GRIPEN SPECULATION: The Czech defense ministry has described as "speculation" a newspaper report claiming that talks with Sweden over the lease of 14 new JAS-39 Gripen fighters have run into trouble, mainly over the issue of offsets. The daily Pravo, quoting unnamed sources close to the negotiations, reported last week that the Swedish side has demanded that an agreement on offsets remain separate from any lease agreement.
MOSCOW - RSC Energia, Russia's lead manned space program contractor, said its proposed "Clipper" spacecraft would be a lifting body capable of carrying six crewmembers and 1,750 pounds of cargo to low-earth orbit. Yuri Koptev, the head of Russia's aviation and space agency, has said the proposal could be a replacement for Russia's venerable Soyuz spacecraft, which are used to carry crew to and from the International Space Station (ISS) and to serve as escape craft.
GALILEO AGREEMENT: The United States and the European Commission (EC) have reached agreement on "most of the overall principles of GPS/Galileo cooperation" and now have only a few legal and procedural issues left to resolve, according to a joint statement. Among other issues, the U.S.
DD(X) FUTURE: If the U.S. Navy is forced to cut a big program, as the Army did with its RAH-66 Comanche helicopter, it likely would truncate its DD(X) next-generation destroyer program, says Congressional Budget Office naval analyst Eric Labs. "If this happens, the Navy is likely to get 12 hulls, rather than the planned 24," he says. Labs says that in the long run - beyond the next 15 years - he predicts a Navy fleet of fewer than 300 ships, not far from the current level of 294 ships.
FLAWED PROCESS: House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) says a new General Accounting Office report raises concerns about the U.S. Commerce Department's post-shipment verification (PSV) process. The system is meant to prevent overseas misuse of sensitive dual-use technologies, but the report found deficiencies in the system.
TEAM MEMBER: Smiths Aerospace of the United Kingdom has joined Boeing's 7E7 Dreamliner supplier team, Boeing said Feb. 27. Smiths will provide the aircraft's integrated avionics platform, or common core system, Boeing said. The companies will complete the terms of the agreement in the next few weeks.
TANKER FATE: Although it may seem counterintuitive that the U.S. Air Force would go ahead with a plan to acquire 100 new Boeing KC-767A tankers now that it has been told by the acting Pentagon acquisition chief to conduct a broad, 18-month study of its need to modernize or replace several hundred KC-135 tankers (DAILY, Feb. 27), the 100-aircraft deal is still "pretty well-assured of going ahead" in the next few months, says Richard Aboulafia, an aviation consultant at the Teal Group.
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) expressed concern last week that not enough U.S. Air Force communications systems have been available to determine where and when Iraqi insurgents have been placing improvised explosive devices (IEDS) along roadways to injure or kill U.S. and coalition forces. "The point of damage to American forces right now resides in these IEDS that are going off in the roadways. It's become the weapon of choice for the bad guys," Hunter said at a House Armed Services hearing on the Air Force's $98.5 billion fiscal 2005 budget request.
The cost estimate for the Space Based Infrared System-High (SBIRS-High) may increase again because of new problems in the program, according to an official at the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC). SBIRS-High was restructured in 2002 after the Defense Department discovered an overrun of about $2 billion.
Northrop Grumman Corp. has successfully demonstrated the electrical performance capabilities of the downlink phased array antenna for the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) military satellite communications program, the company said Feb. 26. This represents a key company development milestone toward providing increased battlefield connectivity and protection for U.S. armed forces, Northrop Grumman said.
European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) and the Israeli company Rafael are jointly developing a new technology for protecting helicopters from man-portable missiles, the companies announced Feb. 26. Known as the HeliStar system, the technology will be marketed first to civil and military helicopter operators around the world. In addition, "we are exploring opportunities to apply the system to other types of aircraft, i.e. fixed wing in the military as well as civil field," EADS spokesman Lothar Belz told The DAILY.
There has been a "deterioration" in the military space industrial base, Peter Teets, the Air Force undersecretary for space, warned a House Armed Services Committee strategic forces panel Feb. 25. "In the 15 years I've been involved in the space community, I think we are seeing a deterioration of the industrial base at the vendor level," Teets said. "That becomes problematic when you're building complex spacecraft, [and] you find out you have parts issues late in the build," Teets said.
An independent task force sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations is recommending that the Department of Defense greatly increase funding for nonlethal weapons (NLW) and promote their use by the armed services. "We're serious about this," task force co-chair and former Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Paul Kelley (ret.) said at a press conference in Washington Feb. 26. "This probably is one of the most important additions ... to the military capabilities that I have seen in well over several decades."
The U.S. Defense Department has launched a broad, 18-month study to assess options for modernizing or replacing the Air Force's fleet of about 500 aging KC-135 Stratotanker aerial refuelers.
Although the military services have made a lot of headway on transformation, there still are barriers, the U.S. Defense Department's head of force transformation told House Armed Services Committee members Feb. 26. Vice Adm. Arthur Cebrowski (USN, ret.), director of force transformation, said the barriers fall under four categories: process, physical, fiscal, and cultural.
PAVEWAY WORK: EDO Ltd., a subsidiary of EDO Corp., will supply the weapon-to-pylon interface for the United Kingdom's Paveway IV precision-guided bomb under a 6.5 million pound ($12 million) contract from Raytheon Systems Ltd.
A newly developed miniature synthetic aperture radar (MiSAR) has been tested successfully on board a German Armed Forces Luna reconnaissance drone, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS) announced at Asian Aerospace 2004 in Singapore. MiSAR proved its reliability by supplying reconnaissance images in all-weather, high-resolution SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) technology in real time, Aerospace Daily affiliate Show News reported.
U.S. Air Force reliance on a declining number of contractors is resulting in reduced competition for subcontractors, House Armed Services Committee member Rep. Jim Marshall (D-Ga.) said Feb. 26.
LIVE FIRE: Metal Storm Ltd. plans to live-fire its 40mm electronic weapon system on a DP-4X UAV from Dragonfly Pictures Inc., the Australian company said Feb. 25. The UAV is in Australia for weapons integration, and the demonstration will be held in the U.S. in the second quarter of this year, the company said.
