Теги форумов: news

2000-05-06, Jag_22: Cosmonauts On Mir Prep For Spacewalk by Ted Gogoll 05/05/00 06:53:29 PM U.S. EDT The two cosmonauts aboard the Mir station underwent medical tests Friday in preparation for next week’s spacewalk, or extravehicular activity (EVA). During the EVA mission, cosmonauts, mission commander Sergei Zalyotin and flight engineer Alexander Kalery, will test sealant equipment to coat the exterior of the station, where a microscopic crack has allowed oxygen to escape. Additionally, the base station core module will be inspected, along with one of the solar arrays on the Kristall module, according to Amsterdam, Netherlands-based, MirCorp, which leases Mir from Russia. MirCorp, along with other international investors, has invested about $30 million in hopes of turning the 14-year old Mir station into a space hotel. The EVA will be on Friday, May 12. MirCorp plans to have the cosmonauts onboard for at least 45 days. Copyright AviationNow

2000-05-05, Jag_22: Another Cargo Plane In The Lake For the second time in less than three months, a cargo plane has ended up in the shallow waters of Africa's Lake Victoria. Last Sunday, a DC-10 operated by Dairo Air Services overshot the runway during its approach to the Entebbe International Airport in Uganda, and crashed into the lake. The seven-member Ugandan crew was rescued with only minor injuries. The Ugandan Civil Aviation Authority said the east African nation lacks equipment to salvage the aircraft, which broke in two and sank, and might seek international help. Last February an Arabian B707 ended up in Lake Victoria while trying to land at Mwanza in Tanzania. I think somebody should teach them how to fly.

2000-05-05, Jag_22: Russia Developing Stealth Bomber USDefense.com USDEFENSE.COM | A new report said that Russia is developing a new stealth bomber that is smaller than the U.S.-built B-2 "Spirit" bomber and incorporates a swing-wing design rather than the "flying wing" evident in the American counterpart. On Wednesday WorldNetDaily reported that Russian aircraft maker Sukhoi, designer of a number of sophisticated warplanes currently in service in Russian and Chinese air forces, has developed the Tu-60S, a stealth bomber design which "includes extensive stealth design features." "The move toward a stealth bomber is seen as an indication that President Vladimir Putin intends to upgrade both the tactical and strategic weapons employed by Russia," the netpaper said, allowing Moscow to fight a high-tech conventional war far beyond Russian borders and allowing it to directly challenge similar U.S. power. Most western analysts who have examined Russia's military power over the past decade have said that especially the air force and…

2000-05-05, Jag_22: Official: Russia Opposes Any ABM Treaty Change 05/04/00 11:10:01 AM U.S. EDT MOSCOW (AP) — Russia opposes U.S. proposals for amending an anti-missile treaty because the defense system Washington wants to build could be the basis for a shield covering all of the United States, a Defense Ministry official said today. Col. Gen Leonid Ivashov, head of the ministry's international cooperation department, said Russia doesn't see any reason to revise the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which blocks Russia and the United States from building national missile defense systems. The United States wants to amend the treaty to build a limited defense system against possible attacks by “rogue states” such as North Korea. The U.S. government says the system wouldn't be able to protect against the widespread attack Russia is capable of launching. A first stage of the proposed U.S. system would install rockets and a radar to knock down missile attacks from Asia. The second phase, focused on defending against threats from…

2000-05-05, Jag_22: Marines Close, But Not Yet Satisfied On Osprey Investigation by Robert Wall 05/04/00 05:30:20 PM U.S. EDT The Marine Corps is poised to resume flying the MV-22 Osprey, but announcement of the flight clearance was delayed at the last minute by Marine Corps commandant Gen. James Jones. Accident investigators have ruled out aircraft mechanical problems as the accident cause, which was the main reason the Marines feel comfortable they can start operating the tiltrotor again. But Jones, who is traveling in Germany, wanted to review the evidence once more. So far investigators have been unable to pinpoint the exact cause of the accident. One area under close review is the interaction of rotor vortices between the two MV-22s that were flying in close formation when one of them crashed. Helicopter pilots are warned that at low speed the airflow anomaly can induce unanticipated yaw in an aircraft. As a result of the prolonged investigation, Marine Corps officials increasingly are risking a delay in the completion of…

