SRI International will supply combat training instrumentation systems to the Department of Defense under an $8.8 million contract, the company announced Oct. 23. The training systems, know as Deployable Force-on-Force Instrumented Range Systems (DFIRST), use Global Positioning System data, high-speed wireless communications and data visualization tools for simulation training.
The U.S. Navy plans to issue a contract to Northrop Grumman Corp. to design, develop and test a new version of the subsonic BQM-74 drone, now in wide use for simulation of potentially hostile aircraft and missiles and evaluation of new U.S. weapons. The new version, the BQM-74F, will simulate anticipated anti-ship cruise missile threats, according to Naval Air Systems Command.
LAST SS-24: Bechtel National Inc. will dismantle and eliminate the last remaining SS-24 nuclear ICMB silo site in Ukraine on Oct. 30. The dismantling, part of the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, will take place in Pervomaysk, about 400 kilometers south of the capital Kiev. Bechtel National got the contract in June 1998.
October 15, 2001 Northrop Grumman Corp., Melbourne, Fla., is being awarded a $26,000,000 (not-to-exceed) fixed-price incentive/cost-plus-fixed-fee contract modification to provide for advanced procurement in support of one Lot X aircraft (P16) Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) aircraft. At this time, the total amount of funds has been obligated. The Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., is the contracting activity (F19628-01-C-0015, P0002).
The Defense Department is already seeing "strategic payoffs" from network-centric warfare systems used in military operations in Afghanistan, but military commanders are still reluctant to make a large investment in critical networking technologies, according to John J. Garstka, chief technology officer in the joint staff's directorate for command, control, communications and computer systems.
UNITED DEFENSE INDUSTRIES of Arlington, Va., announced Oct. 22 it has filed a Form S-1 Registration Statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering (IPO) of up to $300 million of its common stock by the company and several existing stockholders. United Defense designs and develops precision munitions, combat vehicles, artillery, naval guns and missile launchers for the U.S. Department of Defense and allied militaries. Proceeds from the IPO will be used to reduce debt, allowing the company to expand, according United Defense.
A Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile successfully intercepted and destroyed a cruise missile target at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. Oct. 19, marking the end of the engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) phase and giving the PAC-3 system an overall success rate of over 90 percent. The Patriot system engaged two BQM-74 cruise missiles - one flying at low altitude and one at a higher altitude. The PAC-3 missile was launched at the low-altitude target, and an additional PAC-2 missile successfully intercepted the high-altitude target.
RapiTec Inc. will provide Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System (MILES) components for the AH-64D Apache Longbow Tactical Engagement Simulation System, the company announced Oct. 22. RapiTec is a subsidiary of OSI Systems Inc., of Hawthorne, Calif., and received the contract from DRS Optronics. Shipments will begin by June 30, 2002, and are expected to continue for a year.
Japan's Maritime Safety Agency has requested about $30 million from the Ministry of Finance to buy the first two aircraft for anti-piracy and anti-smuggling efforts. The agency announced earlier this year it is seeking longer-range aircraft for patrol missions over the waters of Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and other countries in southeast Asia. The agency currently uses two Dassault Falcon 900As for that purpose (DAILY, March 14), but it wants longer-range aircraft for non-stop operation between Japan and Singapore.
New findings from the X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission (XMM-Newton) observatory show that black holes can release energy as well as absorb it, according to the European Space Agency and NASA. Black holes, whose gravitational pull is so strong nothing can escape, can also "steadily belch out energy," according to ESA, which launched the XMM-Newton observatory in December 1999. The spacecraft, which was partly funded by NASA, carries three advanced X-ray telescopes.
NASA has given 10 researchers grants totaling $5.4 million over three years to develop technologies needed to produce food, recycle water and air and monitor spacecraft environments required for long-term human space exploration, the aerospace agency announced Oct. 22.
The U.S. Navy has completed developmental testing of The Boeing Co.'s new Harpoon Block II missile at the Naval Air Warfare Center - Weapons Division sea range off Point Mugu, Calif. In the last test, the missile was launched from the USS Decatur, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, against a mobile ship target that was close to land.
Aerospace suppliers hoping to do business with The Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. must be able to exchange information in a timely manner and interact with the two aerospace giants using some kind of integrated design network, according to company executives. During a question and answer session at the Aerospace Expo conference here last week, George Muellner, president of Boeing Phantom Works, said because Boeing uses a digital 3-D modeling process, it needs suppliers with the ability to interact with that kind of network.
Northrop Grumman Corp. announced Oct. 22 that it has completed the acquisition of Aerojet-General Corp.'s Electronics and Information Systems Group (EIS) for $315 million cash. The EIS unit manufactures spaceborne sensors for early warning systems, weather systems and ground systems that process C4ISR data from space-based platforms. It also builds "smart" weapons technology for U.S. defense programs.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said Oct. 22 that he doubts the Bush Administration will unilaterally withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in fiscal 2002 if the U.S. and Russia don't reach an agreement to amend or replace the 1972 pact.
GENERAL DYNAMICS CORP. has extended its offer for all shares of outstanding Newport News Shipbuilding stock until Oct. 29. The offer was previously scheduled to expire on Oct. 19. As of 5 p.m. on Oct. 19, nearly 13 million Newport News shares had been tendered to the company. Rival Northrop Grumman Corp., which is also seeking to acquire Newport News, has extended its offer to Oct. 25. As of Oct. 18, it had been tendered 7.6 million shares of Newport News stock.
While President Bush's trip to Shanghai for the APEC meeting offers the prospect of better relations with China, military sanctions imposed on China after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre remain in place, U.S. officials say. Defense and State Department officials said a recent newspaper report that Bush was set to allow sale of military helicopter parts to China was wrong. The Administration is not deliberating any waiver of the Tiananmen sanctions to sell the spare parts, a Pentagon spokesperson said Oct. 19.
REVIVE DC-X: Henry Cooper, chairman of High Frontier and former director of the Strategic Defense Initiative, believes the defunct DC-X reusable launch vehicle program could have yielded benefits if it had received greater political support. The DC-X "Clipper Graham" was an attempt by the SDI organization to create a viable, reusable single-stage-to-orbit capability. "It should be understood that the foundation of the Clipper Graham was soundly laid and still can be built open," says Cooper.
Researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia are preparing for the world's first test flight of a hypersonic "scramjet" engine they believe could one day allow commercial airline passengers to fly at a speed of Mach 8. In the Oct. 25 test from the Woomera launch range, two of the prototype engines called "Hyshot" will be launched as conventional rockets - riding on Terrier-Orion Mk70 boosters to an altitude of 196 miles before falling back to Earth, Aerospace Daily affiliate AviationNow.com reported.
