Boeing conducted the latest in a series of successful tests and demonstrations last week of the company's prototype future battle management system for joint military commanders. The tests focus on reducing the risk of fielding the complex, network-centric systems, Boeing said in a statement. The risk reduction events began in 2003.
Mojave Airport in California has become the first inland site to file for a commercial spaceport license with the FAA and hopes to receive the license soon, according to airport manager Stu Witt. The license will authorize the operation of runway-launched winged space vehicles rather than vertically launched rockets, according to Witt. "The two concepts which we anticipate our license identifying will be that of Scaled Composites and that of XCOR Aerospace," Witt told The DAILY.
Boeing KC-135 Stratotankers equipped with the Global Air Traffic Management (GATM) system now are flying, making the tankers the first Air Mobility Command (AMC) aircraft to be fitted with the system, which enhances navigation and surveillance capabilities and makes the aircraft compliant with civilian air traffic management systems.
Members of the House Armed Services Committee's readiness subcommittee asked whether a round of base closures in 2005 is justified, a day after Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld certified to Congress that a new round of military base closures could save billions by 2011. "Ultimately, we must be able to answer the question: Is 2005 the right time for another round of base closures? Should Congress consider delaying or even canceling the next BRAC round?" Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Joel Hefley (R-Colo.) asked in his opening statement.
The U.S. Air Force is negotiating with Boeing to lay the legal groundwork necessary to lift the sanctions levied against the company for ethical misconduct, according to Peter Teets, Air Force undersecretary for space.
PRAGUE, Czech Republic - Czech aircraft producer Aero Vodochody is to pay the Czech ministry of defense almost $28 million in penalties for the late delivery of L-159 fighters to the Czech air force. Defense spokesman Ladislav Sticha told The DAILY March 22 that the fines were agreed upon after an arbitration hearing. The air force received the last batch of 72 ordered aircraft last fall, at least 18 months after the original deadline set in a contract signed in 1997.
The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) announced March 25 that is has founded a Russian subsidiary that will promote cooperation with that country's aerospace industry. One of the goals of the new venture will be to increase the amount of subcontracting work performed by Russian companies for Airbus, according to EADS Russia President and CEO Vadim Vlasov.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - U.S. Army aviation will need more spare parts, diagnostic equipment and other tools to sustain the high readiness rates it will need to have in future years, a service official said March 25.
The U.S. Air Force does not plan to make many of the billions of dollars in improvements to the F/A-22 Raptor that the General Accounting Office recently suggested were planned to enhance the Lockheed Martin aircraft's ability to attack ground targets, according to two service officials.
A team of defense experts should review tactical air funding requirements over the next two decades to try to prevent continued budget shortfalls, Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) said March 25.
J-UCAS DROP: As expected, Boeing's X-45 Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems X-45A technology demonstrator has dropped a 250-pound inert Small Diameter Bomb. The vehicle released an unguided SDB while flying at 35,000 feet over Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The drop of a guided munition is expected next month (DAILY, March 22).
Over the next 10 years, the Eurofighter team is expected to surpass U.S. companies in sales of "fighter/attack/jet trainer aircraft," says a recently released market analysis by a defense research group, Forecast International (FI). Lockheed Martin will lead the field in terms of unit production, but the analysis sees the Eurofighter team overtaking the U.S. company in value of production before the end of the forecast period. This projection assumes the multinational Typhoon requirement is not cut back.
Sikorsky is laying off approximately 100 employees who had been working on the Army's RAH-66 Comanche helicopter program, the company announced March 25. About 700 Sikorsky employees were working on Comanche before the Army's cancellation of the program last month (DAILY, Feb. 24). Two hundred of those employees already have been reassigned to other efforts within the company, according to Sikorsky President Steve Finger.
Funding basic research and science and technology is important to enable the development of future military capabilities, Department of Defense science and technology (S&T) officials said March 25 at a House hearing. The fiscal 2005 budget request for basic research is $1.3 billion. The DOD request for science and technology (S&T) in fiscal 2005 is $10.6 billion, an increase of about 1.5 percent increase over the fiscal 2004 budget request, said Ronald Sega, director of DOD Defense Research and Engineering.
DENVER, Colo. - Industry is sorting out how to handle the architectures that will be key to interoperabilty in network-centric warfare - whether they should be owned by industry or by the government, according to attendees at a conference here. One group says industry should own the architectures, another says they should be owned by the government.
WCMD: Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control-Orlando will produce 1,677 Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser (WCMD) tail kits under an $11 million contract from the U.S. Air Force, the Department of Defense said March 24. WCMDs are kits designed for the precision release of cluster weapons.
RAYTHEON CO. has delivered the first Improved Thermal Sight Systems for installation on U.S. Marine Corps Light Armored Vehicles. The Marines will test and evaluate the systems' performance between now and July, the company said. If the evaluations are successful, the Marines could buy as many as 416 units.
KOREA AEROSPACE INDUSTRIES (KAI) and LOCKHEED MARTIN have invited Israel and United Arab Emirates to test-fly the T-50 Golden Eagle trainer later this year. The countries will be the first possible export customers to fly the aircraft. The South Korean air force is test-flying four prototypes and has been asked by KAI to host demonstration flights later this year.
It is important for the U.S. Department of Defense to continue to invest in non-nuclear strategic defense capabilities, said witnesses at a March 24 hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee's strategic forces subcommittee. DOD needs to enhance its intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities to find hidden targets, which could be camouflaged or protected by robust air defenses, said Navy Adm. James Ellis, commander, U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM).
NASA is cooperating with the Department of Energy's Naval Reactors program to investigate space nuclear power and propulsion technologies, the aerospace agency said. The partnership is developing a NASA spacecraft, the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter, that is intended to use nuclear energy to visit Jupiter's moons Ganymede, Callisto and Europa.
