NASHVILLE, Tenn. - U.S. Army researchers say they plan to expand the kinds of weapons fired in tests from unmanned aerial vehicles. The use of armed Predator UAVs by non-Army U.S. forces in recent military operations has helped fuel the Army's interest in such platforms. "Certainly, the weaponization of UAVs is a very hot and interesting topic right now, and we're doing some things along those lines, too," said Col. William Gavora, commander of the Army's Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD), based at Fort Eustis, Va.
The NATO Response Force (NRF) will serve as a "forcing mechanism" for military transformation within NATO member countries by requiring interoperability between the systems that are contributed to it, according to Marine Corps Gen. James Jones, Supreme Allied Commander Europe.
Boeing conducted the latest in a series of successful tests and demonstrations last week of the company's prototype future battle management system for joint military commanders. The tests focus on reducing the risk of fielding the complex, network-centric systems, Boeing said in a statement. The risk reduction events began in 2003.
SPACE COMMAND: Air Force Space Command has awarded SI International, Inc. a contract to support Space Command, U.S. Strategic Command, North American Aerospace Defense Command, U.S. Northern Command and other government agencies. The contract has a 3.5-year base period, with options that could boost its value to $800 million.
S&T: The U.S. Department of Defense increased the amount for hypersonics research in the fiscal 2005 budget request primarily to support the Single Engine Demonstration (SED), says Ronald Sega, director of defense research and engineering. The SED will integrate the Air Force's Hypersonic Technology (HyTech) engine with Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency air vehicle technology (DAILY, March 22).
J-UCAS DROP: As expected, Boeing's X-45 Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems X-45A technology demonstrator has dropped a 250-pound inert Small Diameter Bomb. The vehicle released an unguided SDB while flying at 35,000 feet over Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The drop of a guided munition is expected next month (DAILY, March 22).
The U.S. Air Force does not plan to make many of the billions of dollars in improvements to the F/A-22 Raptor that the General Accounting Office recently suggested were planned to enhance the Lockheed Martin aircraft's ability to attack ground targets, according to two service officials.
PRAGUE, Czech Republic - Czech aircraft producer Aero Vodochody is to pay the Czech ministry of defense almost $28 million in penalties for the late delivery of L-159 fighters to the Czech air force. Defense spokesman Ladislav Sticha told The DAILY March 22 that the fines were agreed upon after an arbitration hearing. The air force received the last batch of 72 ordered aircraft last fall, at least 18 months after the original deadline set in a contract signed in 1997.
Over the next 10 years, the Eurofighter team is expected to surpass U.S. companies in sales of "fighter/attack/jet trainer aircraft," says a recently released market analysis by a defense research group, Forecast International (FI). Lockheed Martin will lead the field in terms of unit production, but the analysis sees the Eurofighter team overtaking the U.S. company in value of production before the end of the forecast period. This projection assumes the multinational Typhoon requirement is not cut back.
A team of defense experts should review tactical air funding requirements over the next two decades to try to prevent continued budget shortfalls, Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) said March 25.
Sikorsky is laying off approximately 100 employees who had been working on the Army's RAH-66 Comanche helicopter program, the company announced March 25. About 700 Sikorsky employees were working on Comanche before the Army's cancellation of the program last month (DAILY, Feb. 24). Two hundred of those employees already have been reassigned to other efforts within the company, according to Sikorsky President Steve Finger.
Funding basic research and science and technology is important to enable the development of future military capabilities, Department of Defense science and technology (S&T) officials said March 25 at a House hearing. The fiscal 2005 budget request for basic research is $1.3 billion. The DOD request for science and technology (S&T) in fiscal 2005 is $10.6 billion, an increase of about 1.5 percent increase over the fiscal 2004 budget request, said Ronald Sega, director of DOD Defense Research and Engineering.
The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) announced March 25 that is has founded a Russian subsidiary that will promote cooperation with that country's aerospace industry. One of the goals of the new venture will be to increase the amount of subcontracting work performed by Russian companies for Airbus, according to EADS Russia President and CEO Vadim Vlasov.
DENVER, Colo. - Industry is sorting out how to handle the architectures that will be key to interoperabilty in network-centric warfare - whether they should be owned by industry or by the government, according to attendees at a conference here. One group says industry should own the architectures, another says they should be owned by the government.
The U.S. Air Force is negotiating with Boeing to lay the legal groundwork necessary to lift the sanctions levied against the company for ethical misconduct, according to Peter Teets, Air Force undersecretary for space.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - U.S. Army aviation will need more spare parts, diagnostic equipment and other tools to sustain the high readiness rates it will need to have in future years, a service official said March 25.
Members of the House Armed Services Committee's readiness subcommittee asked whether a round of base closures in 2005 is justified, a day after Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld certified to Congress that a new round of military base closures could save billions by 2011. "Ultimately, we must be able to answer the question: Is 2005 the right time for another round of base closures? Should Congress consider delaying or even canceling the next BRAC round?" Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Joel Hefley (R-Colo.) asked in his opening statement.
SAGEM AVIONICS INC. of Paris has acquired the assets of avionics company ARNAV Systems Inc., of Puyallup, Wash. Sagem said the acquisition will complement its existing line of LCD cockpit displays, data processing and communication systems, airborne weather services and satellite phones. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The U.S. Navy's decision to delay the prime contract award in the VXX presidential helicopter program could threaten the jobs of former Comanche employees that Sikorsky had hoped to reassign to the VXX, according to the company. The Navy announced March 23 that it is delaying the contract award, originally expected in the spring, to allow for more risk reduction work (DAILY, March 23).
BAE SYSTEMS, Farnborough, United Kingdom Dick Olver will be appointed a non-executive director on May 17 and will succeed Sir Richard Evans as chairman on July 1. GLOBALSECURE HOLDINGS, Landover, Md. Craig R. Bandes has been named chief executive officer, succeeding C. Thomas McMillen, who has resigned as CEO and from the board of directors to pursue other opportunities. NATIONAL SPACE SOCIETY, Washington George T. Whitesides has been appointed executive director. OTPICS1, Westlake Village, Calif.
GENERAL DYNAMICS C4 SYSTEMS will provide information assurance, systems engineering, payload and ground element support and logistics to the Boeing Co. for the U.S. Air Force's Transformational Communications MILSATCOM (TCM) program, the company said. The work has a potential value of $22.5 million. Boeing and Lockheed Martin each were awarded roughly $470 million contracts earlier this year to begin the 27-month risk reduction and system definition phase of the program (DAILY, Jan. 20).
KAMAN AEROSPACE CORP. has been selected to supply structures and engineering work for the US101 helicopter that Lockheed Martin and AgustaWestland have proposed for the VXX presidential helicopter competition. If the team wins, Kaman would perform metallic and composite structural manufacturing work at its Jacksonville, Fla., and Wichita, Kan., facilities, and contribute engineering resources.
