Credit analysts with Standard & Poor's have lowered the ratings on BAE Systems' short-term bond notes after the company acknowledged last week it had fallen behind on two key defense programs. Analysts lowered the company's commercial paper rating from "A-1" to "A-2" and placed its long-term "A-" corporate credit rating on CreditWatch with negative implications.
The DAILY incorrectly described the Defense Department's hierarchy in a Dec. 16 story. The future undersecretary of defense for intelligence, who has not been named, will not outrank E.C. "Pete" Aldridge Jr., the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics.
Arianespace has appointed the inquiry board that will investigate the Dec. 11 failure of the new, heavier-lift version of its Ariane 5 launch vehicle, the company announced Dec. 16. The heavier-lift configuration features an additional cryogenic upper stage that provides a 10-ton payload capacity, up from 6.5 tons for the previous version. This new variant had to be destroyed on its first flight 7.5 minutes after lifting off from Kourou, French Guiana, after an engine anomaly caused a problem with the vehicle's flight control system (DAILY, Dec. 13).
The Air Force is devising a new concept of operations (CONOPS) for lethal unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in which they would be released into a theater and loiter until they are tasked by a larger network, according to Maj. Gen. Robert Chedister.
SIMULA SALE: Simula Inc., which builds products for military aviation safety and other markets, is considering a company sale or merger, selling its assets or refinancing, the Tempe, Ariz.-based company said Dec. 16. The company has hired Relational Advisors and Libra Securities to evaluate its alternatives.
NEW DELHI - Forty-one flight tests of India's Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) have successfully been conducted using two technology demonstrator aircraft, Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes said Dec. 16. Fernandes said the lifting of U.S. sanctions on equipment used in the aircraft is helping move the program along, and he is hopeful the Indian air force will accept the LCA by 2006.
NEW DELHI - Antrix Corp. Ltd. (ACL), the marking arm of the state-owned Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), has launched a marketing drive to export small remote-sensing satellites worldwide and forge links with aerospace and communications companies for hardware and other backup support.
The Air Force is slated to announce cuts in manpower across its major commands on Dec. 17, a spokesman for the service said. "All the different commands ... are getting some sort of adjustment," said Capt. Peter Kerr of Air Force Headquarters at the Pentagon. "As far as I know, it is reductions," he said. The numbers will be detailed in an announcement slated for Tuesday afternoon, he said.
LAUNCH DELAY: Launch of a Titan II booster carrying the Coriolis spacecraft from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., has been delayed until Dec. 17 due to surface-level winds, Vandenberg said. The Spectrum Astro-built spacecraft carries instruments to measure ocean wind speed and direction and to study coronal mass ejections on the sun.
The Missile Defense Agency is redesigning a pylon on top of the first Airborne Laser aircraft because of vibration discovered while the plane was in flight, a program spokesman said Dec. 16. The redesign is not expected to affect plans for the aircraft, a modified Boeing 747-400F freighter, to undergo its first attempt to shoot down a missile in December 2004, added the spokesman, who asked not to be named.
A Lithuanian request to import Raytheon Stinger missile systems is moving forward after the U.S. Army signed a letter of agreement for the $21 million deal, according to a Dec. 16 company statement. The agreement clears the path for the sale of the export-controlled Low Altitude Surface-to-Air Missile System (LOSAMS) to the Lithuanian government, Raytheon said.
HOMELAND PROTECTION: U.S. Northern Command is preparing a plan to protect the homeland in case it comes under attack during a potential U.S. invasion of Iraq, Anderson says. The command intends to conduct an exercise in February to validate the plan. "If, in fact, a decision is made to invade Iraq, we believe that we need to make sure that we are ready here in case there is some kind of activity that may be generated and directed toward our homeland," Anderson says.
OFFICERS, PLEASE: Despite a shortage of pilots to fly UAVs remotely, the Air Force remains certain that one personnel category won't be called on to help: enlisted airmen. "We want ... somebody who has been up there and flown and operated and understands what it's like to fly close to a border, what it's like to talk to air traffic control," says Lt. Col. Douglas Boone, deputy chief of the reconnaissance system division for Air Force acquisition. "The view of the Air Force is we want rated officers." Navigators may be the service's answer to the problem, officials say.
