Although the U.S. Air Force is only now embarking on a 42-month program to develop a weapon to attack facilities that manufacture or house chemical and biological weapons, some operational capability might be available earlier. An AF officer points out that during the 1991 Persian Gulf War the 5,000-pound GBU-28 bomb was quickly fielded - its target was deeply buried command bunkers - and that the same thing could be done today to defeat chem-bio targets. Some tests have already been conducted with a view to keeping collateral damage low.
Standard&Poor's said Friday it may downgrade its debt rating for Globalstar LP/Globalstar Capital Corp. in the wake of Wednesday's launch failure that destroyed 12 of the "Big LEO" communications company's satellites. The S&P single-"B" unsecured debt and corporate credit rating for Globalstar was placed on "CreditWatch with negative implications," pending a meeting with Globalstar management to assess the company's plans and near-term liquidity needs following the loss of the satellites and their Zenit launcher (DAILY, Sept. 11).
Employees at NASA headquarters do their part to keep the Internet running. An all-hands e-mail sent out early Friday afternoon warns the curious that "viewing, printing, downloading or otherwise accessing the Kenneth Starr report regarding President Clinton ... does not constitute official NASA business," and asks employees not to use agency computers to read the report. Michael D. Christensen, headquarters operations chief, says to do so "would clearly create an inordinate network load that would severely impede Headquarters operations."
ALLIEDSIGNAL said it is launching full-scale development of a new turbofan engine series for regional and business aircraft. The AS900 series will be designed with a thrust range from 4,000 to 9,000 pounds. The new engine is scheduled for FAA certification in the first quarter of 2001.
CIMBER AIR of Denmark has ordered two ATR-72-500s and placed options for two more, with the first delivery scheduled for next February. The carrier had previously ordered three ATR 42-500s. Cimber Air said it has experienced a steady increase traffic on its Copenhagen-Berlin route, which it began last spring in cooperation with Lufthansa and SAS.
LOCKHEED MARTIN wants to join Europe in building a Future Large Aircraft (FLA) airlifter "so long as it is not a worked-over C-130J," Micky Blackwell, president of Lockheed Martin Aeronautical Systems, told Aviation Week's Farnborough Show News. He is also interested in joining with Airbus - or the FLA team - to develop a replacement for the KC-135 tanker. "In 10 years there will be a huge need to replace that aircraft, and I would hate to give it to Boeing," he said. Blackwell said Lockheed Martin has been waiting to see what Europe decides an FLA should look like.
Normal federal procurement procedures are hampering NASA's congressionally mandated efforts to buy satellite data from private companies, but the agency might shift to an innovative "catalog" approach pioneered with satellite buses as a way to streamline the process. Ghassem Asrar, associate administrator for Earth Science, tells the House Science space subcommittee the idea has merit, but cautions the issue goes beyond space data purchases to the whole question of federal procurement and could be stymied higher up the chain of command. Courtney A.
The Caspian Sea will be a major global hot spot, says Adm. T. Joseph Lopez, commander of Allied Forces Southern Europe. "I think that area is going to be the next Persian Gulf," he says, noting that there may be more oil in the region than in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait combined. The area is already unstable - Chechnya, Abkazia and Nagorno-Karabach top the list - and competing interests from Iran, Russia, China and the West could cause more problems, according to Lopez.
British electronics manufacturer Racal is so confident that it will be selected for the Airborne Standoff Radar (ASTOR) contract that it's anticipating moves by competing consortia to undermine its U.K.-designed equipment. "We expect every trick to try to overturn a British solution on the radar," Racal senior marketing manager John Palmer said at the Farnborough air show.
A recent U.S. Air Force decision to upgrade its fleet of A-10 close support aircraft will soon allow the planes to use GPS-guided weapons. The key is the 1760 databus through which GPS coordinates can be passed to weapons, Maj. Curtis Viall, A-10 force programmer, said in an interview at the Pentagon on Friday. He said funds have now been budgeted to provide such a databus to A-10s. "That was our push this year," he said.
The U.S. Congress-Israeli Knesset Interparliamentary Commission on National Security is slated to hold its first hearing today to examine missile threats facing Israeli citizens and American troops stationed in the Persian Gulf region.
