VORTICES: The U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded a $1.1 million contract to continue development of a program to provide warnings of air disturbances at airports, such as wake vortices, Lockheed Martin said Dec. 5. The program, Project Socrates (Sensors for Characterizing Ring-eddy Atmospheric Turbulence Emanating Sound), is a collaboration between Lockheed Martin and Flight Safety Technologies. The program aims to develop a laser listening device to "hear" the sound generated by hazardous atmospheric conditions.
An Atlas IIA rocket successfully launched NASA's Tracking and Data Relay System-J (TDRS-J) satellite from Cape Canaveral, Fla., Dec. 5. Liftoff from pad 36A took place at 9:42 p.m. EST. TDRS-J separated from the rocket 30 minutes later, and an hour after launch NASA's Deep Space Network ground station in Australia received the first signals from the spacecraft. For the next two weeks, transfer orbit operations will boost the 7,039-pound (3,196-kilogram) satellite into a geosynchronous orbit 22,300 miles above the equator.
A U.S. proposal that NATO members play a military support role in a possible war against Iraq is "not unreasonable," a NATO policy planning official said Dec. 5. Accepting such a role would require "countries like Germany, for example, to either opt out, in the sense of 'constructive abstention' ... or they redefine what they mean by military involvement," the official, Michael Ruhle said in an interview before addressing a meeting held by the European Institute in Washington.
Resolutions coming from the recent NATO Summit in Prague have laid the groundwork for the European countries to begin addressing new security threats, according to a senior NATO official. "Prague recalibrated NATO's agenda in line with the security environment post-9/11 and therefore, also in line with the two dominant U.S. concerns: terrorism and weapons of mass destruction," Michael Ruhle, head of NATO policy planning said.
Orbital Recovery Corp. said its new "space tug," the Geosynch Spacecraft Life Extension System (SLES) could be used to boost the stranded Astra 1K satellite. Astra 1K, the largest commercial satellite built in Europe, was left in a too-low orbit after its launch vehicle had an upper-stage malfunction (DAILY, Nov. 27).
LONDON - The Royal Navy will continue to evaluate the U.S. Navy's Cooperative Engagement Capability for enhanced air defense under an 11 million pound ($17.3 million) Ministry of Defence contract awarded Dec. 5 to Lockheed Martin U.K. Integrated Systems. The MOD already is studying the integration of CEC into the Royal Navy's next-generation Type 45 air defense destroyers, under a contract awarded earlier to BAE Systems.
A critical hub of the future battlefield's command and control architecture - the standing joint force headquarters (SJFHQ) - is rapidly taking its final shape, a U.S. Joint Forces (JFCOM) official said Dec. 5. Three months after the futuristic command post passed its sharpest test to date, joint planners are compiling a list of needed changes to the concept, said Chris Shepherd, JFCOM's deputy director for implementing the new design. The command post reduces a deployed, theater-level headquarters staff from about 600 to less than 60.
Northrop Grumman Corp. and TRW Inc. said Dec. 5 they hope to reach an agreement with the Justice Department about their proposed merger by Dec. 11, the day shareholders will vote on the merger. If an agreement cannot be reached by Dec. 9, the companies agreed not to close the transaction before a deal is reached with regulators or until Dec. 16, whichever comes first, Northrop Grumman officials said in a statement.
NEW DELHI - Russia has offered to sell India multirole MiG-29Ms to replace its aging MiG-21s, MiG-23s and MiG-25s, according to an official with Rosobronexport, Russia's arms export agency. The MiG-29M has a larger fuel tank than the MiG-29, giving it a range of up to 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles). The MiG-29M has a more rugged airframe and is capable of carrying a six-ton weapons payload, instead of the four-ton capability of the Indian air force's current MiG-29s. It also has new Zhuk radar and weapon control system.
