PRAGUE - The Czech Republic is exploring future protection of its airspace with Britain, Czech deputy defense minister Jan Vana told The DAILY. Vana, who recently met with British officials, said discussions are at an early stage but there is a willingness on both sides to consider the possibilities.
RC-135 WORK: Northrop Grumman's Navigations Systems Division will upgrade the navigation system on the U.S. Air Force's RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft fleet, the company said. The Air Force will test the software and prototype LN-120G navigation units in 2005, and production equipment is scheduled to be delivered beginning in 2006.
NASA and the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) are working out the details of an agreement in which NIMA routinely will use its satellites to take pictures of the space shuttle in orbit without receiving a formal request from the aerospace agency. The new agreement is part of the fallout from NASA's decision not to ask NIMA to image the shuttle Columbia in orbit to look for signs of possible damage that may have resulted from a foam insulation impact shortly after launch on Jan. 16.
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.
SUPPLEMENTAL ACTION: Congress seems to be on track for speedy approval of the Bush Administration's request for a $75 billion supplemental appropriations bill, including $3.7 billion for munitions (DAILY, March 26). The House Appropriations Committee plans to vote on the legislation April 1, just a week after lawmakers received the Administration's proposal. The Senate Appropriations Committee tentatively is scheduled to consider the request April 1.
HEROIC MISINVESTMENT: Despite its penchant for brilliant engineering, Japan continues to invest in military and commercial aircraft ventures of questionable value, says senior aircraft analyst Richard Aboulafia of the Teal Group. "Japan is a nation of brilliant engineering and chronic, almost heroic, misinvestment," he says. The F-2 fighter, formerly known as the FS-X fighter, is an example, he says. The composite wings of the fighter, developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, "are ahead of anything the U.S.
Nearly a decade after the first C-17s entered service, the U.S. Air Force heavy airlifters have completed the first combat insertion of paratroopers in the aircraft program's history. A flight of 15 C-17s flying in formation inserted the 173rd Airborne Brigade, with nearly 1,000 paratroopers and their equipment, into the Kurdish-controlled area of northern Iraq on the night of March 26, opening up a small second front on the ground, Air Force officials said.
U.S. Navy minesweepers heading toward the Persian Gulf are running on engines developed by a niche Italian engine maker. The company, Isotta Fraschini, based in Bari, Italy, designs and manufactures non-magnetic diesel engines for minesweepers serving in navies around the world. Minesweeping ships need non-magnetic engines to avoid detonating magnetic influence mines. Magnetic influence mines detonate after sensing a change in the surrounding magnetic field caused by the iron in a passing ship's hull.
MOSCOW - A Russian government commission is seeking a 20 percent cut in federal programs, including the space program, Vice Premier Alexey Kudrin said March 27. Kudrin said the Russian space agency Rosaviakosmos should present two or three plans for its programs based on reduced levels of funding by April 1. Kudrin said Russia can't spend more than 7 billion rubles (about $229.5 million) a year for its space program. Rosaviakosmos is seeking 11 billion rubles a year.
NATO EXPANSION: Seven former Warsaw Pact nations seeking to join NATO are staunch "Atlanticists" and are poised to make a small but strategically useful contributions to the alliance, says Douglas J. Feith, the Defense Department's undersecretary of defense for policy. NATO has invited Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia to join the alliance. The organization expects each to offer a niche military capability, particularly in airlift, chemical and biological detection and human intelligence, Feith says.
U.S. Air Force officials plan to open bidding in early August for a contract potentially worth $1 billion to overhaul the military's mission planning systems, but a critical software bug identified in early tests remains unresolved. Called the Joint Mission Planning System (JMPS), the contract includes fielding a baseline system by the end of fiscal 2004, plus software upgrades and maintenance work for up to 15 years, said Bill Nelson, director of the Mission Planning program office at the Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass.
