DEFENSE TRAINING REVIEW: The British Defense Ministry has selected a consortium led by Qinetiq and Land Securities Trillium, and also including Raytheon, AgustaWestland and Serco, for its Defense Training Review program. The project is aimed at rationalizing its defense-training infrastructure and provision by creating tri-service centers of excellence. The overall program could be worth 16 billion pounds ($31.5 billion) over a 25-year period.
Russia's RSC Energia reported a record 469 million ruble ($16.4 million) net profit in 2006, with a 37 percent increase in revenues, and expects to maintain strong sales and earnings through the end of the decade, according to chief executive Nikolay Sevastiyanov.
Gregory W. Davis, Jacqueline A. Dedo, Mazen Hammoud, Douglas Patton, Nicholas K. Petek, Ahmed Soliman, and Leonard Tedesco have been named to the board of directors.
The United States should harden defenses around its space-based assets, experts say, and a recent Chinese anti-satellite (ASAT) attack test could lift the space segment of the defense industry and finally force a widespread debate over U.S. national security space policy, analysts suggest. "You'll need a balance of defensive and offensive capabilities," Heritage Foundation analyst Baker Spring said Jan. 22 at a Capitol Hill forum hosted by the Marshall Institute's ongoing National Security Space project.
TOMAHAWK TEST: The U.S. Navy successfully tested a Tomahawk Block IV cruise missile from the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Donald Cook in the Gulf of Mexico sea ranges off the Florida coast on Jan. 17, the service announced Jan. 22. After launching vertically and transitioning to cruise flight, the Raytheon-built missile flew a 645-nautical mile course guided by Global Positioning System satellites and digital scene matching. The flight lasted 90 minutes and ended at a recovery site on the Eglin Air Force Base land range.
JET SCHOOL APPROVED: The European Advanced Training Jet Pilot School at Talavera la Real, Spain, has been given the go-ahead. The project is in cooperation with the Spanish air force and EADS to further develop the current training facility to attract foreign students. Students will use upgraded F-5s as training aircraft, which will be provided by the Spanish military. The aircraft feature enhanced navigation systems, radar function simulation and self-test and monitoring systems.
WorldSpace Italia says its Italian partner, Telecom Italia, has agreed to build an ancillary terrestrial component (ATC) network to provide hybrid ground and space-based digital audio radio services (DARS) to the Italian market.
CARGO AIRCRAFT: Boeing Rotorcraft Systems says it is exploring how to develop an aircraft capable of using common cargo handling systems similar to the C-17, which is the primary Air Force workhorse shuttling equipment around Iraq. The goal is to develop an aircraft suitable for the Joint Heavy Lift requirement of the U.S. Army and Marine Corps.
The U.S. Army's Communications Electronics Command (CECOM) Rapid Response program (CR2) could be recompeted, with an initial announcement as early as this summer, according to Input, a market analysis company in Reston, Va. At stake may be as much as $23 billion in mostly information technology spending over eight years, according to a recently released Input report.
Back in flight-testing following a crash that grounded the system for a year, the A160 Hummingbird unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is slated to upgrade to a turboshaft engine during the next quarter that will boost its power and endurance.
F-15 A DECOY: In recent battles in and above central Baghdad, F-15 Eagles swooped from the skies with no ordnance. And, according those familiar with the skirmishes, the fighters didn't use their guns either. The combat jets were used to draw the enemy's attention skyward - a feint used to open up some ground operations.
ACS LIVES: Army acquisition chief Claude Bolton says he has a notional goal of relaunching the Aerial Common Sensor (ACS) program by February 2008, when the fiscal 2009 budget will be submitted to Congress. Lockheed Martin won the ACS contract, but the program unraveled in 2005 after officials realized that the planned platform, the Embraer EC-145, was not large enough to carry the intelligence suite. At that point, ACS money was redistributed to the existing Guardrail and Aerial Reconnaissance Low fleets.
REMOTE MINEHUNTING: A technical evaluation of the U.S. Navy's new - and strategy altering - Remote Minehunting System (RMS) is scheduled for February, Navy officials say. The Navy completed installation of Lockheed Martin Corp.'s AN/WLD 1(V)1 RMS on the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer U.S.S. Bainbridge (DDG 96) on Jan. 15 at Norfolk Naval Base, Va. The RMS represents an effort to transition from a specialized fleet of minehunters and killers to an "organic," inherent anti-mine ability within multimission classes like the Littoral Combat Ship (DAILY, Nov.
The Army is looking to develop small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), common sensors and processors, and more efficient aircraft flying or sustainment systems, said Thomas Killion, Army deputy assistant secretary for research and technology. The service is trying to balance investments for current conflicts against future needs, according to Killion, who spoke Jan. 19 during a briefing at the Association of the United States Army's (AUSA) Institute of Land Warfare Aviation Symposium and Exhibition.
