*Source: DTN News / Boeing
(NSI News Source Info) ST. LOUIS, USA - August 6, 2009: Boeing [NYSE: BA] yesterday August 5, announced that it has delivered upgrades for three F-18 Weapons Tactics and Situational Awareness Training Systems (WTSAT) to the Finnish Air Force.
The F-18 Hornet is the Finnish Air Force variant of the Boeing IDS F/A-18 Hornet multi-role attack and fighter aircraft. It lacks certain avionics, target acquisition and weapon control features, limiting its ground attack capability.
The aircrew trainers now offer the capability to train for aerial refueling and provide a long-haul networking capability that allows the systems to link over a Wide Area Network.
"These training system upgrades deliver advanced capabilities to our Finnish Air Force customer," said Mark McGraw, vice president of Boeing Training Systems and Services. "Finnish F-18 Hornet pilots at one site will now be able to engage in shared training sessions with pilots at other sites and fly virtual missions together via an industry-recognized high-level architecture, which ensures simulation devices can talk and share data over the network."
The WTSAT features a simulated head-up display, three Debrief Stations (DBS), an upgraded flight program simulation, and enhanced Instructor-Operator Station capabilities.
This delivery also included upgrades for three Deployable Tactics Trainers (DTTs) delivered in December 2007.
"We have made it easier for the customer to conduct networked training and run their missions," said John Gilbert, WTSAT program manager for Boeing. "The WTSATs, DTTs, and DBS can now interact simultaneously on simulated missions and debriefs. Training missions that previously required an instructor at each site now can be accomplished with one instructor controlling all the scenarios from one location." The upgrades integrate a supplier's visual system with Boeing hardware and software. A single software baseline runs in all three devices.
A unit of The Boeing Company, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems is one of the world's largest space and defense businesses specializing in innovative and capabilities-driven customer solutions, and the world's largest and most versatile manufacturer of military aircraft. Headquartered in St. Louis, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems is a $32 billion business with 70,000 employees worldwide.
ker buster" bomb, amid international concern over underground nuclear sites in Iran and North Korea.
The Pentagon has asked Congress for extra money to ensure that the massive ordinance penetrator (MOP) would be ready by July 2010, spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters.
"The department has asked for reprogramming of about 68 million dollars to start production for some of these in 2009," Whitman said. "This will help it accelerate some if it's approved."
The weapon, weighing in at 30,000 pounds (13,600 kilograms) and carrying 5,300 pounds (2,400 kilograms) of explosives, would be delivered by the radar-evading B-2 Stealth bomber.
The MOP is seen as a potential weapon against nuclear facilities in Iran and North Korea that are mostly buried underground.
Washington has demanded that both countries abandon their nuclear programs and has refused to rule out possible military action.
Whitman declined to say why the military wanted to accelerate production or whether the move was designed to pile pressure on Iran.
He said the Pentagon since 2004 had been looking at developing weapons "that would allow us to go after more hardened, more deeply buried targets."
He mentioned that Pyongyang has sought to conceal its nuclear activities. "One of the ways you hide is by going underground" and fortifying sites, he said.
Boeing builds the MOP, which could become the biggest conventional bomb ever used by the U.S. military.
During a visit to the Middle East last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned that Washington's diplomatic outreach to Iran was not open-ended and said Tehran had until September to respond or else face tougher sanctions.
Many in the international community, including the U.S. and Israel, widely considered the Middle East's sole - if undeclared - nuclear power, suspect Iran is trying to develop atomic weapons under the guise of a civilian nuclear program, a charge Tehran has denied.
Tensions on the Korean peninsula meanwhile have soared following Pyongyang's recent missile and nuclear tests, which resulted in tougher U.N. sanctions and a renewed standoff with the U.S.
