Defense firms in the United States and Germany have little to lose or gain by new attempts to repair the diplomatic and military rift the allies suffered only two months ago, an international aerospace business expert says. "To be candid, of course, the Germans don't buy much anyway," said Joel Johnson, Aerospace Industries Association vice president, international. "It's not an active market. Most of what the Germans do is through the context of EADS [the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co.]."
PRODUCTION: Boeing Integrated Defense Systems has received U.S. Air Force approval to begin production of the first three space vehicles for the Global Positioning System IIF program, the company said Nov. 11. The satellites, slated to begin launching in late December 2005, will provide new signals for civilian users and secure military codes. They also are slated to provide 20 percent more life than older GPS satellites, the company said.
RETURN: A Soyuz TM-34 spacecraft returning from a trip to the International Space Station landed Nov. 9 in Kazakhstan. The Soyuz crew left behind a new Soyuz TMA-1 to serve as an emergency return vehicle for the space station crew. During their visit, the Soyuz crew conducted experiments and conducted technical evaluations on the station's condition. "There still is a problem of increased noise in some of the modules," Yuri Lonchakov said at a post-flight news conference.
IFF: BAE Systems North America's Advanced Systems business will provide identification friend or foe (IFF) systems to Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Navy under contracts totaling $40 million, the company said. It will provide AN/APX-113 advanced IFF systems to Lockheed Martin under a $30 million contract, for Block 50 F-16s. It also will provide AN/APX-117 and AN/APX-118 systems to U.S. Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., under a $10 million contract.
Lockheed Martin Missiles & Fire Control said Nov. 11 its Loitering Attack Missile (LAM) successfully completed its first major flight test last week at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. "It validated our approach in that it allows us to vertically launch the missile in flight, know the fins will pop out, the wings will pop out and it will fly off to its way point," Steve Altman, NetFires business development manager, said of the Nov. 8 test.
PRAGUE - Czech police are investigating alleged corruption surrounding the planned government purchase of Gripen supersonic fighters from the BAE Systems/Saab consortium, a police official told The DAILY. The anti-corruption squad began the investigation several weeks ago after being contacted by a Czech senator. It's understood that the police have interviewed several senators, all members of the Freedom Union-DEU-Civic Democratic Alliance (ODA) senators' group.
The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is sponsoring a series of tests at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., in which a 200-foot airship equipped with hyperspectral cameras will be used to demonstrate a variety of homeland security applications. Under a $7 million ONR contract awarded last year, Honolulu-based Science and Technology International (STI) has integrated the company's Littoral Airborne Sensor - Hyperspectral (LASH) system onto a Skyship 600 airship leased from Airship Management Services (AMS) of Greenwich, Conn.
The House Government Reform Committee's national security subcommittee plans to continue scrutinizing the Air Force F/A-22 Raptor, according to a subcommittee aide. The subcommittee could make the Lockheed Martin aircraft the subject of another public hearing, but no decision has been made. The Air Force announced Nov. 7 that the F/A-22 has a potential cost overrun of up to $690 million in the engineering and manufacturing development phase (DAILY, Nov. 11).
A push to reform the Defense Department's Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program is poised to enter a new phase, shifting its focus from boosting financial returns to reinventing the technologies and business processes that run the system.
NO EAA: The lame-duck Congress is unlikely to finish legislation to overhaul the Export Administration Act (EAA), says Patrick McCartan, director of legislative affairs for the Aerospace Industries Association. That's because the post-election session, which begins Nov. 12, is expected to be brief, and lawmakers already have plenty of appropriations bills and other legislation they have to address. AIA hopes an EAA bill can be passed in the new 108th Congress in 2003.
NASA announced Nov. 8 that it is changing its fiscal year 2003 budget to speed the development of an Orbital Space Plane (OSP) for ferrying crew to and from the International Space Station (ISS) and raising its crew capacity up to six or seven from the current three. "The new direction reflects important changes to NASA's five-year budget plan, within the totals contained in the president's FY 2003 budget," the agency said in an announcement. "The new plan will be sent to Congress soon."
