, but its exact definition continues to be refined.
PRAGUE - The Slovak air force is preparing two bases Slovakia as defense hubs in preparation for its entry into NATO next year, according to defense officials. Slovak air force commander Jozef Dunaj named the bases as Kuchyna and Sliac after meeting with deputy commander of the Allied Air Forces North Europe, Jurgen Hoche, in central Slovakia last week. Dunaj also said the country's air force plans to have 18 MiG-29s available for combat duty once planned repairs on the aircraft are carried out by 2004.
MOSCOW - Malaysia has agreed to buy 18 Russian-made Sukhoi Su-30 MKM fighters for $900 million. The deal was signed during Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to the country this week. According to the agreement with the Russian export agency Rosoboronexport, 40 percent would be paid in cash, 30 percent would be paid with the trade of palm oil and the rest would be covered through technology transfer agreements. Additional contracts signed in Kuala Lumpur cover two Mi-17 helicopters and avionics from the Irkutsk Aircraft plant.
NASA has selected the first Mars Scout mission to study the red planet, the agency said Aug. 4. NASA said Phoenix, a lander designed to study martian ice, soil, rock and the local atmosphere at its landing site, is scheduled to launch in 2007. Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona in Tucson leads the mission in partnership with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver. The Canadian Space Agency is contributing a sensor to study polar climate.
HAWKEYE WORK: Lockheed Martin's site in Syracuse, N.Y., was awarded a $413.5 million contract Aug. 5 from Northrop Grumman for work on upgrading the E-2 Hawkeye's radar under the Advanced Hawkeye program (see related story on Page 6). Lockheed Martin leads the team working on the next-generation radar, which is slated to replace the existing Lockheed-built radar by 2010.
NEW DELHI - India's INSAT-3E communications satellite is scheduled to be launched Aug. 28 on an Ariane 5 from Kourou, French Guiana. The satellite, developed by the Indian Space Research Organization, is scheduled to be launched along with Smart-1, Europe's first lunar mission, and Eutelsat's e-Bird satellite.
NEW DELHI - The Indian air force has modified more than 20 of its Mirage 2000-H fighters to allow air-to-air refueling after receiving its first Ilyushin IL-78 tanker from Uzbekistan in March. India bought six IL-78s from Uzbekistan for $170 million in 2001. The remaining five tankers are scheduled to be delivered within six months. Uzbekistan trained Indian air force pilots to fly the tanker aircraft, which can refuel up to three fighters simultaneously.
Time-critical strike and smaller precision weapons are among the areas where the U.S. Navy has identified gaps in current science and technology (S&T), according to Rear Adm. Mark Fitzgerald, director of the Air Warfare Division at the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (OPNAV).
