SAT WARS: Undersecretary of the Air Force for Space Peter Teets thinks the time has come for the Defense Department to begin working on both defensive and offensive systems for U.S. satellites. "Our space systems do give us a very, very significant capability advantage," he says. "There's no doubt in my mind that our adversaries have taken note of that." Early defensive measures might first come in the form of attack warning systems, according to Teets.
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. - The U.S. Air Force is launching a new acquisition program later this month to replace the large deployable shelters used to house fighter aircraft parked at undeveloped bases. The Air Armaments Center (AAC) here is close to publishing a request for information (RFI) to gauge industry's interest in the project, said Lorene H. Stanford, director of the AAC's Air Base Systems Program Office.
NEW DELHI - The Indian air force is seeking around $12 billion over the next five years to buy aircraft and spare parts, according to spending plans submitted to the Indian Planning Commission. The request would support the air force's plan to upgrade 200 aircraft and acquire 100 more over the next five years (DAILY, Oct. 3 2002), and acquire a total of 350 aircraft over the next 10 to 15 years. The air force plans to buy Sukhoi Su-30MKIs, Mirage 2000s, Jaguars, advanced trainers and mid-air refuellers.
JOINING JSF: Israel has joined the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program as a Security Cooperation Partner (SCP), the Embassy of Israel said Feb. 13. The SCP program is designed to draw more countries into the JSF development program, but at a lower level than the current eight partners. Singapore also is in talks to join as an SCP (DAILY, Jan. 21).
NASA's new nuclear program has received the go-ahead from congressional appropriators. A House-Senate conference committee has approved a fiscal 2003 NASA appropriations bill that provides most of the money the Bush Administration requested for the program, which aims to develop next-generation nuclear power and propulsion systems for spacecraft.
The Defense Department has asked Congress for permission to bypass operational testing requirements so it can begin deploying ballistic missile defenses (BMD) in 2004, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) revealed Feb. 13. DOD appears to want to skip operational testing for the BMD systems to save time and keep the deployment on track. At a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Levin, the panel's ranking Democrat, said DOD quietly submitted the request for a testing waiver as part of its fiscal 2004 budget proposal.
The funding of research and development (R&D) programs related to homeland security and defense is a top priority for many of the federal agencies and departments receiving R&D funding, senior administration officials said Feb. 13.
The Navy's Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV-N) program will fund both Boeing and Northrop Grumman to build UCAV-N demonstrator aircraft in the next phase of the program, according to John Kinzer, UCAV-N deputy program manager for the Office of Naval Research (ONR). Funding constraints had led to speculation that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which is managing the program, would not fund the construction of two demonstrators (DAILY, Feb. 20, 2002).
Harris Corp. and Rockwell Collins will jointly develop and market interoperable ground and airborne communications equipment for the international market, the companies said Feb. 13. The equipment will be based on Harris' Falcon II tactical radios and Rockwell Collins' TALON airborne radios. Harris will incorporate the TALON waveform into its RF 5800M and RF 5800U tactical radios, and Rockwell Collins will incorporate Harris' Quicklook 1A waveform and Citadel embedded encryption into its TALON multiband radios.
BATTELLE, Columbus, Ohio Vice Adm. Dennis McGinn (U.S. Navy, ret.) has joined the organization as vice president for strategic planning and business development. BOEING COMMERCIAL AIRPLANES, Washington, D.C. James W. Coon has been named director of legislative affairs for the company's Washington operations. BOMBARDIER, Montreal Pierre Alary has been appointed interim senior vice president and chief financial officer, replacing Louis Morin, who is leaving the company immediately.
One of the top priorities of the joint Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) program office will be to foster more competition within and among UCAV programs, according to Dyke Weatherington, deputy in charge of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) planning task force at the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD).
Thailand has selected Northrop Grumman's Navigation Systems Division to supply LTN-92 inertial navigation systems for its fleet of C-130 aircraft, the company said. Installations are scheduled for completion by the end of next year. Terms of the contract were not released. More than 2,500 LTN-92s have been delivered.
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. - A new class of skeet submunitions will be needed for the Air Force to engineer the Area Dominance (AD) concept, an emerging approach to solving the problem of striking mobile targets, according to project officers here. The most sophisticated submunitions today have crude onboard sensors that can identify targets within a narrow field of view after they are ejected by the Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser (WCMD). WCMD and its anti-armor companion, the Sensor Fuzed Weapon, also are limited to one strike per mission.
The EUROPEAN AERONAUTIC DEFENCE AND SPACE CO. (EADS) has acquired BAE Systems' 25 percent stake in spacecraft builder Astrium. EADS already owns 75 percent of the company, and will acquire BAE Systems' shares for $91 million. The acquisition is a key part of EADS' move to restructure and integrate all of its space interests in the U.K., France, Germany and Spain, the company said.
BOARD AMENDMENT: Reacting to congressional criticism, NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe issued an amendment to the charter of the board investigating the loss of the shuttle Columbia to reiterate that the board is independent of NASA. The amendment removes any requirement, "real or perceived," that board head Adm. Hal Gehman should "coordinate or await approval from NASA for any dimension of the panel's investigation," NASA said.
WEDGETAIL: Northrop Grumman has started a 14-month structural testing program of the antenna for its Multirole Electronically Scanned Array (MESA) radar, the company said Feb. 11. The company is building the radar under contract to the Boeing Co., for the Australian Defence Force's Wedgetail airborne early warning and control aircraft.
PRAGUE - About $12 million will be spent this year in modernizing the Czech air force base at Namest nad Oslavou in south Moravia, according to the base commander. The modernization program is part of a 10-year plan to bring the base up to NATO standards, at an overall cost of some $270 million.
NASA renamed its orbiting Microwave Anisotropy Probe in honor of David T. Wilkinson, a physics and cosmology pioneer who died in September, the aerospace agency said. The newly named Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, launched in June 2001, observes the cosmic microwave background, the oldest light in the universe. The spacecraft returned an image of the early universe so detailed that it could be one of the most important scientific results in recent years, NASA said Feb. 11.
