U.S. discussions with France and Germany on the removal of barriers to industrial cooperation on defense products and services continue, despite the disagreement between the countries over Iraq policy, according to a senior Defense Department official. "We still have a dialogue with the French and the Germans," said Alfred Volkman, director of international cooperation in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisitions, Technology and Logistics.
NASA and the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) industry are joining forces in fiscal year 2004 on a new initiative to achieve routine UAV operations in the national airspace system (NAS) within a few years, although it remains to be seen how much of this complex problem will be tackled at once and how much it will cost.
Members of a presidential panel studying the U.S. aerospace industry told a congressional committee March 12 that developing new kinds of propulsion could dramatically improve the industry's overall prospects. "In both air and space, propulsion is a major area where research could produce some dramatic changes," said Robert Walker, chairman of the Commission on the Future of the U.S. Aerospace Industry.
NEW DELHI - India has built cryogenic engines for its Geostationary Launch Vehicle (GSLV), Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee told parliament on March 12. India's indigenously produced cryogenic rocket engine, which has been under development since 1993, crossed a major milestone in September with a successful ground test-firing, which lasted for 1,000 seconds, longer than it would need to be fired in flight (DAILY, Sept. 30, 2002).
BOEING, Brussels, Belgium Joris M. Vos has been named president for European Union and NATO relations. COMPUTER SCIENCES CORP., El Segundo, Calif. Mike Laphen has been named president and chief operating officer, effective April 1, replacing Edward P. Boykin, who will retire later this year. DIMENSIONS INTERNATIONAL, Alexandria, Va.
WORK RESUMES: Boeing has resumed development of its ultra-long-range 777 aircraft, the 777-200LR (longer range), the company said March 12. Work on the aircraft was halted after the aviation market downturn following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, when engineers had completed only about 10 percent of the design. "We believe there is a strong market for both the 777-200LR and 777-300ER [extended range] airplanes," Boeing 777 Longer Range Program Manager Lars Andersen said in a statement.
Although it was only a prototype model less than two years ago, the Army is rushing a blue force tracking device into the field after proving the technology during combat operations in Afghanistan, an Army space programs officer said March 12. The Grenadier Beyond line of sight Reporting And Tracking (BRAT) device, built by General Dynamics Decision Systems, began as a Force XXI initiative in 2000. It was expected to mature into low-rate initial production within two years.
The Air Force is initiating development this year of its new, small expendable launch vehicle (ELV) and plans to have a first test flight in 2007, according to Air Force Undersecretary for Space Peter Teets. Teets has said that despite the effectiveness of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles (EELVs), Lockheed Martin's Atlas V and Boeing's Delta IV, the military also needs an even more "operationally responsive" small ELV in order to assure access to space (DAILY, Feb. 13).
RECOGNITION: Lockheed Martin Aeronautics' F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter program was awarded the 2003 Shingo Prize for excellence in manufacturing, the company said March 12. The aircraft was developed by the company's Skunk Works for the U.S. Air Force. Utah State University administers the Shingo Prize.
The General Accounting Office says in a new report that the Air Force's F/A-22 Raptor program faces $1.3 billion in additional cost overruns. The cost growth for the Lockheed Martin-built fighter aircraft is in addition to the $876 million overrun the Air Force revealed last fall. That and billions in earlier overruns already have reduced the number of aircraft the Pentagon expects to buy from 438 in 1997 to 333 in 2001 to as few as 224 last October, said Rep. John Tierney (D-Mass.), who released the report.
DISPLAY WORK: L-3 Communications will provide cockpit displays for the F-15K Eagle under a contract from the Boeing Co. worth more than $7 million, the company said March 11. The company will design, qualify and build four-inch by four-inch Flat Panel Up-Front Control displays for the F-15K, which Boeing will supply to South Korea (DAILY, April 22, 2002).
The U.S. Coast Guard believes it could save $4 billion by reducing the Deepwater program's implementation period from 20 years to 10 years, the service told Congress in a report released late March 11. The report said that such an acceleration is "feasible" and would not strain the industrial base. While acceleration would require more money to be spent upfront, it ultimately would reduce the government's costs from $16 billion to $12 billion, the report says.
Recent remarks from the heads of the Boeing Co. and BAE Systems about a possible merger probably are designed to generate feedback from aerospace and defense industry observers and regulators, according to Jon Kutler of Quarterdeck Investment Partners. "I don't interpret any cross-border deals, including the one between Boeing and BAE, as being imminent," said Kutler, the chairman and CEO of the Los Angeles-based investment banking services company. "I just see this as part of the groundwork being laid for deals of that sort."
CLARIFICATION: An article in the March 11 edition of The DAILY should have said that an Atlas IIAS booster delivered to Vandenberg Air Force Base is not the last booster, but will be the last to carry an Air Force payload. At least three commercial missions for the Atlas IIAS have been announced for 2003-2004.
A newly released video of the shuttle Columbia taken shortly after its launch Jan. 16 offers a better view of debris impacting the underside of the orbiter's left wing than previous footage, although the root cause of the Feb. 1 disaster remains "elusive," according to investigation chairman Adm. Hal Gehman.
Executives of French aerospace companies are calling for aggressive measures to curb U.S. penetration into the European Union's $135.5 billion defense market. Annual French aerospace sales dropped 2 percent in 2002 to 24.57 billion euros ($26.78 billion), according to results unveiled last week by the Groupement Des Industries Francaises Aeronautiques et Spatiales (GIFAS).
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - NASA and the Department of Defense are working to ensure that any classified information used in investigating the loss of the space shuttle Columbia is protected, in a way that doesn't slow the flow of the information, according to NASA's representative to Air Force Space Command.
ACQUISITION: Lockheed Martin has acquired some assets of Leigh Aerosystems of Carlsbad, Calif., which the company said would expand its capability in the strike weapons marketplace. Terms of the sale were not disclosed. Leigh Aerospace builds the LongShot Wing Kit that can be attached to "dumb" bombs to convert them to standoff munitions, increase their accuracy and range, according to Lockheed Martin. The kit consists of a Global Positioning System-based guidance and targeting system and a pair of flight controlling wings.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said March 11 he is pressing aides for more information on the Air Force's $17 billion proposal to lease 100 tankers, as skeptics in Congress make plans to challenge the deal. Rumsfeld, who received a briefing by top aides on March 10, said he is not prepared to make a quick decision on the controversial lease arrangement for a new fleet of converted Boeing 767-200s, and is not setting a deadline for himself. "It's something that I'll decide when I decide," he said at a Pentagon briefing.
Rising federal deficits don't necessarily inhibit the growth of defense spending, according to a leading Wall Street analyst. Instead, rising defense budgets appear to drive the growth of deficits, at least in the short term, according to Joseph Nadol, an aerospace and defense analyst and vice president with JP Morgan. He spoke at the Strategic Research Institute's 2003 Defense & Aerospace Investor, Supplier and Customer Conference-East, sponsored by the investment banking firms of Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin and Philpott Ball & Werner.
