Congressional cuts in funding for the Joint Land-attack cruise missile defense Elevated Netted Sensor (JLENS) program may prevent development of both of the system's radars, program officials reported at the Association of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense symposium here. The president's fiscal year 1999 budget request contained $104 million for JLENS, but congressional defense appropriators slashed the amount to $15 million.
Intelsat's board of governors has voted to free up scarce geosynchronous orbital slots for exploitation by other satellite communications providers by deregistering satellite networks they do not plan to use. Meeting in Washington, the board voted to withdraw International Telecommunications Union (ITU) registrations it holds at 63, 64.9, 69, 91.5, 180, 186, 338 and 338.5 degrees East longitude. A spokesman for the international consortium said the action applies only to frequency registrations in those locations that are not in use.
The U.S. Navy yesterday suspended all flight operations of the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet aircraft to investigate cracks discovered in some of the plane's General Electric F414-GE-400 engines. About ten days ago, the Navy said yesterday, cracks were found in the first compressor stage of one of the engines during a routine inspection. The engine was installed on E-3, one of five single-seat Super Hornets in the flight test program being conducted a NAS Patuxent River, Md.
The three House and three Senate chairmen in the defense, intelligence and foreign policy areas have accused President Clinton of seeking to water down satellite export control provisions in the National Defense Authorization, which transfers licensing authority from the Dept. of Commerce to the State Dept. They suggested the Administration is seeking to conform to the "less rigorous dual use Commerce Department regime."
Aerospatiale, Alcatel, Lagardere and Thomson-CSF of France concluded an agreement that sets each company's respective responsibilities and areas of competence in avionics, missile systems and satellites. The agreement, made Wednesday, is designed to clarify the relationship between the two groups formed by Thomson-CSF and Alcatel (DAILY, April 16) and the future company Aerospatiale-Matra Hautes Technologies (DAILY, July 29).
Plans to buy the first 150 receiver terminals for the Global Broadcast System may be cut back or stretched out to reduce the cost, according to U.S. Navy Capt. Joe Delpino, manager of the joint program. The U.S. Air Force, the lead service for GBS, said at a time when no other service had committed money that it would buy the first 150 receiver suites. But now, to jump-start the program for cost reasons, officials are considering reducing the number.
Europe's top direct-to-home satellite services provider is acquiring a 34.14% stake in Hong Kong-based Asia Satellite Telecommunications Holding Limited (AsiaSat). Luxembourg-based Societe Europeenne des Satellites (SES) and China International Trust and Investment Corp. (CITIC), a current AsiaSat shareholder working in cooperation with SES, together will pay $372 million for shares of Bowenvale Ltd., which owns 68.95% of the ordinary AsiaSat shares, AsiaSat announced in Hong Kong and New York yesterday.
ALLIANT TECHSYSTEMS said Paul A. Ross has been named senior group VP, Space and Strategic Systems. Ross, previously was group VP, Space and Strategic Systems, will take a more active role in matters related to strategic direction.
TELEDYNE RYAN AERONAUTICAL on Friday completed the second flight of the No. 2 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle. The UAV, one of two at Edwards AFB, Calif., flew for 3 hours and 18 minutes, TRA said. The first flight of a Global Hawk with the electro-optical sensor is slated for Dec. 17.
Motorola hasn't ruled out moving from low-Earth orbit to geostationary spacecraft as it expands its satellite "product line" beyond the trailblazing Iridium "Big LEO" platforms that entered commercial service last month.
GENERAL DYNAMICS' Land Systems started building the first of 240 M1A2 Abrams tanks with a system enhancement package at the Lima, Ohio, Army Tank plant.
CURTISS-WRIGHT CORP., Lyndhurst, N.J., said it expects no material effect on its 1999 earnings due to Boeing production cutbacks. CW said yesterday that its own internal projections already called for reduced deliveries of actuation and control components for 747s, and that the new Boeing schedule was expected to result in a small increase in sales for CW in 1999.
