Telephonics Corp. has developed a lightweight, portable radar system that can be easily deployed for homeland security efforts to protect facilities like airports, water reservoirs and power plants, according to the company. The Ground Surveillance Radar (GSR) weighs about 50 pounds and can be carried in a military-style backpack, Joseph Battaglia, Telephonics' president and CEO, said in an interview with the DAILY.
Efforts by the Department of Defense to simplify its procurement practices and reduce costs are leading some companies to propose e-commerce solutions using the Internet. Last August, DOD awarded a 5-year, $600 million contract to TestMart Inc., a San Bruno, Calif.-based IT company, to design, build and manage an e-commerce portal site to sell electronic test and measurement equipment to DOD agencies and other government entities at drastically reduced prices.
A successful Nov. 20 test of the Air Force/Lockheed Martin Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) clears the way for the program to proceed to a decision on low rate initial production. In the test, at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., the stealthy cruise missile hit its target after release from an F-16 flying at 15,000 feet and .8 Mach, according to Terry Little of the Air Force's Air Armament Center at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.
The newly enacted aviation security act authorizes $50 million a year for research, development, testing and evaluation of various aviation security technologies, including "aircraft hardening materials." The funding, which is authorized from fiscal year 2002 to 2006, will be channeled through the Transportation Security Administration, a new agency that the law sets up within the Transportation Department. Congress will still have to pass an annual appropriation to provide the money.
The next target in the war on terrorism should be Iraq, says Richard Perle, the outspoken chairman of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board and the former assistant secretary of defense for international security policy under the Reagan Administration.
Mexico might someday work with the North American Aerospace Defense Command to help guard against the possibility of an airborne terrorist threat from south of the border. NORAD, a joint command of the U.S. and Canada, has shifted its focus to interior airspace since the attacks of Sept. 11, but an air defense relationship with Mexico could allow earlier detection of an attack from that direction.
The ability of future Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles (UCAVs) to take off, land, and even make repairs autonomously will be the key factor that allows UCAV operators to control more than one aircraft at a time, according to Boeing's Navy UCAV (UCAV-N) Program Manager Bill Buschelle. Both the Navy and the Air Force have tasked UCAV contractors with developing control interfaces that will allow a single operator to manage four aircraft at once. In comparison, a single Air Force Predator unmanned aerial vehicle currently requires three people to operate.
CNES, the French space agency, planned to test-fire an Ariane 5 solid rocket motor Nov. 20 at Europe's spaceport in French Guiana. The test was intended to qualify new procurement sources for part of the motor's propellant, involving the use of ammonium perchlorate produced by the U.S. company Wecco.
The chief executives of the five equal equity shareholding companies making up AirTanker, which is bidding for the United Kingdom's Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft (FSTA) program, met Nov. 19 to review their progress as the evaluation nears its final stages.
The U.S. Army is in a "holding pattern" as it waits for Congress to decide whether to provide funding needed to finish a side-by-side test of the Starstreak and Stinger air-to-air missiles, according to an Army official.
With four C-17s delivered to the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force (RAF), Boeing and the U.S. Air Force confirmed that other countries are beginning to express interest in the transport aircraft. The RAF received its first C-17 airlift aircraft in May and has already used them in test flights and operational missions.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is considering advancing the contractor downselect for the Navy Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV-N) to next year in order to provide more funding for the winning team, UCAV-N contractor Boeing told The DAILY.
Any agreement the Bush Administration reaches to amend the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia should be put in writing and submitted to the Senate for approval, according to Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden (D-Del.) and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.).
The first EA-6B Prowler equipped with the Increased Capability III (ICAP III) jamming system made a one-hour, 45-minute first flight on Nov. 16, Northrop Grumman Corp. announced Nov. 19. The aircraft is one of two prototypes being developed by the company's Integrated Systems Sector under a $200 million development program for the Navy. ICAP III focuses electronic signals on specific radar frequencies. It can change its jamming frequency as quickly as modern radars change theirs in an attempt to avoid jamming, according to the company.
Denying recent news reports claiming that bureaucratic red-tape was interfering with strikes against time-critical targets in Afghanistan, Rumsfeld said that "targeting has gotten very good" and that he is satisfied with how Central Command in Florida is handling the current campaign. It is the Commander-in-Chief of Central Command, Gen. Tommy Franks, who ultimately has to make decisions on whether to strike a target, Rumsfeld said at the Pentagon Nov. 19.
Plans to achieve initial service clearance of the Eurofighter in the coming year are being expedited by the recent return of the DA4 development aircraft to the flight-test program at Warton, after an extensive lay-up for inspections and modifications. One of two United Kingdom development aircraft, DA4 was the first two-seat Eurofighter and also the first to incorporate a full avionics installation, including the new ECR 90 Captor fire-control radar.
PRATT&WHITNEY CANADA CORP. completed the first flight test of a UH-1 Huey helicopter equipped with a PT6C-67D engine, part of an engine upgrade development program.
A recent study by the Futron Corp. predicts the use of Ku-band satellite services will evolve into greater need for Ka-band services over the next few years as customers increasingly demand support for multimedia applications. Because Ka-band transponders offer a larger frequency spectrum than the other two satellite frequency bands, C-band and Ku-band, it can support multimedia services such as voice telephony and video telephony and interactive data that require a higher bandwidth.
Six European Union defense ministers signed a declaration in Brussels, Belgium, on Nov. 19 to develop and sustain combat air systems over the next two decades. Military officials from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom agreed to launch the European Technology Acquisition Program (ETAP). This is a follow-on to their earlier accord on the European requirement for an efficient and globally competitive aerospace and defense electronics industry.
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) hopes to offer an amendment to the fiscal 2002 defense appropriations bill to add $20 billion for munitions, intelligence and other defense programs. His amendment would provide the money in broad categories: $8 billion for situational awareness and intelligence; $4 billion for munitions; $3 billion for force protection; $3 billion for worldwide posture, which generally covers operations; and $2 billion for command and control.
Aerospace and defense analysts with Standard&Poor's have assigned a preliminary A rating to Rockwell Collins Inc.'s $750 million worth of senior unsecured debt securities. The action follows the company's Nov. 7 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission requesting approval to offer the securities to investors periodically.