TOO COSTLY: Installing electro-optic (EO) countermeasure systems on commercial aircraft to counter surface-to-air missile attacks likely would be too costly, according to a report from Merrill Lynch. "We are skeptical that the protection of large civil aircraft against [surface-to-air missile] threats will become a significant market for the companies we follow," senior aerospace and defense analyst Byron Callan says. Assuming a conservative $1 million cost per aircraft, U.S.
PRAGUE - The Czech cabinet may not discuss options for the modernization of its air force until the end of February, The DAILY has learned. Defense minister Jaroslav Tvrdik was due to present options for the future protection of Czech airspace to the government before the end of this year. But he is expected now to ask for an extension to ensure there is sufficient political support for the proposals, which include leasing used aircraft or buying new ones.
NORAD ROLE: The missile defense duties of the new U.S. Northern Command may be moved to the binational North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), according to Army Lt. Gen. Edward Anderson, deputy commander of Northern Command and vice commander of the U.S. element of NORAD. The U.S. is discussing such a transfer with Canada, the other member of NORAD. Northern Command's roles, which still are being defined, include defending the U.S. against ballistic and cruise missiles. The U.S.
MORE FIRE SCOUTS: Chances are "rising" that the Navy will fund the production of additional Northrop Grumman Fire Scout unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), according to Paul Meyer, the company's vice president for business and strategy development. "It appears that the possibility is rising that the Navy will fund some additional systems in 2004 to continue exploitation of the technology and the capability," Meyer says. The Navy canceled production of the Fire Scout late last year.
EL PASO, Texas - The Army is considering a "modest" expansion of the aviation component of its special operations forces, according to Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. John Keane. Keane said recent military operations in Afghanistan strained the Army's special ops aviation units. "We had a lot more requirements than we had aircraft to meet all of those requirements," he told reporters Dec. 11 here at a conference sponsored by the Association of the U.S. Army.
IMPLEMENTATION: Representatives from government agencies and the aviation and space industry are developing an "action plan" to implement the recommendations of the Commission on the Future of the U.S. Aerospace Industry, according to the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA). Officials from the departments of Commerce, State, Defense, Transportation, the FAA and NASA met with industry leaders last week to divide the report's nine recommendations into those that can be accomplished in the short term and those that need more time.
The new undersecretary of defense for intelligence will be given a broad task - evaluating and improving the product of the military intelligence community - and a small staff, said a senior aide to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Details of the controversial office's purpose and structure have been rare, but Richard Havers, Rumsfeld's special assistant for intelligence and an architect of the new office, provided new insight and a heated defense of the concept in remarks to the Shephard's UAV USA conference on Dec. 13.
Northrop Grumman Corp. announced major changes in its organizational structure Dec. 13 following its acquisition of two TRW business units. In a meeting with defense reporters in Washington, Northrop Grumman Chairman and CEO Kent Kresa and Chief Operating Office Ronald Sugar said the company is creating two additional business sectors and named two former TRW executives to head those units.
Lockheed Martin Corp. believes its booster rocket is not to blame for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system's unsuccessful intercept attempt Dec. 11, in which the booster and the Raytheon exoatmospheric kill vehicle (EKV) failed to separate, according to a Lockheed Martin spokesperson. "Preliminary data" show the booster did everything it was supposed to, suggesting the fault may be with the EKV, the spokesperson said late Dec. 12. The separation failure prevented the EKV from engaging the target.
Canadian defense procurement officials plan to release soon a letter of interest spelling out the details of sweeping changes in the Maritime Helicopter Project (MHP), according to a Ministry of Defense spokeswoman in Ottawa. The revisions were triggered by a ministerial announcement last week that stunned some Canadian military observers. On Dec. 5, Defense Minister John McCallum told Parliament the project's two contracts would be fused into a single tender.
