NEW DELHI - Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) has completed test trials of the Cheetah helicopter with a new engine, the Turbomecca TM 333 2M2, a company official said Dec. 12. The upgraded helicopter flew more than 50 development flights and the latest tested the engine's air intake pressure, temperatures, engine surge, hover performance, engine restarts and high-altitude performance. Cold weather trials are planned at Leh in 2004, the HAL official said. Certification in 2004
TYPHOON TRANCHE: "Intense work is under way" on preparing contracts for the second tranche of the multi-nation Eurofighter Typhoon program, and they will be awarded "as soon as possible," says Adam Ingram, the United Kingdom's secretary of state for defense. "Under the original schedule, the contracts had been due to be placed during 2003 but the program, including the delivery of Tranche 1 aircraft, has been subject to delay," Ingram told Parliament Dec. 11.
EL PASO, Texas - U.S. Army officials say the Iraq war has provided important lessons on how the service spends its money on air and missile defense systems. Some budgetary changes are already in the works.
EL PASO, Texas - The next missile intercept attempt for the Missile Defense Agency's Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system is scheduled to take place in May 2004, according to a program official. The test, Integrated Flight Test-14 (IFT-14), may be followed by another intercept attempt, IFT-15, in July 2004, said Thomas Devanney, GMD's deputy program director, who spoke at an Army space and missile defense conference here.
While Congress granted the U.S. Navy's fiscal 2004 request for T-45 training aircraft, some senators and representatives say they are concerned that the service doesn't seem to have a long-term plan for the program. "We hope you will allocate the funding necessary to complete production and upgrade of the T-45TS [Training System] program to ensure that Navy and Marine Corps pilots are trained in the most cost-effective manner," 11 senators and congressmen said in a Nov. 24 letter to Navy Secretary Gordon England.
The Republic of Korea air force has begun flight tests of the multimode control radar of the T-50 Golden Eagle's Lead-In Fighter Trainer (LIFT) version, Lockheed Martin announced Dec. 10. "The air-to-ground radar modes are performing well," Korean air force Lt. Col. Kwon Hee Man, a test pilot for the LIFT, said in a company statement.
The General Accounting Office (GAO) is recommending that the Department of Defense (DOD) overhaul its process for purchasing satellite services from commercial vendors, and consider seeking legislative authority for multi-year procurements.
The Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (Aegis BMD) system successfully intercepted a target missile during a Dec. 11 test over the Pacific, according to the Missile Defense Agency (MDA).
PRAGUE, Czech Republic - A diplomatic dispute has erupted between Sweden and the United States over alleged U.S. lobbying tactics surrounding the Czech state's planned acquisition of supersonic aircraft. The dispute comes as the Czech government prepares to consider an evaluation commission's unanimous recommendation that it accept a Swedish government proposal to lease 14 new Gripen JAS-39 fighters for up to 10 years.
NASA is expected to select by March the best of three proposed methods to repair damage to the space shuttle's reinforced carbon-carbon (RCC) panels in orbit, according to members of the Stafford-Covey Task Group.
In an attempt to secure a strategic position in the U.S. defense manufacturing and engineering sector, Australia's Metal Storm Ltd. acquired U.S. ProCam Machine Dec. 11 for $4.3 billion, including the assumption of $2.8 million of ProCam's debt. Metal Storm issued about 5.1 million ordinary shares of its own stock to finance the purchase, the company said.
EL PASO, Texas - A U.S. Army general is seeking to organize a "directed energy summit" to coordinate the service's formulation of requirements for directed energy weapons. With directed energy attracting growing interest in many parts of the Army, it would make sense for representatives of those segments to write a requirements document together instead of separately, said Brig. Gen. Robert Lennox, deputy commanding general for operations at Army Space and Missile Defense Command.
SAAB ORDER: Finland's navy has ordered Saab's Radar and Optronic Fire Control System, the Ceros 200 FCS, for the navy's Squadron 2000 vessels. The deal is worth 9.3 million Euros ($11.4 million) for SaabTech, which developed and manufactures the system in Jarfalla, Sweden.
NEW DELHI - Although India and Russia have reached a tentative agreement on India's acquisition of the aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, they disagree on which air defense missile system it should carry. The Indian navy is evaluating the Russia's Kashtan, France's Aster and Israel's Barak missile systems, Indian defense ministry officials said.
CLASSIFIED LAUNCH: International Launch Services will launch a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) in 2006 on a Lockheed Martin Atlas V booster, the company said Dec. 10. The launch is a new mission added to the company's work under the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program.
Fueled largely by increased defense spending, the aerospace industry should stabilize and experience modest growth over the next three years, according to the latest annual forecast by the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA).
EL PASO, Texas - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Dec. 10 that the United States needs to do more to defend the homeland and deployed troops against cruise missiles. While most of the Defense Department's missile defense programs are focused on defeating ballistic missiles, cruise missiles are increasingly attractive to U.S. enemies because they are widely available, "not terribly expensive," and can be launched from ships, said Rumsfeld, who addressed an Army space and missile defense conference here by satellite feed.
SEARCH FOR LIFE: NASA is adapting tiny laboratories in compact discs to conduct tests on the International Space Station and eventually look for life on other planets, the agency announced. "These tiny labs on CDs allow you to do thousands of tests of biological samples quickly and in the field," said Michael Flynn, a scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. Dyes in the CD combine with a sample and glow when exposed to specific proteins or other chemicals, including parts of DNA.
PRAGUE, Czech Republic - Three European NATO members have formed an initiative supporting Sweden's offer to lease Gripen JAS-39 fighters to the Czech Republic, according to German officials. The initiative, which German officials said is led by France and supported by Germany and the United Kingdom, is based on the premise that buying European fighters will help strengthen Europe's role in NATO and bolster attempts to build a defense pillar at European Union level.
EL PASO, Texas - The Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) that Lockheed Martin Corp. is developing for the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile could enable even further improvements to the interceptor. The MSE will, among other things, provide the ability to collect data on PAC-3's interaction with an enemy missile. That information will be transmitted to ground units for analysis and could be used to make the interceptor perform better, Lockheed Martin officials told reporters Dec. 10 at an Army space and missile defense conference here.
