NEW DELHI - The Indian government has grounded 72 MiG-21 aircraft used for training in the wake of the May 3 crash of an Indian air force MiG-21, which killed at least eight people. In the last decade, the Indian air force has lost over 200 of its MiG fighters, which it bought from the former Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s. In April, an Indian parliamentary committee advised the Indian ministry of defense to phase out the MiG-21, citing its failure record.
The Air Force wants to drop its plans to buy the B variant of the Raytheon Joint Standoff Weapon, according to congressional documents and an official in the Navy-led program. The Air Force has proposed canceling its purchase of more than 3,000 JSOW-Bs due to technical problems and cost increases, according to a recently completed report accompanying the House Armed Services Committee's fiscal 2003 defense authorization bill.
Northrop Grumman officials have signed a confidentiality agreement with TRW Inc. that will allow the company to look at TRW's books, the companies announced May 6. Northrop Grumman officials said in a statement that the terms "are acceptable to both companies," but details were not disclosed.
SDB CONTRACT: EDO Corp. of New York will develop a weapon carriage system for the component advanced development phase of Lockheed Martin's Small Diameter Bomb program, the company announced May 6. The system is intended to be capable of carrying and ejecting multiple weapons from various aircraft platforms at speeds up to supersonic, according to the company. Terms of the two-year contract were not disclosed. Lockheed Martin is competing with Boeing to build the SDB and its carriage system for the Air Force (DAILY, Oct. 4, 2001).
E.C. "Pete" Aldridge, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, has provided unit costs to Congress for programs in breach of the Nunn-McCurdy amendment. Under Nunn-McCurdy, a program must be canceled if it exceeds baseline costs by more than 25 percent, unless Aldridge certifies it meets certain criteria, including that it is essential to national security. None of the six programs in breach of the amendment will be canceled now, Aldridge said last week (DAILY, May 3).
Members of the Soyuz 4 "taxi flight" returned to Earth over the weekend, including South African Internet entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth, the second "space tourist" to visit the International Space Station. The crewmembers, who swapped out the Soyuz spacecraft used as a crew lifeboat on the station, undocked from the station and returned to Earth May 5, landing in Kazakhstan.
An Ariane 4 booster successfully launched the SPOT 5 Earth observation satellite from the Kourou launch site in French Guiana on May 4, according to the company. Another satellite launch, that of the DIRECTV 5, was scrubbed on May 5, according to International Launch Services, which is launching the broadcast satellite.
Two European countries could reach a decision by the end of this month on the extent to which their governments will participate in the Joint Strike Fighter program, according to a Department of Defense spokeswoman. The Pentagon could hear from the Netherlands later this month after parliamentary elections, according to JSF program spokeswoman Kathy Crawford.
Following a series of contractor-conducted tests, the Department of Defense's chief information officer authorized the Department of the Navy to order another 100,000 workstation seats for the Navy-Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI) system. The total contract value for NMCI is $6.9 billion, according to the program office, making it the largest government-awarded information technology contract.
UCAV COSTS: As the requirements for the Air Force's developmental unmanned combat air vehicle (UAV) grow, the price likely will follow suit, says Gen. John Jumper, the Air Force chief of staff. "It's all a balance" between requirements and costs, he says. A recent redesign of the X-45 UCAV makes the aircraft larger and heavier than initially planned. The Air Force may want to make additional improvements, such as increasing the UCAV's range and adding a refueling capability. These changes also would increase the size and cost of the aircraft, Jumper says.
OLYMPICS LAUNCH: China plans to launch "Olympics" mini satellites in September, primarily to promote science education. The satellites will be used for communications and earth observation.
NO TO GALILEO: Europe's $3-billion-plus Galileo navigation constellation ultimately will put an extra burden on the airline industry, according to John Hamre, president and CEO of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Because the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS) is already available for free, "if you create something that is competing against a free good, the only way you can make any rationale for it is to make it exclusionary so that you have to use it," Hamre says.
ARMY CAUCUS: The new Senate Army Caucus, which held its kickoff meeting May 2, plans to hold quarterly meetings. Senate Armed Services Committee members Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) and James Inhofe (R-Okla.) have formed the caucus to look out for the interests of the service (DAILY, March 29).
LIFE IN THE TANK: NASA is working on designs for manned interplanetary spacecraft that place the crew quarters within the fuel tank as a means of protecting the astronauts from space radiation, according to Frank Cucinotta, manager for radiation health at Johnson Space Center. Hydrogen is an excellent radiation shielding material, according to Cucinotta, because no secondary radiation is released when radiation strikes it, and it slows radiation more than any other material per unit mass.
More data must be gathered on the dangers of space radiation before a determination can be made as to whether a manned mission to Mars is feasible with current technology, according to Frank Cucinotta, NASA Johnson Space Center's manager for radiation health. Space radiation comes from cosmic rays emitted by the sun and other stars beyond our solar system. Unlike Earth, Mars does not have a global magnetic field or a thick atmosphere to shield it from these rays.
According to analysis by the General Accounting Office (GAO), the Air Force could achieve "significant benefits" by dual-tasking some of its fighter squadrons, as it plans to do by 2010, although it said significant challenges must be overcome if those benefits are to be fully realized.
SHUTTLE STUDY: Four Democratic senators have urged Senate appropriators to direct NASA to conduct a thorough study of shuttle upgrades that could be needed to keep the fleet flying through 2020. NASA is planning to fly the shuttle until 2012 but also is studying upgrades needed to boost that to 2020.
Northrop Grumman will announce May 6 whether it will extend its stock exchange offer for TRW Inc., after shareholders of that company appeared to vote May 3 to reject the takeover offer. Northrop Grumman sought to have TRW shareholders waive Ohio law barring takeovers from out-of-state companies, but a May 3 TRW statement said that move appeared to have been rejected, "based on the number of proxies submitted" to the independent election inspector.
NEW DELHI - The Indian air force (IAF) submitted a report to the ministry of defense May 1 saying there are flaws in Russian Sukhoi Su-30K aircraft delivered to India in 1998 and 1999, which are causing maintenance and operations problems. India signed a contract with Russia in 1996 for 40 Su-30Ks at a cost of $1.28 billion. Eight were delivered in 1997, with the rest to be delivered in three phases between 1998 and 2000.
NAME CHANGE. The Space Based Infrared System High (SBIRS-High) program soon could be the Pentagon's only SBIRS program. The lower-altitude SBIRS system, known as SBIRS-Low, soon may get a new name, says the Pentagon's acquisition czar. "To avoid a lot of confusion between SBIRS-Low and SBIRS-High, I'm going to ask [Missile Defense Agency Director] Lt. Gen. [Ronald] Kadish to give me another name for SBIRS-Low," says Pete Aldridge, the undersecretary of the defense for acquisition, technology and logistics.
Twenty House members have introduced a bill that would double aeronautics research and development funding over five years at both the FAA and NASA in an effort to make the U.S. aerospace industry more competitive internationally. The bill, spearheaded by Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.), who represents engine maker Pratt & Whitney, would increase NASA's aeronautics R&D budget to $1.15 billion by 2007. By the same year, the FAA's aeronautics R&D funding would reach $550 million.
As a June 4 deadline nears for the services to present their options on replacing the EA-6B Prowler aircraft, the Air Force is coming up with a variety of options for the electronic attack mission, according to a senior service official. The Pentagon recently completed an analysis of alternatives study on possible replacements for the EA-6B Prowler, which is slated for retirement beginning in 2010. Operations as part of the war in Afghanistan have further stressed the aging Prowler aircraft, according to senior Defense Department officials.
