MORE THAN LETHAL: The Navy Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle will have to do more than fight if it is to be truly integrated into carrier operations, according to Capt. Rand LeBouvier, who oversees UAV programs for the Navy. "Due to limited space, it's going to have to earn its place aboard the aircraft carrier, which means it's going to have to perform a daily role," says LeBouvier. "And that daily role will have to be something other than just carrying a bomb.
SUKHOI DREAMS: Frustrated with the continuing U.S-imposed arms embargo against it, Indonesia says it is now interested in acquiring the Sukhoi Su-30, Russia's latest model fighter. Indonesian Air Force Chief Hananfie Asnan announced the military would be interested in buying up to 16 aircraft from the Russians. But at a price tag of $35 million each for the Su-30, Indonesia may be better off waiting for the U.S. to lift the embargo. "Indonesia doesn't have the money for this purchase," according to an analyst.
OUT OF BUSINESS: If something isn't done to help U.S. commercial aerospace exporters penetrate overseas markets, the commercial aerospace industry in the U.S. might go the way of the U.S. commercial shipbuilding industry: out of business, says John Douglass, president and CEO of the Aerospace Industries Association. Douglass says the U.S. was the world's leading commercial shipbuilder after the Second World War. By the time he became assistant secretary of the Navy in the mid-1990s, there wasn't a single commercial ship built in the U.S.
ORBITAL SCIENCES CORP. of Dulles, Va., will sell its Pomona, Calif.-based Sensor Systems Division for about $20 million to the Hamilton Sundstrand unit of United Technologies Corp. The deal is expected to close in September, according to the company. Orbital's SSD designs, manufactures and supports sensors and analytical instruments for defense, space and industrial applications. Its main products are atmosphere monitors, space instruments, chemical and biological agent detection devices and commercial process analyzers.
Three companies will begin briefing the Air Force Aug. 13 on their proposals for the Small Diameter Bomb, a weapon that would supplement larger bombs by increasing the number of kills per sortie. $3 billion program
The Navy is considering purchasing the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle to supplement its aging fleet of P-3 surveillance aircraft, according to Capt. Rand LeBouvier, speaking at an unmanned vehicle conference in Baltimore, Md. August 1. He said one possible application for Global Hawk would be "as an adjunct to the multi-mission maritime aircraft investigation that's going on now, to determine what the replacement for P-3 will be." Global Hawk would not replace the P-3, he emphasized, but might instead fly with existing squadrons.
THE BOEING CO. will continue the modernization of the NATO Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) fleet under a $24 million contract from the Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., the company announced Aug. 2. The contract will allow the company to order long-lead parts for the 17-aircraft NATO AWACS fleet, according to Boeing.
THE SENATE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE voted Aug. 2 to send to the Senate the nominations of Gen. John P. Jumper to be Air Force chief of staff and John P. Stenbit to be the assistant secretary of defense for command, control, communications and intelligence.
Air Force and Department of Defense officials defended the progress of the F-22 Raptor fighter before a House Government Reform Committee national security panel on Aug. 2. "The F-22 program continues to demonstrate technical progress that meets or exceed the performance measures established for the program," said George Schneiter, the director of strategic and tactical systems for the office of the under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics.
The House Armed Services Committee late Aug. 1 called for additional C-17 buys, endorsed the development of a boost-phase missile defense system with Israel, and rejected a Democratic proposal to shift $985 million from missile defense to other weapon systems. Besides those measures, all considered as proposed changes to the fiscal 2002 defense authorization bill, the committee approved several other aerospace-related amendments, including one that aims to shore up military space activities.
(Editor's note: The following is excerpted testimony from the responses by Gen. John P. Jumper, nominated to be Air Force chief of staff, to written questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee. Jumper testified Aug. 1.)
The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS) and its Airbus subsidiary are considering setting up manufacturing facilities in the United States to help the companies compete for civilian and military aircraft contracts, said Gregory H. Bradford, president of EADS Inc. of Washington. "EADS and Airbus, together and separately, are continuing to look ... at additional opportunities to do assembly and manufacturing in the U.S.," Bradford told The DAILY Aug. 2.
The House Foreign Relations Committee voted Aug. 1 to make changes in the House version of the Export Administration Act (EAA), despite warnings from some committee members that doing so would delay the passage of a final export control bill. Before the changes, the bill mirrored the Senate's version of the EAA, which passed the Senate Banking Committee several weeks ago.
