The special House committee investigating whether U.S. national security was compromised in Chinese launches of American satellites has until spent its time to date getting briefed on the situation, primarily from U.S. national security agencies, a committee spokesman said. The committee is still in the preliminary stages of preparing for hearings - interviewing potential witnesses and searching for documentation - and no hearings on the calendar so far, according to the spokesman.
TRW Inc. said yesterday that it has shipped the next Defense Support Program (DSP) satellite scheduled for duty, Flight 19, to Cape Canaveral, Fla., where launch preparations have begun. Launch aboard a Titan IVB rocket is scheduled this winter. TRW builds the 5,200-pound DSP spacecraft under contract to the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center and integrates the sensor payload. The company said it is under contract to deliver a total of 23 satellites; 18 DSP satellites have been launched since 1970.
Raytheon Systems Co. has won a $10 million U.S. Air Force contract for production of a replacement video tracker/system controller for the electro-optical targeting system of the F-117A stealth aircraft. The targeting system, called the Infrared Acquisition and Designation System, is a combination infrared imaging and laser designation system for precision weapon delivery. The video tracker/system controller is a processor system that upgrades the reliability, maintainability and supportability of the targeting system.
Iraq is hiding its ballistic missiles in pieces, not as whole weapons, former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter said yesterday. "The weapons are broken down into components," Ritter told reporters at a breakfast in Washington. "There are no more ballistic missiles in Iraq." Ritter quit the U.N. inspection team in Iraq because he viewed the U.S. as failing to live up to its position that it would back the inspectors.
BOEING'S Strategic Manufacturing Center, St. Louis, will support the Delta IV/Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program with non-recurring tooling design and manufacturing, the company reported. Delta IV tooling will be designed and built for use at facilities in Pueblo, Colo., and Decatur, Ala., site of vehicle construction. About 150 tool design and fabrication personnel will be assigned in St. Louis. Some follow-on field support also will be required, Boeing said. Work will run through the first quarter of 2000.
Appeals by Pentagon leaders to President Clinton Tuesday for a bigger budget in fiscal year 2000 appear to have received only a lukewarm response, prompting Robert G. Bell, Clinton's special assistant for national security, to say yesterday that a funding increase will be looked at in competition with other needs.
Despite planned military spending cuts of almost $1.6 billion by 2001-2002 and disbandment of two more Royal Air Force Tornado squadrons, New Labor's Strategic Defense Review will leave most current Ministry of Defense procurement programs virtually unscathed. An SDR keynote is emphasis on deployment mobility to increase effectiveness of Britain's shrinking armed forces in peacekeeping roles, demanding very large financial allocations for new equipment.
Rep. C.W. (Bill) Young (R-Fla.), head of the House Appropriations national security subcommittee, and Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), chairman of the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee as well as the full committee, are working on a Pentagon supplemental request of about $5 billion, congressional sources said yesterday. Sources said the supplemental would include over $1 billion in readiness increases taken from the fiscal 1999 defense appropriations bills.
CADE INDUSTRIES, Okemos, Mich., has won a $3.5 million contract to design and manufacture jet engine test equipment for the Pratt&Whitney PW6000 engine program. The turbofan has been selected as the initial engine for the 100-passenger Airbus 318.
The PAS-7 satellite became the 17th satellite in PanAmSat's global communications network with launch of an Ariane 44LP rocket from Arianespace's launch facility in Kourou, French Guiana, yesterday at 2:31 a.m. EDT, PanAmSat reported. The PAS-7, an FS 1300 satellite built by Space Systems/Loral, will be PanAmSat's second satellite for the Indian Ocean region, expanding the company's broadcast and telecommunications services for Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
The Pentagon Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration developing the DarkStar and Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles is leading to systems that would have a unit cost of about $13 million, U.S. Air Force officials said. The ACTD started out with a unit cost goal of $10 million for both aircraft, including sensors, but Col. Keith Sullivan, director of the U.S. Air Force's reconnaissance mission area group, said, "I don't think we're going to see $10 million." Current estimates run to about $13 million, he said.
