The $376 million cut by congressional defense appropriators for next fiscal year's Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) program may force the U.S. Army to ask for supplemental appropriations to avoid major program disruptions.
The U.S. State Dept. has given its approval for Bell Helicopter Textron and Boeing Co. to demonstrate their attack helicopters to Turkey in a competition that could be worth $3 billion to the winner. The State Dept. gave its approval Sept. 18, but still hasn't said whether a U.S. company would be allowed to deliver a helicopter if it won, industry officials said. The U.S. in the past has delayed helicopter deliveries, prompting Turkey to cancel one order.
Lockheed Martin Space Operations Co. won NASA's $3.44 billion Consolidated Space Operations Contract (CSOC), getting the nod over a team led by Boeing in the competition to consolidate about 17 space operations contracts, NASA announced Friday. Lockheed Martin's stock moved up $3.56 to $102.06.
The Pentagon has offered to sell Greece $306 million worth of Maverick missiles, GBU-24 bombs, Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS) and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS). The ATACMS deal would be worth $245 million, and would include 18 MLRS and 146 MLRS extended range rocket pods. Greece would also get 81 ATACMS missiles, 11 M577 command post carriers, 162 M26 rockets, 94 radios, night vision equipment, trucks and other hardware.
Boeing is looking to test two key aspects of its Dragonfly Canard Rotor Wing vehicle later this year to help refine the design of two prototypes it will build during a 37-month development program for the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Around December or January, a 75% scale model of the demonstrator is slated to be tested in a wind tunnel, a Boeing official said. The vehicle will operate in helicopter mode, and fixed-wing mode when the rotor is locked in place.
Ka-band satellites will offer new opportunities for transferring data, but an equal number of problems will have to be addressed, according to members of a panel at a conference in Washington yesterday. Jeremy Rose, a senior consultant with the U.K.-based Communications Systems, said at the 20th Annual Satellite Communications Expo and Conference that a study by his company for the U.K. government and British Aerospace a decade ago concluded that "you will have to drag people to Ka-band kicking and screaming."
The unspecified amount the White House has told the Pentagon it can expect for future budgets will have to be shared by several competing interests, which could limit funding for modernization. Lt. Gen. Michael Williams, U.S. Marine Corps deputy chief of staff for programs and requirements, said in one of the first public reactions by a top military officer that it's "a good news story." He pointed out, however, that there are many priorities for the unspecified amount the White House says it will provide in fiscal 2000 and beyond.
LUFTHANSA firmed up options for six more Airbus A312-200s powered by International Aero Engine's V2500, IAE reported yesterday. The aircraft will begin joining the Lufthansa fleet in December 1999.
Northrop Grumman has completed a study of unmanned combat air vehicles for the U.S. Navy. Engineers at the company's Advanced Systems and Technology unit, Pico Rivera, Calif., developed several concepts in response to a request for ideas on unmanned naval strike aircraft, and recommended more detailed work on a few of them. Boeing and Lockheed Martin already have completed their studies. The Navy is interested in a UCAV that could be operated from surface ships and submarines.
The House yesterday approved the compromise $270.5 billion fiscal 1999 defense authorization and sent it to the Senate for final congressional approval. The House vote for the bill was 373-50. Meanwhile, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) has told his Senate colleagues that he opposes language in the fiscal year 1999 defense authorization bill on tritium production and intends to place a hold on the bill, delaying a final Senate vote.
Aviation Sales Co. (AVS), Miami, completed the acquisition of Triad International Maintenance Co. (Timco) from Primark Corp. for $70 million in cash. Timco, based in Greensboro, N.C., operates an FAA licensed repair station specializing in the overhaul and modification of narrow-body and widebody aircraft and reported revenues of $113.3 million in its 1997 fiscal year. AVS said the acquisition is expected to boost earnings slightly in fiscal 1998.
U.S. support of Israel's Arrow anti-missile missile program is more important now than ever before given the increase in ballistic missile development and testing around the world and particularly in the Middle East, Israeli officials said yesterday. The officials, members of an Israeli Ministry of Defense and industry team visiting Washington, are briefing congressional and Pentagon officials on a successful test last week of the Arrow system in Israel.
NASA MADE PLANS yesterday to move Space Shuttle Discovery off the launch pad and return it to the Vehicle Assembly Building to ride out the passing of Hurricane Georges. Bad weather not associated with the hurricane delayed the planned trip until 10 p.m. Thursday night, the spokeswoman said. The return to the VAB will not delay the planned Oct. 29 launch because NASA had a week's worth of contingency time built into the schedule. The shuttle should be back on the pad early next week.
President Clinton's suggestion that the U.S. can cooperate on ballistic missile defense with Japan is misleading, according to a key member of the House National Security Committee. Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), a proponent of missile defense programs and chairman of the HNSC panel on research and development, told The DAILY that Clinton is misleading the Japanese into believing the U.S. can work jointly with them on missile defense when Clinton refuses to adequately fund U.S. missile defense programs already in the works.
The Medium Extended Area Defense System was barely kept alive by the fiscal 1999 defense appropriations conference, which funded the U.S.-German-Italian program at $10.027 million, about a quarter of the Administration's request, congressional sources said yesterday. The choice for the appropriations conferees was a go or no-go decision since the Senate had zeroed the Administration's $43 million MEADS request.
The National Airspace Baseline Architecture '98, set for release in late October or early November, will be substantially better than Version 3.0, put out for comment a year ago, but it's not the final word, according to Michael J. Harrison of the FAA.
The U.S. Marine Corps is moving away from focusing self-protection mechanisms for ground systems from high-end threats to those more likely to be encountered, a move that the service's aviation component won't necessarily match.
Logicon Inc. won a five-year U.S. Navy contract to support the Aegis Training and Readiness Center, Dahlgren, Va. Under the cost-plus-fixed-fee contract from the Naval Surface Warfare Center, the customer can spend up to $38.8 million for services over the five-year period, Logicon said.
The Kaynar and Microdot divisions of Kaynar Technologies Inc. (KTI), Orange, Calif., signed a strategic agreement with Blanc Aero, a division of GFI Industries, for representation in France, Kaynar reported. KTI designs, develops and makes specialty components and tooling systems and provides related services used primarily by original equipment makers and their subcontractors in the aerospace and defense industries.
Canada's Bombardier Aerospace hopes to acquire a stake of up to 40% in Taiwan's Aerospace Industrial Development Corp. (AIDC) in a deal that could be worth as much as $145 million, according to reports carried by several Taipei daily newspapers. According to the reports, Bombardier has set a number of conditions for the purchase, including tax concessions and assurance of the Taipei government that the company will be awarded contracts to provide maintenance services for Taiwan's Air Force.
Eurocontrol Director General Yves Lambert said that while the Global Positioning System is an "excellent system," and while other nations are grateful there is no charge for using it, "we feel uncomfortable that the [U.S.] government is unable to make any kind of acknowledgment of international liability."
The Clinton Administration's initiative to share missile early warning data with Russia is a good first step, but does nothing to bolster Russia's own ability to collect and assess the same data, according to Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (S.D.). Daschle, in a Senate floor speech Monday, said he thinks the initiative is a "small, but useful step," but "does not fully address the underlying weaknesses in Russia's early warning."
Before the U.S. government starts handing out loan guarantees to the commercial space launch industry to expand growth in the global market, the industry has to take the first step with initial investments, NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin told senators yesterday.