2000-05-03, Jag_22: Team Finds Wreckage From OGrady Shoot-Down by Jim Mathews 05/02/00 02:26:30 PM U.S. EDT Wreckage found by a de-mining team in the northwestern region of Bosnia and Herzegovina is from the Lockheed Martin F-16C flown by ex-USAF Capt. Scott O’Grady, shot down five years ago by Serbs during Operation Deny Flight, U.S. military officials say. O’Grady became a worldwide (read American) figure shortly after being rescued by a U.S. Marine search team five days after the shoot-down. The de-mining team found a few large pieces of wing and fuselage, but mostly smaller pieces, the Armed Forces News Service reported today. Officials at U.S. Air Forces in Europe headquarters at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, confirmed earlier teams’ findings on Friday. A survey team from the international Stabilization Force, or SFOR, arrived April 19 to secure and document the site. Two more teams followed, and identified the wreckage as coming from an F-16. USAFE officials then confirmed the plane was O’Grady’s. Copyright AviationNow

2000-05-03, Jag_22: U.S. Air Force Readiness Hit 15-Year Low This Year 05/02/00 02:47:24 PM U.S. EDT WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Air Force readiness to fight a war slumped in recent months to its lowest level in 15 years, declining 28 percent since the end of the Cold War, a senior military official said Tuesday. Only 65 percent of the force's combat units were considered operating at the military's best levels of readiness in December and January, the official said on condition of anonymity. That means roughly 115 of its 329 combat units were not fully capable of performing their mission. The rating is based on calculations of whether the units have the people, supplies, equipment and training to do their jobs — and it's been steadily declining for years. The 65 percent rating early this year, for instance, compares with 95 percent readiness in 1989 and 76 percent at the end of 1998, the official said. The official blamed budgets that didn't allow enough for spare parts and didn't offer service members salaries competitive in…

2000-05-02, Jag_22: KrasAir fights for third place By Vovick Karnozov AWN Moscow-based columnist KrasAir last week declared its intention to become Russia's third largest passenger carrier (after Aeroflot and Pulkovo) on operational results of this year. In 1998, it occupied fifth place and fourth in 1999. Last year KrasAir made nearly 6,000 flights with a total duration of 40,000 hours and carried over 0.763 million passengers and almost 20,000 tons of cargo. KrasAir is a large company consisting of the airline with a fleet of 50 airplanes, the airport of Krasnoyarsk, the aircraft maintenance center and the ticket sales agency. The headquarters and main industrial facilities are located in Krasnoyarsk, a large city with population in excess of one million, one of largest cities in Siberia. KrasAir was established in 1993 as a result of de-nationalization of the Krasnoyarsk unitary state enterprise of civil aviation. Now it is a joint-stock company with 51% of shares in the state ownership. In 1996-98 KrasAir, as many other…

2000-05-02, Jag_22: Lockheed Martin, TRW Win Space-Based Radar Contracts by Robert Wall 04/28/00 08:04:27 PM U.S. EDT Lockheed Martin and TRW have each won $6 million system design contracts for the Defense Dept.'s Discoverer-2 space-based radar system. Spectrum Astro was involved in the program, but didn't receive funding to continue its work. The joint Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, National Reconnaissance Office, Air Force effort simply couldn't afford awarding three contracts, said David Whelan, Darpa's director for tactical technology programs. Discoverer-2 is a space-based experiment to determine if low-cost satellites (around $100 million) can provide ground moving target indication, synthetic aperture radar and digital terrain mapping capability. Two experimental satellites are slated to be launched in 2005. Although the initial contracts are small, the program could grow into a 24 low-Earth orbit constellation. The government is slated to pick a single design team for the demonstration next year. During the…

2000-05-02, Jag_22: U.S. To Stop Degrading GPS Signal by Frank Morring, Jr. Aerospace Daily 05/01/00 05:43:45 PM U.S. EDT The U.S. Air Force is scheduled tonight to switch off the software that degrades the Global Positioning System signal, giving everyone in the world access to the same basic signal the U.S. military uses to guide its precision weapons. President Clinton approved elimination of GPS “selective availability” (SA) last Friday, after testing demonstrated the Pentagon can switch off the more precise signal during an armed conflict. The change is set for midnight GMT (8 p.m. EDT), and will upgrade civilian GPS receivers from an unaugmented accuracy of about 100 meters to roughly 10 meters. “The decision to discontinue SA is coupled with our continuing efforts to upgrade the military utility of our systems that use GPS,” Clinton said in a statement issued yesterday. “The decision is supported by threat assessments which conclude that setting SA to zero at this time would have minimal impact on national security.”…