Congressional budget authorizers want to cut $97 million from the U.S. Air Force's $292 million fiscal 1999 budget request for the Airborne Laser program and also delay the purchase of the aircraft for a year, and appropriators want to cut $57 million, but "I don't think either of those are going to be the way it turns out," the head of the AF's ABL program said yesterday. "Congressional action is always the wildcard, and [ABL] a big conference issue right now," Col. Michael W. Booen told Aviation Week Group editors yesterday in Washington.
KAMAN CORP. said that Charles H. Kaman remains in the hospital but that his condition is improving. The 79-year-old Kaman, chairman and chief executive officer of the company, suffered a mild stroke late last month after successful knee replacement surgery. Until his return, business activities of the Bloomfield, Conn., company are being coordinated through Robert M. Garneau, executive vice president and chief financial officer.
LT. GEN. THOMAS CASE will become the new U.S. Air Force commander of the Alaskan Command and commander of the 11th Air Force, the Pentagon said. Case takes the job held by Lt. Gen. David McCloud, who was killed in a private aircraft accident this summer. Case currently serves as the deputy commander in chief and chief of staff of U.S. Central Command.
DERCO AEROSPACE INC., Milwaukee, won a $50 million contract to upgrade C-130s for Brazil's SIVAM program. Derco will manage and perform scheduled maintenance, supply spares, carry out in-depth modification and provide support training.
EVANS&SUTHERLAND GmbH, Munich, will serve as prime contractor for materials procurement, systems integration and construction management for a complete air traffic control (ATC) training facility in Kaufbeuren, Bavaria. The ATC tower simulator will be the core element of the German Air Force's new training center for military air traffic control. The total contract value, including options, is about $5 million, with completion of the training center expected in September 1999.
Moody's Investors Service placed the senior debt ratings of Boeing Co. under review for possible downgrade due to "the uncertainty about both the timing and the degree of the resolution of Boeing's production problems in its commercial aircraft operations." Moody's said yesterday that about $6.8 billion of long-term debt could be affected. Other concerns listed by Moody's include continuing poor operating performance, the Asian economic crisis and the company's recently announced $5 billion stock buyback program.
SYSTEM RESOURCES CORP., Burlington, Mass., won a contract from the U.S. Dept. of Transportation's Volpe Center for engineering support services in Communications, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS). The contract has a potential value of over $100 million over five years.
A datalink for the JAS-39 Gripen was demonstrated for the first time at last week's Farnborough Air Show. Sitting in the cockpit of the back-up Gripen at the show, Saab Chief Test Pilot Berndt Weimer explained to reporters how the CelsiusTech datalink can track the Gripen's sister ship as it goes through its flight demonstration, and also flow other information into the cockpit.
While the issue of F/A-18E/F Super Hornet funding is the most visible procurement issue remaining in the fiscal 1999 defense authorization conference, congressional sources noted yesterday that there are also other unsettled procurement issues, including increases for the F-16 and C-130J aircraft. The Senate authorization provided for five C-130Js and the House provided for eight. The Administration requested one.
The U.K.'s Vinten Ltd. will supply the tactical airborne reconnaissance pod for the JAS-39 Gripen, Saab announced. The Vinten Vicon 70 Series 72C will be mounted on an under-fuselage pylon, Saab said. The specific imaging systems to be used weren't identified. Saab said only electro-optical and infrared sensors may be installed.
NEXT-GENERATION 737-600 has received type certification from Europe's Joint Aviation Authorities. Delivery of the first 737-600 to launch customer SAS is scheduled for later this month.
Russia's MiG-21 fighter of the 1970s appeared at the Farnborough Air Show as the Israeli/Romanian Lancer III upgrade, the first customer of which could be the Ethiopian air force.
Boeing Co. plans first flight next year of an unmanned, 7% scale model of a four-engine, tilt- and swept-wing, super short takeoff and landing no-tail advanced theater transport (NOTAIL) design. The NOTAIL, also known as "Super Frog," is being designed to land and takeoff within a distance of 600 feet, and deliver enough cargo to meet Army requirements, according to a Boeing official.
