A recent U.S. Army technology game to support development of the Army After Next has revealed that current Army science and technology investments focus too much on the near term, Lt. Gen. Paul J. Kern, the Army's top research, development and acquisition officer, said Friday.
A Congressional Research Service report on conventional arms transfers (DAILY, Aug. 5) points to the end of the Gulf War selling spree as the reason the U.S. lead in deliveries is shrinking. CRS says the present U.S. lead reflects implementation of arms agreements made during and in the aftermath of the 1991 war in the Persian Gulf. In 1997, CRS notes, the U.S. still had a narrow lead in new arms transfer agreements worldwide, valued at $5.3 billion. France was a close second with $5.1 billion in new agreements and Russia was third was $4.1 billion. The U.S.
In its quest to win the U.K. Airborne Standoff Radar (ASTOR) synthetic aperture radar/ground moving target indicator system competition, Northrop Grumman opened a demonstration facility in London designed to show aspects of its proposal to U.K. officials.
Alliant Techsystems, Minneapolis, bought back 271,000 shares of its common stock from Hercules Inc. for about $15.6 million, Alliant reported Thursday. The transaction is the third of four purchases of 271,000 shares expected to be made during 1998 under a put/call arrangement between the companies (DAILY, Feb. 6). The first block was bought in February and the second in May. The shares were acquired by Hercules in connection with Alliant's acquisition of Hercules Aerospace Co. in 1995.
The AF is waiting until 2000 to activate the EAF concept, largely because implementing the concept any earlier would be difficult if not impossible. Acting AF Secretary F. Whitten Peters points out that all the ranges and exercises are already fully booked for FY '99. Both need to be brought in line with EAF to get the forces ready, and the earliest opportunity to do that is now FY '00.
Lockheed Martin has completed the final series of tests needed to get the FAA certification for its C-130J later this month and plans to deliver the first of the aircraft to its launch customer, the U.K., also this month.
The MiG-29K Russia may sell India to go with its new aircraft carrier (DAILY, July 28) has some new features from the navalized MiG developed in the late 1980s as the Soviet Union crumbled.Based on the newly upgraded MiG-29SMT under development for the Russian air force, the MiG-29K will carry an additional 600 liters of fuel thanks to elimination of its upper air inlets.
The FAA probably will not be able to meet all its Year 2000 computer compliance goals, a General Accounting Office official said Thursday. Joel Willemssen, GAO director-civil agencies information systems, credited FAA with making significant progress but expressed reservations in testimony before the House Science subcommittee on technology. Administrator Jane Garvey reported last month that the agency met an internal July 31 deadline for renovating at least 60% of its mission-
A NASA team is in Russia trying to find out just what it will take to complete the Russian Service Module so on-orbit assembly of the International Space Station can get started in November as currently - and increasingly tentatively - planned. NASA told the White House July 30 that the Russian Space Agency had received only $20 million from the Russian government of the $340 million it needs this year, and Administrator Daniel S. Goldin hints the U.S. still may take up the slack despite an initial White House rejection of the idea (DAILY, Aug. 6).
The U.S. Navy is looking to buy as many as 500 low-cost subsonic subscale aerial targets starting in fiscal 2000 for use in gunnery and missile training exercises. The minimum performance requirements for the target are the ability to fly at Mach 0.8 with a desired performance of Mach 0.9. The range requirement is for 300-400 nautical miles at high altitudes. The air- and surface-launched drone should be able to operate at altitudes of 10,000-
The U.S. Army Communications&Electronics Command (CECOM), Fort Monmouth, N.J., has awarded contracts for Rapid Response to Critical Requirements (R2CSR) Support to teams led by Lear Siegler Services Inc. of Annapolis, Md., ARINC Inc. of Oklahoma City, Okla., and Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems Inc. of Bethesda, Md.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged commercial-space startup SpaceDev Inc. and its founder and President, James Benson, violated federal securities laws by making "several false and misleading" statements to the public through press releases, a newsletter and the Internet. SpaceDev denied the charges, saying it was "disappointed" to learn about the SEC administrative proceeding. Among the charges the SEC made Thursday were that SpaceDev:
NASA has picked five commercial remote sensing companies to provide as much as $50 million worth of data to its Earth science researchers under a data-purchase program ordered by Congress last year. Selected were Earth Satellite Corp., Rockville, Md.; Positive Systems Inc., Whitefish, Mont.; AstroVision Inc., Stennis Space Center, Miss.; EarthWatch Inc., Longmont, Colo., and Space Imaging EOSAT, Thornton, Colo. The companies were picked because their products provide the "best science value" and meet other criteria, NASA said Friday.
