[Editor's Note: The following is an excerpt from the transcript of a meeting Edward C. "Pete" Aldridge, the U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, held with several reporters in the Pentagon after a briefing June 27 on the defense budget.]
H. Marshall Ward has been named vice president of its newly created Space Systems Operations within BAE SYSTEMS' Information&Electronic Warfare Systems, headquartered in Nashua, N.H.
MERGER BACKLASH? Congress has been on recess since before the European Union announced July 3 that it would block the merger of General Electric Co. and Honeywell International Inc. But if a recent letter by Sen. John "Jay" Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee's aviation subcommittee, is any guide, lawmakers won't have warm and fuzzy things to say about U.S.-EU relations when they return to Washington the week of July 9.
Harris Belman has been named vice president, for Business Development - Systems Integration within its Information&Electronic Systems Integration Sector.
BE PREPARED: Next time the U.S. Army is called into action, it will be ready to deploy the next generation of the Patriot missile defense system, says Lt. General Joseph Cosumano Jr., commander of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command. Cosumano, who appeared at the Valley Forge conference, says the Army is sending a brigade of troops to Colorado Springs to be trained in the operation of the PAC-3 missile defense system, a modification of the PAC-2 system used in Desert Storm. "It will take a few years to deploy that system." Cosumano says.
Patrick T. Doyle has been named treasurer of Hughes and will retain his existing responsibilities as corporate vice president, controller and chief accounting officer.
AL Wyatt has been appointed vice president of Operations. Alexis Livanos has been appointed executive vice president of and second -in-command, reporting directly to BSS president Randy Brinkley.
TRIDENT CONVERSION: The 2002 defense budget's allotment of funds for converting Trident SSBNs (nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines) into SSGNs (nuclear-powered cruise missile submarines) is a "good news/bad news" situation, according to Michael Vickers, director of strategic studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. "The good news is now you've got an SSGN program," says Vickers.
Australia is committed to working with the Bush Administration on missile defense, partly because its forces could gain access to some of the technology involved, Defence Minister Peter Reith said in a recent speech. "From our role in early warning through to our objectives in intelligence and surveillance and ... the protection of our own forces, I am not prepared to limit or foreclose our access to, or benefits from, missile defense technology," Reith said at an Australia/New Zealand/U.S. defense alliance conference in Sydney last week.
EADS Sogerma Services and Thales Avionics have signed a contract to upgrade six C-130 military transport aircraft for a South American air force that was not identified. EADS Sogerma Services, a subsidiary of the European Aeronautics Defence and Space Co., is headquartered in Bordeaux, France and will be the prime contractor for the upgrade and maintenance. Thales Avionics, which provides avionics, electrical systems and cabin electronics, will provide its Topdeck avionics suite. The company is a subsidiary of Paris-based Thales.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is currently developing aerial vehicles no larger than one foot in any dimension that could eliminate the need for human scouts to locate and identify enemy troops. Organic Air Vehicles (OAVs) could carry a variety of sensors, including infrared or electro-optic devices, to detect vehicles or individual soldiers. They could also perform covert imaging in confined urban areas as well as biological and chemical agent detection, tagging and targeting, and battle damage assessment.
HEARING MANIA: Congress will be filled with a host of high-level military officials the week of July 9 for hearings that could shed light on the Bush Administration's defense plans. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish, director of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, will testify on ballistic missile defense policies and programs before the Senate Armed Services Committee, an event that could be filled with fireworks due to deep partisan divisions over missile defense.
NASA PROGRAM: Rep. Mark Udall (D-Colo.), a member of the House Science Committee's space panel, wants local and state governments to have greater access to geospatial data from NASA, other federal agencies and commercial sources to help them manage growth. He has introduced a bill that would authorize NASA to award $15 million in grants a year for pilot projects that integrate geospatial information sources for use by state, regional, local and tribal agencies.
Mark Tucker has been appointed vice president - Program Operations. Robert P. Iorizzo has been appointed president of the company's Electronic Sensors and Systems Sector.
HUMANS NEEDED: Maj. Mark Draper, program manager for the Air Force Research Lab's SIRUS (Synthetic Interface Research for UAV Systems) facility (DAILY, June 1), says the role of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in future combat will expand "to a much greater extent than they are today, certainly." But even if unmanned systems do one day take human combatants out of the field, "the human cannot be taken out of the battle," says Draper. "We need to keep his creativity, his ability to think on his feet, find creative solutions, and insight.
Eurocopter's EC 635, the military version of the company's light twin-engine EC 135, has completed its initial firing trials, the company announced July 5. Test pilots and engineers verified the weapons systems that had to be qualified for Portugal, the EC 635's launch customer, which has ordered nine of the helicopters. The trials lasted two weeks in May and were performed on the NATO Heichteren firing range.
United Industrial Corporation recently announced the appointment of Paul J. Hoeper and Maurice P. Ranc to the Board of Directors of its AAI subsidiary.
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) will be demonstrated at the first exposition of unmanned aviation, scheduled for July 30 at the Webster Field annex of the Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. The Navy's Program Executive Office, Strike Weapons and Unmanned Aviation and the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems (AUVSI) will host the demo, which will be the kickoff to AUVSI's annual conference, which is being held at the Baltimore Convention Center.
