PRAGUE, Czech Republic - The Czech and Slovak armies will test a proposed "Common Sky" air defense project during a joint exercise in October. Officials from the neighboring countries have been in talks for 18 months to resolve sovereignty and operational issues related to the concept, which would involve policing parts of each other's airspace under certain circumstances. Czech defense spokesman Ladislav Sticha confirmed May 5 that the concept would be tested during a joint exercise involving air and ground forces from Oct. 10 to 14.
The Office of Air and Marine Operations (AMO), a unit of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is considering buying dozens of new aircraft to replace an aging fleet that includes Lockheed Martin P-3 surveillance planes and Sikorsky UH-60 utility helicopters. AMO, which is charged with monitoring U.S. airspace and borders for drug smugglers, terrorists and other criminals, has 134 aircraft, including 16 P-3s, 16 UH-60s, 21 C-12 planes, 24 light-enforcement aircraft, 26 light-enforcement helicopters and 31 interceptor aircraft.
PRAGUE, Czech Republic - Senior Czech defense officials say they rejected Russia's offer of Ilyushin Il-76MF transport planes in favor of combat and transport helicopters because the helicopters better matched the military's needs.
EU EXPANSION: The accession of 10 countries to the European Union May 1 will give the European defense and aerospace industry a more competitive edge in the global market, says Steven Tebbe, attachÈ for general and external affairs, the Aerospace and Defense Industries Association of Europe (ASD). The ASD, located in Belgium, is a result of the recent consolidation of the European Association of Aerospace Industries (Aecma), the European Defense Industries Group and Eurospace/Association of European Space Industry (Aviation Week, May 3).
SHUTTLE DERIVED: A space shuttle-derived heavy-lift launch vehicle - consisting of the external tank, solid rocket boosters (SRB), and a cargo module in place of the current orbiter - could lift 150,000 pounds to orbit, according to Mike Kahn, vice president of space operations for SRB manufacturer ATK Thiokol Propulsion. "Since everything except the cargo carrier is already in operation, the cost to develop and fly this system is substantially reduced," Kahn says.
Thirteen of the leading space advocacy and aerospace industry groups in the United States have joined forces for the first time to promote NASA's new space exploration plans among members of Congress and the general public. "Never before in the history of the United States of America have these organizations come together in a common cause as we have done," Aerospace States Association (ASA) Executive Director Tim Huddleston said during a press conference in Washington May 7. The tentative name of the group is the Space Exploration Alliance.
May 10 - 13 -- NDIA, 50th Annual Joint Services Small Arms Systems Section Annual Symposium, Exhibition and Firing Demonstration, Alexis Park Hotel, Las Vegas, Nev. Diana Khan at (703) 247-2587, email [email protected] or go to www.ndia.org. May 16 - 21 -- 2004 CLEO/IQEC, Exhibit, Technical Program and PhAST Conference, The Moscone Center West, San Francisco, Calif. For more information go to www.cleoconference.org.
ANTI-MISSILE TARGET: The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is working to extend the range of its Long Range Air Launch Target (LRALT), which it recently tested for the first time (DAILY, May 6), according to an MDA spokesman. Although LRALT's exact range is classified, the one that flew May 3 traveled about 2,300 kilometers (1,429 miles) after being dropped from a C-17 transport aircraft. The target consisted of two Minuteman II second stages, and future versions could be full two- and three-stage missiles.
Serco Defence and Aerospace has dropped out of the competition for the United Kingdom's 12 billion pound ($21.36 billion) Military Flying Training System program. The British company had been a member of a team headed by BAE Systems, but late last month BAE Systems dropped out of the training systems integrator portion of the competition to concentrate on development of the Hawk aircraft as the program's advanced jet trainer (DAILY, April 23).
A recent Government Accounting Office (GAO) report may spur the Department of Defense (DOD) to increase its small business subcontracting. DOD concurred with the GAO's opinion that it should do a better job assessing how it is meeting its small business subcontracting goals and keep better records on subcontracts to firms performing outside the United States. The report, GAO-04-381, was requested by the House Committee on Small Business.
Days after the Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser (MTHEL) test bed tracked a large-caliber rocket for the first time, the system destroyed the same type of target in its first attempt, the U.S. Army announced May 6. The rockets involved in the April 29 tracking exercise (DAILY, May 3) and the May 4 shoot-down were both about 6 1/2 inches in diameter and 11 feet long, according to the Army Program Executive Office for Air, Space and Missile Defense. Both tests occurred at White Sands Missile Range, N.M.
