The U.S. Air Force formed a board to investigate the March 29 crash of the No. 2 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle at the South Range of the China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station (DAILY, March 30). Col. Reed Roberts of Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, Robins AFB, Ga., has been named to head the safety investigation board, which convened yesterday at Edwards AFB, Calif. The AF said the cause of the crash has not yet been determined. It also said there were no injuries and no property damage on the ground.
The U.S. Navy's inventory of aircraft is aging and may fall below projected levels unless the service is given more money to buy new planes and maintain the ones already in the fleet, said Vice Adm. John A. Lockard, head of Naval Air Systems Command. Plans are already in place to decrease the number of planes to 4,109 by the year 2000 with further reductions taking the number to 3,948 in 2005. But the fleet actually may be smaller and older, Lockard said at the annual Navy League conference in Washington.
Acting U.S. Air Force Secretary F. Whitten Peters, in a letter to senators this month, defended the service's decision to put $1.4 billion into a host of modernization programs rather than using it to hold to a 2002 launch date for the Space Based Infrared System High (SBIRS High). However, Peters also acknowledged that cuts may be made to some modernization accounts including the F-16, Joint STARS and Space Based Laser when the service sends Congress a budget amendment identifying potential SBIRS dollars.
Northrop Grumman has won a $5.9 million U.S. Navy contract to continue an integrated modification program on the F-14 fighter. A team from Northrop Grumman's Integrated Systems and Aerostructures Sector in Los Angeles will complete the mechanical and electrical modifications on 55 Tomcats to accommodate LANTIRN pods, install GPS, Digital Flight Control System, Fast Tactical Imaging, and night vision systems.
NASA would like to give the private sector another chance to take over the Landsat Earth remote sensing satellite program, and will decide late next year or early in 2001 on whether to pursue a commercial procurement of the follow-on spacecraft to the Landsat 7 platform it plans to launch next month.
More cruise missiles and strike aircraft are headed to the Mediterranean Sea and could be diverted to the Adriatic Sea for air strikes in Yugoslavia, Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon said yesterday. Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Wesley Clark has raised the possibility of using the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier battlegroup which includes two cruisers and one destroyer with cruise missile capability, Bacon said.
The Pentagon yesterday notified Congress of increases in the cost of ballistic missile defense for troops in the field and citizens in the U.S., as well as in the Joint Strike Fighter, Army Advanced Threat Infrared Countermeasures and Common Missile Warning System and the Air Force Airborne Laser. The V-22 program projected major savings.
NATO leaders are becoming more confident of their ability to fly over Yugoslavia even though the Serbian air defense system remains potent, according to top Pentagon officials. Air attacks, which began March 24, "are increasingly taking out key parts of the air defense system through physical damage," said Rear Adm. Thomas Wilson, director of intelligence on the Joint Staff.
Lockheed Martin's Sanders unit has delivered the first of 11 electronic warfare suites for the U.S. Air Force's F-22 fighter under the engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) phase of the program. Sanders said yesterday that the AN/ALR-94 EW system and related test equipment was shipped on Feb. 15 from the company's facilities at Nashua, N.H., to the F-22 Avionics Integration Laboratory in Seattle.
U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command and Boeing Sikorsky have agreed to modify the current contract to allow preparation of a proposal for the next major program phase, engineering and manufacturing development (EMD), the companies said yesterday. They said the contract, when it is awarded next year, will be worth $3.1 billion. The contract change calls for 13 new Comanches with Mission Equipment Packages to be delivered to the Army's digitized corps for experiments and further operational testing in 2003 and 2004.
Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems, Fort Worth, Tex., delivered the 3,035th F-16 from Air Force Plant No. 4, making the aircraft the largest production program in the plant's history, the company reported. The previous record was held by the B-24, which was built from April 1942 through December 1944. F-16 production rates have been the highest in the world for military aircraft outside Russia, and Lockheed Martin said the outlook is good for deliveries to continue at moderate rates for another 10-12 years.
BFGoodrich acquired Advanced MicroMachines Inc. (AMMI), a developer of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) headquartered in Cleveland. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. AMMI employs 17 and reported 1998 sales of $2.5 million. It will be operated as part of BFGoodrich's Aircraft Sensors Division (ASD). The facility will continue to focus on product design, modeling and prototype development, while production and marketing will be located at ASD, Burnsville, Minn.
Asia Satellite Telecommunications Holdings Ltd. (AsiaSat) posted profits 20% lower in 1998 than the year before because of softening in the regional market served by the Hong Kong-based communications satellite services concern. Profits for the year were HK$463 million ($59.727 million), down from HK$577 ($74.433 million) in 1997. Turnover for the year was HK$903 million ($116.487 million), a drop from the 1997 level of HK$997 million ($128.613 million).
The growing value of the commercial space sector worldwide will have a profound impact on the way the U.S. military views the "high ground" of Earth orbit and beyond, both as an operational arena and as the site of valuable assets that might be attacked, a panel of space policy experts convened to discuss that impact agreed on Thursday.
Thomson-CSF won a 23 million pound ($37.2 million) contract from the U.K. Ministry of Defense to upgrade six types of aircraft with new airborne communications systems to comply with impending International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) 8.33 kHz channel spacing requirements, Thomson-CSF reported yesterday. The ICAO deadline is October 1999.
Boeing said it could build another 1,000 AH-64 Apache helicopters over the next 15 years, following the delivery of its 1,000th AH-64, an AH-64D Apache Longbow for the U.S. Army, Boeing reported yesterday.
Eight Hunter unmanned aerial vehicles and support equipment from Ft. Hood, Tex., are headed to Europe to participate in NATO operations, officials said yesterday. A company team from the U.S. Army's 15th Military Intelligence Battalion, 504th Military Intelligence Brigade at Ft. Hood received orders over the weekend to prepare for deployment.
The No. 2 Comanche helicopter flew for the first time yesterday at the Boeing Sikorsky team's West Palm Beach, Fla., flight test center. The team said the flight occurred one day ahead of schedule.
ROBERT ALIZART is leaving Airbus Industrie after 13 years as vice president - corporate communications. He will be succeeded by Michel Guerard, deputy vice president - corporate communications.
Comsat Corp., the U.S. member of the Intelsat communications satellite consortium, has increased its ownership in the international organization to 20% for the next year, based on usage and investment. The change marks an increase of about 2% over last year, Comsat said yesterday, noting that the boost will give it more leverage as Intelsat moves toward total privatization.
Prospects look good for continued European participation in the revised Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) program, Ballistic Missile Defense Organization Director Lt. Gen. Lester Lyles told reporters. Initial feedback from meetings between Pentagon acquisition chief Jacques Gansler and the Italian and German MEADS partners is positive, Lyles said Monday following a briefing at the Pentagon. He said he had yet to get a full report on the meetings.
Raytheon's Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) Block 1 intercepted a supersonic Vandal missile in a test from the Self-Defense Test Ship (SDTS) at the Pacific Missile Test Center, Calif., the company reported yesterday. Raytheon said the Vandal, launched from San Nicolas Island, had been programmed to engage the SDTS from a steep diving angle. Following detection by ship's sensors, the RAM autonomously acquired and homed on the Vandal's heat signature, hitting the target at its planned nominal intercept range.
Russia's space eyes and ears have degraded considerably since the days of the Soviet Union, but enough capability remains to give top military officials the ability to keep a close eye on war-torn Yugoslavia. Since last October Russia has had only one operational imaging reconnaissance satellite. This satellite, Cosmos 2358, was orbited on June 25, 1998 (DAILY, June 26, 1998), and is capable of transmitting near-real time digital images of the ground.
