1) Air Force Upgrades Joint STARS Fleet To Enable Moving Target Engagements
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3) Commercial Jet With Missile Defense Sys Departs
4) Fighter jet signals
5) Navy Rushes Close Air Support Weapon to
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1) Air Force Upgrades Joint STARS Fleet To Enable Moving Target Engagements
Defense Daily 01/17/2007
Author: Michael Sirak
The Air Force has tasked Northrop Grumman [NOC] to upgrade its fleet of E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) aircraft so that these platforms can provide precise, real-time tracking data to modified satellite-guided munitions to attack moving objects on land or water, the company announced earlier this week.
Under a $56.2 million contract announced on Monday, the company said it will add an Enhanced Land/Maritime Mode and Advanced Radar Mode (ARM) to the service's E-8C aircraft. These changes will allow the Joint STARS platforms to rapidly pass targeting coordinates to seekerless GPS-guidance-aided weapons like Boeing's Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM). With these GPS updates on the targets provided by the aircraft, these weapons, which are already effective against fixed and stationary objects, can hit fleeting vehicles, too, according to the company.
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Copyright 2006. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. <>
MOSCOW
Sergei Ivanov didn't specify how many missile systems had been delivered, but a ministry official said not all the systems contracted for had been delivered.
"We have delivered short-range Tor-M1 missiles (SA-15) to
Ivanov's comments were the first official confirmation of the sale; previous reports had cited unnamed officials reporting the sale.
Ministry officials have previously said
"If the Iranian leadership has a desire to purchase more defensive weapons, we would do that," Ivanov said, without elaborating. complaints.
3) Commercial Jet With Missile Defense Sys Departs
Copyright 2006. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. <>
LOS ANGELES (AP)--An MD-10 cargo jet equipped with Northrop Grumman's (NOC) Guardian anti-missile system took off from
The FedEx (FDX) flight marked the start of operational testing and evaluation of the laser system designed to defend against shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles during takeoffs and landings.
Adapted from military technology, Guardian is designed to detect a missile launch and then direct a laser to the seeker system on the head of the missile and disrupt its guidance signals. The laser is not visible and is eye-safe, the company said.
4) Fighter jet signals
Author: Peter Ford (Copyright 2006) <>
BEIJING
Powered by Chinese engines and firing Chinese precision-guided missiles, the locally built Jian-10 has "allowed China to become the fourth country in the world" to have developed such a capability, "narrowing the gap with advanced nations," boasted Geng Ruguang, deputy general manager of the plane's manufacturer, Avic-I.
The latest fruit of a military modernization drive that has produced an indigenous Chinese nuclear attack submarine, early warning aircraft, frigates and destroyers, cruise missiles, and computerized command and control systems, the Jian-10 is "a decisive step by China toward becoming an aviation power," the official Xinhua news agency declared.
Theories differ as to why Beijing decided now to acknowledge the aircraft, but reports from China indicate J-10 operations are expanding and that the fighter has now been operating in proximity of the Taiwan Strait, suggesting the work-up phase is formally over. The initial J-10 regiment, the 44th Division, is actually based closer to
5) Navy Rushes Close Air Support Weapon to
Author: Amy Butler <>
The U.S. Navy will begin deliveries of a modified weapon designed to provide close air support to ground troops in urban areas in
Its arrival will coincide with the small escalation in
The service quietly but quickly conducted 10 live-fire tests of the LCDB in December after nearly a year of development. Capt. Mat Winter, director of the Navy's PMA-201, which oversees land-attack weapons development, says the modified BLU-111, a 500-lb. gravity bomb, produced "less than 10% of the current fragmentation pattern." The munition generally creates about 3,000 ft. of damage. The BLU-126/B will allow for safer air strikes "within blocks" of friendlies in
"It is nothing more than a BLU-111, 500-lb. bomb, with less high explosive in it," Winter says. Navy officials maintained the same flight characteristics of the BLU-111 by weighting the weapon to make up for the decreased explosive.
