NEW DELHI - India plans to focus its space assets to make its deterrent posture against China more viable, according to a senior official with the Indian Ministry of Defence. All major purchases of space hardware and other assets in the future will be aimed at this, the official said.
General Atomics is targeting U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) as a major customer for its proposed homeland security package in which the company's unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) would perform surveillance over the borders and coasts of the U.S. The package involves the company's RQ-1 Predator or smaller I-GNAT UAVs beaming surveillance data to command centers that would distribute the information to other agencies (DAILY, Aug. 13).
Lockheed Martin has been awarded two study contracts worth $1.5 million for work on the U.S. Air Force's SensorCraft unmanned aerial vehicle, the company said Dec. 10. Under one contract, the company will refine SensorCraft requirements, identify and define radar nodes and develop strategies for controlling them. Under the other, the company will provide an electromagnetic interference mitigation study to analyze the radar systems that are to be used on the UAV and make sure their components work together.
After four years of deliberating the concept, the U.S. Air Force has decided to reduce the vulnerability of its Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) guidance kits by developing a stronger Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver. The Air Force plans to award a $50 million development contract next month that would launch a three-year effort to add anti-spoofing and anti-jamming capabilities for the GPS receivers embedded within JDAM kits, Judy Stokley, program executive officer for strike weapons, told The Daily Dec. 9.
IMAGING: FLIR Systems will upgrade thermal imaging systems used by National Guard anti-drug units, the company said Dec. 10. The work will be done under two contracts, totaling $7.8 million, from the National Guard Bureau. The company will upgrade 43 airborne systems used by the Guard's Reconnaissance and Interdiction Detachment (RAID). The company will provide its multisensor Ultra 7500 thermal imaging systems.
SES Astra's Astra 1K satellite was de-orbited over the Pacific Ocean Dec. 10, less than two weeks after a launch failure left it stranded in the wrong orbit. The Block DM upper stage of a Proton K launch vehicle failed during the launch. The satellite, the largest commercial spacecraft built in Europe, separated from the upper stage while still in the parking orbit (DAILY, Nov. 27).
DELIVERY: Pratt & Whitney delivered its 500th F117 engine, which powers the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III aircraft, to the U.S. Air Force on Dec. 10, the company said. The F117 is a military version of the company's PW2000 engine, which has been used for more than two decades on the Boeing 757. The Air Force has 180 C-17s on order, each powered by four F117-PW-100 engines.
Lockheed Martin envisions the laser sensor the company is helping develop for Project SOCRATES as part of a future aircraft wake vortex advisory system that could enhance safety and increase capacity at airports. Wake vortices are unstable, high-velocity airflows created by aircraft wingtips that can be dangerous to trailing aircraft, particularly on landing approaches. Over the past five years, the National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB) has recorded 45 wake turbulence-related accidents and incidents, including seven fatal accidents.
A story on the F/A-22 Raptor program in the Dec. 9 issue of The DAILY failed to specify that Boeing is the integrator for the aircraft's avionics system, not just an avionics supplier.
Arianespace has chosen Dec. 11 to make the second try to launch the Hot Bird 7 and Stentor satellites atop a new version of its Ariane 5 launcher that can carry 10 metric tons. Originally scheduled for Nov. 29, the first launch attempt was aborted in its final seconds when an anomaly was detected with two external chill-down igniters. The igniters burn off accumulated hydrogen used to chill down the launcher's Vulcain 2 cryogenic main engine before it begins operation.
PRAGUE - The Czech cabinet has decided to bring ZVI, an ailing privately owned arms producer, into state hands. ZVI signed a $65 million contract in September 2001 to supply 144 20mm Plamen (Flame) cannons and ammunition for the Czech army over the next 15 years, for use in Aero Vodochody's subsonic L-159 aircraft. But development stalled at a late stage this year after ZVI's owners, the Trustfin group, ran into serious financial difficulties. It is now temporarily under the management of the state bailout agency, CKA.
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) has avoided becoming the fifth member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) to lose re-election this year. Landrieu, whose state is home to Barksdale Air Force Base, defeated Republican challenger Suzanne Haik Terrell Dec. 7 after pre-election polls showed them running a close race.
DEFENSE PAC: The National Defense Political Action Committee, which backs military veterans who run for Congress and are deemed to favor a strong national defense, said 57 of the 75 congressional candidates it endorsed this year were elected to office last month. Both numbers are several times higher than comparable figures for 2000, the PAC's first year of operation, but the committee said it still has plenty of work to do, as military veterans continue to retire from Congress at a faster pace than they take office. One of this year's successful candidates, incoming Rep.
Raytheon engineers have found an answer to the severe vibrations encountered by the Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) on some configurations of the Air Force F-16, according to a senior Air Force official. Raytheon is strengthening the weapon's control section fin mechanism to fix the problem, said Judy Stokley, Air Force program executive officer for strike weapons. JSOW is managed by the Navy, but the Air Force is a large customer.
Encouraged by the performance of the Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey military tiltrotor aircraft since its return to flight, Bell/Agusta Aerospace Company is moving forward with the development and production of its BA609 civilian tiltrotor. Despite significant differences between the two aircraft, the future of the BA609 had been in doubt after the V-22 was grounded after two fatal accidents in 2000. Bell/Agusta elected to slow production of the civilian version, pending the results of the V-22's return to flight (DAILY, April 17).
BAE Systems North America has completed its acquisition of Condor Pacific Industries, Inc., the company said Dec. 9, a buy it says will strengthen its position in the precision munitions market. Condor Pacific Industries (CPI), of Westlake Village, Calif., builds sensors and electronic subsystems for control and stabilization; position, attitude and heading reference, navigation and guidance; and fire control applications.
JSF DIAGNOSIS: The Dutch Prognostic Health Management Consortium will provide self-diagnostic technology to Lockheed Martin for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, the consortium said Dec. 9. The consortium, led by Perot Systems of Plano, Texas, is performing the work under an $8 million contract. The technology will be integrated into the JSF's Autonomic Logistics Information System, which will help locate problems that are complex and difficult to isolate.
Air Force contracts to Raytheon Co. and TRW Inc. mark the first significant funding for research and development on solid-state laser weapons, putting this class of lasers on the road to someday catching their more mature chemical laser relatives, officials of both companies said. The companies on Dec. 6 received Air Force Research Laboratory awards to demonstrate 25-kilowatt lasers in 2004.
General Dynamics Decision Systems is probing the roughly $250 million bomb fuze market for a re-entry opportunity almost nine years after the unit's former owners abruptly abandoned the business, company officials and industry sources say. "We do have 30 years in the fuze business and have capabilities and significant domain knowledge," said John Cole, vice president and general manager of the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company. "So it's only natural for us to evaluate potential opportunities, such as re-entry into the fuze market."
LONDON - Technical issues over type certification procedures and acceptance of the Eurofighter will delay initial delivery acceptances of the aircraft for up to six months, the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence (MOD) confirmed last week.
A senior defense official has told Congress that the Bush Administration's fiscal 2004 defense budget will not give the go-ahead to an Air Force proposal to lease 100 Boeing 767 air refueling aircraft, a source said Dec. 6. But the official did not indicate whether the Administration is getting ready to kill the proposal or is simply delaying a decision until sometime after it releases its FY '04 budget in early February, the source told The DAILY.
