The Missile Defense Agency has tapped Raytheon Co. to develop and build a mobile, forward-deployed, land-based X-band radar to track enemy missiles early in their flight.
LASER SATCOM: The Boeing Co. said it is teaming with Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. to develop laser technologies to speed satellite communications. The companies plan to market the technology to U.S. government agencies and suppliers, Boeing said April 7.
NEW DELHI - India announced it will test its long-range ballistic missile, the Agni-3, later this year. George Fernandes, the Indian defense minister, said the test launch for the 3,000-kilometer-range (1,864-mile) missile is overdue. He said India needs a long-range missile for nuclear deterrence. Sources in the defense ministry said the nuclear-capable Agni-3 largely is aimed at deterring China, and could strike deep inside that country.
U.S. Global Aerospace Inc., a maker of reinforced cockpit doors for El Al airlines, has begun field testing a lightweight turret for the Army's High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (Humvee), according to company officials. The testing, which is being conducted at a secure facility in Texas run by the company, involves firing conventional and armor-piercing variants of 9mm, 7.62mm, 5.65mm and 12.7mm/.50-caliber ammunition against the turret.
A Defense Science Board task force has approved a U.S. Air Force proposal to re-engine the B-52H bomber fleet and endorsed the use of an obscure financing tool it admits may increase the cost of the effort. "This task force concludes that the economic and operational benefits far outweigh the program cost," says the report, signed by retired task force chairman Air Force Gen. Michael P.C. Carns, and dated March 20.
Russia and China could sign an agreement for a joint manned space exploration program this May, said Yuri Koptev, the head of Russia's aviation and space agency. The move could come as part of "significantly revived" cooperation between the two countries in this field since last year, Koptev said April 3. The two countries were not able to agree on China's possible participation in the Glonass program, although Koptev said joint experiments in satellite navigation also may be considered. - Dmitry Pieson ([email protected])
BRADLEY SALES: The intention of some members of Congress to continue to fund some legacy military systems could be a good sign for the Bradley Fighting Vehicle program, according to senior aerospace and defense analyst Paul Nisbet of JSA Research. United Defense Industries, the maker of the Bradley, received a $197.2 million contract April 2 to remanufacture 138 Bradleys. That, combined with an existing backlog, could generate more than $800 million for UDI through 2005, Nisbet says.
APPROVAL: Boeing is talking with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and Europe's Joint Aviation Authorities about the regulatory certifications for its new 7E7 (DAILY, Feb. 7). "Manufacturers typically begin this process about five years before [the] anticipated certification date. We expect certification and entry into service in 2008, so now is the time to file our applications," says Mike Bair, Boeing's senior vice president for the program.
April 7 - 10 -- 19th National Space Symposium, "Transforming the Future." The Broadmoor, Colorado Springs. Call (800) 691-4000 or go to www.spacesymposium.org. April 8 - 9 -- DOD Advance Planning Briefing for Industry, "Chemical Biological Defense Systems," Hunt Valley Marriott, Hunt Valley, Md. For more information email [email protected] or go to www.ndia.org.
STERIS CORP. of Mentor, Ohio said its Strategic Technology Enterprises subsidiary will certify a STERIS technology to sterilize robotic planetary spacecraft systems and subsystems. The work is being done under a contract from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which oversees robotic probe missions.
Faced with a growing stockpile of aged aircraft engines, the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) is pressing the military services to adopt long-term planning for repairs and multi-year contracts for spare parts. Those items top the business agenda for DLA's first Joint Services Engine Summit, taking place later this week in Jacksonville, Fla., said Dave Gay, who manages DLA's support for Air Force engines.
BYE BYE NANO: As nanotechnology becomes more firmly embedded in every technological discipline, it will cease to be spoken of as a separate field, according to Murray Hirschbein, senior advisor to the chief technologist at NASA. "Some time in the future ... nanotechnology will go away," Hirschbein says. "It'll be ingrained in the system deeply enough that nobody bothers to talk about it. Our materials will start at the atom level, our life science will start at the atom level, our sensors will start at the atom level.
