LOCKHEED MARTIN, Sunnyvale Calif., has been awarded an $11 million increase to a contract to acquire Satellite Control System 21 software in support of the Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS). The contract is expected to be completed by November 2006. U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles, Calif., is in charge of the program.
Aircraft from the U.S., the U.K. and Iceland flew test runs Friday using signals from U.S. and European spacecraft in a program to develop a seamless worldwide system of satellite navigation for civil aviation. An FAA 727 performed a series of Category I precision approaches to Iceland's Keflavik Airport using equipment receiving signals from the FAA's National Satellite Test Bed, a forerunner to the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), and the U.K.'s Northern European Satellite Test Bed.
Sen. J. Robert Kerrey (D-Neb.), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, says Congress should create a panel of top government officials and high-tech experts to address the issues of information assurance, infrastructure protection and encryption that cut across committee lines. "We need to have a panel that can speak with authority on both politics and policy," Kerrey says in a Senate speech. He says that even if all information safeguards for the Pentagon's data, equipment and operations were airtight, it wouldn't be enough.
Bell Helicopter Textron views its participation in the U.S. Coast Guard's Deepwater program as key to sales of the Bell 609 civil tiltrotor. Bell is on one of three teams competing for the Coast Guard modernization effort, but is making information on the tiltrotor available to all competitors, a company official said. If the Coast Guard selects the Bell 609, company officials expect other coastal patrol agencies to follow the U.S. lead.
Values of U.S. defense companies have risen back to mid-1980s levels, according to Merrill Lynch aerospace analyst Byron Callan. The prices paid for such companies took a dip in the early '90s, but with recent industry mergers - paced by Raytheon's acquisitions of Texas Instruments' defense operations and Hughes Aircraft, as well as GEC's buy of Tracor - the prices are moving back up.
The Congressional Budget Office has offered Sen. Carl Levin (Mich.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, five options to help make unmanned aerial vehicle programs more attractive to a Congress dissatisfied by UAV projects that haven't lived up to expectations.
U.S. Air Force space trackers expect an "elevated, though not serious" threat to spacecraft on Nov. 17 when the Earth passes through a debris cloud released by the comet Tempel-Tuttle.
US AIRWAYS Friday took delivery of its first Airbus, an A319, marking the beginning of a delivery cycle for 124 firm orders. The airline has options on another 276 of the A320 family and a commitment for up to 30 widebody A330s, making it one of Airbus' largest customers. Stephen Wolf, chairman of the airline, said the Airbus fleet "will help us simplify and modernize our fleet, heighten passenger appeal and position US Airways for the changing competitive environment in which we operate."
Boeing Co. would like to see the Brimstone missile it is producing with GEC-Marconi as a baseline weapon for the Joint Strike Fighter. Brimstone is a derivative of the helicopter-launched, radio-frequency-guided Hellfire missile, but it is hardened to withstand fixed wing operations. The U.K. plans to put the missile on the Harriers, Tornado and Eurofighter. Industry officials are trying to get the missile onto U.S. aircraft as well.
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (La.) says he's not giving up on trying to pass legislation declaring it U.S. policy to deploy a national missile defense system as soon as technologically possible. Lott said he will be prepared to bring the legislation up again in the next Congress. He reminds those opposing the bill that the GOP really only needs to pick up one Senate seat in the upcoming election to get the bill passed.
The U.S. Army is interested in a possible future procurement of a mobile version of the Tactical High Energy Laser (THEL), according to officials of the service's Space and Missile Defense Command. The U.S. and Israel are jointly developing THEL to defend against short range missiles like the Katusha rocket. Intercept tests are planned for THEL at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., early next year, officials said.
Congressional sources said Friday that the defense supplemental appropriations totaled $9.2 billion, with $2 billion for intelligence and $1 billion for ballistic missile defense. Other main components included $1.9 billion to pay for U.S. operations in Bosnia, $1.3 billion for readiness and $1.1 billion for the Year 2000 computer problem. Complaints by the Joint Chiefs of Staff of readiness problems provided the impetus for the supplemental, but readiness funding amounted to less than 15% of the package.
The Pentagon on Friday awarded the bulk of initial launch services for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) to Boeing in a $1.37 billion contract for 19 missions, topping Lockheed Martin, which received a $650 million for nine missions. Each of the contractors also received a $500 million contract for EELV engineering and manufacturing development work.
As the Pentagon looks to develop systems to detect threat radars, allies have expressed interest in the activity, says Tony Grieco, the top electronic warfare official of the Office of the Secretary of Defense said. No matter what program the U.S. puts into development - research is underway in several areas - it will be joint. But Grieco says there is an increasing chance it will also be a cooperative program.
AlliedSignal Inc. earned $329 million on record sales of $3.74 billion in its 1998 third quarter, up from $292 million on sales of $3.66 billion in the same period a year ago.
NASA pilots Gordon Fullerton and Rob Rivers have become the first Americans to fly Russia's Tu-144 supersonic transport, which has been drafted as a test vehicle for NASA's High Speed Research Program. Fullerton, of Dryden Flight Research Center, Calif., and Rivers, a pilot at Langley Research Center, Va., few the big drop-nose plane three times in Russia, twice at supersonic speeds. The "Concordsky," as it was known when the Soviet Union developed it as an answer to Europe's SST, has been augmented with Blackjack bomber engines for the tests funded by NASA and U.S.
Even with the growing demand for launch services, Roger Solari, Arianespace's director at the Guiana Space Center, thinks interest in the Delta and Titan rocket families will wane following introduction of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV). Solari also says the Ariane 4 has reached its performance weight limit, and that Arianespace doesn't expect to modify the it anymore.
The electronics portion of the Pentagon's budget is projected to grow 7% over the next 10 years despite a decline in the overall U.S. Defense Dept. budget, the Government Electronics and Information Technology Association (GEIA) predicts.
NASA's plan for removing Russia from the "critical path" to International Space Station assembly has no provision for placing U.S.-built environmental control and life support (ECLS) systems on the orbiting laboratory until October 2002 at the earliest, and concedes that work on advancing that date has not started.
An upcoming consultant report for NASA on commercializing low Earth orbit is said to favor U.S. government investment in a new reusable launch vehicle over spending on reusable boosters to upgrade the Space Shuttle fleet. That would be a blow to Boeing, which wants to use a $750 million "placeholder" in the long-range NASA spending plan to develop a liquid-fueled flyback booster to replace the throwaway solid-fuel boosters used today (DAILY, March 11, Sept. 8). The report by Hawthorne, Krauss and Associates, a Boston-area investment firm hired by Administrator Daniel S.
AEROMET INC., Tulsa, Okla., has modified a Royal Norwegian Air Force Falcon 20 electronic warfare aircraft to carry equipment designed by Condor Systems Inc. of San Jose, Calif. Aeromet said the suite, which replaces equipment in use since the mid-1970s, includes equipment from the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment called FFI. The newly modified aircraft flew for the first time Oct. 14 from Tulsa. A series of test flights will follow, to be concluded by the end of the year.
The U.S. Air Force effectively has until early next week to determine whether to give in to Pemco Aeroplex's legal challenge concerning an AF decision to award the Ogden Air Logistics Center a contact to take over maintenance work being outsourced from the Sacramento ALC. Pemco and the AF late Wednesday agreed on what amounts to a temporary restraining order without involving the courts. The agreement delays until at least Monday, Oct. 19, any judicial hearing on a formal temporary restraining order, Pemco and AF officials said.
