The X-31A thrust vectoring aircraft has resumed flight testing at Naval Air Station Patuxent River as part of a multinational effort to demonstrate extremely short takeoff and landing (ESTOL) capability, Boeing announced June 13.
RAPTOR TESTING: Lockheed Martin's F-22 Raptor team completed a key phase of logistics testing and evaluation this week, the company announced June 13. In the tests, hundreds of aircraft parts were removed and reinstalled to make sure the aircraft's maintenance instructions meet Air Force requirements. The tests were conducted by a team of U.S. Air Force personnel, including the service's first group of F-22 maintenance instructors, supported by contractors at Lockheed Martin's Marietta, Ga. Facility.
SONIC CRUISER: Vought Aircraft Industries Inc. is forming a development "sub-team" to support its participation in Boeing's Sonic Cruiser program, the company announced June 13. The companies on the team are Alcoa Inc., ATK Composites Co., Cincinnati Machine, Cytec Engineered Materials, Nova-Tech Engineering and Parker Aerospace. Vought and its team members will help provide design, machine tool and advanced materials technologies for the Sonic Cruiser aircraft program. Vought plans to add more team members, primarily from foreign markets, the company said.
ERAGNY, France - Sagem S.A. is working with several defense companies to establish a schedule for test-firing munitions from a weaponized version of its Sperwer unmanned aerial vehicle. The Sperwer EC (extended capacity) UAV, which had its first flight last fall, is capable of flying for 12 hours with a 50 kilogram (110 pound) payload or four hours with a 100 kilogram (220 pound) payload, according to the company.
SEA LAUNCH plans to launch the Galaxy IIIC satellite for PanAmSat on June 15. The company, which has the Boeing Co. as a majority owner along with partner companies from Russia, Norway and Ukraine, plans to launch the satellite to geosynchronous transfer orbit from its platform on the Equator. The satellite, built by Boeing Satellite Systems, will provide Internet, video, audio and data services to areas of the United States and Latin America.
CLAMART, France - A French manufacturer of high-end data storage, processing and retrieval systems said June 13 it expects revenue growth from sales of its airborne video recording systems to reach double digits within five years. The growing military demand for video recording systems following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks led Enertec S.A. to forecast that growth, Enertec's general manager Bernard Espannet said.
THREE KILLED: Three American servicemembers were killed in the June 12 crash of a U.S. Air Force Special Operations MC-130H, the Department of Defense said June 13. The aircraft crashed in the Paktika province of Afghanistan, near Gardez. Seven other Americans on the aircraft survived.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is threatening to recommend that President Bush veto the fiscal 2003 defense authorization bill if it includes Senate provisions that would cut the Bush Administration's missile defense request by $814 million and impose new requirements on the Defense Department's anti-missile programs.
NEW DELHI - India is considering working with overseas defense companies to market its indigenously developed Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH), which is manufactured by the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). A senior HAL official told The DAILY June 13 that there is a proposal from European companies to jointly sell the aircraft on the international market. Another source said the companies are BAE Systems of the United Kingdom, Eurocopter of France and Israeli Aircraft Industries Ltd.
Two groups with ties to the aerospace industry are urging Congress to devote 3 percent of the Defense Department's fiscal 2003 budget to science and technology, up from the 2.7 percent level proposed by the Bush Administration. Allan Schell, who testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee's defense subcommittee June 12 on behalf of the Coalition for National Security Research and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-USA, said a level of 3 percent, or $11 billion, is needed to ensure future national security.
NEW DELHI - The United States has offered India a supply of advanced sensors to detect infiltration along its disputed border in the northern Indian state of Kashmir. U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld made the offer during discussions with Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes June 12 in New Delhi. A senior ministry of defense official told The Daily that Rumsfeld's offer is a reiteration of an offer Lockheed Martin made before U.S. sanctions in 1998.
NASA's Office of Aerospace Technology at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. announced the formation of seven new University Research, Engineering and Technology Institutes (URETIs), including three devoted to nanotechnology. Each URETI research focus represents a "long-term strategic interest to the agency and the nation," NASA said. Samuel Venneri, NASA's associate administrator for aerospace technology, made the final selections. The universities selected for negotiation of URETI agreements are:
When NASA's Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR) launches next month, it will mark the beginning of a highly flexible mission that will bring the spacecraft into unprecedented proximity with at least two comets. Comet nuclei are thought to be chunks of ice and rock left over from the formation of the solar system that are hidden from distant observers by the comet's atmosphere and tail. Some scientists believe comets may have brought the building blocks of life to Earth 3.8 billion years ago.
The U.S. State Department is concerned about the increasing use of West European companies to divert U.S. defense technology to embargoed countries, according to an annual report to Congress. Since 1990, the State Department has conducted a series of overseas inspections to ensure that U.S. arms exports have reached their proper destinations. The results of these inspections, which are known as the "Blue Lantern" program, are summarized in the report.
TANK CONTRACT: NASA has extended its contract with Lockheed Martin Space Systems of New Orleans for shuttle external tanks to September 2008. The company will produce 35 Super Lightweight External Tanks for the space shuttle program, at a rate of not less than six a year. The original contract, issued in 2000, called for production of not less than eight a year, so the change adds $341 million to the contract.
If BAE Systems goes ahead with a bid for TRW, even as Northrop Grumman is pressing for such a deal, it might find the U.S. government cool to the idea, one analyst said. BAE apparently is interested in TRW's $2 billion space and electronics unit and its $3 billion systems division. The Clinton administration was relatively quick to approve the British company's offer to buy parts of Lockheed Martin in 2000, but the Bush administration might say no to any BAE Systems bid today for all of TRW, said the analyst, Paul Nisbet of JSA Research.
The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and the U.S. Navy plan to conduct the fifth test of the Sea-Based Midcourse Defense (SMD) June 13, the same day that the United States will withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty. "It's a fluke that it's on the day of the withdrawal," Chris Taylor, an MDA spokesperson, told The DAILY, adding that nothing is being done in the June 13 test that would have violated the treaty.
ARIANESPACE, Evry, France Jean-Marie Luton has been elected chairman of the company. Jean-Yves Le Gall has been elected CEO of the company. CARNEGIE MELLON UNIV., Pittsburg, Penn. Jared L. Cohon, president, has been appointed to the Homeland Security Advisory Council. DYNCORP, Reston, Va. Chuck Taylor has joined the company as director of corporate communications. FLIGHTSAFETY BOEING, Seattle, Wash. Bill Gardner has been appointed vice president - Asia.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said June 10 that he hopes to get an explanation for why the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) plans to stop publicly releasing specifics about the targets or countermeasures used in tests of the Ground-based Midcourse system. Levin told a Defense Week seminar that there may be good reasons for classifying that information but he does not know what they are.
Israel has begun operating the second battery of its Arrow missile defense system, but the unit is "not at its full capacity," according to an Israeli official in Washington.
Army officials said June 12 they plan a rapid fielding of their new Prophet signals intelligence (SIGINT) system because it is significantly more capable than the legacy systems it is designed to replace. Pre-production versions of the Prophet already are supporting the war on terrorism in undisclosed locations, according to Edward Bair, the Army's program executive officer for intelligence, electronic warfare and sensors, and Lt. Col. William Stevenson, the Prophet product manager.
DATA MANAGEMENT: General Dynamics Canada will supply and integrate a new data management system for the CP-140 Aurora, Canada's long-range maritime patrol aircraft, under a $128 million contract from the Canadian Department of National Defense. The company will supply a new mission computer, integrate upgraded sensors and provide ground facilities and logistics support.
