The Global Positioning System (GPS), the linchpin of the U.S. military's all-weather, precision-bombing capability, is functioning despite possible jamming attempts by the Iraqi military, a Pentagon official said March 24. Efforts to jam the satellite-based navigation system's signal, widely acknowledged as vulnerable, has not affected the U.S. air campaign, Maj. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the Army's vice director for operations, said in a Pentagon news briefing.
Pledging to seek "prompt and full congressional passage," the U.S. Defense Department unveiled late March 24 an emergency supplement request for $62.6 billion. The funds would pay the Pentagon's estimated costs for the war with Iraq and a range of other missions, including the war on terrorism and counter-drug operations, a senior defense official said in a Pentagon news briefing.
PRAGUE - The Czech army's fleet of 57 L-159 light combat aircraft has been cleared to resume flight training after being grounded for almost a month following an L-159 crash, the Czech army's chief of staff announced March 21.
READY TO FLY: Sea Launch is ready to resume launching payloads after an investigation into the failure of an International Launch Services (ILS) Proton Astra 1K mission, the California-based company, partly owned by the Boeing Co., said March 20. The ILS mission failed when the Block DM upper stage malfunctioned late last year, stranding the satellite.
Northrop Grumman and the European Aeronautic Defence and Space (EADS) Co.'s joint effort to market a European version of the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is on hold due to the deployment of Global Hawk personnel and equipment for the war in Iraq, according to Northrop Grumman.
UAV HEARING: Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) soon will be in the congressional spotlight. The House Armed Services Committee's airland subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), plans to hold a March 26 hearing on UAVs and UCAVs. Dyke Weatherington of the Defense Department's UAV planning task force is scheduled to testify.
An industry official who wants to see unmanned aerial vehicles operating with piloted aircraft in the national airspace system says he is generally pleased with the Pentagon's plan for development of UAVs, released this week. The plan outlines the way ahead for military UAVs over the next decade, envisioning an expenditure of some $10 billion, three times the amount spent during the 1990s (DAILY, March 18).
UNCERTAINTY: The fall of defense stocks over the past two months can be attributed in part to the uncertainty investors have about how pension losses affect company earnings, says senior aerospace and defense analyst Byron Callan of Merrill Lynch. "We believe that one of the major contributors to the 15-30 percent price decline defense stocks have registered over the last couple of months is the decline of GAAP [generally agreed accounting principles] earnings per share, which has largely resulted from a swing in ...
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.
ARROW TESTS: About 10 flight tests of the Arrow missile defense system are slated to take place in the U.S. and Israel from fiscal 2004 to 2009, a Defense Department official says. A major goal of the tests is to improve the system's ability to "defeat longer-range and more robust tactical ballistic missile (TBM) threats expected to be introduced in the Middle East in the near future," the U.S. Missile Defense Agency says in its FY '04 budget documents. Israel and the U.S.
COMPETING JOBS: The Bush Administration is planning to step up the pace of competitively sourcing thousands of jobs within the Defense Department, according to top federal officials. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is reviewing the existing system, which is governed by the heavily criticized OMB Circular A-76 document. About 20,000 jobs are to be reviewed for potential outsourcing during the next two fiscal years, says Angela B.
COMPETITIVE DISADVANTAGE: The problems that U.S. export control laws are causing for Turkish defense modernization plans could hurt U.S. companies, according to a senior Turkish air force official. "During the realization of the modernization project, we are faced very often with problems ... such as limitations and difficulties in congressional approval, technology transfer policies and export licensing," says Maj. Gen Bilgin Balanli, head of the plans and policy division of the Turkish air force (TUAF).
PROTECT THE JETS: Because of its experience with missile defense, the Department of Defense (DOD) should take a leadership role in developing counter-missile systems to protect commercial aircraft, according to House Armed Services committee member Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.). "I happen to think that with the capability that we have ... there ought to be a leadership role within DOD on this, even though it's more of a domestic terrorism issue," Weldon says. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) Director Lt. Gen.
U.S. Navy F-14D Tomcats deployed in combat already are using Joint Direct Attack Munitions [JDAM] in combat only weeks after receiving the all-weather capability bombs through an accelerated upgrade program. On March 1, a F-14D destroyed an Iraqi target using a single, 2,000-pound JDAM, which is an MK-84 "dumb" bomb upgraded with a guidance kit that includes a Global Positioning System-aided Inertial Navigation System, Navy spokeswoman Denise Deon said March 21.
As with most military operations since Vietnam, support personnel supplied by defense contractors are accompanying U.S. and British forces as they advance through Iraq. As weapon systems and their subsystems become more complex, the government likely will continue to rely on the technical support service provided by contractors, company officials say.
The Army is "extremely pleased" so far with the Patriot system's performance in the current war with Iraq, according to a spokeswoman for a Texas base that has sent Patriot units to the Persian Gulf. Based on initial indications, Patriot is doing "exactly what it was designed to do," Fort Bliss spokeswoman Jean Offutt told The DAILY March 21.
March 25 - 26 -- 41st Goddard Memorial Symposium, "NASA's Vision and Mission ... Moving Onward and Upward," Greenbelt Marriott, Greenbelt, Md. For information call (703) 866-0020, email [email protected] or go to www.astronautical.org. March 27 - 28 -- McGraw-Hill/Aviation Week Defense Budget Conference. "Transformation: Can It Be Achieved Through the FY '04 Defense Budget?" Holiday Inn, Rosslyn, Arlington, Va. To register go to http://www.AviationNow.com/conferences or call Ryan Leeds at (212) 904-3892 or (800) 240-7645 (U.S. and Canada only).
COMPLETED: BAE Systems North America has completed the acquisition of Mevatec Corp. of Huntsville, Ala., after receiving regulatory approvals. The acquisition will expand BAE Systems' professional services and engineering technology operations, the company said. Mevatec will change its name to BAE Systems Analytical Solutions.
DAB ON FCS: The Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) plans a series of reviews of the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program leading up to the milestone B decision in late May, according to Glen Lamartin, director of tactical and strategic systems at the Department of Defense (DOD). "The Department knows full well that the FCS schedule is ambitious," Lamartin says.
SENSOR FUZED WEAPON: Count the Sensor Fuzed Weapon (SFW) among a handful of munitions expected by military planners to make a battlefield debut in the war with Iraq, says a senior Air Force official. The armor-piercing, self-targeting cluster bomb, which is ejected in canisters by the Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser, was ready for Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, but a lack of armored targets kept it on the sidelines. "Sensor Fuzed Weapon will probably be employed for the first time in this operation," says Col.
CORRECTION: Due to incorrect information from a source, a story in the March 21 issue of The DAILY incorrectly described the status of the Defense Department's decision on participation in the 2003 Paris Air Show. An internal request still is being prepared by the Defense Security and Cooperation Agency, and is not yet being reviewed by the office of the undersecretary of defense for policy.
The U.S. Air Force has launched a two-year-long series of flight tests designed to integrate 500-pound smart bombs on the B-2 stealth fleet, a potentially radical innovation for precision-guided bombing. Air Force officials hope the flight tests will validate the B-2's ability to carry 80 smart bombs - Mk-82 Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) - on a single mission. In theory, the effort would allow a single B-2 to precisely deliver 500-pound bombs to 80 different targets spread across 15 miles on a single mission.
