NEW DELHI - India and the United States have agreed to sign a formal agreement on high-technology trade. Indian Ministry of External Affairs officials told The DAILY that the agreement will be signed during Indian Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha's visit to Washington in the third week of January, 2004. The official said New Delhi and Washington have worked out issues pertaining to the trade of cutting-edge technology, including for civilian nuclear energy, space, missile defense and commerce.
The Department of Homeland Security expects to award contracts in early January for the first phase of a program to develop systems to protect airliners from shoulder-fired missiles. "We will plan to do something the week of Jan. 5," Michelle Petrovich, a spokeswoman for DHS's Science and Technology Division, said Dec. 22. Some had expected the step to be taken late last week (DAILY, Dec. 19).
North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and U.S. Northern Command said they are responding to an elevation of the national threat level to "high" on Dec. 21, but declined to say how. The measure was taken because of "a substantial increase in the volume of threat-related intelligence reports," Tom Ridge, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said Dec. 21. He said reports "suggest the possibility of attacks against the homeland around the holiday season and beyond."
COMPOSITE TANK: Northrop Grumman and Marshall Space Flight Center engineers have demonstrated that a fuel tank made of composite materials can safely contain liquid hydrogen under simulated launch conditions, the company said Dec. 19. The tests were conducted Nov. 22 at the center in Huntsville, Ala., as part of NASA's Next Generation Launch Technology program (NGLT). "This ...
ARMY LASER: Army Maj. Gen. John Urias, deputy commanding general for research, development and acquisition at Army Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC), says he is trying to determine the future course of SMDC's electrically driven Solid State Heat Capacity Laser (SSHCL). SMDC has been exploring the laser with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for possible use as a weapon on ground vehicles. The SSHCL has "achieved some very dramatic and significant success over the last year in working through our technical challenges," Urias says.
VLS DELIVERY: Lockheed Martin has delivered the first MK 41 Vertical Launching System (VLS) module for installation on the Norwegian navy's Fridtjof Nansen frigate, the company said Dec. 19. The ship is the first of five in its class, and Lockheed Martin will deliver one launcher a year for each ship, the company said.
IN TOUCH: Global mobile broadband services will be available to users virtually anywhere in the world under an agreement between the European Space Agency (ESA) and Inmarsat, ESA says. Beginning in 2005, the collaboration will extend the capabilities of Inmarsat's new Broadband Global Area Network system (BGAN), which uses the company's I-4 satellite constellation. BGAN applications will include Internet access, video on demand, web TV, fax, email and local area network access through notebook-sized terminals that can be used almost anywhere in the world, ESA says.
WISH LIST: The Project on Government Oversight (POGO), a Washington, D.C.-based watchdog organization, supports an expanded investigation into the Boeing Co.'s contracts with the U.S. Air Force. The Air Force has asked the Department of Defense's inspector general to look into contracts involving former service acquisition official Darleen Druyun, who went to work for Boeing but has since been fired (DAILY, Dec. 18). POGO says one good candidate for examination is the effort to commercialize the C-17 Globemaster. "We hope the IG examines Ms.
GOOD IDEA: Boeing's philosophy of pursuing defense as well as commercial business is a good one, according to several analysts. Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute says the move of Boeing's headquarters to Chicago a couple of years ago is "a corporate statement that it is not going to simply stick with the airliner business, regardless of what kind of returns it gets, or what kind of relationship it has with its workforce.
The U.S. Navy's replacement for its Cobra Judy radar system, with new S-band and X-band radars, will allow improved foreign ballistic missile tracking and missile defense testing capabilities, Raytheon Co. officials said.
CHRISTMAS LANDING: Following a "flawless" release from the Mars Express vehicle on Dec. 19, the Beagle 2 rover is on schedule to land on Mars Dec. 25, according to the European Space Agency (ESA). The release had to be extremely precise, ESA says, because the lander has no propulsion or steering system of its own. The Mars Express orbiter will spend two years circling the planet, and the lander will spend six months studying an area known as Idisis Planitia, near the equator.
Boeing will provide 44 Harpoon all-up round (AUR) missiles for Taiwan and Egypt and various missile equipment for Japan and Turkey under a $70 million contract from the Naval Air Systems Command, the Defense Department (DOD) said last week. Taiwan will get 34 missiles and Egypt will get 10. The contract combines Foreign Military Sales for the four countries. The work is expected to be completed in December 2005, according to the DOD.
Armor Holdings Inc. has completed its acquisition of defense contractor Simula Inc. and created an Aerospace and Defense Group that is bringing in 40 percent of the company's revenue. "This acquisition positions the company as a significant defense contractor," Armor Holdings Chairman and CEO Warren B. Kanders said in a statement. "Combined with the military products produced by our Mobile Security Division, such as Up Armored HMMWV and HIMARS, Simula forms the cornerstone of our newly formed Aerospace and Defense Group."
LOW COST INTERCEPTOR: Before the Army makes a long-term commitment to the Low Cost Interceptor (LCI), it will need some assurances, Urias says. "We want to continue to push LCI down the developmental pathway, do some flight tests and prove that it is going to be truly low cost," Urias says. "Sometimes, I think we have been surprised when it comes to procuring these items. What we think was going to be low cost ends up being rather high cost." SMDC is developing LCI to destroy such targets as unmanned aerial vehicles and unsophisticated cruise missiles.
EXEC HELO: Proposals to build the next presidential helicopter are due to Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) next month, with the winner of the competition to be announced in the spring. Lockheed Martin/AgustaWestland's US101 and Sikorsky's S-92 are competing to begin carrying the president and other heads of state starting in 2008. NAVAIR plans to purchase 23 new aircraft to replace the current fleet of aging VH-3D and VH-60N helicopters.
NEW DELHI - The Indian defense ministry says it has successfully tested its Trishul short-range missile with a new guidance system and won't buy a foreign substitute. A series of tests are planned before the end of the year to fine-tune the guidance system. Technical problems with the system caused the missile to under-perform in earlier tests, a defense ministry official said.
U.K. AND JSF: A report by Rand-Europe on Britain's planned buy of 150 Joint Strike Fighters "provided useful advice on the feasibility of establishing a [JSF] final assembly and checkout facility in the United Kingdom," says Adam Ingram, minister of state for armed forces. "Establishment of such a facility is one strand of our approach to the production and support phases of the Joint Strike Fighter Program," Ingram told Parliament Dec. 16 in response to a written question. "Work is in hand with U.K.
The Navy is close to awarding contracts worth billions of dollars to the Boeing Co. to build more F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighters and develop the EA-18G electronic attack aircraft.
Jan. 6 - 7, 2004 -- The Association of the United States Army aviation symposium and exhibition, Crystal Gateway Marriott, Crystal City, Va. For additional information call 703-841-4300 or go to www.ausa.org. Jan. 20 - 22 -- Network Centric Warfare 2004, "Meeting the Challenges of Warfare in the Information Age," Sheraton National Hotel, Arlington, Va. Call (800) 882-8684, fax (973) 256-0205, email [email protected] or go to www.ncw2004.com.
The Boeing Integration Center (BIC) in Anaheim, Calif., is a key element in Boeing's effort to promote network-centric operations inside the company and among its customers, according to Tip Slater, deputy director for Boeing Strategic Architecture.
PRAGUE, Czech Republic - The United States threw away its chances of selling F-16s to the Czech Republic by mishandling aspects of a competition ultimately won this week by the Swedish government with its JAS-39 Gripen, according to leading Czech political analysts. The United States underestimated the competition and made a series of mistakes in its lobbying efforts by failing, among other things, to grasp the complexity of the Czech political scene, they told The DAILY.