2000-04-28, Jag_22: JASSM Stealthy Cruise Missile Under Fire by Robert Wall 04/27/00 03:42:45 PM U.S. EDT Only a day after the U.S. Air Force and Lockheed Martin rolled out the AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM), the congressional General Accounting Office has issued a critical review of the program, saying the production schedule may be too hurried. The USAF wants to start building the stealthy cruise missile in November, 2001, to take advantage of prices – already negotiated – that could expire. “The contractor is not expected to have specific, detailed knowledge of the design’s ability to meet requirements until after the decision to begin production has already been made,” GAO said. The Air Force doesn’t want to slow the program, but is negotiating with Lockheed Martin to try to contain JASSM costs even if the production contracts are exercised late. Earlier program difficulties have already stretched the missile’s development 10 months and added $90 million to the program’s cost. Copyright AviationNow…

2000-04-27, Jag_22: NATO Exercises Next Week For Global Hawk UAV by Jim Mathews 04/26/00 08:44:50 AM U.S. EDT The U.S. Air Force’s Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle demonstrator next week will fly missions supporting NATO amphibious operations in exercises USAF officials note mark the reconnaissance UAV’s first trans-Atlantic flight to Europe. Two major exercises are on tap for Global Hawk in May. The first, Linked Seas 00, runs May 1-12 and involves NATO Supreme Allied Command Atlantic and the regional SOUTHLANT command, as well as several NATO nations. A second, week-long mission begins May 14 involving a Navy carrier battle group and Marine expeditionary force during the JTFEX 00-02 exercise. “These are really ‘graduation exercises’ for the Global Hawk Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration,” said Lt. Col. Mike Trundy, with the Global Hawk Program Office at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. The two exercises, plus a demonstration last week with the U.S. Coast Guard, are part of an evaluation of the UAV’s worth that runs…

2000-04-27, Jag_22: Coffman: Lockheed Martin Likely To Split JSF Contract 04/26/00 06:38:53 PM U.S. EDT Lockheed Martin Chairman, CEO and President Vance Coffman said his company is likely to split the $200 billion Joint Strike Fighter production contract with competitor Boeing Co. The Pentagon, he said, is getting away from its original plan to award a winner-take-all contract. Coffman’s comments, made today at the Aerospace Finance Executive Symposium in New York, jointly sponsored by Aviation Week & Space Technology and Credit Suisse First Boston, are similar to those of Frank Statkus, vice president and general manager of the JSF program for Boeing. Statkus said last week that winner-take-all probably won’t be the end scenario, and that Boeing is likely to work out some kind of teaming arrangement with Lockheed Martin. Coffman told reporters that the odds are better than fifty-fifty that winner-take-all would be abandoned. He said a number of alternatives are being studied by the Dept. of Defense. Lockheed Martin, he…

2000-04-26, Jag_22: Protecting the Fleet Integrated EW Expands the Virtual Battlespace by Dr. David L. Rockwell “USS Decatur damaged by Harpoon missile.” This unlikely headline was seen last May, when an unarmed AGM-84 Harpoon struck and easily holed the destroyer’s outer skin, causing fires, flooding and an estimated $14 million in damage — all without a warhead. Modern unarmored warships are remarkably vulnerable once a weapon — any weapon — evades the elaborate net of ship self-defenses. In the case of the Decatur (ex-DDG 31), a decommissioned Forrest Sherman-class destroyer now used by the US Navy (USN) to test ship self-defense weapons and sensors, two closely-spaced Harpoons flew similar courses. The Decatur acquired and engaged the first missile but failed to acquire the second. Two missiles, one hit. In an era where ships increasingly operate alone, often in littoral zones very close to antiship-cruise-missile (ASCM) launch sites, today’s increasingly integrated network-centric EW systems are being designed to prevent…

2000-04-26, Jag_22: Missile Defense System Would Cost U.S. $60B Over 15 Years 04/25/00 09:23:03 PM U.S. EDT WASHINGTON (AP)--Erecting a missile defense system to give the United States limited protection from ballistic missile attack would cost nearly $60 billion through the year 2015, according to a congressional report released today. The Congressional Budget Office said that if successfully engaged, a national defense system would defend the entire country against several tens of missiles. It cautioned, however, that many believe that a country just developing long-range missiles could use simple countermeasures rendering a missile defense system impotent. The report, said Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), “confirms my fears that we are rushing into a decision on national missile defense without knowing everything we should about the financial, technological and diplomatic implications.” But Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), a leading proponent of missile defense, said there was “no way” it would cost $60 billion. He said that while…

