Rep.-elect Steve Kuykendall (R-Calif.), a candidate with a perfect resume for a vacancy on the House National Security Committee, isn't interested. Kuykendall is oriented to national security issues; he was a captain in the Marine Corps and intended to make the military his career until he was injured and had to retire. His daughter is a Navy F-14 pilot.
The Pentagon is telling the Air Force to accelerate its radio upgrade program for the B-2 bomber to stay in line with the fielding of EHF Milstar satellites. The AF was going to start the upgrade in 2003, but that could have created a situation where the bomber might not have been reachable in some instances. The B-2 now uses the UHF Milstar satellites.
Computing power holds the key to JSF success, Mark says, noting that it allows many more design iterations than before. This, in turn, means better tradeoffs and, ultimately, a more effective fighter.
Newly elected Rep. Rush D. Holt (D-N.J.), a former university research director and a Ph.D in physical sciences, has expressed interest in joining the House Science Committee. Considering that the committee has a Democratic vacancy that it didn't fill in the last Congress, he's likely to get what he wants. Holt also wants a seat on the Resources Committee.
Signal Technology Corp. will resume trading its common stock on the American Stock Exchange Monday, the company reported Friday. The AMEX halted trading of Signal stock on Aug. 17 pending the company's filing of its second quarter 1998 form 10-Q, as well as its restated first-quarter 1998 form 10-Q and its restated Form 10-K for 1997. The company completed the filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Nov. 4.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bob Livingston (R-La.) and Rep. Steve Largent (R-Okla.), announcing their decisions to run for the top two House leadership posts Friday, both pledged to push a GOP agenda that calls for a strengthening of U.S. defense. In separate press conferences, Livingston said he wants to replace Newt Gingrich (Ga.) as Speaker of the House, and Largent said he wants the House Majority Leader position held by Dick Armey (Tex.). They made it clear they are not running as a team, and invited challenges from other members.
Lockheed Martin is looking to hire about 3,000 college graduates from the 1998-99 school year, says Peter Teets, president and chief operating officer. The company wants to fill about 7,000 openings created mostly by attrition through voluntary retirements and layoffs in some business areas.
U.S. Air Force's Air Mobility Command officials this week will brief top Air Force requirements officers on plans to conduct an in-depth analysis of ways to meet future outsized/oversized cargo requirements. The study could result the re-engining of the C-5 fleet, procurement of additional C-17s or a decision to do nothing, Maj. Gen. Tome Walters, director of Air Force global reach programs, said in an interview. "We would ... by mid-1999 have a factual basis to make a decision" on airlift modernization, Walters said.
When it comes to some platforms, smaller may not be the best way to go, according to Vice Adm. Arthur Cebrowski, president of the Naval War College. He tells the GEIA's Ten-Year Forecast conference in McLean, Va., that smaller platforms usually end up leaving service first because they are difficult to upgrade, and that people trained to operate equipment on them may find themselves in dead-end technology. Platforms with room to grow and the ability to accept upgrades are the ones with a future, he says.
Peter Hillary, son of Sir Edmund and himself a conqueror of Mt. Everest, is road-testing the new Iridium low Earth orbit global satellite communications system on his latest adventure. New Zealander Hillary and two Australian teammates are carrying an Iridium phone on their attempt to trek from the Antarctic Scott Base to the South Pole and back, without outside assistance. Robert Falcon Scott died trying the same thing in 1911, but the Hillary team hopes it can make the 1,875-mile trip using modern lightweight equipment.
Airlines were ordered by the FAA yesterday to take further precautions to prevent possible electrical arcing and oxygen leakage in the cockpits of Boeing 767s. It said that if the work is not carried out, the result could be "a fire in the flight compartment." The action covers 185 aircraft in the U.S. registry. Some 568 are in service worldwide.
TRIUMPH GROUP INC., Wayne, Pa., will acquire DV Industries Inc., which provides value-added metal finishing services to the aerospace and defense industries. The Lynwood, Calif., company is projected to provide about $17.5 million in additional annual revenues to Triumph. Triumph also acquired DG Industries Inc., which specializes in precision machining of aerospace components.