The Brazilian government plans to buy between 12 and 24 fighter aircraft with an estimated budget of $700 million. Responses to the government's Request for Proposals - issued Aug. 1 - are due Oct. 1, 2001, and a final decision will be executed in June 2002, according to an announcement issued by the Brazilian Aeronautical Communications Center.
The House Armed Services Committee late Aug. 1 approved a fiscal 2002 defense authorization bill that matches the Bush Administration's request for the Defense Department's three major fighter programs - the Joint Strike Fighter, F-22 Raptor and F/A-18E/F Super Hornet - but contains modest cuts for the V-22 Osprey.
Four major tasks confront the Lockheed Martin X-35 Joint Strike Fighter team as members await a Pentagon decision on whether they or the Boeing X-32 team will win the $20 billion contract to build 22 fighters in the Engineering and Manufacturing Development phase of the program. A full-scale production program eventually could be worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Tom Burbage, a Lockheed Martin executive vice president and general manager of the X-35 JSF team, outlined the tasks in a phone conference Aug. 1.
THE JASON 1 satellite, a joint project of NASA and CNES, the French space agency, arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., for final preparations before its planned Sept. 15 launch. Jason 1 is a follow-on to Topex/Poseidon, a U.S.-French spacecraft that has been making ocean surface topography measurements since 1992. Jason 1 will move in a parallel orbit with Topex/Poseidon.
(Editor's note: The following is excerpted testimony from the responses by John P. Stenbit, nominated to be the assistant secretary of defense for command, control, communications and intelligence, to written questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee. Stenbit testified July 31.) -- Q: In your view, what are the major challenges that will confront the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence)?
GENERAL ELECTRIC CO. has not yet decided whether it will appeal a ruling by European Union Trade Commissioner Mario Monti against its proposed merger with Honeywell Corp., a company spokesman said Aug. 1. Louise Binns said press reports speculating GE is likely to appeal are premature. "We're still reviewing all of our options," Binns said. "And obviously, our options include appealing the decision." Binns said the company does not feel it has to make a decision soon. The deadline for filing an appeal is mid-September, Binns said.
India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested eight people it said were members of a commercial espionage operation accused of seeking to trade in Indian military aircraft secrets. The CBI action - which included the arrest of a retired air vice marshal - was done under the Official Secrets Act. Those arrested were allegedly acquiring defense secrets relating to commercial purchases made by the Indian Air Force.
The U.S. Coast Guard is considering launching unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from parasails as one of several ideas for deploying UAVs from Coast Guard ships and integrating them into day-to-day operations. "We've got a lot of surveillance/identification missions, search and rescue, law enforcement, where UAVs make sense," said Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Michael Walz, speaking at an unmanned vehicle conference here Aug. 1. "The problem is space," he said.
Slips in the planned launch of a NASA mission from Cape Canaveral, Fla., could affect the rescheduled launch of an Air Force mission. NASA's Genesis spacecraft, which will gather solar wind material and return it to Earth, was initially set for launch July 30 by a Delta II rocket, but NASA delayed that to check the spacecraft's power supplies and then slipped it again due to bad weather.
The Center for Security Policy and other conservative groups announced the formation July 31 of a coalition to show support for the Bush Administration's missile defense program. At a Capitol Hill press conference that included Sens. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), members of the new coalition, Americans for Missile Defense, said they hope to collect one million on-line petitions endorsing the Administration's commitment to build and deploy a missile shield. The petitions will be sent to congressional leaders.
NORAD and the U.S. Army's Space and Missile Defense Command are working closely on the preliminary stages of a program to develop a stratospheric airship that could fly at 70,000 feet for a year with a two-ton payload. The technical challenges are significant and no funding has been allocated, but meetings over the last year have helped confirm the potential value of such a vehicle, according to Air Force Col. Charles Lambert, chief of requirements and programs at North American Aerospace Defense Command Headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Gen. John P. Jumper, the Bush Administration's choice to be chief of staff of the Air Force, said the Air Force needs the F-22 Raptor fighter to help stave off the aging of its fleet. "... In terms of recapitalization, we need your help," Jumper told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee at his nomination hearing Aug. 1. Air Force aircraft now "have an average age of 22 years. If we are able to procure everything that's on the books now in full quantity, in 15 years the average age of our aircraft will be 30 years of age."
