Lockheed Martin delivered the first HC-130J Super Hercules airlifter to the U.S. Coast Guard Oct. 31. The HC-130J is intended eventually to replace the Coast Guard's oldest HC-130H maritime patrol aircraft, some of which were built in the early 1970s, Lockheed Martin said.
ORBITAL OFFICE: Boeing has established an integrated Orbital Space Program office in Huntsville, Ala., the company said Nov. 3. The office includes the company's Orbital Space Plane and Alternate Access to Station programs, and its creation should help lead to the "best solution" for NASA's Orbital Space Plane program, Boeing said.
AVISYS, a small company specializing in electronic warfare products, is teamed with United Airlines in the Department of Homeland Security's program to develop and demonstrate systems to counter shoulder-fired heat-seeking missiles aimed at commercial airliners, according to Ronald A. Gates, president and CEO of the Austin, Texas, company. "We are teaming with, and we're doing most of the system integration for, United Airlines," Gates said in an Oct. 31 telephone interview. United is the team's prime contractor.
The U.S. Army has been having general discussions about a potential replacement for its aging C-23B Sherpa light-transport aircraft, according to a spokesman for the Army's Program Executive Office, Aviation (PEO Aviation). The spokesman, Bob Hunt, emphasized that the discussions are in the early stages and that the Army has developed no concrete plans for starting a competition for a C-23B successor. "They've been talking about it, but nothing's firm," Hunt told The DAILY Nov. 3.
NEW DELHI - India will develop military space systems for command and control functions as part of a new Aerospace Command, the head of the air force said Oct. 31 at the end of an annual air force conference. "We are prepared to use space for ... projection in future use," Air Chief Marshal Sriniwaspuram Krishnaswamy told The DAILY. "[Space systems] will be used for command and control purposes and not for weapons delivery."
PRAGUE - In a surprise move, the Swedish government said it has offered new supersonic fighters to the Czech Republic as part of a competition that was expected to involve only older aircraft. Sweden's ambassador to the Czech Republic, Harald Falth, told journalists in Prague Oct. 3 that the Swedish offer of 12 new one-seat and two two-seat JAS-39 Gripen fighters is within the Czech ministry of defense's stated available budget.
NUKE FUNDING: A House-Senate conference committee is expected to meet the week of Nov. 3-7 to finish the fiscal 2004 energy and water appropriations conference report, including provisions addressing nuclear weapons research. The meeting had been expected to occur the previous week, but it was delayed at least partly by protracted negotiations over another appropriations measure.
The U.S. Air Force's Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has completed its series of flights in Germany intended to demonstrate a new European-built electronics intelligence (ELINT) sensor and pave the way for the Euro Hawk procurement by the German ministry of defense (MOD).
The Defense Department has indicated it plans to review the Air Force's Space Based Infrared System-High (SBIRS-High) following warnings by the General Accounting Office (GAO) that the program could experience more cost and schedule overruns. SBIRS-High, designed to replace the aging Defense Support Program (DSP) missile-detecting satellites, was restructured in 2002 after DOD discovered cost growth of about $2 billion. The launch of the first satellite was delayed from 2004 to 2006.
LOWER TIER: The Army Lower Tier Project Office in Huntsville, Ala., which oversees the Patriot system and the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS), is getting a new leader. Col. John Vaughn, just promoted from lieutenant colonel, is replacing retiring Col. Tommie Newberry as the office's project manager.
EARTH SCIENCES: Despite the Bush Administration's apparent commitment to earth observation programs, NASA's budget for earth sciences could be cut as debates on the agency's future continue, according to Steve Moran of Raytheon. "Earth Sciences is one of those areas that's vulnerable. If the debate about the future of NASA goes 'We don't have enough money to do everything,' this is one area that could be in trouble. We have to watch for that," Moran says.
The House approved two measures late Oct. 30 that will provide billions of dollars for extra spending on defense equipment and help pave the way for new aviation development efforts at the FAA. The $87.5 billion fiscal 2004 supplemental appropriations conference report mostly is for military operations and reconstruction in Afghanistan and Iraq but contains $5.9 billion for military procurement and research and development, including hundreds of millions for the purchase of aviation, communications and radio-jamming equipment (DAILY, Oct. 31).
MOSCOW - A Russian Rockot launch vehicle delivered Japan's Space Environment Reliability Verification Integrated System (SERVIS) satellite from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome on Oct. 30, following a one-day delay due to bad weather. The satellite will test commercial electronic components in the harsh environment of space. Sergey Ivanov, the Russian defense minister, visited Plesetsk to observe the launch but the weather-related delay caused him to leave before it occurred.
The international market for radars over the next 10 years should be worth a total of $18.36 billion based on based on existing programs, according to a report from Forecast International/DMS. The top radar manufacturers today are expected to dominate the market, the report says. Those companies, which include Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Thales, BAE Systems and Ericsson, should capture 61.3 percent of the market, or roughly $11.2 billion in contracts, according to the report, entitled "The Market for Radar Systems."
GMD CONTRACT: The Defense Department announced late Oct. 31 that the Missile Defense Agency has awarded the Boeing Co. an $823 million contract modification for work on the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system, including the acquisition of 15 more interceptor missiles. Boeing, the GMD prime contractor, already had been awarded a contract for five GMD interceptors. DOD plans to deploy all 20 interceptors by 2005.
EARTH STUDY UAVS: NASA and Aerosonde North America of Denver will establish a facility at the Goddard Space Flight Center's Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) to study the feasibility of using unmanned aerial vehicles for earth science studies. An Aerosonde UAV will begin flight tests at WFF in November and begin research flights in January 2005, NASA says. Long-endurance UAVs could fill a gap between satellites and surface networks for global observation, NASA says, and would not be limited by the endurance of a pilot.
To avoid an unacceptable launch delay, Arianespace has transferred the launch of the DirecTV 7S satellite to Boeing's Sea Launch for a flight in the first quarter of 2004, Arianespace announced Oct. 31. DIRECTV 7S is slated to serve 60 local television markets across the U.S., making it a high-priority launch for the company. However, a manufacturing delay caused the launch to slip until it conflicted with the Rosetta scientific spacecraft, which is slated to lift off on the Ariane 5 in February.
FRIEND OR FOE: Northrop Grumman's Navigation Systems Division will provide 10 AN/UPX-24(V) shipboard interrogators, part of an identification, friend or foe system, the company said Oct. 31. The contract is worth $14 million and calls for the company to deliver the systems through October 2005. The UPX-24 has been operational on CG 47 Ticonderoga-class Aegis cruisers, DDG 51 Arleigh Burke-class Aegis destroyers and LHD 1 Wasp-class amphibious assault ships since the mid-1970s, the company said.
CLARIFICATION: An Oct. 31 DAILY story should have made it clear that XCOR Aerospace's reusable launch vehicle launch license application for the FAA already is "sufficiently complete."
FLEET RESPONSE: The U.S. Navy's Fleet Response Concept to prepare ships for rapid deployment to trouble spots could affect defense contractors differently, according to senior aerospace and defense analyst Byron Callan of Merrill Lynch. "Clearly, if fewer ships are forward deployed, then the Navy might be able to live with a smaller fleet," Callan says.
