The use of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products in military systems has its share of advantages and pitfalls, according to a panel of Navy and industry experts at the second annual Naval-Industry R&D Partnership Conference in Washington Aug. 14. A key issue for using COTS products is the choice of whether or not to adapt them to military requirements, which are often more stringent than those in the commercial world.
House Armed Services procurement subcommittee Chairman Floyd Spence (R-S.C.) remained in extremely critical condition at a Mississippi hospital on Aug. 15, almost a week after he had surgery to remove a blood clot in his brain, a spokesman for the congressman said. Spence, 73, entered his current condition hours after the Aug. 9 operation at St. Dominic-Jackson Memorial Hospital in Jackson, Miss., his spokesman said. He has been breathing with the aid of a ventilator.
President Bush waived export restrictions late last week on military spare parts and ammunition for some helicopters, missiles and armored personnel carriers, the White House announced Aug. 14. The spare parts will be used to supply weapons systems deployed by Pakistani forces serving with the United Nations Mission to Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), according to a Defense Department spokesman.
The Air Force's Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite program has slipped a year and cost has increased more than $1 billion, an Air Force spokeswoman confirmed yesterday. The program, a follow-on to the Milstar communications satellite program, was originally to have cost $2.5 billion but its cost is now estimated at $4.3 billion, she said. Similarly, while the first launch had been planned for late 2004, it is now being slated for late 2005.
LORAL CYBERSTAR of Rockville, Md., has introduced ClearStream WebCast, which will allow companies to stream video, at data rates up to 300 Kbps, to any authorized user connected to the Internet. The company is a subsidiary of Loral Space&Communications. ClearStream WebCast can operate on its own or in conjunction with ClearStream Live, the company's satellite-delivered, direct-to-end-user multicast service.
Putting an X-band radar in Hawaii as part of a missile defense test program would also make the radar usable for a deployed system, according to two analysts, although defense officials deny the claim. An X-band radar is needed for an operational missile defense system in order to track and discriminate warheads. Under the Clinton administration, the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) wanted to begin building an X-band radar on Shemya Island in Alaska as early as 2001 in order to have an operational missile defense system ready by 2005.
Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) members reached a unanimous decision to recommend that the Air Force's F-22 Raptor air superiority fighter proceed to Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP), although they lowered the total production number from 331 to 295, Undersecretary of Defense E.C. "Pete" Aldridge said Aug. 15. "The program has met all its exit criteria for entering low rate production," Aldridge told reporters one day after the DAB met on the F-22. "It's performing to its design goals."
U.S. military aircraft become more costly to maintain as they age, but such increases haven't been big enough to push up total Defense Department spending on operation and maintenance (O&M), the Congressional Budget Office says in a new report. The Air Force and Navy aviation fleets grew significantly older over the past two decades. The average age of Air Force aircraft rose from 13 years in 1980 to more than 20 years in 2000, while the average age of Navy aircraft rose from 11 years to more than 16 years in the same period.
Restoring trade promotion authority - formerly called "fast track" trade authority - to the president would greatly benefit the aerospace industry, industry experts and representatives told the DAILY Aug. 14. The authority would give the president power to negotiate trade agreements after consulting Congress. In turn, Congress would agree not to amend legislation implementing those trade agreements, voting instead either up or down on those agreements.
THE BOEING CO. and Russia's Ilyushin Aviation Complex announced they will open a training center in Russia for aerospace engineers. The center will be located at Ilyushin's facility in Moscow, and will train engineers for the Boeing Design Center, also in Moscow, according to the company.
NASA has named six new members and eight new consultants to the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, a senior committee that reports to NASA and Congress. It was established by Congress after the 1967 Apollo 1 spacecraft fire, which killed astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee. The new members are: -- Otto Goetz, former chief engineer of the Space Shuttle Main Engine project -- Sid Guttierrez, former astronaut and current manager of the Sandia National Laboratories' Physical Sciences Department
Evans&Sutherland Corp. of Salt Lake City will upgrade F-14 Tomcat simulators for the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division, the company announced Aug. 14. The contract with American Systems Corp. calls for E&S to supply four ESIG-4530 image generators and two sets of TV 200 color target projectors. Delivery, installation and integration at the Naval Air Station OCEANA Simulator Facility will continue through fiscal year 2002, the company reported. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The Boeing-led X-32 Joint Strike Fighter team is preparing for a short takeoff of the program when the engineering and manufacturing development phase begins.
