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.
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.
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."
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
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
NEW DELHI - France's Snecma Aerospace is negotiating a cooperative venture with India's state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) to build engines in India. A senior executive with Snecma's Indian subsidiary, Snecma Aerospace India Pvt. Ltd. (SAI), told The DAILY that the two companies could agree to split work equally on engine programs for India's defense forces. Snecma already supplies engines for India's Advanced Light Helicopter, the intermediate jet trainer HJT-36 and the Cheetah and Chetak helicopters.
Northrop Grumman Corp. and TRW Inc. have notified the Department of Justice they plan to merge on Dec. 11 unless regulatory objections are raised within the next 10 days.
Dec. 2 - 5 -- Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference, Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, Fla. For more information contact John S. Williams at (703) 247-9486 or email [email protected]. Dec. 3 - 5 -- Aviation Week presents Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul Asia Conference & Exhibition, Singapore. To register online go to www.AviationNow.com/conferences or call Ryan Leeds at (212) 904-3892 or (800) 240-7645 (U.S. and Canada only).
DATA DELIVERY: NASA plans to brief contractors Dec. 18 on the agency's upcoming Space Mission Communications and Data Services (SMCDS) procurement, the agency says. The SMCDS will succeed the aerospace agency's current Consolidated Space Operations Contract (CSOC), which will expire in December 2003. The $3.4 billion CSOC contract, awarded to Lockheed Martin in 1998, includes managing data collection, telemetry and communications across NASA, but agency Administrator Sean O'Keefe said it hasn't led to the savings NASA expected (DAILY, Sept. 19).
SEAWINDS: NASA plans to launch a third research mission in December along with its ICESat and CHIPSat satellites (see story on Page 3) - SeaWinds. Set to launch aboard Japan's Advanced Earth Observing Satellite II (Adeos II) at 8:31 p.m. EST Dec. 13 from the Tanegashima Space Center, SeaWinds is a scatterometer that will measure wind speed and wind direction over the global ocean. "This measurement is important, because winds drive the ocean currents and weather patterns across the globe," Scatterometer Projects Manager Moshe Pniel says.
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.
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.
