Los Angeles, Calif.-based Northrop Grumman Corp. announced Aug. 27 that it will lay off 500 people as part of its effort to consolidate most of its Navigation Systems Division into company-owned facilities in Woodland Hills, Calif. Many of the advanced electronics businesses Northrop acquired during its April 2001 purchase of Litton Industries Inc., are contained within the Navigation Systems Division, which is a part of the company's Electronic Systems Sector.
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL)is working on an agreement with the European Association of Aerospace Industries and the Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation for joint ventures in areas like air traffic control, airports and civil certification of aircraft. "We had two steering committee meetings and the next one will be in Brussels. The effort will be speeded up," said C.G. Krishnadas Nair, the outgoing chairman of HAL.
LOCKHEED MARTIN has begun a joint test program with the U.S. Air Force and Army to validate the C-130J-30 for paratroop airdrop operations. The tests are being conducted by the Airborne and Special Operations Test Directorate at Fort Bragg, N.C., and are being flown out of Pope Air Force Base, N.C.
HMS Ark Royal, the Royal Navy's flagship aircraft carrier, rejoins the British fleet Aug. 29 after completion of a major two-year refit and service trials in the North Sea. Costing 147 million pounds ($205 million), the refit was done by Babcock Engineering Services (BES) at the company's Rosyth shipyard in Scotland.
Japan's Ministry of Education and Science will merge the nation's three space-related agencies - the National Space Development Agency, the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science and the National Aerospace Laboratory - by about 2003. The Space Activities Commission, which administers Japan's space programs, will remain as an independent committee.
Rep. John Spratt (D-S.C.), a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, said Aug. 28 that he hopes to offer an amendment on the House floor to redirect money in the fiscal 2002 defense authorization bill from missile defense to other weapons.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of the Philippines has asked the Congress to approve a 31 percent increase in next year's defense budget, according to press reports from Manila. According to reports from the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Arroyo has asked for about $1.1 billion for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). About $200 million will be earmarked for the AFP's modernization program to upgrade the military's aircraft, warships, weaponry and fighting skills.
GOVERNMENT MICRO RESOURCES, INC., and CRAY, INC., have been awarded a contract under NASA's Scientific and Engineering Workstation Procurement (SEWP) program to provide computers for NASA and other agencies and contractors. The contract is an Indefinite Delivery&Indefinite Quantity contract in the High Performance Supercomputer Class and is available to all federal agencies and approved federal contractors. The companies said it has a maximum value of $4 billion.
The joint U.S./Israel Arrow missile defense program had another successful test Aug. 27 when it shot down an aircraft-launched target missile, Israel Aircraft Industries announced. The test, the ninth in a series, was against a "Black Sparrow" target simulating a ballistic missile approaching Israel's shores. According to IAI, initial results show that all components of the weapon system, the Green Pine radar, the Citron Tree fire control, and the Arrow missile, performed as planned. The Black Sparrow target was destroyed.
APOLLO ENERGY SYSTEMS, INC., of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is working on propulsion systems for future manned Mars rovers that would produce zero emissions, using alkaline fuel cells and lead cobalt batteries. A second-generation system, now being designed, could have a top speed of 40 miles per hour with a range of 600 miles, according to the company. If geothermal-heated water is found beneath the surface of Mars, it could be converted to oxygen and hydrogen needed to power the company's fuel cells, which will keep the lead cobalt batteries charged, the company said.
The Defense Department informed Congress late last week that Egypt wants to buy Extended-Range Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (ER-MLRS). The purchase, estimated at $354 million, includes 26 Extended Range-Multiple Launch Rockets Systems (ER-MLRS) with fire control panels, 485 ER-MLRS rocket pods, 22 reduced range practice rocket pods, and one MLRS fire control proficiency trainer.
Aerospace and defense analysts with Standard&Poor's assigned an "A" rating to $500 million of floating bond notes issued Aug. 22 by Falls Church, Va.-based General Dynamics Corp. The 3-year notes, which mature Sept. 1, 2004, are being issued under Rule 144a of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and have registration rights. S&P analysts affirmed all outstanding ratings for General Dynamics and said the ratings outlook for the company remains stable.
An LV Proton-K heavy rocket carrier was launched Aug. 25 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 00:35 Moscow Time , according to a press release issued by the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center. The rocket was launched by military crews of the Russian Space Troops and carried a Cosmos satellite for the Russian Ministry of Defense, according to Khrunichev. The satellite payload is intended to buttress Russia's early-warning capabilities, according to the Russian newspaper Kommersant.
Boeing has begun an upgrade of Saudi Arabia's fleet of five AWACS aircraft as part of a contract worth about $60 million. The first of the Royal Saudi Air Force's Airborne Warning and Control System planes has arrived in Seattle. This plane and one other will be fitted with new mission computers and other hardware and software this year, and the three others will be similarly upgraded next year, Boeing said Aug. 22.
The next flight in the Cosmos 1 solar sail project will be an orbital test of a full eight-bladed sail, not another sub-orbital attempt like the one that recently failed in Russia, according to the Planetary Society. A two-bladed solar sail prototype crashed to Earth on July 20 after it failed to separate from its booster rocket during a sub-orbital test (DAILY, July 24).
GASL Inc. of Ronkonkoma, N.Y. has conducted the first successful free flights of a hypersonic projectile powered by a scramjet engine burning hydrocarbon fuel, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced Aug. 27. A large gun at the Air Force's Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) at Arnold Air Force Base, Tenn. fired the projectiles during two tests on June 20 and July 26. The titanium projectiles were four-inch diameter, 20-percent scale models of a conceptual missile.
Harris Corp. of Melbourne, Fla., will supply a network management system to support communications at the White Sands Missile Range, N.M., under a $2.3 million contract from the U.S. Army's Simulation, Training and Instrumentation Command.
The Boeing Co. delivered the fourth and final C-17 Globemaster III military cargo aircraft to the United Kingdom Royal Air Force during ceremonies at the company's production facility in Long Beach, Calif., on Aug. 24. The four C-17s are leased under a seven-year agreement with Boeing. They will be part of the U.K.'s Joint Rapid Reaction Force. The U.K. is the first international customer for the C-17 Globemaster III. To date, the RAF C-17s have flown more than 200 hours, according to Boeing.
Although NASA's Space Launch Initiative (SLI) propulsion effort is largely focused on the near-term challenges of the second-generation reusable launch vehicle (RLV), the program is already working on systems for the third generation and beyond. This kind of parallel development has been sorely missing from NASA's previous propulsion efforts, according to SLI Propulsion Project Office Manager Garry Lyles. "We've finally put in place, I believe, a sound technology program for the long term," Lyles told The DAILY.
With a decision to deploy missile defense not yet made, Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) officials are making a fundamental shift in the program, focusing on an open architecture that incorporates more testing and alternative technology paths. National missile defense - previously conceived as a one-shot deployment that would protect the territorial United States - is now simply ballistic missile defense, and BMDO is being reorganized to reflect the new program divisions, officials said.
