The Russian Air Force halted all but the most essential flights for a week last Thursday following two major crashes this month. "It is necessary to examine the situation, to carry out studies, work to inspect planes and then to move [ahead]," said Gen. Pyotr Deinekin, commander of the Air Force.
Design problems with the Joint Direct Attack Munition are forcing a one-year delay in full-rate production and addition to the $2 billion program of another lot of low-rate production. A U.S. Air Force official said the 2,000-pound BLU-109/Mk.-84 and 1,000-pound BLU-110/Mk.-83 variants of JDAM were shown in testing to be unstable at high angles of attack, forcing a redesign of their aerodynamic strakes. The redesign has been accomplished and wind tunnel tests have been completed.
While many tout the benefits of the consolidated U.S. defense industry, Jon Kutler of Quarterdeck Investment Partners says the real test is still to come. "Right now, consolidation hasn't been as threatening to customers because we're not in a big procurement stage," he says. "If you envision a time five years out when a ramp-up in procurement occurs, that will be the real test of balance. If the U.S. contractor base gets either lazy or greedy, it will be a tremendous setback to process. That's when you will also be able to see if the U.S.
A preliminary design review of the Airborne Laser (ABL) is slated for April. Around the same time, some subscale testing will be done on the system to confirm that it is possible to develop that type of power, and whether that power can be accommodated by a 747 platform, says Ballistic Missile Defense Organization Director Lt. Gen. Lester Lyles.
Odeen says also the Pentagon should establish a "Joint Battlelab Commander" who would oversee the services' battlelab efforts. While he supports the testing of new equipment and force structures, he says he and the NDP "want ... a much heavier joint focus."
The National Defense Panel has endorsed the Pentagon's call for more base closings, but panel chairman Phil Odeen acknowledges this may not happen soon. He says "we'll get BRAC," but maybe not next year because of congressional elections in November.
A return to the moon to mine its soil for helium 3 could serve as a "bridge" for humans to explore Mars and the rest of the solar system while providing a clean energy source for a growing population on Earth, one of the last two men to stand on Earth's satellite argued.
U.S. AIR FORCE'S 93rd Air Control Wing, with three E-8C Joint STARS planes, is set to be declared operational on Dec. 18. Developmental versions of the aircraft have already seen duty in the Persian Gulf and Bosnia. The unit, based at Robins AFB, Ga., will achieve full operational capability in 2004.
The U.S. Navy's F/A-18E/F Super Hornet has completed the first 2,000 hours of its flight test program, reaching the milestone even as program officials are trying to resolve a wing drop problem (DAILY, Dec. 12). The milestone was reached Dec. 9 in aircraft F-2, one of a pair of two-seat Super Hornets in the flight test program. The program now has completed more than 1,300 flights.
Boeing's search for the cause of the crash of TWA 800 did not stop with its own resources. It sought out - and got - aid from rivals, including Airbus, Lockheed Martin and eventual merger partner McDonnell Douglas. "Industry has come together to try to solve this one," a Boeing official told NTSB hearings in Baltimore.
The U.S. Air Force is asking industry to describe new technologies that could give it more capable airlift and tanker aircraft, and wants to begin hearing some of the concepts over the next few months. "The driver [behind the effort] is to better use technology," Col. John Bedford, chief of the AF's Global Mobility and Special Operations requirements Div., said in an interview at the Pentagon. The AF wants to learn more about emerging technologies "so that we will be better able to respond to the definition of requirements."
Europe's Arianespace consortium doesn't want to be part of a combined European aerospace group proposed by the leaders of Britain, France and Germany last week (DAILY, Dec. 10). Jean-Marie Luton, Arianespace's chairman, tells a German newspaper that merging the launch services provider with the European companies that build the satellites it carries could lead to conflicts of interest and loss of control over proprietary data.
Three nuclear arms experts advocated taking U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear forces off alert. In a Capitol Hill news conference last Thursday, Bruce G. Blair of the Brookings Institution, and Frank von Hippel and Harold Fieveson, both of Princeton University, essentially spelled out a proposal they first made in the November issue of Scientific American.
CALSPAN SRL, Washington, D.C., signed a technology services agreement with AirIQ, Pickering, Ontario, Canada. AirIQ makes wireless communications systems that give commercial fleets access to electronic intelligence installed in their vehicles.
The decision of Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) to step down as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee at the end of 1998 will elevate Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.) to the position in 1999, assuming the Republicans, as expected, retain control of the Senate in next year's congressional elections. Warner would have to relinquish chairmanship of the SASC seapower subcommittee, opening that position.
Russia has offered to sell 150 MiG-29 fighters, 150 T80U main battle tanks and four 636 diesel submarines to South Africa, according to the Chinese news agency Xinhua. It said the package also includes six maritime research and rescue helicopters and six anti-submarine helicopters.
Saudi Arabia is buying improved subsystems for its fleet of five E-3 AWACS aircraft under a foreign military sales agreement with the U.S. The work is being done by Lockheed Martin Federal Systems for $14.7 million. Lockheed Martin will build, test and deliver seven upgraded CC-2Er data processing subsystems for the Royal Saudi Air Force surveillance planes, as well as a mission simulator and a Data Display Training System, the company said yesterday. Deliveries are to be completed in April 1999.
Sundstrand Aerospace reached an agreement with Sogerma Maintenance Group to jointly provide support of Sundstrand's products on Airbus A319, A320 and A321 aircraft. Sundstrand, of Rockford, Ill., said yesterday that it will provide Sogerma with spare line replaceable units under a long-term lease and repair maintenance support at a fixed cost per hour.
LOCKHEED MARTIN will build 30 Target Acquisition Designation Sight/Pilot Night Vision Sensor (TADS/PNVS) systems for the Netherlands under a $99.6 million contract, the company said yesterday. The systems, being bought under a foreign military sales agreement, will be used on Dutch AH-64D Apache helicopters. Deliveries will run until 2001. Lockheed Martin said the systems will be the first to be configured for future integration with the Longbow fire control radar and missile system.
European aerospace industry consolidation, called for this week by the leaders of Britain, France and Germany, has prompted encouragement as well as skepticism in the U.S. British Prime Minister Tony Blair, French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl said Tuesday that they see an "urgent need" for restructuring, and wanted a plan from the companies to do so by the end of March (DAILY, Dec. 10).
The U.S. Army's new Space and Missile Defense Battle Lab is conducting experiments in support of a program with the National Reconnaissance Office to put intelligence data in the cockpits of Army helicopters, according to Larry Burger, director of lab. The NRO/Army project, called "Nimble Foresight," evaluates "short cut" ways to get intelligence data to helicopter crews, Burger told The DAILY here at a symposium sponsored by the Association of the U.S. Army.
Thirteen Senators have urged Defense Secretary William Cohen to restore procurement plans for the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System to 19 planes, and are backing a similar call by 88 House members for long-lead funding for two Joint STARS to be included in the fiscal 1999 defense budget request. The appeal was made in a Dec. 8 letter drafted by Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) and co-signed by 12 other Senators.
China won't be the next Soviet Union, but its rapid military modernization, particularly in the areas of ballistic and cruise missile development, information warfare and anti-satellite technology, should not be dismissed, members of an expert panel on U.S.-China relations said yesterday in Washington. The possibility that China would use ballistic missiles "is on the near horizon," former Director of Central Intelligence James Woolsey told reporters.