Commercial information technology (IT) standards offer a "ray of hope" for the U.S. military for achieving interoperability across the services and with international coalition forces, according to Defense Department interoperability director Vitali Garber. Speaking at a Defense Horizons luncheon at National Defense University in Washington Dec. 4, Garber said DOD should have a "very good reason" before it creates its own proprietary IT standards.
Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), the incoming chairman of the Senate Appropriations transportation subcommittee, plans to explore whether countermeasures used on military aircraft should be installed on commercial aircraft to protect them from surface-to-air missiles (SAMs). "That is one of the issues we will study next year as the subcommittee holds hearings on aviation safety," Shelby said through a spokeswoman late Dec. 3.
Accelerating the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) will "slightly" drive up the cost of the $11.8 billion program, but higher production rates may yield some savings, according a U.S. Defense Department spokeswoman. Overall program costs will rise $124 million, or about 1 percent, as a result of increasing production to a total of 208 missiles in fiscal 2003 and 2004, the spokeswoman said by email. It was not clear how the Pentagon would find extra funds for FY '03.
NEW DELHI - Pakistan's first geostationary satellite, Paksat 1, began to move Dec. 3 from its current location at 50 degrees East to 38 degrees East, a relocation expected to be completed by Dec. 23. The Hughes Global Services satellite launched in 1996 as Palapa C1 for Indonesia, but Hughes took title to the satellite after a problem with its power pack prevented it from providing energy to its payload when it is eclipsed by Earth's shadow (DAILY, July 12). The satellite also has been leased to Turkey as the Anatolia 1.
NASA has decided to add at least one instrument to a spacecraft that will serve as a test bed for the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS).
Sales for the defense sector of the aerospace and defense industry are expected to grow by 8 percent in 2004, generating an estimated 11 percent growth in earnings per share, according to a report from Deutsche Bank. The commercial sector of the industry, boosted by a mild recovery in air traffic, should grow by a more modest 4 percent, senior aerospace and defense analyst Christopher Mecray said.
NEW DELHI - India plans to integrate the air navigation system it is developing with international navigation systems, according to an official with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). The system's technology demonstration stage is underway and expected to be complete in another two years. It is slated to become operational by 2007, said an ISRO official. India's system would be linked to the Global Positioning System, Russia's Glonass system and Europe's Galileo.
LAUNCH: The Coriolis spacecraft, built by Spectrum Astro for the Department of Defense, has moved to the SLC-4W launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., in preparation for its planned Dec. 15 launch. The spacecraft carries an instrument to measure ocean wind speed and direction and one to study coronal mass ejections on the sun.
EXPO: India has invited delegations from 45 countries to the International Aerospace Exposition-Aero India 2003, which will be held in Bangalore from Feb. 5-9. A senior defense ministry official said leading defense companies from the U.S., the United Kingdom, Israel, France, the Netherlands, Russia, Poland, Italy, Brazil, Belgium, the Czech Republic, South Africa and Ukraine have confirmed they will participate. Seventeen countries participated in the third Aero India exhibition, held in 2001, which included the first display of India's Light Combat Aircraft.
Naval Air Systems Command will brief industry Dec. 17 on its vision of a Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) unmanned aerial vehicle. Such a UAV would "provide persistent unmanned, long dwell Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance (ISR) capability to the warfighter," NAVAIR said. At the "industry day" session, to take place at the Mitre Corp. facility in McLean, Va., the Navy UAV program office will outline its acquisition strategy and get industry feedback on program issues, risks and schedule.
PRAGUE - Czech aircraft producer Aero Vodochody is likely to see a downturn next year but the company's future is not in jeopardy, Industry and Trade Minister Jiri Rusnok told journalists. Aero Vodochody's sales are expected to drop from last year's $385 million to less than $230 million for 2002, as it nears completion of a Czech military order for 72 L-159 subsonic fighters. In the first half of 2003, it will deliver the last batch of 14 aircraft and has yet to secure its first international order for the aircraft.
