Jan. 20 - 22 -- Network Centric Warfare 2004, "Meeting the Challenges of Warfare in the Information Age," Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, Washington, DC. Call (800) 882-8684, fax (973) 256-0205, email [email protected] or go to www.ncw2004.com. Jan. 21 -- PSA Winter Roundtable, "Global Military Strategy in Support of Precision Strike," Crystal Gateway Marriott, Arlington, Va. Contact Dawn Campbell, (703) 247-2590, email [email protected] or go to www.precisionstrike.org.
DHRUV WORK: Lord Corp. of Cary, N.C., will provide its Active Vibration Control System to control vibration in India's Advanced Light Helicopter, also known as Dhruv, the company said Jan. 15. India's Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) has awarded the company the first production contract for the system, Lord Corp. said. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
AEGIS BMD: Although Japan is the only other country that has indicated it plans to acquire the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (Aegis BMD) system (DAILY, Sept. 4, 2003), several other countries are seen as potential candidates for buying the system to defend against short- and medium-range ballistic missiles, according to U.S. Navy Capt. Mac Grant, deputy director of systems engineering and integration for Aegis BMD. Those countries include Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain and the United Kingdom.
NEW DELHI - Indian defense planners have proposed setting up an additional aircraft manufacturing facility to take the load off Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL). A defense ministry official said state-owned HAL, currently the country's only aircraft manufacturing facility, is overworked, an assessment that HAL officials say is accurate. Defense planners are considering setting up another aircraft manufacturer that could include the participation of a major European defense company. Mirage 2000s
Airbus Industrie delivered 305 airliners in 2003, the European consortium said Jan. 15. Rival Boeing said earlier this month that it delivered 281 airliners. "2003 was a landmark year for Airbus, the year in which it became number one," Airbus said. For 2004, Boeing has forecast delivery of 275 to 290 airliners. Noel Forgeard, president and CEO of Airbus, said that "for 2004, we expect the market to remain soft, with deliveries close to 300."
SAAB BUY: Saab has acquired a 21 percent share in the South African electronics company Grintek, which supplies the defense, avionics and other markets. South Africa's selection of the JAS-39 Gripen fighter for its air defense "created the basis for Saab's relationship with Grintek," Saab said Jan. 15.
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover "Spirit" drove off its lander platform early on Jan. 15 and has touched down on Martian soil to begin studying rocks for clues to the history of water on the planet. Before the roll-off, Spirit performed a three-stage turn on its platform Jan. 14, which pointed it in a north-northwest direction. Mission managers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., sent the command for the golf cart-sized rover to move forward at 3:21 a.m. EST Jan. 15.
CORRECTION: A story in the Jan. 14 issue of Aerospace Daily should have said that H.R. 375, which calls for a 375-ship Navy, has received endorsements from 80 House members. It also should have said the six largest shipyards are operating at only 60 percent of their capacity.
Secretary of the Navy Gordon England said he is optimistic that the Navy-Marine Corps' fiscal 2005 budget numbers will be good news for the service, and that its plans for next-generation surface combatants will stay on schedule.
Lockheed Martin has received a U.S. Army contract for the second low-rate initial production run of the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), intended to support lighter, more mobile future forces, the company said Jan. 15. The $88.9 million contract covers 25 launchers for the Army and one for the Marine Corps, according to the company. The first low-rate HIMARS contract, for $96 million and 29 launchers, was awarded in April 2003, said Craig Vanbebber, a spokesman for Lockheed Martin.
Lockheed Martin's Maritime Systems & Sensors Tactical Systems (MS2) and DRS Technologies' Electronic Systems Group have formed a consortium to research and develop a new generation of advanced naval displays, the companies announced Jan. 15. The companies will compete for the U.S. Navy's Naval Display Systems contract, a follow-on to the AN/UYQ-70 Advanced Display Systems contract that Lockheed Martin has had since 1994. The Navy has issued a request for proposals, with responses due in March and a contract award expected this year.
Improving close air support (CAS) will be a top goal of a major exercise that U.S. Joint Forces Command is sponsoring later this month. The Jan. 18-30 Western Range Complex Horizontal Training Exercise, which will consist of live forces in the western United States and simulated activities at 12 sites across the nation, will seek to increase CAS interoperability among the services.
The U.S. Coast Guard's Deepwater project will need a significantly greater number of large and medium-sized cutters than currently planned to fully meet its traditional and emerging mission demands, a pending RAND Corp. study says, according to an analyst. The Deepwater project's plans to modernize and replace the Coast Guard's aging ships, aircraft, command and control and logistics systems include purchasing eight large National Security Cutters and 25 medium-sized Offshore Patrol Cutters.
HOLIDAY NOTICE: In observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday, Aerospace Daily will not published Jan. 19. The next issue will be dated Jan. 20.
The Missile Defense Agency's Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) program is trying to determine why a simulated exo-atmospheric kill vehicle (EKV) failed to separate from its interceptor booster during a Jan. 9 test, according to MDA.
Boeing Capital Co. is considering selling its Commercial Financial Services business, saying the unit is not a core part of the company's strategic focus. The company may sell the unit or sell all or part of its commercial finance portfolio, Boeing said Jan. 15. The Commercial Financial Services unit handles financing for a range of industry equipment. Other units within Boeing Capital arrange financing for Boeing aircraft, satellites and launch vehicles.
The contractor teams led by Boeing and Lockheed Martin that have been working on NASA's Orbital Space Plane (OSP) will spend the remainder of their time under existing contracts determining how much of their work could be applied to the agency's more ambitious Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV).
While praising the Administration for trying to shape a national vision for space, congressional sources told The DAILY that the Administration's proposal leaves many questions unanswered, such as how much it will cost after the first five years. "It's good to finally be setting some goals, but we need to see how real this is," one source said. "It's not clear how they get there." For the Crew Exploration Vehicle, it is unclear why there would be a six-year gap between the first unmanned and manned flights.
Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Air Force have broken ground on construction modifications to Space Launch Complex 3E at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., that will enable West Coast launch of Lockheed's Atlas V rocket by late 2005. The modifications to existing Atlas launch facilities are scheduled to be complete by the end of the year, according to company officials. After the first Atlas V is brought to the pad early next year, the team will spend five months performing integrated testing with the rocket and the new ground facilities.
President Bush has ordered NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe to reprogram $11 billion of the agency's budget over the next five years to meet his new vision of returning human beings to the moon by 2015-2020 and paving the way for human missions to Mars. O'Keefe will be reviewing all of NASA's space flight and exploration activities to refocus the agency on the president's plan. Bush also plans to request that Congress approve an additional $1 billion for the agency over the same five-year period.