SLAMRAAM PROPOSALS: The Army is targeting April 30 as the day to release a request for proposals for the surface-launched version of the Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM), according to the service. The Army previously had said it would issue the SLAMRAAM RFP sometime in April (DAILY, March 11). SLAMRAAM is intended for short-range air defense and will be launched from vehicles. It is designed to protect a wider area than the Stinger missile and address growing threats from cruise missiles, rockets and manned and unmanned aircraft.
March 31 - April 2 -- Defense Supply Center Columbus 2003 Supplier Conference & Exhibition, "Transforming the DSCC/Supplier Relationship," the Greater Columbus Convention Center, Columbus, Ohio. Call Phyllis Edmonson at (703) 247-2588, email [email protected] or go to www.ndia.org. March 31 - April 3 -- Interoperability and Systems Integration Conference, Hilton Phoenix East/Mesa, Mesa, Ariz. Contact Dania Khan at (703) 247-2587 or go to www.ndia.org.
ENGINEERED SUPPORT SYSTEMS will repair and upgrade 14 AN/APQ-159(V)-5 radar systems for the F-5 fighter program of an unidentified country in the Americas, the company said. The multi-million contract for the work was awarded by Derco Aerospace. It includes major radar components, test equipment and logistics support, which is intended to extend the radar system's life through 2015.
The U.S. Army needs to continue making electronic upgrades to its inventory of A3 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, according to a senior service official. "We have to continue to transform the Bradley," Maj. Gen. William Bond said at a March 27 defense conference in Northern Virginia. "The ongoing operations that we have in Iraq have proven to us the power of digitization, taking what we have and putting digitization not only on our other assets we have over there, but also what the Brits have."
The U.S. Navy has identified at least two options to develop a sea-based capability to intercept ballistic missiles in their terminal phase, a Navy official said March 27. One approach calls for studying the possibility of integrating the planned Pegasus missile with Navy ship systems, said John Young, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition. Pegasus is under development as an extended range version of the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile, a land-based, terminal phase interceptor.
NEW DELHI - India and Pakistan conducted tests of short-range missiles on March 26. India's Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) conducted the first test of a multifunctional warhead on a mobile surface-to-air Prithvi missile, which was followed the same day by a Pakistani test-launch of its nuclear-capable Abdali short-range missile.
Having fixed problems that triggered a five-month hiatus, the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) has completed its developmental phase, scoring a hit on a fixed target at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., Air Force and Lockheed Martin officials said March 27. Based on the results of the test, JASSM is expected to be cleared to finish a series of eight operational test shots that may lead to a full-rate production decision in November.
PRAGUE - Pilot error was solely to blame for the crash of a Czech-made L-159 light combat fighter aircraft in February, Czech army officials said at a press conference March 26. The pilot, who died in the crash in central Bohemia, was flying too low when he attempted a loop shortly before he was due to test fire the prototype Czech-made Plamen 20mm air cannon. Officials said he undertook the maneuver at less than 7,000 feet, when he was supposed to carry it out at 8,500 feet.
The 100 contractors that received the largest dollar value of NASA direct awards to business firms during fiscal year 2002 are listed below. The awards to these contractors accounted for 88 percent of the direct awards to business firms during the year, according to NASA.
RAPTOR DAB: The Defense Acquisition Board met March 27 to consider Lot 3 production of the F/A-22 Raptor. The meeting follows recent General Accounting Office reports that say the program's cost is rising and DOD should scale back its acquisition plans (DAILY, March 13, 18). Results of the DAB meeting have not been released.
ICAP ASSESSED: The U.S. Navy has completed the operational assessment series of test flights of Northrop Grumman's Increased Capability (ICAP) III electronic attack weapon system one month ahead of schedule, the company said March 27. Successful completion of that assessment is a critical step leading to low-rate initial production of ICAP III. That decision is expected this spring, Northrop Grumman said. A team led by Northrop Grumman's Integrated Systems sector developed the system for the EA-6B Prowler and the EA-18.
