NEW DELHI - Pakistan may seek to buy missile defense systems from the United States, according to a diplomat with the Pakistan High Commission here. The diplomat said Islamabad is interested in buying the Patriot Air Defense System, the Hawk missile system or the Nike Hercules system. A spokeswoman with the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said the agency has had no contact with Pakistan on the issue. The diplomat said "preliminary" talks have begun with unspecified U.S. officials.
DATA SHARING: The U.S. Air Force has awarded MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates of Richmond, B.C., a $768,000 contract that will allow it to receive imagery from Canada's RADARSAT-1 satellite at its three Eagle Vision ground sites. Currently, only the Eagle Vision station in Ramstein, Germany, is able to receive data from RADARSAT-1.
FLYBY: NASA's Galileo spacecraft is undertaking a "sprint" into the inner reaches of Jupiter's system, including a visit near the tiny moon Amalthea, NASA said Nov. 5. The measurements may be the last taken by the spacecraft, which launched in 1989 and reached Jupiter in 1995. Galileo also will make its closest pass to Jupiter, flying 44,500 miles above the visible cloud tops.
Raytheon Co. is gearing up for the first test of its High-Frequency Surface Wave Radar (HFSWR) against small jet aircraft posing as cruise missiles, company representatives said Nov. 5. In a 120-day test starting in late December or early January, Raytheon will demonstrate whether the radar can detect offshore cruise missiles well before they would reach targets on land, said James Bunnell, a Raytheon business development manager. The test will take place in Key West, Florida.
The Senate should encourage the Bush Administration to seek arms cuts beyond those contained in a proposed treaty with Russia, according to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.). The Senate also should urge the President Bush to consider speeding up the reductions contained in the treaty, Levin wrote in an Oct. 7 letter to leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which is drafting a resolution to ratify the arms pact.
MOSCOW - The first commercial launch of a Strela booster from Svobodniy Cosmodrome should come as early as next year, Sergei Ivanov, the Russian minister of defense said during a Nov. 5 visit to the site. Ivanov confirmed that the defense ministry plans to continue space launches from the Svobodniy launch site, which was established after the breakup of the Soviet Union left Russia's main launch site, the Baikonur Cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan.
HAMILTON SUNDSTRAND has teamed with Japan's Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries (IHI) to support development of the HS engine control system for Rolls-Royce's Trent 900 engine. The engine control system includes the full authority digital engine control (FADEC), fuel metering unit, variable stator vane (VSV) actuator, fuel pump and permanent magnet alternator. IHI will be responsible for providing the VSV actuator and the input/output board for the FADEC. Hamilton Sundstrand became a partner with Rolls-Royce on the Trent 900 in November 2001.
With the future of the $10 billion CVN(X) experimental aircraft carrier apparently brighter than ever, the Navy may need a boost of more than $1 billion to its research and development budget to keep pace with the accelerated program, said a defense analyst. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has been a skeptic on the carrier plan. But at a Pentagon briefing Nov. 4, a day after he reviewed with Navy officials a proposal to build a more advanced version of the Navy's CVN(X)-1 design in 2007, Rumsfeld offered only positive comments about the plan.
Northrop Grumman has delivered more than half of a recent order for 16 Litening Extended Range (ER) targeting pods for use on Air National Guard F-16s, the company announced Nov. 4. The $19.3 million contract, received in late September, calls for completion of Litening ER pod deliveries by September 2003, but the company expects to have all the units delivered by the middle of this month.
The Army Materiel Command (AMC) is creating a new subordinate command aimed at speeding up the fielding of new technology. With little fanfare, AMC set up the Research, Development and Engineering (RDE) Command on a provisional basis Oct. 1 at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. Maj. Gen. John Doesburg, commanding general of the Army Soldier and Biological Chemical Command at Aberdeen, is leading the provisional command.
Northrop Grumman may benefit in two ways from its recently announced joint venture with German warship builder Howaldtswerke Deutsche Werft, according to senior naval analyst Stuart Slade of Forecast International/DMS. The first is that Northrop Grumman will be able to leverage the design and construction expertise of HDW and its Swedish subsidiary, Kockums AB, in building smaller warships.
NEW DELHI - The Indian Ministry of Defence has approved the purchase of the Russian-made Smerch rocket launcher system and the induction of the advanced version of the indigenously built multiple rocket launcher system, Pinaka. India approved the Smerch system after successfully testing it in June and July in the desert region of Rajasthan, according to a senior defense ministry official. India plans to buy about 15 of the systems.
Credit analysts with Standard & Poor's have upgraded the ratings outlook for ITT Industries, whose defense segment manufactures the Army's Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System (SINCGARS). Analysts affirmed the company's "BBB+" corporate credit rating in a Nov. 1 report and raised its ratings outlook from stable to positive.
The 15 unmanned ground systems that are being designed to receive data from satellites in the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) could be relocated if conditions warrant such a move, according to an industry source.
ENGINE SALES: International Aero Engines (IAE) will provide V2500 engines to Air China, IAE senior partner Rolls-Royce announced Nov. 4. The company said its share of the work is worth $30 million. IAE is a consortium that includes Pratt & Whitney of the U.S., Aero Engines Corp. of Japan, and MTU Aero Engines of Germany. The engines will be used to power Air China's new fleet of eight Airbus A319 twinjets.
The Defense Department's buyers of weapons, other goods and services gained sweeping powers to govern the acquisition process and contractors received long-promised protections against risky contracts and unwanted research and development costs, under interim Pentagon guidelines adopted last week. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz suspended the series-5000 acquisition regulations in a memorandum dated Oct. 30, directing the Pentagon to rewrite the acquisition rulebook by Feb. 27.
Northrop Grumman and TRW will begin sending their shareholders a proxy statement Nov. 5 containing information about Northrop Grumman's proposed acquisition of TRW. The statement, which was approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission last week, details the transaction terms on which shareholders of both companies will vote on Dec. 11.
NASA's Stardust spacecraft successfully completed a close flyby of asteroid Annefrank on Nov. 1, in a rehearsal of procedures the spacecraft will use during its scheduled January 2004 encounter with comet Wild 2. During the flyby, Stardust passed within roughly 3,300 kilometers (2,050 miles) of the asteroid, which is four kilometers (2.5 miles) wide. Flight controllers later received radio signals confirming the spacecraft's health through the Canberra, Australia complex of NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN).
Defense Department auditors challenged the Navy's decision last spring to resume flight tests on the V-22 Osprey despite knowing its fuel cells failed to meet military crashworthy standards. The MV-22 returned to flight in May after a nearly 18-month hiatus caused by two crashes in 2000 that killed 23 Marines. But the Pentagon's Office of Inspector General (OIG) "expressed concerns" about returning the V-22 to flight with non-crashworthy fuel cells in a May 22 memorandum, according to an OIG report dated Oct. 24.
LCA WORK: BAE Systems will supply digital flight control computer equipment for India's Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), the company said Nov. 4. The contract was awarded by India's Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), for work that will be worth about $20 million, the company said.
ABM SUIT: A U.S. district court judge is expected to rule within a few weeks on two motions that could decide the fate of a lawsuit challenging the Bush Administration's move to withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, according to Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), who leads a group of 31 House members that filed the lawsuit. The judge heard oral arguments Oct. 31 on the Administration's motion to dismiss the lawsuit and on the lawmakers' motion for the lawsuit to be decided in their favor without a trial.