KAMAN AEROSPACE CORP. said one of its K-Max helicopters, being operated by Helog of Switzerland, was involved in an accident that claimed the life of the pilot Sept. 4 about 12 miles south of Kempten, Germany. The aircraft, which was delivered to Helog in May 1995, was engaged in a logging operation at the time of the accident. A team of Kaman officials was dispatched to the site to aid Swiss and German authorities in the ongoing investigation.
In the wake of the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Henry H. Shelton says, "I think we'll see an increase in terrorist activity." He warns that the threats will become more sophisticated because even players who aren't backed by governments will have access to state-of-the-art equipment. Shelton says the U.S. won't be able to rely on technology alone to combat such threats, but will look at the best ways to employ technology.
WOLFGANG DEMISCH, a defense and aerospace analyst, will leave BT Alex Brownto join Wasserstein Perella of New York as a managing director, as thecompany looks to "include a new focus on aerospace, defense andtechnology," Wasserstein reported yesterday. Demisch has 20 years ofexperience in the sector. Joseph San Pietro will join Wasserstein in itsequity research group as the senior research analyst and vice president,where he will cover individual aerospace companies. San Pietro will leaveMorgan Stanley Dean Witter.
Rolls-Royce plc and Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC)said they will form a joint venture company to offer services to theaerospace, energy and defense sectors. The 50-50 joint venture, which willbecome operational during the fourth quarter of the year, will beheadquartered in northern Virginia, with operations in San Diego and LosAltos, Calif., and Derby, Gateshead and Bristol, U.K. The company willemploy about 150 existing SAIC staff and about 200 from Rolls. Each partnerwill have three directors on the board.
British defense companies and the Ministry of Defense have developeda new promise of customer satisfaction for those who buy British, the MODreported. "This is a determined attempt by the most responsible leaders ofBritish industry to work together with government to make sure thestandards of the best are, in future, the standards of the average," LordGilbert, the Minister of Defense Procurement, said in a statement from theFarnborough Air Show. Six major British companies - British Aerospace, GEC, GKN, Rolls-
Twelve satellites for the Globalstar low-Earth orbitcommunications system were lost early yesterday when a Ukrainian Zenit-2rocket launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan lost controlfour and a half minutes after liftoff and plunged into southern Siberia.
LUCAS AEROSPACE won contracts worth about 320 million pounds ($520 million)to supply "a major portion" of the primary and secondary flight controlsand thrust reverser actuation on the Airbus A340-500/600. Lucas said itwill supply trimmable horizontal stabilizer actuator and rudder servocontrol actuator on the primary flight controls and the slat system on thesecondary flight controls, as well as the nacelle thrust reverseractuators. Deliveries are expected to begin in 2001.
DORNIER said yesterday it is the first German manufacturer of commercialaircraft to receive permission to build and certify aircraft and aircraftcomponents under Joint Aviation Requirement 21. Dornier is a subsidiary ofFairchild Aerospace, which announced appointment of Barry Eccleston assenior VP-business development. Eccleston was president of InternationalAero Engines for Rolls-Royce.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has picked Lockheed Martin Missilesand Space and TRW's Space and Electronics Group to negotiate contracts todevelop the planned Space Interferometry Mission (SIM), an ambitious stepon the way to the first direct look at planets around other stars with aspacecraft in an Earth-trailing solar orbit.
Rep. Howard P. (Buck) McKeon (R-Calif.) has introduced an amendmentthat would make available for another fiscal year $39 million in fiscal1998 funds for the SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft. The funding, if approved, would make it possible for the U.S. AirForce's two SR-71s, now on standby status, to be flying in about two weeks,congressional sources said. McKeon's congressional district includes Palmdale, site of thetesting ground for the SR-71. His measure would make the $39 millionavailable for fiscal 1999, which expires Sept. 30, 1999.
ALLIEDSIGNAL said three Latin American airlines selected its enhancedground proximity warning system, auxiliary power unit and flight data andcockpit voice recorders in a deal valued at more than $100 million. Theairlines are Lan Chile, the TACA group of El Salvador and TAM of Brazil.They chose the equipment for A320 family aircraft.
A pending reorganization in the space technology office at NASAheadquarters that appears to dilute the responsibility of Gary E. Paytonover the agency's advanced launch vehicle program has raised the hackles ofRep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), long a champion of single-stage-to-orbittechnology and chairman of the NASA authorization subcommittee. "The chairman is extremely unhappy," said a source close toRohrabacher, adding that the lawmaker plans to address the issue in aletter to Administrator Daniel S. Goldin.
