How much the U.S. lost in military secrets due to a Navy EP-3E's emergency landing in China Sunday will depend on how much data and equipment the aircrew was able to destroy before landing and how long the plane stays in Chinese hands, experts said yesterday. The EP-3 is one of the U.S. military's most important electronic intelligence-gathering assets, providing information on how other countries are using the electromagnetic spectrum, said Christopher Bolkcom, an aerospace analyst with the Congressional Research Service.
Australian defense chief Peter Reith launched an unusually partisan attack on the opposition during the weekend while defending the government's ambitious new Defense White Paper and its spending plans, provoking a sharp rebuke from opposition leaders and, say some Australian defense commentators, diminishing his credibility in the debate.
The Marine Corps' new AH-1Z Super Cobra helicopter will soon begin an extensive series of flight tests at Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland. The first AH-1Z helicopter arrived at Pax River on Saturday, and the tests are scheduled to last through November of next year. Ground turns will begin next week, with data flights scheduled to start the week of April 16th. A typical flight duration will be 1.5 hours. April 16th start
The Chinese commandeering the U.S. Navy's EP-3E advanced electronic reconnaissance aircraft following its emergency landing on Hainan Island at the southern tip of China, "would be like finding fire," one source familiar with the situation told The Daily. In terms of the technological capabilities of the aircraft, the Chinese "are just not there yet," the source said. "That doesn't mean they can't have asymmetrical capabilities, but they are just not that sophisticated," said the source.
Scientists have completed the first three years of a global observation of the Earth's "biological engine" - the plants that cover its land and oceans, according to NASA. The observations, which are the first continuous global look at plants, are expected to continue for another decade or longer. "This is a period of exploration for us," said Michael Behrenfield, an oceanographer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "We've never been able to see the Earth this way before."
McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Co., d.b.a. McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Services, Mesa, Ariz., was awarded $7,000,000 on March 28, 2001, as part of firm-fixed-price/delivery order contract DAAH23-98-G-0049, for recapitalization support services for the AH-64A Apache helicopter. Work will be performed in Mesa, Ariz., and is expected to be completed by March 31, 2002. This is a sole source contract initiated on Feb. 7, 2001. The U.S. Army Aviation&Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity.
BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman will explore new mission system concepts for Britain's emerging Future Organic Airborne Early-Warning (FOAEW) program under an April 2 Ministry of Defence study contract. The companies will assess the merits of several different platform types and surveillance radars in the nine-month Concept Phase contract, together with the issues and integration risks involved.
Raytheon Co., Tucson, Ariz., is being awarded a $7,413,380 modification to previously awarded cost-plus-incentive fee contract (N00024-98-C-5427) for production of six modification (ORDALT) kits and associated hardware for MK 49 Guided Missile Launching Systems of the Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) Program.
Foreign firms are intensifying their efforts to reduce the United States' lucrative share of the defense and commercial international aerospace market, Lockheed Martin Overseas Corporation President Jim Nelson told the National Defense Industrial Association's Test&Evaluation Conference here last week. Nelson cited his own company's experience to demonstrate the importance of the international marketplace to aerospace companies.
HASC LOSS: Due to the death last week of Sisisky, the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) will be without a member who had a "cheerful spirit" and a "unique ability to bridge partisan divides," says committee Chairman Bob Stump (R-Ariz.). Sisisky was a senior member of HASC and ranking Democrat on the procurement subcommittee.
Orbital Sciences Corp.'s small space launch vehicle, the Pegasus XL rocket, has been selected by Spectrum Astro, Inc. to launch the Communication/Navigation Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS) satellite that Spectrum is manufacturing for the U.S. Air Force Space Test Program. The main objective of the C/NOFS mission is to provide the military with advance warning of irregularities in the Earth's atmosphere and ionosphere that could disrupt surveillance systems, space-based communications, and navigation.
CRUISE WORRY: Cruise missiles pose a big threat, says Gen. Ralph E. Eberhart, the head of U.S. Space Command. "That concerns me greatly," he says of the cruise missile threat. I would say if you ask me about the two things I worry most [about] at NORAD [North American Aerospace Command], it's cruise missiles [and] NORAD's relevancy in the future, especially depending on how the missile defense mission goes." Officials are deciding now how to integrate that mission, and who should get it.
