Opportunities for engine retrofits and other modernization could be worth nearly $3.3 billion over the next 10 years, with just under 80 percent of this amount, or $2.6 billion, for military projects, Forecast International said Feb. 9. The study, entitled "The Market for Engine Retrofit & Modernization, 2004-2013," looks at the issue worldwide, but focuses primarily on the U.S. market, study author Bill Dane told The DAILY.
PRAGUE, Czech Republic - Slovakia plans to spend millions of dollars modernizing a dozen MiG-29 fighter aircraft instead of buying new fighters in the short term.
The Boeing Co., Lockheed Martin Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp. are expected to compete to be the prime contractor for the Airborne and Maritime/Fixed Station (AMF) cluster of the Defense Department's Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS), industry sources said Feb. 9.
Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) has awarded Boeing a $61.8 million contract for the second low-rate initial production (LRIP) block of the Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, NAVAIR announced Feb. 9. The contract calls for the production of 12 AESA AN/APG-79 radar systems by the fall of 2005, according to NAVAIR. Boeing is the prime contractor for the F/A-18E/F. Raytheon is building the AESA radar under a subcontract.
Although Congress has given the U.S. Coast Guard a funding boost in fiscal year 2005, lawmakers on a Senate panel told Homeland Secretary Tom Ridge on Feb. 9 that the timeline for revitalizing the fleet is too long. Ridge appeared before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee to answer questions about his agency's $40.2 billion budget request, which would be a 10 percent increase over the current year's level.
NEW DELHI - India tested a version of its Lakshya unmanned aerial vehicle with an upgraded engine on Feb. 5 at a missile range in Chandipur. The Indian air force already uses the UAV but has complained that it has reduced thrust in higher elevations in the disputed region of Jammu and Kashmir. Lakshya is a subsonic target drone that is piloted remotely from the ground and also can carry imaging, laser ranging systems, sensors and other payloads.
The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory wants information from industry on ways to further develop technologies applicable to ultra-efficient wings for the projected SensorCraft unmanned aerial vehicle. AFRL has been studying highly efficient wings for SensorCraft, which would host a variety of active and passive sensors beginning in 2015-2020.
NASA officials defended the agency's decision to cancel the final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) during a teleconference Feb. 9, emphasizing that the decision was based on safety considerations and will remain final.
JAVELIN: DRS Technologies will produce Second Generation Forward Looking Infrared detectors and other equipment for the Javelin anti-tank weapon system program under a $23.7 million contract form Raytheon Missile Systems Co. Deliveries under the award began in December 2003 and are expected to continue through October, the company said.
ACQUISITION: United Defense Industries (UDI) has completed its acquisition of the assets of Kaiser Compositek Inc. for $8.5 million, the company said Feb. 9. The acquisition will help the company enhance and expand the development of advanced weapon systems and combat vehicles for the military, the company said. Kaiser Compositek provides composite structures, and its acquisition will help UDI provide lighter weight gun and missile launching systems, the company said.
NEW DELHI - India has more than doubled its allocation for buying weapons and related equipment from international vendors. The country has set up a three-year "non-lapsable" $5.4 billion defense fund and set aside another $4.8 billion for defense acquisitions in fiscal 2004, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh said Feb. 4 in releasing India's defense budget. This year, out of a total budget of around $14 billion, India earmarked about $4.4 billion for weapons and equipment purchases.
SAMPLE RETURN: NASA's fiscal year 2005 budget request includes a funding wedge that will allow the agency to invest in long-lead technologies for a Mars sample return mission that could take place as early as 2013. A sample return mission actually is three missions in one, according to Orlando Figueroa, director of NASA's Mars Exploration Program Office. The first mission is landing on Mars and obtaining the samples, the second mission is getting the samples into Mars orbit, and the third mission is getting the samples back to Earth, he says.
DIRECTED ENERGY: The U.S. Army is eyeing mid-March as the likely time for a summit on directed energy weapons. Brig. Gen. Robert Lennox, deputy commanding general for operations at Army Space and Missile Defense Command, has been trying to organize the event to coordinate the service's formulation of requirements for directed energy systems (DAILY, Dec. 12, 2003).
END STRENGTH: A move to high-tech platforms will allow the U.S. Navy to reduce its end strength more than it predicted just last year, a senior Navy budget official says. Navy end strength would decrease rapidly throughout the Future Years Defense Plan and would be significantly reduced under President Bush's fiscal 2005 budget request, compared with 2004 projections. Personnel numbers are 373,800 in both fiscal 2004 and fiscal 2005, but would drop to 357,400 by fiscal 2009 under the FY '05 budget, compared with a drop to 370,100 in the FY '04 projections.
NUKE APPOINTMENT: President Bush plans to nominate Jerald Paul, a Florida state lawmaker and former nuclear engineer, to be principal deputy administrator of the Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). NNSA's duties include exploring the potential for new nuclear weapons.
Telecommunications market analysts differ on the health of the commercial satellite market, although Intelsat Ltd. said this week that market waters appear good for its initial public offering (IPO). Intelsat will offer up to $500 million shares, and Intelsat's current shareholders will be allowed to sell ordinary shares in the offering. The IPO registration statement will be filed with the SEC in the first quarter of this year, the company announced Feb. 4 (DAILY, Feb. 5).
NIST CUT: The Bush Administration's fiscal 2005 budget proposal would eliminate the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Advanced Technology Program (ATP), which has helped small companies move technology from research to demonstration, to help attract venture capital. Administration budget documents say other NIST research and development programs are more effective in supporting the technological needs of U.S.-based businesses and are similar to those being carried out by firms not receiving subsidies. However, Rep.
EXPERIMENT: The U.S. Defense Department's Joint Forces Command has an experimental initiative underway that would give combat commanders rapidly deployable command-and-control teams and supporting information systems. Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says the units would help the military respond to regional conflicts with smaller and more effective joint operational headquarters. Myers described the initiative in testimony submitted to the House Armed Services Committee. The prototype for the unit will be established this year.
NET-CENTRIC ACCELERATION: It is unlikely that some net-centric warfare programs the U.S. Department of Defense has accelerated since Sept. 11, 2001, will be deployed soon, says a senior defense analyst. "The United States has had research and development programs on the drawing board that would have taken 10 years to build and [that it] now wants out in a matter of three or four years. That's the plan, but I doubt that will happen," says Richard Sterk, Forecast International's electronics group leader and senior defense analyst.
The U.S. Army has begun real-world testing of a new system that allows a gun mounted atop a Humvee to be operated from inside the vehicle. Four prototypes of the Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station (CROWS) were installed on Humvees and sent to Iraq in December for urban missions, including patrols. CROWS, developed for the Army by Recon/Optical Inc. (ROI) of Barrington, Ill., eliminates the need for a gunner to be outside the vehicle, where there is little protection against enemy fire and severe weather.