Russia is marketing a new mobile anti-missile and anti-aircraft system to Israel that is said to be more capable than any U.S. system now in existence. Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), chair of the House National Security Committee's research and development panel, told The DAILY he first learned of the sales effort involving Russia's Antey-2500 anti-missile system by reading a Tel Aviv press report and complained that the Central Intelligence Agency was not aware of the potential sale.
U.S. funds to bail out the Russians on Space Station wouldn't necessarily come from the U.S. Treasury. At the urging of White House Budget Director Jacob Lew, Goldin reveals that some U.S. companies may be interested in direct commercial relationships with Russian contractors on the Station to get the job done. "The decision is, does the Russian government put it in or do we work with the Russian government and corporate resources to get us over the finish line," Goldin tells the science panel.
The AF expects the Expeditionary Air Force operational concept and the Expeditionary Force Experiments to work together. AF Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Ryan says the technologies that will be demonstrated at EFX '98 next month, such as rapid targeting and on-the-fly planning, should all assist the Air Expeditionary Forces that will make-up the EAF concept.
Although rough terrain in Bosnia reduces some of the capability of the E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System, Col. Joseph Stein, who commands the Joint STARS wing, says those terrain-masking problems can be mitigated by tactics. By switching from an elliptical orbit to a crescent-shaped, arc-like orbit, many terrain-masking problems can be overcome, he says.
Faced with a multi-billion dollar bill to upgrade aircraft avionics so they will be Global Air Traffic Management compliant, the U.S. Air Force is holding off on the work until after 2002, an AF official says. The bill for each aircraft type could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and the AF wants a better definition of what will be required for GATM compliance before it spends that kind of money.
Norwegian ground-launched Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles scored three direct hits in four firings during an operational test last Wednesday of the Norwegian Air Defense Solution (NADS) at the U.S. Army's Short Range Air Defense Range near Orogrande, N.M. The missiles were fired against MQ-107 targets, the U.S. Army said. Data analysis is still being conducted on the fourth missile to determine if it was able to achieve a warhead kill.
The U.S. Air Force is getting ready to hold a competition for the Powered Low Cost Autonomous Attack System (P-LOCAAS) advanced technology development, an effort that is now scheduled to run 45 months, three months less than initially projected (DAILY, June 26).
The AF's Air and Space Command and Control Agency (ASC2S) is headed for a change in name and broadening of responsibility after barely a year in existence. The AF is looking to rename the outfit, based at Langley AFB, Va., the Command and Control, Information, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C2ISR) agency. With the new title the organization headed by Maj. Gen. John Hawley would gain responsibility for developing ISR requirements and investment plans, according to an AF official.
The House is expected in September to take up a bill introduced last week that makes it U.S. policy to deploy a national missile defense (NMD) system. Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), chief sponsor of the bill, says the House will act on the measure before adjourning for the year. But differences between the House bill and a similar bill in the Senate still will have to be resolved.
Although the AF expects "a huge bill" for GATM, many aircraft - mainly fighters and bombers - deliberately won't be made fully compliant with the latest air traffic management rules. Some of those systems are supposed to let air traffic controllers know where an aircraft is at all times. "We don't want that," the AF official says, because then an enemy could find out where U.S. warplanes are too.
China has asked Russia to display a modified MiG-29SMT at the Zhuhai International Air Show in November, leading to speculation China may be interested in buying the new export fighter. Russian authorities agreed to the Chinese request, and also are considering adding the MiG-31M interceptor-fighter upgrade to the display. China's interest in the MiG-29SMT may have been prompted by the recent decision of the Russian Ministry of Defense to refurbish as many as 180 operational MiG-29s into the MiG-29SMT variant.