LAME DUCK: When Congress returns Nov. 12 for its post-election lame duck session, lawmakers will try to complete several bills with aerospace implications, including the fiscal 2003 defense authorization and intelligence authorization bills, both of which are before House-Senate conference committees. Lawmakers still have to decide whether they will finish the FY '03 NASA appropriations bill in the lame duck session or wait until the new 108th Congress takes office in early calendar 2003.
OVERRUN: The cause of a potential $690 million cost overrun on the F/A-22 Raptor program may not be released before the Defense Department makes a critical decision about the program's future. A team of financial and technical experts investigating the problem is "not expected to report back for a few weeks," Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke says. Meanwhile, E.C.
International Launch Services (ILS) has signed a contract with the Hellas-Sat consortium to launch the first domestic communications satellite for Greece and Cyprus on an Atlas V rocket early next year. Based in Nicosia, Cyprus, Hellas-Sat Consortium Ltd. plans to offer voice, Internet, video and broadcast services to European and Balkan markets. After launch in the first quarter of 2003, the Hellas-Sat satellite should be in service for the Summer Olympics in Athens in 2004, according to ILS.
NEW DELHI - India will train Laotian defense personnel and pilots and upgrade its MiG-21 aircraft under a new agreement, reached during Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's visit to Laos last week. Douangchar Phichit, the Laotian defense minister, requested pilot training when he met with Vajpayee, according to an Indian defense ministry official.
An F/A-22 Raptor fighter successfully intercepted an aerial target with an AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) while both the aircraft and the target were flying faster than the speed of sound, F/A-22 builder Lockheed Martin Corp. said Nov. 8. The test met one of the Defense Department's milestones for the program before it can receive a Lot 3 production contract, the company said.
The Navy plans to launch a development program for the Boeing EA-18G Growler in fiscal 2004 after receiving a tentative go-ahead last week from Pentagon acquisition chief E.C. "Pete" Aldridge Jr., the Navy's top-ranking acquisition official told The DAILY. Aldridge, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, gave the Navy tentative approval to release $10 million for Boeing to conduct early studies and tests of the EA-18G in FY '03, said John Young, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition.
Spacehab Inc. said Nov. 8 that its net loss for the first quarter of 2003 narrowed from one year ago, as revenues for the quarter rose. Net loss for the quarter, which ended Sept. 30, totaled $94,000, compared with $2.8 million a year ago at this time. Revenue for the quarter rose from $22.2 million a year ago to $26.8 million this year. Company officials also said nearly $2.6 million in debt was repaid during the quarter. The company's total debt as of Sept. 30 stood at $22.8 million.
FCS FIREWALL: A "firewall" has been set up around the Boeing/SAIC-led Future Combat Systems (FCS) program to ensure the company doesn't have an unfair advantage in the ongoing Unmanned Combat Armed Rotorcraft (UCAR) competition, according to Steve Glusman, director of engineering for Army unmanned systems at Boeing Integrated Defense Systems. Although not formally a part of FCS, the UCAR program will have to interoperate seamlessly with FCS equipment when it enters service in 2012. "We certainly are keeping abreast of all the FCS efforts," Glusman says.
WARMING TREND: Are defense relations between the United States and Germany warming only two months after a bitter standoff over U.S. statements on Iraq? Defense Department Secretary Donald Rumsfeld hosted his German counterpart, Minister of Defense Peter Struck, at a Pentagon ceremony and press conference Nov. 8. In September, Rumsfeld refused to meet with Struck during a defense ministerial meeting in Poland, which came amid Germany's close political elections that featured high-level protests against the U.S. policy on Iraq and the war on terror.
Nov. 11 - 14 -- National Defense Industrial Association presents its 2nd Annual CMMI Technology Conference and User Group. Hyatt Regency Tech Center, Denver, Colo. For more information contact Derek Jenks at (703) 247 2582. Nov. 17 - 22 -- 2002 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and R&D Expo. The Ernest Morial Convention Center, New Orleans, La. For more information call (800) THE SAME (843-2763) or email [email protected].
Four incoming House members from Alabama, Georgia, Ohio and Oklahoma indicated Nov. 8 that they have been promised membership on the House Armed Services Committee. Reps.-elect Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), Jim Marshall (D-Ga.), Michael Turner (R-Ohio) and Tom Cole (R-Okla.) received assurances from congressional leaders before the Nov. 5 election that they would be appointed to the committee if they won their House seats.
