The U.S. Air Force has developed a multi-step approach for fixing radar problems on the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft, a service document says. The Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar Sensor (ASARS-2A) is to improve the reliability and maintainability of the existing ASARS-2, which provides radar imagery and is one of several sensors the U-2 is capable of carrying. But ASARS-2A has suffered from "poor image quality and maintenance problems," according to an Air Force report released to The DAILY upon request.
Next month, the U.S. Navy will complete its preliminary design for the DD(X) surface destroyer, according to Rear Adm. Charles Hamilton, the Navy's program executive officer for ships. The DD(X) program is serving as a testbed for advanced technologies for future naval vessels, including autonomous fire suppression, integrated power systems and an advanced gun system capable of firing projectiles to a range of 100 miles.
EXPLOSION: An explosion occurred Feb. 23 at India's Solid Propellant Space Booster Plant (SPROB) in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, killing six. Sources said the blast occurred when a testing motor was being filled with highly inflammable fuel. The SPROB plant is developing the solid boosters, core liquid stage and cryogenic stage for India's indigenous cryogenic engine (DAILY, June 30, 2003). Defense ministry officials refused to comment on the accident.
The U.S. Air Force does not plan to conduct extra studies on F-15 and F-16 upgrades even though the planned replacements for both fighters recently have encountered more turbulence, a service spokesman said Feb. 23.
Lockheed Martin will continue development of an extended-range version of the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile under a $70.8 million contract with the U.S. Air Force. "With only a few modifications to the baseline missile, we allow the Air Force to strike high-value targets from than twice the stand-off range of the baseline JASSM." Randy Bigum, vice president of Strike Weapons at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, said in a statement.
Rep. Ike Skelton of Missouri, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, is awaiting responses from military leaders on their unfunded priorities list as lawmakers return to work this week. Skelton spokeswoman Lara Battles told The DAILY that Skelton made the request from the services commanders a few weeks ago for spending requests not included in Bush administration's fiscal year '05 budget proposal. "Sometimes it takes a long time for it to get back to us," Battle said.
The cancellation of the U.S. Army's RAH-66 Comanche helicopter is not a death knell for the U.S. Air Force's F/A-22 Raptor, even though a White House agency has linked the two programs, several sources said Feb. 23.
SUPPLYING ALTIMETERS: Goodrich Corp. will provide laser altimeters to the Boeing Co. for the X-45 Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems (J-UCAS). The altimeters use eye-safe lasers to provide accurate altitude measurements. The work could be worth up to $15 million in revenues, Goodrich said.
PRAGUE, Czech Republic - International companies will be given an opportunity to take part in a tender for state-held Czech weapons manufacturer ZVI, which was put up for sale last week in line with a government decision made last October, according to officials. ZVI, whose new 20mm Plamen (Flame) cannon is set to undergo final tests with the Czech army this week, was placed in the hands of the state-run Czech Consolidation Agency (CKA) in 2002 after its owners, the Trustfin Group, ran into serious financial difficulties.
PRAGUE, Czech Republic - Struggling Czech aerospace company Aero Vodochody is laying off an additional 400 workers following a series of dismissals last year. The Feb. 20 announcement followed a mutual agreement by the Czech government and Boeing last week to end the U.S. company's strategic partnership with Aero.
After two decades, six program restructurings and approximately $8 billion spent, the U.S. Army has decided to cancel the RAH-66 Comanche reconnaissance/attack helicopter program and instead purchase a variety of new aircraft and recapitalize hundreds of others, Army officials announced Feb. 23. The Comanche is the casualty of a comprehensive review of Army aviation ordered last year by Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker.
General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems has formed a strategic alliance with Israel-based Aeronautics Defense Systems that will allow it to offer Aeronautics' unmanned aerial systems technologies, including the Unmanned Multi-Application Systems (UMAS), to the U.S. market and international customers, the General Dynamics unit said last week.
The U.S. Navy should pause for three to six months to conduct operational testing before making the final production decision on the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), says a recent Washington research group report. "The best way for the Navy to conduct the LCS program is to do operational testing before they start procuring large numbers of ships," said Robert Work, who wrote the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) report. This would delay program authorization by a year, he said.
Representatives of the helicopter industry are recommending to a joint Defense Department panel that the services begin a multi-year science and technology (S&T) program to lay the groundwork for a future heavy-lift helicopter.
ANNIVERSARY: NASA's Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) satellite has reached its first anniversary in orbit, the aerospace agency said last week. "The spacecraft and instruments have all been performing beautifully since launch, and the new solar data exceed all of our expectations," Gary Rottman, the SORCE principal investigator at the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospherics and Space Physics, said in a statement.
LUNAR PAYLOAD: This November, NASA plans to select the scientific payload for the 2008 lunar reconnaissance orbiter, which will be the first in a series of robotic "precursor" missions designed to pave the way for a human return to the moon by 2020. The orbiter will map the lunar surface in unprecedented detail and gather information about natural resources such as possible ice deposits (DAILY, Feb. 5).
DISCOVERY A GO: The space shuttle Discovery will fly mission STS-114 no earlier than March 2005, NASA has decided. NASA's Space Flight Leadership Council pushed back the launch from a previous mid-September 2004 target to allow more time to analyze the shuttle's redesigned external tank for potential foam debris loss, develop the boom camera that will inspect the shuttle for damage in orbit, and assess the condition of the shuttle's Rudder Speed Brake Actuators. The new launch window runs from March 6 to April 18.