Aerospace Daily affiliate AviationNow.com has created a special website to provide coverage of the war with Iraq and informational links. For updated daily coverage from The DAILY and other Aviation Week publications, please visit http://www.AviationNow.com/gulfwar.
RAPTOR DELIVERIES: F/A-22 Raptor production rates are running at least six months behind schedule, but program officials say they are gaining ground. Two weeks ago, the most recent F/A-22 was delivered a week ahead of the most updated schedule, says Marvin Sambur, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition. Manufacturing improvements inserted by Lockheed Martin's new leadership at the final assembly plant in Marietta, Ga., accounted for the early delivery, Sambur says.
LONDON - As some observers had predicted, the British Royal Air Force's new MBDA Storm Shadow long-range cruise missile made its operational debut during sorties against Iraq, in advance of its official release to service later in the year. About a dozen Storm Shadows, fitted with a Broach tandem penetration warhead for use against hard targets, are believed to have been launched in the first week of Iraqi operations. RAF Tornado GR.4s can carry two Storm Shadows beneath the fuselage.
NASA completed a second series of test flights on April 4 to evaluate detect, see, and avoid (DSA) systems designed to allow unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to fly safely with other air traffic. A previous series of test flights conducted at Las Cruces, N.M., last March evaluated a DSA system that de-conflicted flight paths with the help of transponders on the other aircraft (DAILY, March 18, 2002). The latest series of flights featured a "non-cooperative" DSA system, which didn't require such transponders.
WARHEAD DEVELOPMENT: The Air Force's Crash PAD (Prompt Agent Defeat) program, which seeks to demonstrate a blast-fragmentation warhead that can safety destroy biological and chemical weapons, is almost ready to transition from the munitions lab at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., to the acquisition phase, according to Gen. Lester Lyles, commander of Air Force Materiel Command. The warhead, which underwent flight testing in late February, is intended for soft and moderately hardened targets.
Another budget supplemental will be necessary this year if the U.S. Army is to pay for the increased operating tempo and activities connected with the war on terrorism, the Army's chief budget officer said April 4. The Army's $90.9 billion budget for fiscal year 2003 only reflects the costs of core program areas, according to Maj. Gen. Jerry Sinn.
POST-WAR COSTS: U.S. defense spending could jump 11-12 percent if additional U.S. ground forces are required after the Iraqi war to counter guerilla forces and their logistics support from Syria and Iran, according to senior aerospace and defense analyst Byron Callan of Merrill Lynch. If 200,000 peacekeepers are needed after the war, "then FY '04 and possibly FY '05 DOD [Department of Defense] spending could be 11-12 percent higher than budgets now planned," he says.
The Defense Department plans to use money in the fiscal 2003 supplemental appropriations bill to replace General Atomics Predator unmanned aerial vehicles that the Air Force has lost in recent military operations, congressional and industry sources said April 4. Sources said the Bush Administration has indicated it intends to use more than $50 million to buy several Predator air vehicles and spare parts and obtain support services.
AEROSPACE BILL: Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee's science, technology and space panel, and Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings (D-S.C.), ranking Democrat on the full committee, are proposing to create a national office to coordinate the federal government's aerospace research activities. Their newly unveiled bill also calls for NASA to develop a 10-year plan for aeronautics research. Brownback says the U.S. must take such steps to bolster its competitiveness in the face of growing aerospace competition from overseas.
TANKERS: Boeing and Japan's defense agency have signed the contract for the first 767 Tanker Transport for the Air Self Defense Force, Boeing said April 4. The first tanker is scheduled for delivery in 2007, the last in 2010. Japan announced in 2001 that it would buy four Boeing 767 tankers (DAILY, Dec. 17, 2001).
NEW DELHI - The Indian air force has ordered an inquiry into the latest crash of one of its MiG aircraft, a MiG-23 that crashed April 4 near Ludhiana in the northern Punjab state. The pilot bailed out of the aircraft after reporting an engine fire. At least five civilians were killed in the crash, according to news reports. The crash marks the 56th loss of an Indian MiG-23 since the country bought them from the former Soviet Union in the 1980s.
