Australia is seeking 16 Joint Tactical Information Distribution Systems (JTIDS) Class 2H Airborne Terminals as a possible Foreign Military Sale (FMS) through the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA). JTIDS, produced by Boeing and Northrop Grumman, is an airborne tool that improves situational awareness and aids air-to-air targeting by providing an aircrew displays of other aircraft in relation to their own. JTIDS typically uses the Link 16 protocol and is currently used by certain U.S. military aircraft.
COOL CHIPS plc, a subsidiary of Borealis Exploration Limited of Gibraltar, United Kingdom, announced that the Boeing Co. is evaluating its patented Cool Chips technology for possible use in aerospace systems. Boeing will have the right of first refusal for aerospace applications for the technology if the evaluation is successful. Cool Chips are small, solid-state devices that can provide localized cooling, refrigeration or air conditioning.
France is seeking a possible foreign military sale for the manufacture and integration of four U.S. Air Force/NATO Radar System Improvement Program (RSIP) modification kits to install in the French E-3F AWACS aircraft fleet. The proposed sale, worth an estimated $190 million, includes installation in the aircraft as well as in a ground-based support facility, system software development and installation, support equipment and other related program elements to ensure the desired radar system performance.
Boeing's Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) has achieved initial operational capability (IOC) on the F/A-18C/D, Navy and Air Force officials told The DAILY on May 30. IOC was declared for JDAM guidance kits on the Mk. 84 2,000 pound bomb and the BLU-109 penetrator bomb. JDAM is a guidance kit that converts existing bombs into accurately guided "smart" bombs by adding an Inertial Navigation System/Global Positioning System capability.
Military interoperability - the ability to effectively execute joint and combined operations - does not yet exist, according to a group of military leaders. Speaking at a naval interoperability workshop in Crystal City, Va. May 30, David Oliver, principal deputy under secretary of defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (ATL), said that when it comes to interoperability, "we aren't doing very well, and we haven't done well for a long time.
NASA's Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere, Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) spacecraft was shipped May 30 from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., to Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., where it is slated to be launched on August 10. The spacecraft, which will spend two years studying the effects of the sun and human-induced activities on part of the Earth's atmosphere, was built at the Johns Hopkins Laboratory.
HERLEY INDUSTRIES, INC. of Lancaster, Pa., has been awarded a contract to supply VSAT transceivers for the transmission and reception of voice, data and video over satellite. The company did not disclose the U.S. communications satellite manufacturer that awarded the contract. The initial contract production is scheduled to be delivered in the first quarter of fiscal year 2002. Annual usage projected by the customer is expected to reach $3 million.
Russian military space forces on May 29 launched a satellite from Plesetsk to conduct a dedicated mission for the Ministry of Defense. Russian officials said the satellite is designated Kosmos-2377.
NASA's Terra spacecraft has produced the most complete view ever assembled of air pollution moving through the atmosphere, NASA announced May 30. The global air pollution monitor onboard Terra is the Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere, or MOPITT experiment, which was contributed to Terra by the Canadian Space Agency.
VERESTAR, Inc., which provides network communications, has selected PanAmSat Corp.'s PAS-1R satellite and related satellite-based services to enhance its high-speed Internet, voice and data applications, PanAmSat announced. Verestar will access the C-band transponders on the PAS-1R satellite through its Satellite Network Access Point in Leuk, Switzerland. The capacity will support a wide array of communications services, including teleport, carrier-grade voice switching and maritime communications services as well as data content distribution services.
Rep. Steve Horn (R-Calif.), whose congressional district hosts the Long Beach assembly site for the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, plans to meet with U.S. Air Force officials June 10 to encourage them to buy more C-17s, a spokeswoman for the lawmaker told The DAILY May 30. Specifically, Horn will recommend buying at least 60 more C-17s than the 134 the Air Force is now authorized to buy.
Problems with the International Space Station's new Canadian-built robot arm prompted managers Wednesday to delay launch of space shuttle Atlantis to July - a move that could jumble NASA's summer flight schedule, Aerospace Daily affiliate AviationNow.com reported. Atlantis had been scheduled to fly on June 20 with its high-priority payload, the U.S-built airlock on the STS-104 mission.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN CORP. announced it now owns 100 percent of Litton Industries Inc. common stock, completing its merger with the shipbuilder. The company announced May 30 it has completed the acquisition of all Litton common stock not previously purchased in its offer for Litton that expired on April 2. Litton shareholders, as of the time of the merger, will receive $80 in cash for each common share.
