NEW DELHI - India and Italy plan to sign their first memorandum of understanding on defense cooperation during Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes' Sept. 18-23 visit to Italy. Some cooperation between the countries already is evident. Italy has offered its MB-339FD advanced jet trainer aircraft and ATR-72 maritime aircraft to India, and India's Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. plans to build at least 80 Alenia Aeronautica ATR-42 aircraft in the next 15 years.
A current shortfall in target drones used to help fighter pilots sharpen their air combat skills will only get worse in coming years, according to Lt. Col. Jeff Robertson, director of the Aerial Target System Program Office at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. The number of subscale targets required per year for fighter pilot training, as well as missile testing, has historically been 40. In fiscal year 2004, there will be enough funding to buy only 35, Robertson said in a telephone interview.
PRAGUE - The Czech Republic is interested in joining the United States' missile defense program, defense minister Jaroslav Tvrdik told reporters Sept. 16 during a visit to the U.S. Tvrdik's comments came shortly after he met with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage in Washington. "I offered the United States the opportunity of deploying the missile defense system on Czech soil," Tvrdik said, adding that the program would "broaden the spectrum" of his country's air defense.
FILINGS: Northrop Grumman submitted a Certificate of Substantial Compliance with the U.S. Justice Department and filed notification with the European Commission, both regarding its planned acquisition of TRW Inc. The time period for EU review is expected to expire Oct. 16, and Northrop Grumman said the acquisition is on track to close in the fourth quarter of this year.
NEW DELHI - India and Malaysia will increase their level of defense cooperation, officials said after a meeting here last week. The agreement came during the fourth Malaysia-India Defense Cooperation (MIDCOM) meeting, which concluded in New Delhi on Sept. 13. As one example of cooperation, the Indian defense ministry is considering Malaysia's request that it provide maintenance for the Su-30MKM, which Malaysia is considering buying from Russia.
The Pentagon is urging a House-Senate conference committee to reject a $60 million cut that the Senate made to the Navy's fiscal 2003 request for the Raytheon Advanced Targeting Forward Looking Infrared (ATFLIR) system, saying the money is needed to alleviate a shortage of F/A-18 targeting pods.
The Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) successfully completed a development test last week that involved navigating through an intense jamming environment, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control officials said Sept. 16.
MOSCOW - NPO PM n.a.Reshetnyov of Krasnoyarsk, Russia, is close to concluding a contract to build the first Vietnamese telecommunications satellite. A delegation from state-run Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Corp. (VNPT) is negotiating the contract in Krasnoyarsk, a Reshetnyov representative told The DAILY Sept. 16.
The Navy on Sept. 13 awarded General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman a $5 billion multiyear contract to build 10 guided missile destroyers through fiscal year 2005. Under the terms of contract, the Bath Iron Works division of General Dynamics will build six DDG-51 Arleigh Burke-class Aegis destroyers, at a cost of $3.1 billion. One ship will be built in FY '02, another in FY '03, two in FY '04 and two in FY '05. The last ship, the DDG-112, is scheduled for delivery in December 2010, General Dynamics officials said in a statement.
The National Defense Political Action Committee, which seeks to elect and re-elect military veterans to Congress, has added missile defense to the list of questions it asks candidates to answer to help it decide whether to endorse them. The group's "vetting" form asks candidates to indicate whether they would "aggressively pursue funding to finish the development, acquisition and deployment of a National Missile Defense system to defend America against incoming missiles."
Three competitors are preparing to submit to the Air Force results of their studies of the Air Superiority Target (AST), a follow-on to the QF-4 target now used by fighter pilots in live-fire gun and missile runs to help sharpen their air combat skills.
SLAM-ER: The Boeing SLAM-ER's Automatic Target Acquisition (ATA) capability has become operational with the completion of its operational test and evaluation (OPEVAL), Boeing said Sept. 16. The ATA for the SLAM-ER, or Standoff Land Attack Missile-Expanded Response, adds a second mission computer to the SLAM-ER missile, allowing the system to locate small targets in cluttered environments. It also gives the standoff control pilot real-time target cueing on the F/A-18's cockpit display. A test team from the U.S.