The Air Force is increasing the performance envelope of the new Joint Programmable Fuze (JPF) to allow it to operate at higher altitudes and lower airspeeds, a service official said Aug. 13. Tests show that the fuze, which can be programmed in the cockpit for optimum effect on a target, works well with such standard weapons as laser guided bombs, said Frank Robbins, director of the Precision Strike Systems Program Office at the Air Armament Center, Eglin AFB, Fla.
Boeing has finished an orbital checkout of its flawed Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, TDRS-H, and NASA is expected late this month to finally accept the $200 million satellite more than a year after its launch, Aerospace Daily affiliate AviationNow.com reported. As reported last month by Aviation Week&Space Technology, the 2.5-ton satellite's multiple-access phased array is malfunctioning due to either a design or hardware failure.
Air Force Secretary James Roche said he hopes the Defense Acquisition Board found the service "persuasive" when it said the F-22 Raptor should move into low-rate initial production. The DAB, which is chaired by Undersecretary of Defense E.C. "Pete" Aldridge, met on Aug. 14 to discuss the F-22 LRIP decision, but no details of its findings have been released. "This is the first DAB I'll have gone through with Pete [Aldridge]," Roche told a group of defense writers at a Washington breakfast Aug. 14. "I hope he finds our case persuasive."
The unmanned Helios solar-powered aircraft prototype reached the record-setting altitude of 96,500 feet in a 17-hour flight from the Hawaiian island of Kauai. The flight, according to backers of the project, helps open the way to an era of high-flying, long endurance, robot aircraft that will be able to perform duties of satellites at a fraction of the cost.
CUBIC WORLDWIDE TECHNICAL SERVICES will operate and maintain helicopter trainers at Naval Air Station North Island, Calif., and Naval Station Mayport, Fla., under a $1.8 million contract, the company announced Aug. 14. The 22-month contract covers labor, materials, equipment, tools, test equipment and documentation updates for operating and maintaining 10 SH-60B Seahawk Helicopter Light Airborne Multipurpose System MK III trainers.
NASA will likely decide by the end of August whether to hold off for a few years on installing new glass cockpits in two space shuttle orbiters, an agency spokeswoman said Aug. 14. The current plan calls for the new Honeywell cockpit to be installed on Discovery this fall and on Endeavour in early fiscal 2003, replacing mechanical instruments with full-color, flat-panel display screens.
Saab Bofors Dynamics, of Stockholm, Sweden, has signed a contract with Thales Netherland B.V. to sell RBS 15 missile AD systems, which will be mounted on Polish navy ships. The contract is worth 10 million euros ($8.9 million), according to Saab. Thales is upgrading three Polish ORKAN class vessels, which includes installing Thales' TACTICOS combat control system, Ericsson Microwave Systems' Giraffe three-dimensional radar and the RBS 15 systems.
(Editor's note: This is an excerpt of Aug. 13 remarks by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld after bilateral meetings in Russia.)
The U.S. government has approved the sale of Boeing's Standoff Land Attack Missile Expanded Response (SLAM-ER) to South Korea, the company announced Aug. 13. Boeing produces the missile for the U.S. Navy. SLAM-ER has a range of more than 150 nautical miles and uses the Global Positioning System and an infrared seeker for precise attacks against targets on land or sea. South Korea is also considering buying Boeing's F-15K, an improved version of the F-15E Strike Eagle flown by the U.S. Air Force, as part of its F-X fighter competition.
Spare parts shortages for the Navy's EA-6B Prowler and F-14 Tomcat have hurt the Navy's readiness to perform missions, have driven up costs for maintenance activities on the aircraft and have "contributed to problems retaining military personnel," says a new report by the General Accounting Office.
LOCKHEED MARTIN'S Joint Air-to-surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) Warhead Team will be honored by the NATO Insensitive Munitions Information Centre (NIMIC) at a symposium in Bordeaux, France, in October, the company announced. The award recognizes JASSM's increased safety and reduced vulnerability in combat and peacetime operations, according to the company - the munition will only detonate to destroy a target.
August 10, 2001 Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, Fort Worth, Texas, is being awarded a $19,319,295 firm-fixed-price contract to provide for initial spare parts for the Israeli Air Force in support of their F-16 aircraft. At this time $10,208,164 of the funds have been obligated. This work is expected to be complete July 2003. Air Logistics Center, Hill Air Force Base, Utah, is the contracting activity (F42620-99-C-0027 PM0061).