The critical design review (CDR) phase of the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite program has been completed and the production phase has begun, Lockheed Martin said May 5. CDR is part of the program's system development and demonstration phase, which began in November 2001 with an award of about $2.7 billion to the company to develop the satellite system. CDR culminated with an April 20-23 review at Lockheed Martin Space Systems' Sunnyvale, Calif., facility, according to Steve Tatum, a company spokesman.
The House Armed Services Committee's tactical air and land forces subcommittee voted to authorize an additional $1.7 billion above the president's $401.7 billion defense budget request to Congress for fiscal 2005. Subcommittee chairman Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) said that in the full committee markup, members hope to add $2.7 billion to the procurement account for the armed services' otherwise unfunded requirements, including more than $700 million for up-armored Humvees and $500 million for aviation combat loss replacement.
In a contractor-funded warm-up for the Navy's Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) competition, teammates Lockheed Martin and General Atomics conducted a maritime surveillance demonstration April 22 with a modified Predator B unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flying off the coast of California near San Diego.
Honeywell has signed an agreement with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to provide spacecraft flight operations and ground systems sustaining engineering for the Landsat 7 satellite, the company announced May 5. Honeywell currently provides the same services under an existing 3.5-year year agreement with USGS. The new eight-year contract is intended to cover the rest of the spacecraft's mission life.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) notified Congress May 5 of a possible sale to Japan of SM-3 Block 1A Standard Missiles and associated equipment and services. The total value, if all options are exercised, could be as high as $725 million, the DSCA said May 5. The principal contractors would be Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics and Surveillance Systems of Moorestown, N.J. and Raytheon Co. facilities in Andover, Mass., and Tucson, Ariz. No offset agreements are proposed in connection with the potential sale, DSCA said.
The White House request for $25 billion in additional funds for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan will move quickly through Congress, said Rep. Bill Young (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. "We will thoroughly vet the request and move it quickly and cleanly through the Congress. We will insist on accountability for the expenditure of these funds and look forward to consulting with the Administration on future needs in the region," Young said in statement May 5.
The recent expansions of the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) could benefit command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) companies, analysts say. The experts differ on how much the defense and aerospace industries could profit. But C4ISR will be the sector that benefits the most, because many European troops can't communicate with each other or the U.S. military, they said.
The combat-proven Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser (WCMD) kit converts existing cluster bombs to all-weather precision-guided weapons that can be accurately delivered from bombers and fighters flying at medium to high altitudes. It increases the utility of CBU-87s, -89s and -97s built in the last decade for unguided delivery from low altitudes.
Lockheed Martin, the newly announced prime contractor for the U.S. Army-led Joint Common Missile (JCM) program, said May 6 that its winning design leaves plenty of room for any upgrades its government customers might want.
SUB WORK: General Dynamics Electric Boat will provide design, engineering, material and logistics support for strategic and attack submarines under a $299 million U.S. Navy contract, the company said May 6. Electric Boat also will provide planning, scheduling and technical support for submarine maintenance. The contract could be worth more than $1.1 billion over five years if all options are exercised.
RESTON, Va. - Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) hopes to create a "pot of money" in the Defense Department's budget that would help defense manufacturers find alternatives to outsourcing work overseas. The money would help "create ways to have small businesses ... come in and come up with alternatives to the outsourcing that's occurring in many of our major manufacturers," Weldon said during a speech at the Navy Opportunity Forum here May 4.
Defense contractors could see positive changes to the U.S. Department of Defense's procurement process once the Business Modernization and Systems Integration Program starts realizing its goals, according to Paul Tibbits, who became the program's new director in February.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is setting up a new unit to oversee the growing area of modeling and simulation (M&S). The creation of the M&S directorate reflects MDA's increasing use of computer-based tools to predict and emulate how actual anti-missile systems would work, an MDA spokesman said May 5.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency has conducted the first flight test of its new Long Range Air Launch Target (LRALT), MDA announced May 5. During the May 3 test, the missile was dropped from the back of a C-17 transport aircraft that was flying west of Hawaii. After being released from its parachute system, the missile boosted a simulated re-entry vehicle over the Pacific.
