A highly classified Boeing aircraft that led to the design of the X-45A Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle and improvements in stealth and lean manufacturing techniques was unveiled to the public Oct. 18. Boeing Phantom Works launched the "Bird of Prey" technology demonstrator in 1992, and it flew 38 times between 1996 and 1999 before it was retired, spokesman Jim Bafaro said. Its existence was revealed after many of its breakthrough technologies became standard in the industry.
SOLID OUTLOOK: The outlook for General Dynamics remains solid given the funding allocations in the $355 billion fiscal 2003 defense appropriations bill, according to a report from Deutsche Bank. "GD looks to benefit as all of its core projects are fully funded, and a few received plus-ups over the administration's request," senior aerospace and defense analyst Christopher Mecray says. The budget fully funded the third of the Army's six Stryker brigades, the interim fighting force equipped with the company's eight-wheeled armored combat vehicle.
RECRUITS: The Indian air force also has launched a marathon recruitment drive to overcome a prolonged shortage of skilled personnel. Air Marshal Narayan Menon, the air force's chief of personnel, says the service will recruit 7,000 new employees a year for the next three years. Menon says the service particularly needs new workers with a flair for technology, as the air force is inducting new systems including airborne and early warning radars, mid-air refueling aircraft and the latest fly-by-wire fighters.
COMPLETED: The Boeing Co. has completed its acquisition of FlightSafety International's interest in FlightSafety Boeing Training International, the company said Oct. 18.
AEROSPACE BILLS: The House and Senate have left town to campaign for the Nov. 5 elections and are not expected to return until Nov. 12. Aerospace-related bills that lawmakers still have to finish include the fiscal 2003 defense authorization and intelligence authorization bills, and the FY '03 NASA appropriations bill.
WISH LIST: New technology tops the Indian air force's priority list, a defense official says. In an internal memo to the defense ministry, the air force says new datalinks are needed to connect field commanders to troops on the ground. The service also wants new sensors and radars, especially for target acquisition at night and in bad weather. A defense official says improved avionics also are on the services' wish list.
BILL SIGNING: President Bush says he plans to sign the fiscal 2003 defense appropriations bill that Congress recently passed, even though it does not contain the $10 billion reserve fund he requested to continue the war on terrorism. The bill, which funds the purchase of 46 F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, 23 F/A-22 Raptors and 15 C-17s, will provide U.S. troops with "the best equipment," Bush says.
The Air Force hopes to iron out an acquisition strategy for its new Air Force Signals Intelligence Payload (ASIP) program by the end of December, according to a service official. ASIP is aimed at providing a signals intelligence (SIGINT) capability for the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle, as well as improving existing SIGINT capabilities on the U-2 manned reconnaissance aircraft.
SMALL CAP: Smaller aerospace and defense companies specializing in spare parts and components for military aircraft should see gains from increased military activity and new aircraft programs, according to a report from Merrill Lynch. "Defense spares growth should be decent, based on increased utility rates, given the war on terrorism," senior aerospace and defense analysts Byron Callan says. In addition, he says, "we would watch for how new production contracts are progressing, i.e. the F/A-22 [and] Joint Strike Fighter."
A Defense Department panel has decided to cut procurement of the RAH-66 Comanche from 1,213 helicopters to 650, but it has encouraged the Army to try to equip the Boeing-Sikorsky aircraft to control unmanned aerial vehicles, a congressional source said Oct. 18.
PRIVATE SHUTTLE: Turning the space shuttle completely over to the private sector is unlikely, according to a new report by a Rand Corp. task force. "The system is exceedingly complex, the risks are high, and the post-Challenger operational environment is far more cumbersome than originally envisioned by agency planners," a draft version of the report says. However, it says NASA should prepare to turn more shuttle operations over to industry, partly to help return it to its roots as a space flight research and development agency.
PRAGUE - Czech and U.S combat aircraft staged a joint exercise in the Czech Republic Oct. 17 to prepare for the possibility of a terrorist attack during next month's NATO enlargement summit. The exercise, which involved L-159 light combat fighters, Czech MiG-21s, Mi-24 helicopters, an Airborne Warning and Control System radar plane, and several U.S. F-16s based in Germany and Italy, was approved Oct. 16 by a special meeting of the Czech cabinet.
LICENSING: Arms exporters will have access to an early version of an electronic licensing system soon, says Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. The long-awaited e-government initiative to convert the licensing process into an electronic environment is set to launch a pilot program. "We are close to offering you fully electronic licensing for defense exports," Armitage says.
BAT SUPPLY: The likely cancellation of Northrop Grumman's Brilliant Anti-Armor (BAT) submunition (DAILY, Oct. 10) won't pose a problem for TRW, which recently demonstrated deploying armed BATs from its Hunter unmanned aerial vehicle, the company says. "If we get to the point where they [the military] say, hey, we want to put these on Hunter and deploy them, I would think there would be an adequate supply in inventory now," says Ron Kline, TRW's program manager for the Hunter.
The U.S. Army's plans for transformation are necessary, but the transformation should be phased in over a long period, said Gen. Wesley Clark, the former military commander of NATO. "In the Future Combat Systems, there has to be a phased program, starting with technology that doesn't look too dissimilar to what we have now and moving out from there," he said in an Oct. 17 interview with The DAILY. The Army's attempt to develop an electric gun is one example of the difficulty in developing advanced technology, he said.
A solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) successfully completed a NASA remote-sensing demonstration late last month, showing a coffee plantation in Hawaii where the coffee fields were ripest, NASA said. Aerovironment's Pathfinder Plus airplane loitered for more than four hours over Hawaii's largest coffee plantation, on the island of Kauai. This allowed it to create a digital mosaic of images of coffee fields with a clear sky, even though there was significant cloud cover that day.
NEW DELHI- India's state-owned aeronautics giant, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL), has forged a marketing partnership with Israeli Aircraft Industries (IAI) to market its Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) internationally. HAL officials here said several companies, including Eurocopter of France, Elbit Systems of Israel, Bell Helicopter of the United States, GKN Westlands of the United Kingdom and IAI submitted proposals to HAL to export the ALH to third countries.
NEW DELHI - Following India's move to pull back some of its troops from the border, Pakistan announced Oct. 17 it will withdraw troops from the disputed international border between the two hostile neighbors.
JSF WORK: Volvo Aero Norge of Norway will provide low-pressure turbine shafts for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter's F135 engine under a contract from Pratt & Whitney. The contract is the first issued to Norwegian industry for JSF work, Pratt & Whitney said Oct. 16. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said Oct. 17 that State officials are moving ahead of schedule on a review of the munitions list, which governs the types of weapons that can be sold or transferred overseas. The first seven categories have been completed, he said. "We are now turning our attention to category eight, which is aircraft and aircraft parts," he said. "We plan to cut some of the red tape that is now tying up legitimate exports of aircraft parts by increasing the dollar maximum ... tenfold."
More than 140 House members have signed or are expected to sign a letter urging Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to begin building the CVNX next-generation aircraft carrier in fiscal 2006.