Astronauts and a cosmonaut from the Space Shuttle Endeavour became the first to board the International Space Station yesterday, switching on the lights inside the 76-foot-long spacecraft and kicking off a planned 15 years of work there by installing communications gear and replacing a faulty battery charger.
U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Dennis Reimer said yesterday the military needs more C-17 transport aircraft as well as other lift resources. The number of the Boeing planes being bought may not be enough "to do all the things we need to do," Reimer told reporters at a breakfast in Washington. "We need more C-17s, quite frankly," he said.
Curtiss-Wright executives say "major changes ... in our market place" are forcing the company to redefine itself and broaden its base in aerospace and other businesses. The Lyndhurst, N.J., company, which grew out of firms started by Glenn Curtiss and the Wright Brothers, employs 1,850 people around the world in the aerospace, marine and industrial markets.
White Electronic Designs Corp., Phoenix, said its Display Products Div. has won two contracts, totaling $2 million, to supply flat panel displays. One contract, from General Dynamics' Computing Devices Ltd., calls for production of active matrix liquid crystal displays (AMLCDs) for the U.S. Army's M1A2 Abrams tank. The Army expects to upgrade 1,079 M1A2s.
TWA plans to order 50 A318s from Airbus and 50 717s from Boeing. Chief Financial Officer Mike Palumbo declined to explain the financing pending firm orders for 125 aircraft, including 25 other A320 family aircraft, but The DAILY learned that 12 of the A318s will come from International Lease Finance Corp.
The first announcement of a merger of U.S. and U.K. aerospace companies, probably bound to happen but still some time in the future, would spark a wave of international partnerships, John Spellar, Britain's parliamentary under secretary of state for defense, said yesterday. Spellar wouldn't comment on reports that Britain's GEC-Marconi and Lockheed Martin may be close to forming an alliance, saying only that "everybody in the industry is talking to everybody at the moment," and that "the final shape" of any such deal "is much too soon to predict."
Export sales helped the U.S. aerospace industry set records for sales, earnings and trade balance in 1998, and 1999 promises to be even better, according to the Aerospace Industries Association. But the outlook for 2000 and beyond seems cloudy, sparked by a series of layoffs around the industry, John W. Douglass, president of AIA, said yesterday at the AIA's 34th Annual Year-End Review and Forecast in Washington.
Northrop Grumman said it plans to deliver the next batch of F-22 radar software in July to support further development of the fighter's sensor suite. The first two blocks were delivered ahead of schedule, Northrop Grumman said. It delivered the latest software load last month to Boeing for the avionics integration laboratory in the 757-based F-22 flying test bed. Delivery of the Block 2 software was one of several hurdles program officials had to clear to be okayed to buy the first two production F-22s later this month.
The U.S. Air Force's newest budget plans call for a doubling of research funding dedicated to space, according to Acting AF Secretary F. Whitten Peters. "We are going to double the amount going to space by the end of the [Future Years Defense Plan]," he said in an interview at the Pentagon. Peters described the funding shift as "substantial," but said it is "exactly what we need to do."
NASA DECIDED yesterday to delay today's planned launch of the Mars Climate Observer until engineers can fix and test a software "flaw," a process that could take as long as 48 hours. The problem surfaced during a review of software designed to protect the Mars orbiter against hardware failures, NASA said. As originally configured, the charge control unit that regulates the flow of power from the spacecraft's solar arrays to its battery could have failed without the fault protection software detecting it in a timely fashion and switching to a backup.
AlliedSignal Aerospace won a $225 million order from British Airways for products and services for BA's new A319/A320 aircraft. The company said the agreement could bring another $575 million in potential long-term value over the operating life of the aircraft. "This agreement reinforces our confidence that AlliedSignal will grow its aerospace sales by 7% in 1999 and that the longer-term outlook for the business continues to be strong," said Frederic Poses, president and chief operating officer.
