DD(X) FUTURE: If the U.S. Navy is forced to cut a big program, as the Army did with its RAH-66 Comanche helicopter, it likely would truncate its DD(X) next-generation destroyer program, says Congressional Budget Office naval analyst Eric Labs. "If this happens, the Navy is likely to get 12 hulls, rather than the planned 24," he says. Labs says that in the long run - beyond the next 15 years - he predicts a Navy fleet of fewer than 300 ships, not far from the current level of 294 ships.
The U.S. Department of Defense needs to do a better job of controlling technology exports for dual-use items that could be used to develop cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), according to a recent General Accounting Office (GAO) report.
MOSCOW - RSC Energia, Russia's lead manned space program contractor, said its proposed "Clipper" spacecraft would be a lifting body capable of carrying six crewmembers and 1,750 pounds of cargo to low-earth orbit. Yuri Koptev, the head of Russia's aviation and space agency, has said the proposal could be a replacement for Russia's venerable Soyuz spacecraft, which are used to carry crew to and from the International Space Station (ISS) and to serve as escape craft.
United Defense Industries, Inc. successfully fired a 105mm round from a variable-volume cannon that uses 155mm modular propellant charges, the company said Feb. 26. The variable-volume chamber cannon (named 105mm V2 C2), essentially a cannon with a variable-volume breach, has continuously fired rounds at a test facility in Minnesota, the company said. The system offers the U.S. Army a cost-effective option should there be a requirement for a new 105mm system, United Defense said.
THAAD RENAMED: What's in a name? Apparently something, at least when it comes to ballistic missile defense. The Missile Defense Agency is dropping the "Theater" in its Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system and replacing it with "Terminal" to indicate that it is designed to intercept missiles in their terminal phase of flight. MDA has been moving away from referring to "theater" or "national" defenses on the grounds that anti-missile systems do not always fit neatly into such categories.
EUROPE'S CHALLENGE: The European Union's (EU) Vision 2020 plan for becoming the world leader in aviation by 2020 is bearing visible fruit, according to Clayton Jones, president and CEO of Rockwell Collins. "They put their money where their mouth was in the form of the EU's Sixth Framework program, which dedicated significant research and development dollars to all of the European Union countries to ... advance the state of the art in a number of R&D areas," Jones says.
GRIPEN SPECULATION: The Czech defense ministry has described as "speculation" a newspaper report claiming that talks with Sweden over the lease of 14 new JAS-39 Gripen fighters have run into trouble, mainly over the issue of offsets. The daily Pravo, quoting unnamed sources close to the negotiations, reported last week that the Swedish side has demanded that an agreement on offsets remain separate from any lease agreement.
AIRCRAFT SALES: Sliding orders for some big-ticket "transport" items, including warplanes, civilian aircraft and cars, dragged down the performance of the U.S. manufacturing sector in January. However, polls on business conditions and the general trend in manufacturing activity continue to suggest that manufacturing is rebounding rather quickly, says Daniel Meckstroth, the Manufacturers Alliance's chief economist.
TEAM MEMBER: Smiths Aerospace of the United Kingdom has joined Boeing's 7E7 Dreamliner supplier team, Boeing said Feb. 27. Smiths will provide the aircraft's integrated avionics platform, or common core system, Boeing said. The companies will complete the terms of the agreement in the next few weeks.
There has been a "deterioration" in the military space industrial base, Peter Teets, the Air Force undersecretary for space, warned a House Armed Services Committee strategic forces panel Feb. 25. "In the 15 years I've been involved in the space community, I think we are seeing a deterioration of the industrial base at the vendor level," Teets said. "That becomes problematic when you're building complex spacecraft, [and] you find out you have parts issues late in the build," Teets said.
European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) and the Israeli company Rafael are jointly developing a new technology for protecting helicopters from man-portable missiles, the companies announced Feb. 26. Known as the HeliStar system, the technology will be marketed first to civil and military helicopter operators around the world. In addition, "we are exploring opportunities to apply the system to other types of aircraft, i.e. fixed wing in the military as well as civil field," EADS spokesman Lothar Belz told The DAILY.
PAVEWAY WORK: EDO Ltd., a subsidiary of EDO Corp., will supply the weapon-to-pylon interface for the United Kingdom's Paveway IV precision-guided bomb under a 6.5 million pound ($12 million) contract from Raytheon Systems Ltd.
The U.S. Defense Department has launched a broad, 18-month study to assess options for modernizing or replacing the Air Force's fleet of about 500 aging KC-135 Stratotanker aerial refuelers.
An independent task force sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations is recommending that the Department of Defense greatly increase funding for nonlethal weapons (NLW) and promote their use by the armed services. "We're serious about this," task force co-chair and former Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Paul Kelley (ret.) said at a press conference in Washington Feb. 26. "This probably is one of the most important additions ... to the military capabilities that I have seen in well over several decades."
Although the military services have made a lot of headway on transformation, there still are barriers, the U.S. Defense Department's head of force transformation told House Armed Services Committee members Feb. 26. Vice Adm. Arthur Cebrowski (USN, ret.), director of force transformation, said the barriers fall under four categories: process, physical, fiscal, and cultural.
The cost estimate for the Space Based Infrared System-High (SBIRS-High) may increase again because of new problems in the program, according to an official at the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC). SBIRS-High was restructured in 2002 after the Defense Department discovered an overrun of about $2 billion.
Northrop Grumman Corp. has successfully demonstrated the electrical performance capabilities of the downlink phased array antenna for the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) military satellite communications program, the company said Feb. 26. This represents a key company development milestone toward providing increased battlefield connectivity and protection for U.S. armed forces, Northrop Grumman said.
U.S. Air Force reliance on a declining number of contractors is resulting in reduced competition for subcontractors, House Armed Services Committee member Rep. Jim Marshall (D-Ga.) said Feb. 26.
A newly developed miniature synthetic aperture radar (MiSAR) has been tested successfully on board a German Armed Forces Luna reconnaissance drone, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS) announced at Asian Aerospace 2004 in Singapore. MiSAR proved its reliability by supplying reconnaissance images in all-weather, high-resolution SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) technology in real time, Aerospace Daily affiliate Show News reported.
