Raytheon Co. has received a $242 million contract from Greece's ministry of defense to produce electronic warfare equipment for the Block 52+ F-16s of the Hellenic Air Force. Raytheon said the contract is one of the largest for electronic warfare systems in its history.
EW CONTRACT: The U.S. Army Communications-Electronic Command awarded CACI Inter-national, Inc. a contract worth an estimated $11 million to help develop the specifications for the Army's tactical electronic warfare (EW) system, company officials said April 29. Successful completion of the contract will lead to the development, fabrication, testing and delivery of tactical EW vehicles designed by a joint development team.
The U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare (SPAWAR) Command has awarded a five-year Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract that could be worth $17.3 million to Titan Corp., the company announced April 29. Titan's Advanced Products & Design Division will provide hardware system integration, design, and support services for the Navigation Sensor System Interface (NAVSSI) systems.
The U.S. Defense Department is moving to simplify management of a $1.4 billion annual investment in chemical and biological defense resources. A Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical and Biological Defense (JPEO-CBD) is being created to manage centrally all related procurement and research programs.
NASA's launch of its Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) spacecraft was successful, the agency said April 29. The spacecraft was launched April 28 from a Pegasus XL rocket at approximately 8:00 a.m. EDT, approximately 11 minutes after the Pegasus was released from its L-1011 host aircraft flying off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Fla.
The Bell Boeing CV-22 Osprey program has cleared a program milestone, performing the first exercise for the aircraft's critical terrain-following radar system, according to the U.S. Air Force. The event marks the latest in a recent flurry of flight tests aimed at proving the V-22's value to the Pentagon's top acquisition officer before he decides the program's fate. A meeting is scheduled May 20 between Marine Corps and Air Force V-22 officials and E.C. "Pete" Aldridge, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics.
EAGLE VISION: Veridian Corp. said April 28 the Air Force had awarded it a contract worth up to $37.7 million to develop satellite image processing systems for the Air Force's Eagle Vision program. The program provides a platform to downlink and process commercial satellite imagery into "geocoded" electronic images for use by Air Force mission planners and intelligence analysts.
The U.S. Marine Corps wants an electromagnetic gun for its new family of Marine Expeditionary Family of Fighting Vehicles (MEFFVs), the MEFFV program manager said April 28. Development of the gun will draw upon the Army's research into electromagnetic guns, said Col. Dennis Beal. Beal said the Marine Corps looked at a variety of options before choosing to pursue an electromagnetic gun. Those options included developing a directed energy weapon, using a conventional gun and developing an electro-thermal chemical gun.
International Launch Services (ILS) postponed the launch of SES Americom's AMC-9 satellite due to a hardware problem with the Proton K launch vehicle that has required the entire rocket to be de-stacked. The launch had been scheduled for scheduled for April 26. During pre-launch verification activities at Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, technicians identified a launch vehicle component anomaly requiring a fix that couldn't be performed on the launch pad.
NEW DELHI - The Indian air force has demanded that Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) correct serious problems with the Adour engines that power the service's Jaguar fighter aircraft. A senior air force official said a number of Jaguars have been grounded, in part because of problems with the reheat fuel control units, which have caused extensive damage to the engines. The Jaguar fleet, which is overhauled and upgraded by the state-owned HAL, is equipped with Adour MK-811 and MK-804 engines.
The head of the Missile Defense Agency has approved a plan that would make it easier to enlarge the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system in Alaska if the Defense Department decided to pursue such an expansion, an agency spokesman said April 28.
In response to a request from the Marine Corps, Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) and the UH-1N Huey engineering test team at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., have rushed a new forward-looking infrared (FLIR) system into operations in Iraq, NAVAIR announced April 28.
NEW DELHI - India and France have begun talks on a French offer to provide the Mirage 2000-5 fighter aircraft. "Talks on licensed production of Mirage 2000-5 aircraft is on top of the agenda during the French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie visit to India beginning April 28," said an official of the Indian Ministry of Defense.
NIMA HONOR: The National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) has recognized Space Imaging of Denver, Colo., with an award for its work in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, the company announced April 28. NIMA presented the award at the 2003 Management Association for Private Photogrammetric Surveyors (MAPPS) luncheon held last month in Washington. Space Imaging owns Ikonos, the first 1-meter resolution commercial imagery satellite.
NEW DELHI - India has successfully flight-tested a Lakshya Pilotless Target Aircraft (PTA) with a new engine, an Indian defense ministry official said. The aircraft was tested April 28 at the integrated test range at Chandipur in the eastern Indian state of Orissa. Lakshya was inducted into the Indian air force (IAF) in 2000. The version just tested has a new engine developed by the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO).
Moving the scheduled first launch date for the Global Positioning System (GPS) III up two years to fiscal year 2010 was one of the options discussed at a recent meeting of top Air Force officials, although no firm decision to accelerate the program has been made yet, according to the Air Force.
AFFORDABLE COSTS: Lockheed Martin's future growth could be hampered unless development costs on key aircraft programs are checked, according to senior aerospace and defense analyst Byron Callan of Merrill Lynch. Next-generation programs like the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and F/A-22 Raptor play a dominant role in Lockheed Martin's growth outlook, Callan says. But cost growth remains an issue on the F/A-22, and while conditional approval resulted from the F-35's preliminary design review, the aircraft's weight gain was noteworthy, he says.
A Defense Information System Agency acquisition program running nearly four years behind schedule points to the hazards of using outdated contracting methods for high-risk technologies, Pentagon auditors say. The Defense Information System Agency (DISA) now plans to field a $34 million deployment planning software tool called the Joint Operation Planning and Execution System 21 (JOPES 21) in March 2004, 46 months after it originally was to be delivered.
DEFENSE MARKUPS: When Congress reconvenes the week of April 28-May 2 after a two-week recess, one of the first matters lawmakers will address is the fiscal 2004 defense authorization bill. The House Armed Services Committee plans to begin subcommittee markups of the bill May 1 and finish action on the legislation at the full committee level May 7 (DAILY, April 23). The Senate Armed Services Committee intends to start subcommittee markups May 6 and wrap up at the full committee level by May 9.
CLUSTER MUNITIONS: Allied aircraft dropped more than 1,500 cluster munitions during Operation Iraqi Freedom, says Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Most were precision-guided, he says. About 2 percent of the cluster bombs dropped by U.S. or coalition forces fell within 1,500 feet of civilian areas. "In some cases we hit those targets knowing there was a chance of collateral damage," he says.
NEW DELHI - India and France are beginning talks here on Mirage 2000-5 multirole fighters, which India wants to both buy and build under license. The talks are "top of the agenda" during the visit of Michele Alliot-Marie, the French defense minister, to New Delhi beginning April 28, an Indian defense ministry source said. A delegation from Dassault Aviation made a presentation on licensed production to Nalini Ranjab Mohanty, the head of India's Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL), last year in Bangalore.