2000-04-26, Jag_22: Logan Replacement Radar Operational 04/24/00 07:56:58 PM U.S. EDT BOSTON (AP)--An airport radar system that collapsed at Logan International Airport, delaying hundreds of Easter weekend flights, was replaced Monday and the new radar was tracking flights by afternoon. The Airport Surveillance Radar 9 system, installed in 1991, was used by air traffic controllers to track weather and planes within an 8-mile (12.8-kilometer) radius of Logan (shown). It was built to withstand hurricane-force winds but collapsed Saturday morning under winds half that strength. Air traffic controllers switched to a slower backup system that allowed for only about 26 flights an hour, half the airport's usual capacity. More than 500 flights were canceled, and hundreds of others were delayed. “The ASR9 is considered 99.6 percent reliable,” Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Arlene Salac said Monday. “This is that .4 percent.” Salac said the FAA does not plan to inspect ASR9 units located at 133 other U.S. airports. Copyright…

2000-04-26, Jag_22: Board Finds High Taxi Speed Caused Global Hawk Crash 04/25/00 11:50:38 AM U.S. EDT The Air Force Mishap Investigation Board examining the Dec. 6 accident involving a Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle has determined that taxiing at an excessive ground speed of 155 kt. caused the mishap. The No. 3 Global Hawk veered off the main runway at Edwards AFB, Calif., at 4:17 p.m. PST, following a successful mission and full-stop landing. The UAV then accelerated to an excessive taxi speed and veered off the main runway, collapsing its nose gear and damaging its sensor suite. "The primary cause of this mishap was the execution of a commanded, taxi ground-speed of 155 knots," said Col. James R. Heald, Accident Investigation Board president. "The excessive ground speed was introduced by a combination of known software problems between the vehicle's Air Force Mission Support System core mission planning system and its aircraft/weapon/electronics-spec ific mission planning system." The UAV’s mission planning and…

2000-04-26, Jag_22: US Cuts Key Test Delay For Airborne Laser Effort by Robert Wall 04/25/00 03:09:16 PM U.S. EDT The U.S. Air Force will only have to delay by one year the first ballistic missile shoot-down attempt for its Boeing 747-based Airborne Laser, rather than two as first expected. The test, slated for 2003, was on the verge of being delayed at least two years when the service took almost $1 billion out of the program. But plans now call for the shoot-down of a boosting ballistic missile in 2004, after which the program would slow, said USAF Lt. Gen. Bruce Carlson, the Joint Staff’s director of force structure and resources, who oversaw the ABL program in a prior assignment. If the intercept attempt succeeds it would likely free up money within the Pentagon to keep the program on schedule, Carlson added. Some U.S. lawmakers have vowed to restore the ABL funds, but Carlson said that even so, the intercept attempt would not be returned to 2003. Instead, the money would be used for additional testing to gain higher…

2000-04-26, Jag_22: Progress Capsule Launched To Resupply Mir by Frank Morring, Jr. from Aerospace Daily 04/25/00 05:41:47 PM U.S. EDT Russia launched a Progress capsule to the Mir orbital station today to resupply the two cosmonauts who are rehabilitating the 14-year-old spacecraft for possible commercial activities. Liftoff of Progress M1-2 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan came at 4:07 p.m. Eastern time, according to MirCorp, the private venture seeking to keep Mir (shown) in orbit as a business. Progress M1-2 is set to dock at the Kvant module port at 5:30 p.m. Eastern time Thursday. Meanwhile, Cosmonauts Sergei Zalyotin and Alexander Kalery were scheduled to close the hatch on Progress M1-1 in preparation for its separation from the station Wednesday to clear the docking port for the new capsule. The two have apparently sealed a slow leak in the station, and are continuing to reactivate systems and clean up the station for future visitors.

2000-04-21, Jag_22: Mir Cosmonauts May Have Fixed Leak by Jim Mathews 04/21/00 08:32:04 AM U.S. EDT Mir cosmonauts Sergei Zalyotin and Alexander Kalery think they’ve found and fixed the small air leak detected on the once-abandoned space station last year, reports MirCorp, the company financing Mir’s reactivation. Internal pressure is now stabilizing, MirCorp says, after a sealing plug was installed yesterday on the Spektr module’s hatch. The plug replaced a pressure gauge on the Spektr hatch door after the cosmonauts detected the sound of escaping air. The now-plugged hatch separates the unpressurized Spektr module from the rest of the pressurized Mir station. Spektr has been unpressurized since 1997, when an unmanned Progress cargo re-supply spacecraft ran into the module during a docking maneuver. The two cosmonauts have been searching for the leak since arriving on Mir earlier this month, isolating the station section by section to track down the problem. Repairing the leak is part of the first work phase for the cosmonauts…