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe asked International Space Station crewmember Peggy Whitson to become the station's first science officer to help promote research on the orbiting laboratory. Whitson is a member of the station's Expedition Five crew, which is currently in orbit. Whitson has a doctorate in biochemistry from Rice University.
With both the Marine Corps and Air Force variants of the Bell-Boeing Osprey tiltrotor now back in the air, the management of the program is confident about the aircraft's future as it prepares for another operational evaluation (OPEVAL) in late 2004. "We're challenged with one of the most dynamic OPEVALs I think I've ever seen," V-22 Program Manager Col. Dan Schultz said in a press briefing in Washington Sept. 16. "We're going to do multiple ships, multiple places, at night, ungoggled. We're going to prove the V-22."
LESSONS LEARNED: Gen. William F. Kernan, commander of U.S. Joint Forces Command, will discuss "lessons learned" from the Millennium Challenge 2002 joint exercise on Sept. 17 at a Pentagon briefing, the Defense Department said Sept. 16. The exercise, which took place July 24-Aug. 15, combined live and virtual combat situations.
House leaders have decided to cut about $200 million from the fiscal 2003 defense appropriations bill to fill a funding hole in foreign aid legislation. It was not immediately clear what impact the reduction to the $354.7 billion defense bill would have on specific programs, because the legislation already has received approval from the full House and is now before a conference committee with the Senate, which has passed a $355.4 billion version of the defense bill.
LONDON - Long-delayed Turkish naval aviation (TDH) and coast guard (TSG) acquisition plans for anti-submarine, maritime patrol and surveillance aircraft were implemented Sept. 12 under a contract the Turkish government awarded to France's Thales Airborne Systems. The contract is worth about $400 million.
MOSCOW - The president of Russia's National Reserve Bank (NRB), a private bank controlled by the Gazprom natural gas company, said it plans to buy controlling shares in the Voronezh Aircraft-Building Association (VASO). NRB already owns 37 percent of the shares of the Ilyushin Finance aircraft leasing company, which recently obtained state support for leasing civilian aircraft.
LONDON - Protracted disputes between the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and contractors here over shortcomings in the performance and capabilities of MBDA's high off-boresight advanced short-range air-to-air missile (ASRAAM) appear to have come to an end. Lord Willy Bach, the United Kingdom's defense procurement minister, praised the ASRAAM Sept. 13 when he announced the Royal Air Force's full acceptance of it.
NEW DELHI - One of the Indian air force aircraft that crashed Sept. 9 was a MiG-21 bis that had been upgraded by state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL). Indian air force spokesman Squadron Leader Rajesh Dhingra said there was no problem with the aircraft's engine. The aircraft was one of two upgraded MiG-21 bis aircraft HAL has supplied to the Indian air force's Ambala cantonment.
PRAGUE - The Czech government formally shelved its plan to buy 24 new Jas-39 Gripen fighter aircraft from the BAE Systems/Saab consortium at a closed cabinet meeting on Sept. 11. The cabinet instead asked defense minister Jaroslav Tvrdik to submit, within the next few weeks, alternative ways of protecting the country's airspace so a decision can be made before the end of the year.
ROTORCRAFT STRIKE: A labor union strike at the Boeing Co.'s rotorcraft plant in suburban Philadelphia would be a blow to the multi-service V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft and the Army's RAH-66 Comanche helicopter, which are already at risk of being terminated, Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) writes in a letter urging Boeing management and workers to resolve their differences. The union was threatening to strike as early as Sept. 14.
Changes in technology and doctrine are prompting the Air Force to consider changing the designation of the Raptor fighter from F-22 to F/A-22, an Air Force spokeswoman said. The change may be announced Sept. 17 at the annual Air Force Association convention in Washington. "Right now, we're considering [a] change in the designation of the F-22" to F/A-22, a designation like that of the Navy's Hornet, F/A-18, which has the ground attack mission as well as the air-to-air mission, the spokeswoman said.