RAYTHEON CO. AND ANGEL TECHNOLOGIES CORP. of St. Louis said they have signed a teaming arrangement for the joint pursuit of stratospheric broadband wireless business opportunities. The companies have been working since 1966 to demonstrate the feasibility of such services with High Altitude Long Operation (HALO) aircraft.
U.S. Navy researchers are launching a program to more accurately define the area in which an enemy communications emitter is operating to make it easier for other systems to pinpoint it. Using direction finding techniques, the Navy can now determine generally where a communications system is located. It can then dispatch other systems, such as reconnaissance aircraft, to pinpoint the emitter for a targeting solution.
Loral Space&Communications Ltd. said it lost $22.3 million in its 1998 third quarter, down from a loss of $15.6 million in the same period a year ago. Revenues before intercompany and affiliate eliminations slipped from $423 million to $349 million during the same period. Loral said that while third quarter results were consistent with expectations, the revenue decline was due mainly to timing issues between the third and fourth quarters, and 1998 sales reflect a $291 million debooking in 1997 of three satellites by two Asian customers.
A Russian-built RD-180 rocket engine ran for the full 56 seconds late Wednesday in a retry of the Atlas III first-stage ground test aborted by a computer glitch last month. The test at Marshall Space Flight Center marked the third time the engine mounted in an Atlas first-stage configuration had been fired. The first test of 10 seconds last summer went off without a hitch, but the first attempt at a 56-second test aborted after 2.7 seconds when a computer misread engine performance data (DAILY, July 31, Oct. 23).
The Pentagon should put a portion of its research and development funds into air transport and other technologies that could provide leap-ahead capabilities in about 20 years, according to Hans Mark, director of defense research and engineering.
The U.S. Air Force is considering funding for commercial developments in rocket engine turbopump technology to meet goals of its Integrated High Payoff Rocket Propulsion Technology (IHPRPT) program. The service plans a turbopump engine program to start in fiscal 2000 with a 50% cost share between the government and industry, the Air Force Research Lab said in a Nov. 5 Commerce Business Daily notice. The technology would be inserted into near-term engine systems, it said.
Spacecraft engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory have conducted extensive tests of the innovative solar arrays on the Deep Space 1 probe launched late last month, and have prepared the ion thruster that the arrays will power for a first test that could come as early as Monday. Aside from a brief control anomaly on Nov. 2 that the probe's automatic systems corrected, the first of NASA's New Millennium technology testbeds was performing "extremely well," according to a JPL status report issued Wednesday.
The U.S. Air Force, after several years of delays because of development and funding problems, plans to award Northrop Grumman a contract in coming months to begin production of up to 270 AN/ALQ-135 Band 1.5 self-protection jammers for the F-15E. A congressional add-on of $25 million allows the AF to start buying the jammer a year early. The service was planning to start procurement in 2000. Congress has supported the program in the past but this year, a production line shut-down loomed.
CURTISS-WRIGHT CORP., Lyndhurst, N.J., approved a stock repurchase program of up to 300,000 shares, or about 3% of its common stock. The company said purchases can be made from time to time in the open market or in privately negotiated transactions, depending on the market and other conditions.
Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), the current chairman of the Senate Armed Services readiness subcommittee, plans next year to take over the chairmanship of the SASC airland subcommittee, the panel with legislative responsibility for the Air Force's F-22, the Navy's F/A-18E/F and the multi-service Joint Strike Fighter programs, a spokesman for Inhofe confirmed yesterday.
RAYTHEON CO. has won a contract worth up to $150 million to support B-2 bomber training systems through 2008. The company said the initial order of the contract is valued at $4.5 million. As part of the first order, Raytheon will upgrade the aircraft training system to reflect B-2 changes.
Speculation that the Republicans' poor showing in Tuesday's elections will lead to a shakeup in the leadership of House, including the possible ouster of Speaker Newt Gingrich, could have a trickle-down effect on defense budget and policy matters.