2000-04-21, Jag_22: Joint Strike Fighter Rivals Ready To Work Together by Norval G. Kennedy and Jim Mathews 04/19/00 02:22:14 PM U.S. EDT As the Joint Strike Fighter program nears a decision from the Pentagon in the next two or three weeks on whether to preserve the winner-take-all procurement strategy, rivals Lockheed Martin and Boeing say they are ready to share production (Lockheed version shown). Boeing said yesterday that it was already considering where the Lockheed team might fit into its plan. Today Lockheed’s Director of JSF Business Development James H. Schaefer told AviationNow.com at the Navy League’s annual meeting that it would have to determine how to accommodate another prime contractor. “We have already formed a prime team with BAe and Northrop, and now we have to look at Boeing,” he said. Schaefer felt it would take at least six months to study splitting the workload if a shared contract is mandated. BAe is providing the software for the Lockheed team, and the Pentagon’s JSF Director USMC Maj. Gen. Michael A.…

2000-04-21, Jag_22: Marines Want Simulator Replication Of Fatal Osprey Crash by Robert Wall 04/20/00 03:12:27 PM U.S. EDT To investigate the cause of the V-22 Osprey crash earlier this month, the Marine Corps wants to replicate the fatal mission in a simulator, Lt. Gen. Frederick McCorkle, the Marine’s deputy commandant for aviation, said today. NASA has offered the use of one its simulators for that purpose. Data from the flight data recorder has been extracted successfully. At this point there are no indications that the crash that killed 19 Marines was caused by either mechanical or maintenance problems or pilot error, McCorkle said. The remaining V-22s remain grounded. Once the flight restriction is lifted, the Marines plan to first fly those Ospreys built during the engineering and manufacturing development phase. Later, test pilots will start flying the production aircraft before missions carrying troops will resume. Copyright AviationNow

2000-04-20, Jag_22: Panel Urges U.S. To Junk Two-War Strategy by Jim Mathews 04/20/00 09:25:00 AM U.S. EDT In the new Internet era in which economic power can rise and fall in minutes and in which affected countries no longer neatly fit into allegiances with superpower camps, U.S. security strategy needs to evolve to deal better with small-scale contingencies, economic upheavals and public-health and welfare crises, concludes a Blue Ribbon panel commissioned by Defense Secretary William Cohen. The U.S. Commission on National Security in the 21 st Century – better known as the Hart-Rudman Commission after its co-chairs, former senators Warren Rudman (R-N.H.) and Gary Hart (D-Colo.) – “ believes that the ‘two major theater wars’ yardstick for sizing U.S. forces is not producing the capabilities needed for the varied and complex contingencies now occurring and likely to increase in the years ahead,” members said in their second of three planned reports. Those contingencies aren’t necessarily fueled by superpower tensions, and…

2000-04-19, Jag_22: Early Fielding For New Joint Standoff Weapon At Shaw by Jim Mathews 04/19/00 09:29:38 AM U.S. EDT Lockheed Martin F-16 fighters at Shaw AFB, S.C., will be the first in the U.S. Air Force to field the new gliding, satellite-guided Joint Standoff Weapon, and pilots and maintainers at Shaw began training with the system April 5. "We are getting this technology five or six months earlier than we planned," says Maj. David Hlatky, weapons officer of the 20 th Fighter Wing. "Test squadrons across the United States have picked up the workload to finish testing in about a months time." USAF officials want Shaw to be ready to fight with JSOW by June 1, but Hlatky says Shaw pilots expect to have the capability by May 15. Base pilots started mission training April 5 with the Air Force’s JSOW program office. Pilots received some employment lessons April 13 from Navy Lt. Cmdr. Mike Murphy, an F-18 pilot with JSOW combat and test experience. After combat mission planning system training this week, a group of 12 to 14…

2000-04-19, Jag_22: Pilot Unions Oppose Cockpit Video by Jim Ott 04/19/00 11:11:22 AM U.S. EDT The International Federation of Air Line Pilots Associations (IFALPA) opposes using video recorders in airline cockpits, contending that video images are unproven as useful tools in a safety investigation. Representatives of the world’s organized pilots, meeting last week in Tokyo, also raised the issue of government obligations to protect pilots from the unauthorized use of privileged information that are recorded on existing cockpit recording devices. In a message sent yesterday to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in Montreal, IFALPA’s representative Edmund Smart observed that a significant majority of ICAO states have neither implemented nor enforced existing standards for use of “privileged information obtained through the installation of privacy intrusive devices in our cockpit workplace.” Smart said IFALPA will continue to oppose installation of any new or enhanced information collection devices until all…