FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Several technologies that were under development for the canceled RAH-66 Comanche helicopter are likely to find a home in the Block III AH-64D Apache Longbow, according to contractors working on both programs. The Army and Boeing, the Apache manufacturer, will jointly determine which Comanche technologies will transition over, according to Al Winn, vice president for Apache programs at Boeing.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Northrop Grumman is awaiting formal approval from the U.S. Army to produce 33 Viper Strike munitions for deployment to Iraq, according to a company official. "The Army's in the process right now of completing the operational needs statement" for the deployment, Northrop Grumman Viper Strike Director John Miller said at a March 4 briefing at the Association of the United States Army's winter symposium here. General Richard Cody, the Army's deputy chief of staff, G-3, is expected to sign the statement "any day now," Miller said.
AEROSPACE PRODUCTS INTERNATIONAL, Memphis Paul J. Fanelli has joined the company as senior vice president and chief operating officer. ANALEX, Alexandria, Va. C. Thomas Faulders III, the chairman and CEO of LCC International Inc., has been elected to the board of directors and will serve on the audit committee. BAE SYSTEMS NORTH AMERICA, Rockville, Md. Paul W. "Whit" Cobb Jr. has been appointed vice president, deputy general counsel. BOEING, Chicago
PAC-3 TEST: Lockheed Martin's Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile successfully destroyed an incoming ballistic missile in a March 4 test at White Sands Missile Range, N.M, the company said. Two PAC-3s were "ripple fired" against a missile simulating a Scud missile in the test.
U.S. military, government and private sector officials told House lawmakers March 4 that the defense and aerospace industrial base is healthy, innovative and responsive, although it still faces challenges.
Small businesses should be involved in NASA's new mission to return to the moon and go on to Mars, the head of a panel reviewing the plan said March 4. "Whatever we do here, we have to stimulate small business participation," E.C. "Pete" Aldridge Jr., the Pentagon's former acquisition chief, said at a press conference from the U.S. Air Force Museum, Ohio. Aldridge said the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program has a lead systems integrator that brings in international partners and small businesses, and NASA could do the same.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Lockheed Martin's Line-of-Sight Anti-Tank (LOSAT) missile system will finish developmental testing at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., next week, to be followed by five weeks of Army testing and a low-rate initial production (LRIP) decision in June, according to a company official.
TANKER WORK: Boeing has selected Pratt & Whitney as the baseline engine source for its 767 Global Tanker Transport Aircraft Programs, the company said March 3. P&W's PW4062 engine will be the standard production engine for future domestic and international tanker programs, Boeing said.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency hopes to launch as many as half a dozen satellites by 2012 to test a space-based Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI) system, agency documents show. "By 2011-2012, our space-based test bed will have a thin constellation of three to six spacecraft on orbit," MDA wrote in a recently unveiled "justification" of its fiscal 2005 budget request.
U.S. Joint Forces Command (JFCOM) is gearing up for its fourth multinational experimentation exercise (MNE), which will simulate stabilization operations in Afghanistan, according to the MNE director. The exercise could be held in July 2005 or in February or March 2006, U.S. Navy Cmdr. Ed Whalen told The DAILY.
The U.S. Air Force is ramping up its pursuit of a new long-range bomber, forming two offices to study the matter and accelerating the planned fielding of a next-generation system by as much as a dozen years.
To protect the shipbuilding industrial base, the U.S. Navy has decided to fine-tune its DD(X) program plans, Navy officials said March 3 at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. The Navy is expected this week to send to Congress a detailed report on the surface combatant industrial base. One issue is easing the transition for the shipbuilding industrial base between the DDG fleet and the future DD(X) fleet, which includes filling in a gap in fiscal 2006 when the Navy is not scheduled to procure a major surface combatant.
Aviation electronics maker Rockwell Collins predicts that its defense market will continue to grow, President and CEO Clay Jones said March 3 at the Bear Stearns Commercial Aerospace and Defense Conference in New York.
MOSCOW - The Russian state commission on radio frequencies has simplified the procedure for using very small aperture terminal (VSAT) communications satellite ground stations. The new procedure eliminates a lot of the paperwork that potential VSAT users needed before working with Express or Yamal satellites. The clearance process for using two-kilowatt Ku-band VSAT terminals now will take about 20 days, instead of about 200. The change is for Express and Yamal networks only.
Defeating enemies who may use newly developed U.S. warfare technology against American forces over the next decade is a top military concern, an Army research and development official told Senate lawmakers March 3. "We may have the greatest technology but the next day the bad guy learns how to use it against us," Brig. Gen. Charles A. Cartwright, deputy commanding general for systems-of-systems integration for the Army's Research, Development and Engineering Command, told Senate Armed Services Committee members.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - The teams led by Lockheed Martin and Boeing-Northrop Grumman that are competing to build the Joint Common Missile (JCM) are investing their own money on advance risk reduction work as they await a contractor downselect in late April, according to company officials. The JCM is to replace the Hellfire and Maverick missile and fly on multiple aircraft, including the AH-64 Apache and AH-1Z Super Cobra helicopters as well as the Navy and Marine Corps' F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. A team led by Raytheon also is competing to build the JCM.
ALCATEL, FINMECCANICA and VINCI CONCESSIONS has formed a consortium that has been shortlisted for the concession for Europe's Galileo satellite navigation system, the companies said. The Galileo Joint Undertaking is expected to award the concession in early 2005 to a company or consortium that would be responsible for financing, deploying and operating the program.
The U.S. Air Force has made a slight increase in the number of F/A-22 Raptors it plans to buy, reflecting cost savings identified last year, according to documents and a service spokeswoman. Documents recently prepared for Congress to explain the Bush Administration's fiscal 2005 budget request show that the "current program estimate supports procurement of 277" F/A-22s, up from the 276 figure the Air Force had previously presented as its purchase target.