The first 48 units have been produced. Winter estimates the nonrecurring engineering cost was about $1 million. Modifications are being made to existing weapons already on contract, cutting down on the time needed to deliver. The weapon can be dropped by the AV-8B and F/A-18 family of fighters. It can also be mated with GPS or laser-guidance kits already available for the BLU-111.
The Navy's work coincides with longer term Air Force efforts to develop a new explosive fill for its 250-lb.-class Small-Diameter Bomb (SDB), with a goal of reducing damage to within 100 ft. of detonation (AW&ST Sept. 29, 2006, p. 46). The project began last year. Flight tests will begin this summer. Deliveries of the so-called Focused Lethality Munition aren't expected until April 2008.
The Air Force's approach is to design a new explosive fill that disintegrates the bomb casing, resulting in explosive pressure as a kill mechanism, while the Navy's weapon does create a blast fragmentation pattern.
Meanwhile, the Navy will release a request for proposals for its Moving Target Weapon (MTW), also called the Direct Attack Moving Target Capability, this spring. The modified off-the-shelf MTW will provide an interim capability to engage targets moving up to 40 mph.
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Author: David A. Fulghum <>
The stealthy Raptor fighter and intelligence-gathering aircraft is ready for war, but probably not the war we've got, says Air Combat Command's chief, Gen. Ronald E. Keys.
Essential electronic surveillance systems may be too sensitive--overwhelmed by the density of
"If war breaks out, I'm sending the F-22," Keys told Aviation Week & Space Technology last week. But not for operations in
Keys is not yet convinced and the interference problems are growing.
"Right now we get into situations where we jam against improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and it corrupts our radio traffic [and] some line-of-sight UAV operations," Keys says. "It's tough."
The intense jamming may degrade, perhaps blind, some key F-22 electronic surveillance sensors when operating around the capital city. But some F-22 supporters contend that prediction of the Raptors vulnerability is being overstated and its capabilities "are sophisticated enough" to ensure that it will still be a valuable intelligence-gathering platform, says a senior Air Force official.
Those with insight into the program say the problem is not in the F-22's capabilities, but that they've not yet tested the Raptor in such a dense environment and codified the necessary concept of operations and tactics . However, they point out that the aircraft's entire electronic surveillance capabilities can be fine-tuned during mission planning. "They can filter in the frequencies they don't want to work, eliminate those that are being jammed, specify scan rates and frequencies and how often they hop between them," says one specialist. "You can exquisitely tailor each mission."
Nonetheless, Keys is not yet convinced that there is enough added value to merit sending F-22s from their new, forward base in Okinawa to someplace in-theater--possibly Al Udeid AB,
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Author: Craig Covault <>
China
The White House confirmed the Aviation Week article Jan. 18 and warned
"The
The revelation of the Asat test also sparked official condemnation or concern of the Chinese from the governments of
The warning about ramifications comes as NASA and the Chinese space agency are continuing talks aimed at closer civil space collaboration. The Asat test will likely further undercut
But
Many spacecraft operate in, or at least transit, the area of space where the attack occurred, and there are concerns that debris from the test could pose a hazard to these satellites. Air Force Space Command data show that when the kill vehicle impacted the target satellite, debris was ejected from the impact point at velocities of up to 1,400 mph. (2,000 fps.). government enthusiasm for such scientific space cooperation, at a time when the are debating military space policy at the United Nations.
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Author: Ali Akbar Dareini / Associated Press (Copyright 2006) <>
TEHRAN
In another show of defiance,
The drum-beating suggested
It could also aim to rally the public behind the government and silence increasingly bold criticism at home of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's antagonism toward the
Last month, the Security Council imposed limited trade sanctions on
The Iranian military Monday began five days of maneuvers near the northern city of Garmsar, about 60 miles southeast of Tehran, state television reported. The military tested its Zalzal-1 and Fajr-5 missiles, the report said.
The Zalzal-1, able to carry a 1,200-pound payload, has a range of 200 miles. That would put
