The U.S. Navy plans an acquisition strategy for the Vertical Takeoff and Landing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle program that will have few restrictions to allow many companies to compete. "We will have full and open competition" and select what is deemed "best value" within cost and schedule constraints of the engineering and manufacturing development phase, Capt. L. Whitmer, Naval Air System Command's VTOL UAV program manager, said in a telephone interview.
The U.S. Navy wants to finalize its Land Attack Standard Missile configuration this year before it begins converting about 800 Standard Missiles for the land-attack role. "We would like to do some more testing and risk reduction" this fiscal year, Capt. Mick Outten, the Navy's LASM program manager, said in a telephone interview. Getting the necessary funding for all the planned FY '99 activities is still in work.
Managers from NASA and TRW probably will announce today on a new launch date for the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) that will allow more time to complete software testing on the sophisticated orbiting x-ray telescope. Kenneth Ledbetter, director of the Development Div. in the NASA Headquarters Office of Space Science, said Monday problems that have surfaced in software testing continue to dog the program and will force AXAF managers to continue testing after the spacecraft is delivered to Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
U.S. defense officials have had "informal discussions" with their Russian counterparts about potential national missile defense basing in North Dakota and Alaska, Defense Secretary William S. Cohen said yesterday. Cohen told the Senate Armed Services Committee that "we have put them on notice," without beginning formal negotiations on the ABM Treaty. He said Russian officials are aware that the Defense Dept. has started working on environmental impact statements for NMD basing at Grand Forks, N.D. and a site in Alaska.
The U.S. Navy hopes to cut aircraft corrosion on P-3 aircraft between 50% and 80% by using a new coating. The coating, called Dinol, could save $4 million a year for the fleet of the Lockheed Martin patrol planes, Naval Air Systems Command said yesterday. The coating is applied over the primed or painted surfaces of internal compartments that don't hold fuel.
U.S. SATELLITE INSTRUMENTS have detected the largest hole ever measured in the ozone layer over Antarctica, apparently associated with unusually cold stratospheric temperatures. NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported yesterday the hole detected between mid-August and early October measured some 10.5 million square miles, larger than North America. The previous record-size Antarctic ozone hole covered 10 million square miles in September 1996.
Launch Monday of an Ariane 44L from Kourou, French Guiana, with two direct broadcast satellites represents the start of a busy month for the Guiana Space Center. Three launches are scheduled in a 24-day period, the first time for such a rate, according to an Arianespace official. Arianespace Flight 111, carrying W2 for Eutelsat and Sirius 3 for Sweden's Nordiska Satellitaktie Bolaget (NSAB), lifted off from Kourou at 7:51 p.m. local time (22:51 GMT). It was the 39th successful Ariane 4 launch in a row.
LOCKHEED MARTIN said yesterday it has sold its West Coast Microwave Components Div. to Communications&Power Industries Inc. Lockheed Martin had earlier announced its intention to sell the unit. it said the net proceeds of the sale, the amount of which wasn't disclosed, were used to pay down outstanding debt. Lockheed Martin also said that it has consummated the sale to a purchaser, which it didn't identify, of the Molded Devices Div.
The U.S. intelligence community is starting to slowly shift its stance on ballistic missile threats but the Pentagon remains resistant, according to former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who headed a special commission to assess the threat.
Though lauding NASA on its 40th anniversary for its many successes and accomplishments, Rep. George Brown (D-Calif.) also said the space agency has been disappointing in the areas of space transportation and exploration beyond low Earth orbit. "I must confess that I have been disappointed by what we have not accomplished in our space program since its inception," Brown said in a House floor speech last Friday. "Among my frustrations is our sorry record in the development of low-cost space transportation."
The "Sure Strike" close air support system installed on U.S. Air Force F-16s for Bosnia operations would be applicable to Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles, according to Lockheed Martin. Project "Sure Strike" initially provided 38 Block 40 F-16s with an improved data modem that gave pilots targeting information on their heads-up displays. The information was transmitted from ground observers.
WorldSpace Corp. plans to orbit its first piece of hardware Oct. 28 with launch of the AfriStar satellite aboard an Ariane 44L rocket from the Guiana Space Center here.
The U.S. Air Force Air Education and Training Command (AETC) exercised the third option year of a contract with Northrop Grumman Technical Services Inc. (NGTSI) to provide aircraft maintenance and base operations support at Vance AFB, Okla., Northrop Grumman reported. The option, valued at $47.8 million, supports the undergraduate pilot training in the T-37, T-38 and T-1 aircraft. NGTSI, a subsidiary of Logicon, has provided services at Vance since 1972. The most recent renewal was in October 1997.
U.K. defense circles were concerned to learn of "contingency plans" by the Ministry of Defense to study the idea of keeping Britain's three current V/STOL aircraft carriers in operational service for another 20 years or more.
NATIONAL RECONNAISSANCE OFFICE'S Space Technology Experiment satellite was launched Oct. 3 from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., the U.S. Air Force said Saturday. The Orbital Sciences Corp. Taurus rocket carrying the payload occurred at 3:05 a.m. local time. STEX carries a number of spacecraft technologies and experiments. It has been designed for an on-orbit life of two years.
The Pentagon has issued a letter of offer to Greece for its airborne early warning aircraft competition that could lead to a $380 million U.S. foreign military sale. The two U.S. competitors in the Greek competition are Northrop Grumman's E-2C Hawkeye 2000 and the Lockheed Martin C-130J with a Northrop Grumman radar system. The third competitor is Sweden's Saab 340 with the Ericsson Erieye radar system. Greece is expected to announce the winner of the competition later this year.
September 29, 1998 Aerotherm Corp, Mountain View, Calif., is being awarded a $19,538,492 cost-plus-award-fee contract to provide for test and evaluation of ballistic missile defense countermeasure concepts. This effort supports the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization's Countermeasures Hands-On Program. Expected contract completion date is Sept. 28, 1999. Air Force Research Laboratory, Kirtland AFB, N.M., is the contracting activity (F29601-95-C-0230).
The U.S. Navy has conducted its first test of a Standoff Land Attack Missile using only Global Positioning System guidance, foregoing the man-in-the-loop control. In the Sept. 29 test off the coast of California, the missile was fired at medium altitude from an F/A-18C aircraft. It flew a long-range profile, and hit its target, a radar van on San Nicolas Island, at a steep angle.
BOEING said it had 36 undelivered jetliners in storage at the end of the third quarter - nine 747s, three 777s, one 767, 10 737s, eight next-generation 737s and five MD-90s. While some airlines, particularly in Asia, have delayed or canceled orders, "The majority of these airplanes are awaiting final customer-financing arrangements, most of which are expected to occur in the fourth quarter," Boeing said. The company stuck by its forecast to delivery 550 airplanes this year.
