The Shipping News

In Austria, a person with a suitcase holding 15 pounds (6.8 kilograms) of depleted uranium boards a train headed for Hungary. If highly enriched, the uranium would be more than enough for a so-called "dirty bomb." In Hungary, officials check the passenger's passport but do not inspect the suitcase. The passenger then departs for Romania, through the Transylvanian Alps, across the fields of Bulgaria and into Istanbul, Turkey—all without even one inspection of the suitcase.

Workers then place the suitcase in a cargo container with vases and Turkish horse carts and load the container on a ship headed for the United States. American officials select the container for inspection but pass it without ever opening it. It's then loaded into a truck headed for New York City.

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Boeing's Alaskan Frontier

Alaska, often called "The Last Frontier," is perhaps the newest frontier for ballistic missile defense. Home to brown bears, Mount McKinley and the Northern Lights, Alaska is now also home to the linchpin of the American ballistic missile defense system with the construction of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense launch complex at Ft. Greely.

Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, as prime contractor for GMD, manages the construction of the missile silo field and ultimately will be responsible for integrating all the components of the GMD system to form the initial defensive capability the current administration requires in 2004. Concurrently, Boeing IDS and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) are working aggressively to meet this deadline. Central to that initial capability is the Ft. Greely site.

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Whatever happened to PV01?

On Sept. 30, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems in Mesa, Ariz., celebrated the 20th anniversary of the first AH-64A Apache helicopter rollout from the Hughes Helicopters assembly line in 1983. The rollout of Production Vehicle 01 (PV01) was an unforgettable event for employees.

McDonnell Douglas eventually delivered the first Apache multirole combat helicopter, the product of years of work, to the U.S. Army in January 1984. The sale of Hughes Helicopters was finalized the same month.

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First Apache pilots pave way for today’s Apache Longbow

In 1985, Mark Ferrell and Brad Rounding, members of the first fielded AH-64A Apache unit, were making Apache and U.S. Army history. Ferrell, a 26-year-old captain, was the Operations Officer for 3rd Squadron, 6th Cavalry Brigade. Rounding, then 29, was the B-troop commander.

Ferrell and Rounding literally wrote the book on how pilots could use the technology advances the aircraft provided. That heritage of innovation still exists today, 20 years after the first Apache production model rolled off the assembly line. Indeed, the duo is still involved with the aircraft. Ferrell is a colonel, the director of Training and Doctrine Simulation for Army Aviation at Ft. Rucker, Ala. Rounding now markets the Apache Longbow for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems in Mesa, Ariz. The 3rd Squadron, meanwhile, is in Korea with next-generation Apache Longbow helicopters as part of the 6th Cavalry Brigade.

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Beyond 300: Delta rockets chalk up enviable launch record

It's been a 43-year-long run of success for the Boeing Integrated Defense Systems Delta rocket program. The program recently recorded its 300th launch, giving it a record that stands alone for value and level of customer satisfaction.

No. 300 came on Aug. 25, when a Delta II sent the NASA Space Infrared Telescope Facility into space. The launch was a special event for Boeing IDS Delta employees at Huntington Beach, Calif., Pueblo, Colo., Decatur, Ala., Canoga Park, Calif., Cape Canaveral, Fla., and Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.

Soon after came the 301st launch. The third flight of the Boeing Delta IV successfully deployed the U.S. Air Force Defense Satellite Communications System spacecraft, DSCS III B6, on Aug. 29.

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