NEW DELHI - The Indian government has decided to re-tender its $1.5 billion advanced jet trainer program, after Czech aircraft maker Aero Vodochody offered its L-159 at nearly half the price of the BAE Systems' Hawk 100, which India has been considering for years. In August, an Indian Ministry of Defence price negotiations committee approved the buy of 66 Hawk 100s, although it and BAE Systems have remained at loggerheads over the price. India wants to pay $18 million each, BAE Systems wants $21 million each.
Next month, prototype nine-inch-wide micro air vehicles (MAVs) will be delivered to the Army for testing at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., according to Program Manager Sam Wilson. Built by Allied Aerospace, formerly Micro Craft, the MAV is the smallest version of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Organic Air Vehicle (OAV), which is being developed for the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS). A 29-inch OAV has also been tested.
Thirty-seven minutes after its successful first launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla., Nov. 20, Boeing's new Delta IV expendable rocket successfully placed the W5 satellite in geosynchronous transfer orbit for European operator Eutelsat. Launch took place at 5:39 p.m. eastern time from Launch Complex 37B after two delays caused the original Nov. 16 launch date to slip.
Ten prototype versions of the Dragon Eye unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) likely will be deployed with troops in the event of a U.S. attack on Iraq, according to Marine Corps Warfighting Lab (MCWL) commander Brig. Gen. Frank Panter. "We're getting together all our prototypes and we're sending them with 1st Marine Division ... to maybe go off to war," Panter said during Defense News Media Group Conferences' ISR Integration Conference in Reston, Va., Nov. 20. "We consider them that reliable, and [it's] been proven that they're that capable."
The management reshuffling for the F/A-22 Raptor program is complete after contractor Lockheed Martin changed program managers, the Air Force confirmed Nov. 20. Bob Rearden, Lockheed Martin's program manager for the F/A-22, was replaced in the same week that the Air Force fired its top two managers on the program (DAILY, Nov. 20). Ralph D. Heath has been named executive vice president and general manager for the F/A-22, according to Lockheed Martin. Heath is a former chief operating officer.
The X-31A aircraft performed its first extremely short takeoff and landing (ESTOL) maneuvers Nov. 18 at Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Patuxent River, Md., landing twice on a "virtual runway" in the sky at 5,000 feet. During an ESTOL landing, the aircraft approaches the runway at relatively slow speeds with its nose pointed sharply upward. It then executes a precise, computer-controlled derotation maneuver two feet above the runway to come in for a safe landing.
Congress has told the Defense Department to stop the transfer of its high energy laser (HEL) program from the Office of the Secretary of Defense to the Air Force.
NASA has selected 295 research proposals for Phase I contract award negotiations under its Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs, the agency said Nov. 20. The awards are expected to total $21 million, NASA said. NASA selected the winners from more than 2,200 SBIR and STTR proposals under the latest solicitation, which closed Aug. 21. Companies that receive Phase I contracts are eligible to compete for Phase II contracts next year.
NEW DELHI - Although Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) said last week that the production schedule for Sukhoi Su-30MKIs in India has been advanced by four years, the Indian Ministry of Defence said Nov. 20 that delivery of spare parts for the aircraft won't start until 2004-2005, delaying production.
LAUNCH: After two launch delays, Boeing's new Delta IV booster successfully lifted off on Nov. 20. The booster is carrying the W5 communications satellite for Eutelsat. "It was absolutely beautiful," Boeing launch services official Jim Simpson said in a Boeing webcast. In addition to launching commercial payloads, the rocket is the company's entry in the Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program.
ATK MISSILE SYSTEMS, Minneapolis Vice Adm. Thomas R. Wilson (ret.) has been named president of the company. BEARING INSPECTION INC., Los Alamitos, Calif. Linda Solomon has been named marketing manager. BOEING, Chicago David Wang has been named president of Boeing-China, based in Beijing. EVANS & SUTHERLAND COMPUTER, Salt Lake City Richard A. Flitton has been appointed managing director of Evans & Sutherland Computer U.K. Ltd.