A report prepared by the Congressional Research Service has concluded that the proposed merger between Newport News Shipbuilding, Inc., and General Dynamics Corp. would reduce competition in both submarine construction and design. But the report also said that a merger between Newport News and Northrop Grumman Corp. could reduce the competition in aircraft carrier and amphibious assault ship construction as well as the development of ship radar and combat systems.
The Bush Administration is considering diverting about $400 million in V-22 Osprey production funding to other uses as part of a fiscal 2001 supplemental defense spending bill it is preparing to send to Capitol Hill, according to congressional sources. The rescission would not have much impact on the V-22 program but would confirm a widely held view that the Osprey is not yet ready to be produced in significant quantities, sources said.
AEROJET of Sacramento, Calif., has won an eight-month, $5 million contract from NASA to study the feasibility of developing a channel wall nozzle to replace the tube nozzle in the Space Shuttle Main Engine. The existing tube nozzle is constructed by brazing together more than 1,000 specially shaped tubes to form the nozzle. During engine operation, hydrogen flows through the inside of these tubes to cool the nozzle and gasify the hydrogen.
A team led by Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) has been awarded two contracts by the Department of Defense to design, develop and field the Joint Network Management System (JNMS) and to provide technical support, training, testing and field support and software maintenance. The two contracts, which have a total estimated value of $75.8 million, will run simultaneously and work is expected to be completed by Oct. 16, 2008, the company announced May 30.
STARSEM, the Soyuz Company, announced it conducted the 1,659th successful launch of a Soyuz launcher on May 29, when a rocket took off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia. This was the fifth Soyuz mission in 2001 and the 63rd successful launch in a row for the Soyuz family, including nine human flights, according to the company. The Russian Aviation and Space Agency owns 25 percent of Starsem, the Samara Space Center owns 25 percent, EADS owns 35 percent and Arianespace owns 15 percent.
New artificial intelligence software that can make decisions without help from ground control will power three miniature satellites NASA plans to launch next year. The Continuous Activity Scheduling, Planning Execution and Replanning (CASPER) software will guide a constellation of three identical satellites, each weighing less than 33 pounds. They will be launched from the space shuttle in a stack configuration and will then fly in formation as part of the Three Corner Sat mission.
Military launches of rockets carrying space weapons probably would be supported largely by military crews with industrial contractors playing only a supporting role, according to U.S. Air Force Space Command's director of operations. Maj. Gen. Howard J. Mitchell said that while contractors today play the primary role in launching rockets, "... when you start talking about ... delivering a payload that is going to be [a weapon] ... it's a different ballgame" than "launching a rocket to put a satellite in orbit."
TRW Aeronautical Systems (Lucas Aerospace) of Solihull, England, officially opened its new Technology&Program Center in Buc, France, the company announced May 30. The center was created to increase the customer focus and competitiveness of TRW Aeronautical Systems' French operations. The company said it will also integrate its 1999 acquisition of French actuation manufacturer SAMM, which moved the company into a leading market position in the supply of flight control actuation.
TRIMBLE's Global Positioning System timing technology is being used by the Federal Aviation Administration for its Terminal Doppler Weather Radar system, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company announced. The TDWR system is installed at 45 major airports across the U.S. that experience hazardous weather conditions, providing increased safety measures and improved runway/airfield management. It detects and displays microbursts and gust fronts, and also predicts wind shifts and precipitation. The Trimble timing technology is used to mark the time weather events occurred.
The Airport Movement Area Safety program (AMASS), years in the making, finally got a green light from the FAA, which said May 29 it will begin using it at 34 of the busiest airports to help prevent runway collisions. FAA, which contracted for the first three AMASS units in June of 1996, said that "developing AMASS into a useful, reliable warning system to meet user requirements has been an extremely complex technical challenge," Aerospace Daily affiliate Aviation Daily reported.
ADVANCED TECHNICAL PRODUCTS, Inc., has entered into a jet engine fan duct production contract with Honeywell Engines and Systems of Phoenix, Ariz., to fabricate jet engine fan ducts. The contract is for fabrication of a composite fan bypass duct produced by the company's resin transfer molding process.
The first prototype high-speed vertical take-off and landing car has moved from the assembly line into the first phase of multi-engine thrust testing, according to officials from Moller International, Inc. Jack Allison, vice-president of administration, said engineers have tested the vehicle's stability and control system by performing a partial lift-off with two engines.
