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Daily News
By Gail Helmer

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Thursday December 05, 2002

PC News
Lock On: Modern Air Combat Movies
We have two movies featuring Lock On: Modern Air Combat from the European Flight Simulation Show in Birmingham, England a couple of weeks ago. Thank you to Chris for sending us these. Download the F15 movie -- Download the Mig 29 movie

Return to Castle Wolfenstein Patch v1.41
Activision has released the newest patch for Return to Castle Wolfenstein, bringing the WWII first-person shooter by Gray Matter and Nerve Software to version 1.41. This is an incremental update from v1.4 or v1.33, addressing a "bug in Anti-lag weapon prediction code" and "miscellaneous issues in anti-lag code." The patch comes in Win32 and Linux flavors, and are accompanied by the game source distribution for Linux (with the Win32 version revoked until further notice). Download

Military News
A-10 Crash Kills Pilot


Capt. Eric Palaro died Dec. 4 in a mid-air collision involving two A-10 Thunderbolt IIs about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas over the Nevada Test and Training Range. Palaro, from the 81st Fighter Squadron at Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, was participating in a training exercise. Maj. Scott Kneip, an instructor with the U.S. Air Force Weapons School A-10 division, ejected from his aircraft and is in good condition. The accident occurred at approximately 2 p.m. Both aircraft were assigned to the 57th Wing here.

A board of Air Force officials will investigate the accident.

Global Hawk Readied For '03 Demonstration
Since Oct. 19, 2001, after cooperative discussions, an international team of Air Force, German ministry of defense and aerospace industry officials has been working toward a demonstration of the interoperability of U.S.-German unmanned aerial vehicle systems using the Global Hawk UAV.

That demonstration is scheduled to take place next spring when a Global Hawk deploys to Germany for a series test flights.



The team effort began following formal approval of a project agreement by Willard H. Mitchell, deputy undersecretary of the Air Force, and Rolf Schreiber, Germany's deputy national armament director for air equipment and technology.

The agreement focuses on joint development and integration of a German electronic intelligence payload on Global Hawk; exchange of flight certification information between the United States and Germany; and deployment of the UAV to Germany to prove the conceptual feasibility of its signals intelligence payload.

"This cooperative effort represents an important achievement: the basic functional capability to cover future German operational needs," said Lt. Col. Michael Hain, deputy section leader for plans and policies for reconnaissance with the German ministry of defense.

The demonstration will mark another joint-program milestone, according to Ralph Herzog, Germany's deputy section leader for fighter aircraft and UAVs.

"The exchange of flight certification information and airspace coordination will facilitate Global Hawk's operation in European airspace for the first time," he said.

Leading up to the decision to deploy the Global Hawk were two successful flight tests held Nov. 17 and 22 at the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The tests confirmed the first successful operation of a German High Altitude Long Endurance Intelligence sensor onboard the Global Hawk.

"These test flights are part of ongoing risk-reduction efforts to prepare Global Hawk for deployment to Germany in spring 2003," said Col. Scott Coale, Air Force program director from the Aeronautical Systems Center's reconnaissance systems program office here. The center manages the UAV's development and acquisition.

During the missions, the sensor was able for the first time to detect radar transmissions from emitters located at the Naval Air Warfare Center at China Lake, Calif. The sensor then sent the transmissions down a line-of-sight communications link to a German ground support station temporarily located at Edwards during the flight tests.

The sensor was manufactured by EADS of Friedrichshafen/Ulm, Germany, and integrated by Global Hawk prime contractor Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems in San Diego.

The tests were a first step toward possible, future development of a German-owned and operated Global Hawk derivative -- the Euro Hawk. The Euro Hawk will replace the aging Breguet Atlantic aircraft, a manned system that currently flies German signals intelligence missions.

During the deployment to Germany, Global Hawk will fly three to six electronic intelligence missions from Nordholz, 60 miles northwest of Hamburg, in pre-coordinated airspace above the North Sea, consortium officials confirmed. (Source: Aeronautical Systems Center Public Affairs)


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