POLITICAL BLOW: The death of House Armed Services procurement subcommittee ranking Democrat Norm Sisisky (Va.), whose district includes Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, is yet another political blow to Norfolk-area military interests. Rep. Herb Bateman (R-Va.), who represented Langley Air Force Base and chaired the Armed Services readiness subcommittee, died in September (DAILY, Sept. 12). Rep.
Rep. David Vitter (R-La.) introduced three bills last week aimed at removing restrictions on missile defense development and deploying a system that provides broad protection.
House Armed Services Committee ranking Democrat Ike Skelton (Mo.) says he became even more convinced of the need for an immediate supplemental defense spending bill after a recent visit to several naval installations on the West Coast. "Family housing roofs are leaking, aircraft are being cannibalized, and training is being curtailed or canceled" due to money shortages, Skelton said in a House floor speech last week.
MISSILE SHIELD PUSH: Senate Armed Services Committee member James Inhofe (R-Okla.) is urging President George W. Bush to "move quickly" to forge a national commitment to deploy a "robust" missile defense system that can defend all 50 states, U.S. allies and American troops overseas. "We should exploit all options and technologies," Inhofe says in a recent Senate floor speech.
THE ROCKWELL SCIENCE CENTER (RSC) announced it has received a contract from Ball Aerospace&Technologies Corp. to provide infrared image sensors for a NASA discovery mission that will study the interior of a comet. The sensors, which can detect light in the infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, are commonly used as the "eyes" of astronomical telescopes. The comet mission, called Deep Impact, will be performed by a flyby spacecraft and impactor built by Ball Aerospace.
EXPORT REFORM: A revised export-control system could become law by year's end thanks to recent endorsements of a Senate bill by President George W. Bush and the Senate Banking Committee, according to Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), a chief sponsor of the legislation. The bill would update export controls for dual-use goods and technology, which can be used for both military and civilian purposes.
UNIVERSAL SPACE NETWORK, INC. of Horsham, Pa., has been selected by Lockheed Martin to supply NASA with indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity services (IDIQ) as part of Lockheed Martin's Consolidated Space Operations Contract (CSOC).
The Counsellor-Defence Acquisition&Logistics, embassy of Australia, in Washington, D.C., has awarded a $3 million contract to General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, a business unit of General Dynamics, for production of MXU 4 A/A jet engine starter cartridges for the Royal Australian Air Force RF-111 jet aircraft. The MXU 4 A/A cartridges drive turbo/mechanical starters to start engines for aircraft such as the F-111, B-52, KC-135 and others. Work on the contract is expected to be completed in March 2003.
NATO chief George Robertson is cautioning the three newest members of the Western alliance - Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic - against letting modernization of their forces to NATO standards fall by the wayside under budget pressures.
The X-31 experimental test plane has come out of retirement at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md., as part of a program to demonstrate innovative new takeoff and landing techniques that could significantly reduce stress on future aircraft. The Vectoring Extremely Short Take-Off and Landing Control Tailless Operation Research (VECTOR) program is a joint U.S./German test program which uses thrust vectoring - controlling the direction of engine exhaust - to develop extremely short takeoff and landing (ESTOL) capabilities.
TELESAT announced it has signed a 10-year contract with iDirect Inc., under which the Virginia-based company will use Telesat's new Anik F1 satellite to offer high-speed, two-way broadband Internet access to the growing South American market.
NOT SO FAST:While the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee approved Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's request to reprogram $674.5 million to keep the Lockheed Martin F-22 program intact (DAILY, Mar. 30), it won't be doled out in one lump sum. The Pentagon plans to release the funds incrementally over three-month periods, instead of all at once. Current funds expired on March 31, and the first lump sum is $288.8 million for April-June, for 10 Lot 1 aircraft.
Two different U.S. Air Force airlift aircraft are currently under restrictions for over-water flights until problems with inflatable rafts are resolved, The DAILY has learned. Restricted are the C-17, made by Boeing and designed to carry passengers and outsize cargo over intercontinental distances, and the new smaller Lockheed Martin C-130J, primarily intended to transport personnel and cargo within a theater of operations.
