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Daily News
By Gail Helmer

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Monday June 3, 2002

PC News
RTCW: Enemy Territory Revealed
Activision has revealed the full title of its upcoming expansion pack for Return to Castle Wolfenstein, its latest World War II first-person shooter. The expansion is titled Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, and it is scheduled for release later this year. The expansion is being executively produced by id Software, while the new single-player campaign is being developed by Mad Doc Software, the studio that created Star Trek: Armada II. The new multiplayer additions are being developed by Splash Damage, a new studio made up of part of the team that created the Q3F mod for Quake III.

New Screens: Lock On: Modern Air Combat
Ubi Soft has posted 10 new screenshots from its upcoming jet simulation, Lock On: Modern Air Combat. Screenshots

Military News
F-22 Raptor Delivered To U.S. Air Force
The Lockheed Martin-led F-22 air dominance fighter industry team has delivered Raptor 4008 -- the program's dedicated low-observable, or stealth, reliability and maintainability flight-test and evaluation aircraft -- to Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. Raptor 08 arrived at Edwards late Friday, May 31. It is the last Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD), or developmental flight- test, aircraft to be delivered to the U.S. Air Force.

Once at Edwards, Raptor 08 will be carefully monitored to determine the resistance of the aircraft's stealth coatings to both inclement weather as well as the usual wear-and-tear combat aircraft undergo while being operated and maintained in field conditions over a period of time. Despite the super sophisticated nature of the F-22 and its stealth technology, the Raptor is designed to be easily maintained on the ramp, adjacent to the runway, in a manner similar to today's conventional fighters.



Team Raptor is currently working under two previous production contracts to build 23 F-22s. In addition, nine test aircraft already have been built to support the program's EMD phase. Eight more Production Representative Test Vehicles (PRTVs) also are in various stages of fabrication and assembly, and will be used following their delivery to the U.S. Air Force for both operational test and evaluation, and tactics development, at Nellis AFB, Nev., starting next year. To date, the F-22 program has accumulated approximately 1,900 flight-test hours during almost 850 flight-test sorties.

The Raptor will replace the venerable F-15 Eagle as America's premier front-line fighter jet starting in 2005. The F-22's transformational yet balanced design of stealth, supercruise speed, and super-agility, along with its advanced integrated avionics and overall user-friendliness, will allow the F-22 to help the Pentagon shorten future wars and save American and allied lives.

Patriot Missile Test Has Mixed Results In Pacific
The US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and the US Army conducted an operational test (OT) of the PATRIOT Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) system at the Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific last week, with mixed results. While one of two PAC-3 launched intercepted the target, the second PAC-3 missile failed to launch. Analysis of why the second missile failed to launch is ongoing.

The test, OT-2, was designed to test tactical firing doctrine by ripple-firing two PAC-3 missiles against a single two-stage ballistic missile threat. The target was made from modified Minuteman motors with a separating re-entry vehicle. This test was planned to demonstrate the system's ability to properly classify the high-velocity, low-radar-signature target as a tactical ballistic missile (TBM), discriminate between the re-entry vehicle and debris, and to destroy the target.



This was the fourth operational flight test planned during Initial Operational Test and Evaluation (IOTE) for the PAC-3 system. IOTE is currently scheduled to conclude at the end of this month. A complete chronology of the PAC-3 test programme is included as a separate document.

The PAC-3 missile is a high velocity, hit-to-kill missile and is the next generation Patriot missile developed to provide increased defense capability against advanced tactical ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and hostile aircraft. Unlike earlier versions of the PATRIOT missile, that use an explosive warhead to destroy its target, the PAC-3 missile literally collides with its target in mid-air at extremely high speed, destroying the target and neutralising its payload. Other system upgrades include improved radar performance allowing enhanced target discrimination and new system software that improves determination of target launch and impact points and provides an interface with the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system.

JSOW Unitary - Third Successful Free-Flight
A US Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) test team and its industry partner Raytheon Company carried out another successful test of its AGM-154C Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) programme at the NAVAIR Western Test Range Complex.

It is the third successful free-flight demonstration of the JSOW Unitary (JSOW-C) warhead variant using waypoint navigation and autonomous target acquisition (ATA) capability. An F/A-18 C/D pilot released the AGM-154C while flying at 14,000 feet and 0.75 Mach. The weapon then navigated autonomously through several waypoints to begin searching for the vertical target approximately 12 nautical miles from the launch point. Aircraft separation, mid-course guidance followed by target acquisition and subsequent impact were completed as predicted. This is the last in a series of initial seeker development and ATA algorithm tests.



Unique to this test event, the target was a vertical structure that is representative of targets such as dams and building walls, one of the most difficult targets for the JSOW Unitary seeker.

The JSOW-C incorporates a Raytheon-developed uncooled, long-wave infrared seeker with ATA algorithms, thus providing the Navy with a launch-and-leave weapon with standoff precision strike capability. The JSOW-C also will be the first US weapon to incorporate the BROACH penetration multiple warhead, developed by the United Kingdom's BAE SYSTEMS.

The Joint Standoff Weapon is a low-cost family of glide weapons using a common delivery vehicle for three different payloads. The JSOW-A is in production and delivers the BLU-97 Combined Effects Bomblets for area targets. It has been used successfully in Iraq and Kosovo. The JSOW-B variant carries the BLU-108 Sensor Fused Weapon bomblets for an anti-armour capability and is in low rate production. The JSOW-A and B versions are being produced for the US Navy and Air Force for use on the F/A-18, F-16, F-15, B-1, B-2 and B-52 aircraft. The latest version, the JSOW-C, is in development and will begin production in 2003 for the US Navy.


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