HOWITZER: The U.S. Marine Corps has awarded BAE Systems a $135 million contract for low-rate initial production of the M777 lightweight 155mm howitzer, the company said Dec. 2. The M777 is 7,000 pounds lighter than the current M198 howitzer used by the Marine Corps and Army, the company said, and can be transported by the MV-22 Osprey. BAE Systems will build 94 howitzers over the next two years under the contract's initial phase.
NEW DELHI - India may buy satellite imagery from Belarus, an Indian defense official said. Belarus Prime Minister Gennady Novitski offered the imagery in a meeting last week with George Fernandes, India's defense minister, according to a senior official with the Indian Ministry of Defence. Novitski showed Indian officials images of cross-border terrorism in the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir, the official added. Belarus also has offered to sell spare parts for India's MiGs.
DRS Technologies announced Dec. 2 it has completed its $92 million acquisition of Paravant Inc., a move that Standard & Poor's said will significantly strengthen the company's market position in digital battlefield systems. Paravant, based in Morristown, N.J., builds rugged computer systems and communications interfaces for military command, control, communications, computer, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) systems.
PRAGUE - Construction work on a $20 million repair plant capable of handling Boeing 747s began Nov. 27 at Ostrava-Mosnov airport in the Czech Republic. The plant, which is slated for completion by the end of August 2003, will include a hangar with sufficient space for two wide-bodied and two smaller aircraft.
DEPARTURE: Shuttle Endeavour undocked from the International Space Station on Dec. 2, in preparation for bringing the station's Expedition Five crew back home. During Endeavour's stay at the station, its crew conducted three spacewalks to activate and outfit the new P-1 truss segment. The shuttle also delivered the Expedition Six crew, who are beginning their four-month stay.
President Bush signed the fiscal 2003 defense authorization bill into law Dec. 2, wrapping up action on major defense legislation for the current fiscal year. The authorization bill includes provisions that aim to speed the fielding of new technology and that create the position of undersecretary of defense for intelligence (DAILY, Nov. 14).
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who is expected to become chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee in January, has announced that Capitol Hill veteran Michael Bopp will become the panel's Republican staff director. Bopp currently is legislative director and general counsel in Collins' office. During earlier service on the Governmental Affairs Committee's investigations subcommittee, Bopp looked into such issues as the global proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
LONDON - The British army's 32 Regiment of the Royal Artillery will become the army's first unmanned aerial vehicle regiment, part of an army plan to increase its use of UAVs. Based at the army's Larkhill training area in Wiltshire, 32 Regiment will exchange its current multiple launch rocket systems for Phoenix UAVs, according to the Ministry of Defence (MOD), which announced the Army's UAV plans on Nov. 29.
PRAGUE - The Czech government will adopt a fast-track approach once it decides to go ahead with a new tender for supersonic aircraft, deputy defense minister Stefan Fuele told The DAILY. Czech defense minister Jaroslav Tvrdik is expected soon to provide the cabinet with several options for replacing the country's aging MiG-21 fleet. These include leasing or buying supersonic aircraft in line with the government's declaration in the summer that it was committed to protecting airspace by "national means."
Recent U.S. launch tests of actual Scud missiles have given the Missile Defense Agency a wealth of data that will aid the development of anti-missile systems, an MDA spokesman said Dec. 2. Air Force Lt. Col. Rick Lehner, the MDA spokesman, told The DAILY that the data will be "very useful" because it provided "great detail" on all stages of a Scud missile's flight.
Reports that Germany is considering further cuts in defense spending are raising further questions about its commitment to buying 73 Airbus A400M military transports and its role as an international power. German Defense Minister Peter Struck reportedly will announce Dec. 5 that the government intends to reduce defense spending by nearly 6 billion euros ($6 billion) by 2006, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, the Sunday edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
MOSCOW - A Cosmos-3M launcher placed two small satellites into sun-synchronous orbit from Plesetsk Cosmodrome on Nov. 29, as part of a program to test the condition of older Cosmos-3M launchers that have been in storage. One satellite placed in orbit was the AlSat-1, built by Surrey Satellite Technology Laboratory for Algeria, under the international Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) program (DAILY, July 30).
November 25, 2002 AIR FORCE Raytheon Aircraft Co., Wichita, Kan., is being awarded a $169,987,608 firm-fixed-price contract to provide for Lot X option exercise; Joint Primary Aircraft Trainer System T-6A Production Aircraft Lot X - FY2003; technical manuals and updates (one); instrument flight trainer (four); unit training device (one). The total funds have been obligated. Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-01-C-0022). NAVY
One year after the establishment of the Information Exploitation Office at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the new unit is at the center of number of battlefield information trends, according to its acting director, Stephen P. Welby.
The debate over government shutter control of U.S. commercial satellite imagery will heat up in the next few years as international imagery companies bring more competitive technology online and the U.S. loses its technological edge, according to Space Imaging CEO John Copple.
THE CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY has negotiated a new contract with NASA to extend its operation of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena beyond the current expiration date of Sept. 30, 2003. The contract is worth about $8 billion over five years, NASA said, and includes an award-term provision that could extend it another five. The contract includes performance incentives and returns full management of the Deep Space Network, which communicates with interplanetary spacecraft, to JPL.
BIG BOOST: If Lockheed Martin and Boeing human-rate their Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles (EELVs) it could provide a major advantage for both companies over competing launch providers such as Arianespace, according to Phil McAlister, director of space and telecommunications for Futron. NASA plans to launch its proposed Orbital Space Plane (OSP) atop the EELV to ferry crew to and from the space station, and has asked Boeing and Lockheed Martin to study the feasibility of human-rating their boosters (DAILY, Oct. 31).
In December, NASA will launch a satellite that the agency hopes will help reduce uncertainty about future ocean levels by taking highly precise measurements of the planet's massive ice sheets over a period of years. ICESat (Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite) is scheduled to launch Dec. 19 on a Boeing Delta II launch vehicle from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., at 7:45 p.m. EST.
PAC-3 BOOST: To prepare for a possible war on Iraq, the Defense Department wants Congress to approve the transfer of $104 million to the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) program to accelerate missile production. The money would double the monthly production rate from four missiles to eight starting in January 2003 instead of June 2004 as previously planned. The money also would procure 12 additional missiles to fill a production gap between the fiscal 2003 and 2004 buys.
RAPTOR DELIVERY: The Lockheed Martin-led F/A-22 Raptor team has delivered Raptor 4011, the last of five dedicated initial operational test & evaluation (DIOT&E) aircraft, the company said Nov. 27. Government officials signed formal acceptance documents for the aircraft on Nov. 26 in Marietta, Ga. The aircraft will be delivered to California, where DIOT&E pilot training is scheduled to begin at Edwards in February, the company said.
President Bush signed a bill authorizing intelligence activities for fiscal 2003 in a White House ceremony Nov. 27. The bill also creates an independent commission to investigate the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, which Bush said would be headed by Henry Kissinger. "The law I sign today directs new funds and new focus to the task of collecting vital intelligence on terrorist threats and on weapons of mass [destruction and] weapons proliferation," Bush said.
MIGS STAY IN THE PICTURE: Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes says there is no plan to phase out the country's MiG-21 aircraft despite their high accident rate. However, he says aircraft that have passed their planned lifespan will be withdrawn. A senor defense ministry official says several squadrons of MiG-21s will be phased out, and that the air force has recommended replacing all its MiG-21s. Fernandes told Parliament that 110 MiG-21s have crashed since 1992.
