HAPPY TOGETHER: Redesignating the secretary of the Navy as the secretary of the Navy and Marine Corps would help clarify the Marine Corps' status, former military leaders say. Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) has pushed for such a change for years, and Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, says he supports it. "... While both services have made tremendous contributions to the cause of freedom, only one service in this team is recognized in the title of secretary of the department," Hunter says.
PORTSMOUTH, VA. - One of the goals of the Joint National Training Capability (JNTC) is to integrate Combat ID and Blue Force Tracking across Department of Defense operations, according to Joint Forces Command (JFCOM) officials said at a conference here March 18. Combat ID is the process of accurately identifying objects to enable the use of the correct military options and weapons. Blue Force Tracking is a satellite-based system installed in ground vehicles and helicopters that monitors the movement of friendly forces.
MEADS DELAY: A demonstration of the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) that was scheduled for March 24 has been delayed, probably until April, says Col. John Vaughn, head of the U.S. Army's Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Project Office. The program is "working through some integration issues" with MEADS in preparation for the demonstration, which is to take place in Italy, Vaughn tells The DAILY. Although program representatives have said in the past that the MEADS radar would track live targets during the demonstration (DAILY, Oct.
GETTING READY: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has until May 16 to release a list of military installations slated for closure or realignment, but some elected officials are not waiting until then to take action. Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell has awarded $150,000 in grants to some facilities in his state to help shore them up, including developing part of the Letterkenny Army Depot as a repair facility for tactical unmanned aerial vehicles. Letterkenny lost 3,450 jobs in earlier base closing rounds.
NEW DELHI - A deal between India and the United Kingdom for 66 Hawk 100-Y advanced jet trainers is back on track after overcoming a last-minute cost dispute. India and the U.K. Ministry of Defence (MOD) agreed on a memorandum of understanding (MOU) March 19 on the $1.5 million deal and plan to sign it this week.
Defense technology company DRS Technologies Inc. realigned its businesses into two operating groups in the wake of its acquisition of Integrated Defense Technologies (IDT), which was completed late last year. IDT designs and develops a range of electronics and technology products for the defense industry.
READY FOR LAUNCH: Space Systems/Loral said March 19 that it has completed the integration and testing of the MTSAT-1R satellite and has shipped it to Japan's space center in Tanegashima, where is to be launched on an H-IIA rocket. The satellite was built for the Japanese Civil Aviation Bureau and the Japanese Meteorological Agency.
EUROPEAN CONSOLIDATION: The recent announcement of General Dynamics' plan to buy Alvis-Vickers of the United Kingdom underlines that European military vehicle manufacturers must consolidate, says Ben Moores, an industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan. Alvis, the leading armored vehicle manufacturer in the U.K. and Scandinavia, complements General Dynamics' European armored vehicle business, Moores says. Acquiring Alvis gives the company the Nordic and Middle Eastern market, he says.
March 22 - 23 -- 12th Annual Conference on Quality in the Space and Defense Industries, Radisson At The Port Hotel & Conference Center, Cape Canaveral, Fla. For information contact Lester Lemay at (254) 776-3550 or go to www.asdnet.org/cqsdi. March 25 - 26 -- Aviation Week presents Defense Budget Conference, Hyatt Regency Crystal City, Arlington, Va. To register go to http://www.aviationweek.com/conferences.
JSF NON-SHUFFLE: The Defense Department, which had been considering changing the order in which the three variants of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter are designed, now plans to keep things the same: conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) first, followed by short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) and then carrier variant (CV). "The plan now is that we will keep the STOVL as the second one in the queue," Navy Secretary Gordon England says in recent congressional testimony. "And it's that way because there's commonality between STOVL and the CTOL.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is satisfied with the results of its Grand Challenge unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) competition, despite the lack of a winner, according to spokeswoman Jan Walker. None of the 15 UGVs managed to complete the 142-mile course from Barstow, Calif., to Primm, Nev., with the most successful vehicle traveling about seven miles (DAILY, March 16). DARPA had planned to award $1 million to the team that completed the course in the least time, provided it took them less than 10 hours.
OPEN DISCUSSION: NASA has come a long way since the days of the Clinton Administration in its ability to openly discuss plans to send human beings beyond low-Earth orbit, according to Gary Martin, space architect for the agency. The previous Administration instructed NASA to remain focused on the space station and space shuttle, Martin says. As a result, he was forbidden to publicly show artist's conceptions of humans on other planetary surfaces. "They didn't want us to be distracted," Martin says.
Boeing's X-45A unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is expected to perform its first inert weapon drop at Edwards, Calif., within a week, according to a Boeing spokesman. The first drop will be unguided, using a dummy Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) deployed from the aircraft's weapons bay, according to Boeing spokesman Bill Barksdale. A guided drop is expected to follow by early April.
INTEROPERABILITY: Defense industry players could help the U.S. Department of Defense become more joint by producing products that are interoperable, with open architectures, says Col. Greg Brown, commander, Joint ID Evaluation Team, Joint Forces Command (JFCOM). Brown spoke last week at the JFCOM-National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) Industry Symposium in Portsmouth, Va. "There is a role for industry to play in the process of integration and interoperability," Brown says. "Proprietary business relationships are a big problem.
NEW DELHI - India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has decided to begin production of the indigenously developed Nishant unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The production has been delayed by technical problems, but they have been overcome and limited production will begin by the end of the year, a DRDO scientist said.
MK80 WORK: General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems will build bomb bodies for the MK80 Series bomb under a $103.9 million contract modification from the U.S. Army Joint Munitions Command, Ill., the company said March 18. The contract has a potential value of $240 million, including options. Production under the modification includes inert and live bomb bodies in the 500-pound, 1,000-pound and 2,000-pound class, and will be performed at the company's Garland, Texas, facility. Work is expected to be completed by September 2005.
The first priority for Boeing's new Space Exploration Systems (SES) organization, headquartered near Washington, will be to help sell NASA's space exploration plans to Congress and the public, according to SES head Chuck Allen. "The American people right now are very skeptical, as they should be, because they don't have any details," Allen said at a briefing in Arlington, Va., March 18. "Many in Congress are skeptical because they don't have any details. Everybody [has questions] that there just aren't answers to yet. It's just too early.
INTERFACE: Lockheed Martin has demonstrated that its Hellfire II missile and digital M299 launcher system can be integrated with the Australian ARH-1 Eurocopter Tigre helicopter, the company said March 18. Integration tests pave the way for the ARH-1 to carry the missile and also allow the Hellfire II to be used on European Tigres.
Northrop Grumman and Thales submitted bids March 18 for the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence's Watchkeeper imagery and intelligence unmanned aerial vehicle program. The MOD has said it will pick one of the companies this year as winner of the $1.47 billion program, under which the British army will operate the UAVs for 30 years.
NASA's X-43C hypersonic de-monstrator and RS-84 reusable engine program have been canceled following a review of 140 programs inherited by the agency's new Office of Exploration Systems.