DELIVERY: Boeing delivered the first B-2 "smart" bomb racks to Northrop Grumman this week, ahead of schedule, a company source said Nov. 20. The racks will enable a B-2 to carry and launch up to 20 GPS-guided Mk-82 JDAMS from each of its four racks. The first four racks will be installed on a B-2 at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., which will undergo six months of testing.
The Air Force is abandoning its goal of combining ground and air surveillance capabilities in a single platform, called the Multi-sensor Command and Control Aircraft (MC2A), and instead plans to buy two fleets, a senior acquisition official told The DAILY Nov. 20. Delivery of the first MC2A could be delayed up to two years because of an unrelated cut in the program's fiscal 2003 budget.
Moog Inc. will supply a wingfold actuation system for use on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to BAE Systems, the company said Nov. 20. The $9.5 million contract calls for delivery of five shipsets of flight test hardware by 2005. Moog said each JSF will have two of its patented "Splinelock" wingfold actuators, which reduce the tip-to-tip distance of the wings, allowing the aircraft to be stored on both the main and lower decks of aircraft carriers. Moog said its work on the program is expected to total more than $140 million.
The familiar way of organizing headquarters staffs could be going out of style, thanks to transformation, says a senior joint officer. New global networks that instantly link Pentagon leaders to junior officers in the trenches and connect hundreds of a single commander's subordinates at once are wreaking havoc on headquarters organizations and familiar chains of command, said Maj. Gen. Dean Cash, director of joint experimentation and conceptual development at Joint Forces Command (JFCOM).
MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the aerospace firm NPO Mashinostroeniya in Reutov earlier this week, partly to discuss the cruise missile builder's ability to compete in the commercial space industry. The state-owned enterprise was formed in 1954 as a cruise missile manufacturer. Within a decade it was the country's largest aerospace firm, designing Proton launch vehicles, the Almaz manned surveillance space station, US-A and US-P naval targeting and reconnaissance satellites and ICBM and cruise missile projects.
Anomalies in two recent test flights of the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) have prompted program officials to temporarily withdraw the missile's certification for testing, the Air Force said. It said tests are likely to resume in January or February. The first anomaly occurred Oct. 10 during an operational test. The stealthy Lockheed Martin weapon "guided perfectly, hit the target, but the warhead did not detonate," the Air Force said.
The U.S. military must focus money on urban warfare as part of its transformation, Army Gen. Wesley Clark (ret.), said Nov. 20. "Where is the integrated full look, starting at the secretary of defense level on down, putting the money, the resources, the talent and the culture into fighting in built-up areas?" Clark, the former military commander of NATO, said at CNA Corp.'s annual conference.
The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) signed a $170 million Australian ($94.9 million) deal Nov. 20 to lease a fleet of seven Raytheon Super King Air 350 Turboprop planes for the next 10 years. The new aircraft will replace an aging mix of HS748 and King Air B200 aircraft currently used to support navigator training for RAAF's 32 Squadron and the School of Air Navigation at RAAF Base East Sale.
The National Imagery and Mapping Agency's fiscal 2003 budget increases funding to buy commercial satellite imagery "by a factor of 13-fold or so," NIMA Director James Clapper said Nov. 20. Clapper, who spoke at a Defense News Media Group Conference's ISR Integration Conference in Reston, Va., also said he hopes to sustain that increase in FY '04.
Over the next five fiscal years, NASA would cut $2.133 billion from the Space Launch Initiative (SLI) to fund work on an Orbital Space Plane (OSP) for ferrying crew to and from the International Space Station (ISS), according to the agency's amended fiscal year 2003 budget request. Over that same period, the amendment adds $706 million for the ISS, $470 million for the shuttle, and $75 million for biological "research. These increases are offset by cutting SLI from $3.899 billion to $1.766 billion.
NEW DELHI - At a time when the Indian Air Force is facing a crisis of confidence in its MiG aircraft, an internal report by the Air Force has concluded that a mix of human error, technical problems and accidents are responsible for crashes over the past decade. The Indian Air Force has lost more than 220 aircraft in a decade, including 17 MiGs and Jaguars that have crashed in the last 11 months.
