ASTEROID SEARCH: House Science space subcommittee Chairman Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) is proposing to set up an awards program for amateur astronomers who discover asteroids in near-Earth orbit trajectories. Rohrabacher sees the program as a way to augment the federal government's asteroid discovery efforts. The congressman has introduced a bill to set up the program at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. The bill, which would provide $10,000 a year for two years to carry out the program, has been referred to the House Administration Committee.
NEW DELHI - India is seeking to buy an anti-missile system from Israel, a senior ministry of defense official said May 30. A high-ranking Israeli delegation, led by National Security Adviser Maj. Gen. Uzi Dayan, held talks with senior Indian officials on May 28 and 29 on defense purchases, including the Green Pine Radar, a transportable ground-based system, and the Arrow anti-missile missile.
U.S. military trainers in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia will help support and integrate the helicopters recently transferred to the military there and also provide some new equipment, according to Lt. Col. Robert Waltemeyer, commander of the Georgia Train and Equip Program. "We will start right within about the next week here, getting accurate property records of everything that's been contributed," Waltemeyer said May 30, speaking to reporters by telephone. The U.S. troops will help train the local military on the new equipment, he added.
MILITARY WAAS: Although the Air Force is considering developing a military version of the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), the difficulties involved with maintaining secure ground stations around the world makes the prospect doubtful, according to NAVSTAR GPS Joint Program Office Director Col. Doug Loverro. Designed for commercial aviation, WAAS corrects and enhances Global Positioning System signals by comparing them with position information from ground stations and other satellites. "We've looked at military analogues to WAAS," Loverro says.
ABL MODS: Boeing has completed major modifications of the first 747-400 aircraft for the Airborne Laser missile defense program, the company said May 30. The aircraft is ready for ground and flight tests this summer, and later will be outfitted with its tracking and high-energy laser system, Boeing said.
Lockheed Martin announced May 30 it is selling its 81 percent majority stake in COMSAT International, the company's latest move to exit the global telecommunications market. Company officials said in a statement that the shares would be sold to World Data Consortium LLC. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Lockheed Martin officials said the transaction would not affect the company's earnings.
GENEVA - The battle of the bandwidth for high speed Internet access is being fought for the first time in public here at EBACE. EMS Technologies, Honeywell and Rockwell Collins are showing brand new black boxes that for the first time allow true inflight Internet capability. Each is based on Inmarsat's Swift64 service, offering plug-and-play inflight web surfing of at least 64 Kbps (kilobytes per second) compared with today's snail's pace 2.4 Kbps.
Concerns about high debt levels prompted aerospace and defense analysts with Fitch Ratings to change the ratings outlook for United Defense Industries (UDI) from positive to stable. The company's "BB" credit rating remains unchanged. Company on CreditWatch The move follows the company's announced plans to acquire U.S. Marine Repair (USMR), a large naval repair and maintenance business based in Norfolk, Va., for $316 million.
GENEVA - Acquisitions and partnerships involving Allison, BMW and Williams have proved fruitful for Rolls-Royce, which now commands nearly a one-third share of the $2.5 billion business aircraft engine market.
The Bush Administration has submitted a fiscal 2003 budget amendment to Congress to shift $475.6 million from the Army's recently canceled Crusader artillery system to several other Army programs, including the Future Combat System (FCS), the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS), the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) and the Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (TUAV). The amendment would reallocate $310 million to speed up the FCS-Indirect Fires program, including $57 million to develop a precision attack missile.
Failure of one of two PAC-3 missiles to launch marred a May 30 test of the anti-missile system at Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. A pair of Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missiles were to be ripple-fired in a simulated tactical engagement of a target made up of two Minuteman motors and a re-entry vehicle. "While the [first] PAC-3 intercepted the target, not all test objectives were met," the Army said. "The second PAC-3 missile failed to launch. Analysis of why the second missile failed to launch is ongoing."
The House Science Committee has approved a bill that would increase spending at the National Science Foundation by 15 percent a year for the next three years, putting the NSF on track to double its budget in five years.
NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) plan to launch a Lockheed Martin-built environmental satellite June 24, the agencies announced May 30. NOAA-M will be launched at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., at 11:22 a.m. local time (2:22 p.m. EDT) using a Lockheed Martin Titan II rocket that is being converted from an intercontinental ballistic missile to a space launch vehicle. The satellite will be renamed NOAA-17 after it achieves orbit.
Launching two satellites on one rocket is among the strategies the Air Force is considering for reducing the cost of maintaining the Global Positioning System (GPS) when GPS III satellites begin entering the constellation at the end of the decade. Although the new spacecraft will have to be specifically designed for dual launching, "our calculation is that it is possible," GPS Joint Program Office Director Col. Doug Loverro told The DAILY.
F-16 WORK: DRS Technologies Inc. of Parsippany, N.J., will produce high-speed digital imaging systems for use on international F-16 combat aircraft under a $2.4 million contract from aircraft maker Lockheed Martin Corp., the company announced May 30. It also will develop a ground-based infrared imaging system, to support the image capture of munitions at firing ranges, under a $1.6 million contract from the Naval Air Warfare Center's Aircraft Division at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md.
FiatAvio, of Turin, Italy, has joined the GE/Rolls-Royce team building the JSF-F136 engine for the Joint Strike Fighter, GE Aircraft Engines (GEAE) announced May 30. FiatAvio also participates in the design, development and manufacturing of the JSF-F136 accessory gearbox under a separate agreement with Rolls-Royce. The JSF-F136 team also includes Philips ETG of the Netherlands, which leads a consortium of Dutch, Norwegian and Danish companies that build propulsion components.
The European Space Agency plans to adopt a revised space science program that scraps a Venus orbiter but adds a new program to search for extrasolar planets. ESA was forced to revamp its program after its space science budget was reduced, and said it will use consolidated engineering teams and technology where possible to reduce costs. ESA said the revised plan also accepts more risk, so if the programs encounter technical or launch problems, they may not be quick to recover.
LANGLEY, Va. - The Air Force likely will not meet the Spring 2003 deadline it has set to begin initial operational testing of the F-22 Raptor, according to the program director. Speaking at Langley Air Force Base here May 30, Brig. Gen. William Jabour, the director of the F-22 System Program Office, told reporters that the schedule for dedicated initial operational testing and evaluation (IOT&E) probably will slip. "Our current schedule has that in April of '03," he said. "It's unlikely we'll make that date."
NASA is planning to build a "world-class" center dedicated to exploring commercial applications for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) equipped with high-resolution imaging sensors, the agency announced May 29. NASA officials and representatives from Clark University of Worcester, Mass., and the Girvan Institute have signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a "UAV Applications Center" within NASA Research Park at Moffett Field, Calif. The park itself is scheduled for completion some time in the next decade.
A squadron of E-2C Hawkeye early warning aircraft will be the first Navy planes to be fitted with the new Cooperative Engagement Capability, or CEC, when the unit deploys later this year with the Nimitz carrier battle group, the Navy said.
Raytheon Co. is working under a new Air Force contract that, with options, would call for it to build as many as 5,000 additional Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile Missiles (AMRAAMs) for some $2 billion by 2010. The company already has produced more than 11,000 AMRAAMs for U.S. and international customers. Production began in the mid-1980s.
The night before the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft's first flight after being grounded almost 18 months ago, engineers and program officials were examining one last line clearance concern, according to Marine Corps Col. Dan Schulz, the program manager.
The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is developing non-metallic structure and engine flow technologies for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in an effort to stay ahead of technology requirements for unmanned systems well into the next century. David Lanman, focus area lead for UAV technology at AFRL, works with the Air Vehicles Directorate and other organizations within the lab to roadmap technologies that will be needed for unmanned systems both in the short term and as far out as 2050.
Airbus Industrie's long-range A340-600 was granted type certification on May 29 by the European Joint Aviation Authorities, after three aircraft accumulated 1,600 flight hours in more than 500 flights. The first aircraft will be delivered to Virgin Atlantic Airways in July, according to the company. The first A340-600 made its maiden flight on April 23, 2001, the second flew in June and the third, which was equipped with a full passenger cabin, joined the flight program in September.
