MOSCOW - Holding companies in Russia's defense industry will be able to sell their products directly to foreign customers rather than go through Rosoboronexport, the state-owned arms export company, according to reports from a meeting of the presidential committee on military-technology cooperation held last week. Rosoboronexport, the successor to the earlier Rosvooruzheniye state-owned exporter, controls as much as about 87 percent of the total Russian arms trade, or about $3.2 billion worth of the total $3.67 billion trade in 2001.
HOLDING: The Boeing Co. is extending a price freeze on its catalogue of commercial aircraft spare parts to help airline customers through the economic downturn, the company said Oct. 4.
NEW DELHI - Ukraine has offered to upgrade 110 Antonov AN-32 aircraft used by the Indian air force and to sell India Ilyushin IL-78 mid-air refueling aircraft. The AN-32 upgrade package could include engine and avionics modifications, which could lead to new roles for the air force's transport aircraft, said a diplomat with the Ukrainian embassy in India.
The Corporate Research Center (CRC) for European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS) is working on technologies capable of significantly reducing rotor noise inside and outside helicopters, according to CRC Senior Vice President Rolf Butje. The traditional "thwap-thwap" sound of a helicopter rotor is the result of each blade striking turbulence from the blade in front of it. To solve this problem, EADS engineers have developed flaps on the blades that cause them to oscillate as they spin, bowing up and down in such a way that the turbulence is avoided.
SENSOR-SHOOTER: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Director Tony Tether says he is satisfied with the work being done in linking sensors and weapons in the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program. In early September, Tether said he was "uncomfortable" with the apparent pace of sensor-shooter work being conducted by FCS' Boeing-SAIC lead systems integrator (LSI) team (DAILY, Sept. 5). One month later, "I'm pleased with their progress," Tether says.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's space-related budget likely will swell to half a billion dollars within the next two years, according to DARPA Director Tony Tether. DARPA's topline funding has grown considerably in the last two years. The agency's budget increased roughly 25 percent from fiscal year 2001 to 2002, and the president's fiscal year 2003 budget request increases it another $400 million, to a total of $2.7 billion.
COUNTING THE COST: Until NASA does define those basic RLV requirements, it can't implement management controls that will be essential to predicting the SLI program's costs, GAO says. "There are potential impediments to NASA's development and effective use of a detailed cost estimate, including [its] lack of a modern integrated financial management system," GAO says.
STABLE REQUIREMENTS: The JSF program differs from past warplane programs because the aircraft's operational requirements were established early in the program, Howe says. "That may seem very simple, but in 20 years of experience I've never seen a better, more well established set of requirements in the operational requirements document." Howe says the contractors were able to demonstrate to the warfighter, from 1996 onward, the costs of adding additional operational requirements to the aircraft. "By going through that process ...
Lockheed Martin has recommended the Coast Guard stick with its plans to buy 35 CASA 235 maritime patrol aircraft for its Deepwater program, a Lockheed Martin spokeswoman said Oct. 4, refuting congressional claims that her company wants the Coast Guard to buy its C-130 aircraft instead.
PANAMA CITY, Fla. - America's armed forces must rely more on partnerships with industry as it faces extensive military commitments while transitioning to an effective 21st century fighting force, according to a defense association official.
NEW DELHI - Pakistan and India test-fired missiles on Oct. 4, Pakistan first with its medium-range, surface-to-surface Shaheen-3, followed by India with its short-range surface-to-air Akash. The nuclear-capable Shaheen-3, which has a range of 650 kilometers (404 miles), was successfully fired as part of a routine test, a senior Pakistani diplomat told The DAILY.
LOS ANGELES - The biggest challenge for the team developing the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) is training and incorporating the ever-growing number of engineers working on the program, a senior Lockheed Martin official said Oct. 2. "Bringing more people on ... every day ... continues to be a challenge," John Fuller, vice president of Lockheed Martin's F-35/JSF Air Vehicle unit, said in a presentation at Aviation Week's Aerospace Expo conference here.
SPENDING BOOST: European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana is urging EU member countries to continue efforts to boost defense spending and capabilities. "We must, and we will, continue the effort that is already underway to progressively upgrade the range and quality of our military capabilities," Solana said. Meanwhile, European defense ministers are looking for a solution to the economic puzzle of funding a long-awaited rapid reaction force despite widening defense budget deficits, but no quick announcements were expected.
INTEL BILL: A House-Senate conference committee plans to meet Oct. 7 to try to write a compromise fiscal 2003 intelligence authorization bill. The panel had been scheduled to meet Oct. 4, but the session was postponed so lawmakers could attend the funeral of Rep. Patsy Mink (D-Hawaii).
MARINE AVIATION: Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Michael Hough has received Senate approval to become deputy commandant of aviation for the Marines. He also will become a lieutenant general. Other promotions that have received recent Senate approval include: Air Force Lt. Gen. Charles Wald to become general and deputy commander of U.S. European Command; Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas Goslin to become deputy commander of U.S. Strategic Command; and Army Lt. Gen. Edward Anderson to become deputy commander of U.S. Northern Command and vice commander, U.S.
MANAGING RISK: The technology risks associated with developing the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) have been reduced because suppliers have been working on many of the problems for years, according to a senior Air Force program official. "In the [concept and technology development] program, we took a lot of the technology areas and actually [demonstrated] those," says Col. Chuck Howe, director of the Air Force's JSF Air Vehicle integrated product team.
Oct. 7 - 8 -- SMi presents the fifth annual Global Missiles Summit 2002, The Hatton, London. Fax +44 0 870-9090-712, call +44 0 870-9090-711, or register online at www.smi-online.co.uk/missile.asp. Oct. 10 - 19 -- World Space Congress 2002, The George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston. For more information contact Stacy Sarault at (281) 335-0200. Oct. 14 - 18 -- The 9th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems. Lakeside Center at McCormick Place, Chicago, Ill. For more information visit www.itsworldcongress.org.
The Defense Department says work on its Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) will be delayed a year or more if a House-Senate conference committee approves a House-passed $39.5 million cut in DOD's fiscal 2003 budget request for the program. DOD requested $55.5 million for a new advanced concept technology demonstration (ACTD) for the ATL. The goal of the ACTD is to develop and build the ATL and demonstrate it on a C-130 aircraft. If successful, the technology would be included on future gunships.
PANAMA CITY, Florida - The Defense Department faces a crisis in the ability of military test and training ranges to support advanced aircraft and munitions, said Robert J. Arnold, a technical adviser for the 46th Test Wing, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. The crisis has multiple aspects - encroachment, an aging infrastructure, funding, and safety, Arnold told the 40th Annual NDIA Air Targets, UAVs and Range Operations Symposium here Oct. 2.
SLI CHALLENGES: NASA faces "considerable challenges" before it can define its basic requirements for a next-generation reusable launch vehicle (RLV), according to the General Accounting Office. NASA plans to say what such a vehicle's payload capacity and crew size should be next month, as part of its Space Launch Initiative (SLI) program.
A new Air Force office is developing programs to equip U.S. forces with systems to leverage American military superiority in space, according to the office's chief. Col. Edward T. Alexander, director of the Space Superiority Systems Program Office at the Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif., said the unit is charged with developing "offensive and defensive counterspace systems, space situational awareness systems, and other selected, advanced capabilities that further exploit the advantages of space superiority."
PANAMA CITY, Fla. - The Department of Defense has launched a "hurry up" effort to put in place a training transformation to bring all the military services together in exercises where they will "train as they fight," according to John Walsh, the assistant director for collective training in the Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Readiness).
