'FAR FROM OVER': The Department of the Navy has sent a new letter to the Boeing Co. and General Dynamics Corp. requesting a combined payment of $2.3 billion for defaulting on a contract to design, develop and build the A-12 Avenger II carrier-borne stealth fighter. The deadline for making the payment is Sept. 30. In an earlier letter, Navy Comptroller Dionel Aviles threatened to refer the matter to the Defense Finance and Accounting Service for collection if payment has not been made by the deadline (DAILY, Sept. 4).
NEW DELHI - Indian scientists have reached a milestone in the development of a cryogenic engine for the Geostationary Launch Vehicle (GSLV), a scientist with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said. The scientist told The DAILY that the indigenously developed engine successfully completed a long-duration test firing. The engine, which uses a combination of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, must fire for about 700 seconds for GSLV flight.
The Defense Department is studying whether U.S. Strategic Command should be assigned missile defense duties beyond those it is slated to receive when it absorbs U.S. Space Command, according to Navy Adm. James Ellis, the head of Strategic Command.
DROP IN GROWTH: The growth of the Defense Department's modernization budget is likely to drop from the 15-16 percent range in fiscal 2003 to about 5 percent by FY '04-'06, according to a report from Merrill Lynch. "We are not enthusiastic supporters of the long-cycle defense spending thesis," senior aerospace and defense analyst Byron Callan says. One reason is that the threat has changed, he says. "In our view, no adversary today is remotely close to the Soviet Union in terms of the magnitude of a security threat it poses," he says.
Combat systems identified last week by the Pentagon's top tester as not having performed well in operational testing have successfully completed dozens of tests, according to officials with Lockheed Martin Corp. and Raytheon Co.
The number of Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft the Navy ultimately will buy depends in part on how the aircraft will operate with unmanned aerial vehicles, according to Cdr. Joe Rixey, Naval Air Systems Command's deputy MMA program manager. Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp., working under contracts of about $7 million each on the first phase of MMA Component Advanced Development (CAD), will help determine the number, Rixey said in a Sept. 26 interview from Naval Air Systems Patuxent River, Md.
SAFETY STUDY: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has directed subordinates to study whether the Defense Department should do more to reduce the accident rate for military aircraft. His order, in a memorandum to David Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, came in response to a Sept. 20 story in The DAILY that said the Congressional Research Service concluded DOD has made virtually no progress in recent years in reducing the accident rate (DAILY, Sept. 20). Rumsfeld is expected to get a report from his staff the week of Oct. 14.
JDEC STATUS: Although the U.S. and Russia agreed in 2000 to create the Joint Data Exchange Center (JDEC) to share missile launch data (DAILY, June 8, 2000), the center is on hold due to several unresolved issues, including cost-sharing and liability, according to Navy Adm. James Ellis, commander of U.S. Strategic Command.
Sept. 29 - Oct. 1 -- Strategic Research Institute presents the fourth annual Defense and Aerospace Investor, Customer and Supplier Conference, Coronado Island Marriott Resort, San Diego, Calif. To register call 1-888-666-8514 or go to www.srinstitute.com/cx359. Sept. 30 - Oct. 3 -- Arinc's Eight Annual Flight Simulator Engineering & Maintenance Conference. Hyatt Regency, Tampa, Fla. For more information call (410) 266-2915.
MISSILES: Iraq has deployed 20 400-mile-range al-Hussein missiles that were illegally retained after the 1998 ejection of United Nations arms inspectors, according to a report on Iraqi capabilities released by the British government. The report also says Iraq has deployed liquid-fueled al-Samoud missiles, and is seeking to extend their range from 93 miles to at least 125 miles. Other surface-to-surface missiles listed as being in Iraqi service include the Ababil 100 rocket, with a range of 62 miles, and the Al Abbas, with a range of 560 miles. U.N.
Chemical laser systems, such as the Chemical Oxygen-Iodine Laser (COIL) used by the Airborne Laser (ABL) program, remain too bulky and problematic for use on fighter aircraft, according to Lockheed Martin.
HPM ON UAVs: High-power microwave (HPM) weapons are ideal for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), not just because of the difficulties of protecting manned aircraft from HPM side effects, but also because of the predetermined nature of most envisioned HPM missions, according to Lockheed Martin. HPM is a short-range form of directed energy capable of disrupting electronic systems. "If HPM works on unmanned vehicles, then ...
MISSILE CAPABILITIES: All of Iraq's missiles are capable of carrying nuclear, biological or chemical warheads, according to the British government report, which is intended to rally support for an attack on Iraq. Those with the longest range could deliver warheads as far afield as Cyprus, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kuwait, Iran and Russia. Iraq is known to have been negotiating procurement of "significant quantities" of uranium from Africa and elsewhere, the report says. United Kingdom intelligence estimates that if U.N.
RESEARCH: The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) will conduct research and development and specialized engineering for the U.S. Navy under a five-year contract with a $1.75 billion ceiling, APL said Sept. 27. The contract, awarded by the Naval Sea Systems Command of Washington, has an option for a five-year extension, APL said.
PRAGUE - Saddam Hussein's Iraqi regime could easily convert Czech-built L-29 Delfin jet trainers into unmanned aircraft capable of delivering weapons of mass destruction, according to several Czech aviation experts.
LOCKHEED MARTIN and BAE SYSTEMS CONTROLS have agreed to pay the U.S. government $6.2 million to settle a civil liability case involving alleged violations of the False Claims Act, according to the Justice Department. Before 1993, General Electric produced flight control electronics at its Johnson City, New York facility under Navy contracts. GE also was a principal subcontractor on the F/A-18 Hornet aircraft. In 1993, Martin Marietta bought GE's Johnson City operation and in 1995 merged with Lockheed to form Lockheed Martin.
A $3 million flight demonstration to test a potentially quieter supersonic aircraft design by Northrop Grumman may be delayed a few months, a company spokesman said Sept. 26. That same day, Northrop Grumman unveiled the design of an aircraft that would yield a sonic boom seven times quieter than the Concorde's, yet fly distances up to 600 nautical miles and at speeds up to Mach 2.4. The design is part of the Quiet Supersonic Platform program, a $35 million, two-year effort by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
Full-rate production of the RQ-7A Shadow tactical unmanned aerial vehicle has been approved, an Army spokesman said. The Shadow, built by AAI Corp., of Hunt Valley, Md., is designed to help commanders acquire mobile targets, manage a fight and assess battle damage. "Full-rate production was approved by the ASARC," (Army Systems Acquisition Review Council) on Sept. 25, Bob Hunt, a spokesman for Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., said Sept. 26. "The procurement objective is for 28 systems," he said.
NASA plans to tap an account for space shuttle privatization to offset a funding shortfall in shuttle operations, a congressional source said Sept. 26. The agency's fiscal 2003 budget request, delivered to Congress in February, included $80 million in case the Bush Administration decided to privatize the shuttle to save the government money in the long term, a House Appropriations Committee source told The DAILY. But it now appears the spacecraft will remain in federal hands.
The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) industry is beginning to come together with one voice to lobby for the integration of UAVs into the national airspace (NAS), according to the FAA's head of regulation and certification.
