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Daily News
By Gail Helmer

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Friday January 04, 2002

PC News
Official Medal of Honor SP Demo Update
We mentioned earlier this week that a copy of the Medal of Honor: Allied Assault single player demo had surfaced online. Apparently uploaded from a foreign magazine's cover CD-ROM, Electronic Arts was none too pleased that this "exclusive" demo became available online. Electronic Arts has asked websites to remove the demo from ftp servers. Electronic Arts announced that the official Medal of Honor: Allied Assault single player demo will be released January 8, 2002. We will keep you posted.

GDC Awards Nominations Open
The nominations are now open for the Game Developers Choice Awards, which will take place at the Game Developers Conference in San Jose, California, on March 21, 2002. The awards are nominated and voted on exclusively by game developers. Submissions are being accepted until February 1 at the official International Game Developers Association (IGDA) Web site and are open to all professional game developers. For more information about the Game Developers Choice Awards or the Game Developers Conference, visit the official IGDA Web site

Awards will be given in the following categories:

  • Lifetime Achievement Award
  • IGDA Award for Community Contribution
  • The First Penguin Award
  • Excellence in Audio
  • Excellence in Game Design
  • Excellence in Level Design
  • Excellence in Programming
  • Excellence in Visual Arts
  • Game of the Year
  • Game Innovation Spotlights
  • Original Game Character of the Year
  • Rookie Studio Award
Military News
AFA's 8th Annual Air Warfare Symposium
Air Force Association's Eighteenth Annual Air Warfare Symposium 'Air and Space Warfare in the New Century'. Air and space power is at the leading edge of U.S. military capabilities in the new century. The 18th Annual Air Warfare Symposium will examine air and space warfare at the start of the new century and what the future may hold for the Air Force. Orlando, Florida. February 14-15, 2002. Invited Speakers include; Governor Tom Ridge, Director, Office of Homeland Security and General Richard B. Myers, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff. For more details visit the Air Force Association website.

Fifth US Army Apache Longbow Battalion Certified Combat Ready
The U.S. Army has certified as combat-ready its fifth AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopter battalion. The unit is equipped with 18 of the world's most lethal and versatile attack helicopters, which Boeing builds here.

The Army's 1st Attack Helicopter Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment, received its certification Dec. 6 during ceremonies at Fort Hood, Texas, after having completed an accelerated six months of intensive training there. The unit has since returned to its home station at Fort Campbell, Ky.



To qualify, the men and women of the battalion completed a series of comprehensive classroom, flight and field exercises. Members of the unit underwent a rigorous field examination, which included two live-fire exercises, and logged approximately 3,000 flight hours during the training program.

Training at Fort Hood, which is conducted by the 21st Cavalry Brigade, focused on individual through battalion-level collective training. All pilots from the battalion received their initial training at Fort Rucker, Ala., while the unit's maintainers received their training at Fort Eustis, Va.

Meanwhile, the Army's sixth Apache Longbow unit has started its training cycle at Fort Hood, with completion expected early this year. A seventh Apache Longbow unit is beginning the individual and unit training processes.

The Army is modernizing its fleet of AH-64A Apaches into next-generation Apache Longbow helicopters, which link a wide range of avionics, electronics and weapons into an advanced integrated weapon system. Boeing is under contract with the Army to remanufacture 501 AH-64As into AH-64D Apache Longbows.

Grumman To Develop New Radar For Next-Generation Hawkeye
Northrop Grumman Corporation today said that the U.S. Navy has awarded the company a $49 million Pre-Systems Development and Demonstration (Pre-SD&D) contract for the E-2C Hawkeye Radar Modernization Program (RMP).

This contract is the beginning of a more than $1 billion development effort to deliver unprecedented early warning and battle management capabilities by the end of this decade and is expected to lead to a multibillion-dollar program for production of this next-generation Advanced Hawkeye.

The RMP Pre-SD&D effort will advance the design of the E-2C mission system, which has been researched by Integrated Systems over the past several years. Under the 12-month Pre-SD&D contract, Integrated Systems will define the physical architecture of the next-generation E-2C mission system, produce the preliminary weapon system specification and provide associated program plans.



"Our military is transforming itself for the new world environment," said Philip A. Teel, AEW & EW Systems vice president for Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems. "Real-time information will be one of the war fighters' primary tools and networks will be the major force multiplier. The Navy's primary airborne node in its future network-centric structure will be the Advanced Hawkeye which results from this Radar Modernization Program."

The development program will integrate a number of new capabilities into the aircraft's new airborne early warning and control system. The Hawkeye 2000 radar system now in production will be replaced with a new, solid-state, electronically steered UHF radar.

This next-generation Hawkeye will also have theater missile defense capabilities. Other improvements will include a tactical cockpit giving the co-pilot the capability to function as a fourth mission system operator; a new communications suite; new generators; improved identification friend or foe system; and an updated mission computer and software.

The development program will also target reducing production and operations and support costs. The full SD&D program contract is expected to be awarded at the end of next year.

Lockheed Martin To Produce Paveway II Bomb Kits
The US Navy has awarded Lockheed Martin an $80 million contract to produce laser guided bomb kits. The announcement follows the Navy's determination last month that Lockheed Martin is fully qualified to build the Paveway II GBU-16 kits. Previously the sole manufacturer had been Raytheon.

The new order is in addition to a $9 million Navy contract received in early 2001, as well as previous contract modifications to accelerate production and increase the number of kits. Production will begin immediately.



"When we were awarded the contract early in 2001, it was the first time since the inception of the Paveway II programme that a second supplier was chosen to make laser guidance kits," said Dr. Dennis Beres, general manager of the Archbald facility.

Each guidance kit consists of a Computer Control Group (CCG), which is the front-end guidance system, plus an Air Foil Group (AFG), which includes the flight stability fins on the back of the Paveway II kit. The kits significantly improve the accuracy of gravity weapons - often referred to as "dumb bombs" - thereby reducing collateral damage and risks to US and allied ground forces.

Since 1990, Lockheed Martin has delivered to the US Navy and customers in seven countries over 16,000 laser guided training rounds, which are used to train aircrews in place of more expensive laser guided bombs. The Paveway guidance kits built and tested by Lockheed Martin draw on key technologies and components from the training rounds but meet more stringent live-weapon and aircraft interface specifications.


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