SPACE MANEUVER VEHICLE prototype, orignally slated for a drop test at Holloman AFB, N.M., on Aug. 4, will now be dropped on Aug. 11, an AF spokesman said yesterday. He said the test was delayed because of a minor problem in the vehicle's GPS guidance system.
The U.S. Air Force in the next couple of days will replace all the ejection seat initiators on its B-2 bombers and has temporarily suspended flight operations to replace a potentially faulty part. The AF said the "precautionary stand down" doesn't affect combat capability of the B-2 unit, the 509th Bomb Wing. The initiators are supplied by OEA of Fairfield, Calif., which discovered the problem during acceptance testing. OEA changed the design of the initiator in 1992, and now will likely go back to its original design, an AF official said.
Egypt has signed a contract to buy four Boeing CH-47D Chinook helicopters under a $92 million foreign military sales arrangement that will involve delivery of some aircraft previously ordered by an unnamed foreign customer that backed away from the purchase. Deliveries to Egypt should be completed by May 30, 2001, the Pentagon said yesterday. Boeing was awarded an initial $65.7 million of the total contract. The helicopters are already being built because of the earlier order.
Hughes Electronics Corp. will introduce a new broad-based stock option program for about 14,000 employees, the company reported yesterday. The program, "Stock Up on Hughes," awards a stock option grant to buy 100 shares of stock at a set price to all eligible employees, including members of bargaining units. The program is in addition to other compensation and benefit packages.
Spacehab Inc. has proposed a new version of its commercial pressurized logistics module as a better way to modify U.S. Space Shuttles to reboost the International Space Station than the approach NASA is taking. A spokesperson for the Vienna, Va.-based company said company executives were briefing top NASA officials this week on the advantages of Spacehab's proposed "Double Docking Module" (DDM) for Station reboost.
ICO Global Communications has carried out an initial public offering on the NASDAQ market as part of new financing totalling $690 million, the London-based Inmarsat spinoff reported. The IPO last Friday was for 10 million ordinary shares at $12, the stock's closing price as of Wednesday. The financing package also included senior unsecured notes of $570 million. The ICO ordinary shares will trade under the ticker symbol "ICOGF."
The House has passed an amendment blocking funding for implementation of modifications that the Clinton Administration has made to the Anti- Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty. The amendment, offered by Reps. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) and David McIntosh (R-Ind.), prohibits funding for the Standing Consultative Committee from being able to implement an agreement reached between the U.S., Russia, Kazakhstan, the Ukraine and Belarus on the ABM Treaty. It passed Wednesday night passed in a 240-188 vote.
The composition of the last crews of the Russian Mir space station has just been revised, and it now appears that the final "burial" of the station next year will be performed by a Frenchman along with a Russian cosmonaut.
Russian President Boris Yeltsin has endorsed a military construction policy that concedes Russia will not be able to fight a "large-scale war" at least through 2005, and so will continue to rely on nuclear weapons as the major deterrence factor. The long-awaited "Concept of the State Policy in Military Construction for the Period until 2005," signed last week, will become the basis for reformation of the whole Russian military establishment.
Fiscal 1999 defense authorization conferees are close to discarding the Senate's fencing of advance procurement funding for the F-22 advanced tactical fighter, but the issue of accepting the House's earmarking of $30 million in Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) funding is still in play, congressional sources said yesterday. Conferees have restored the requested $43 million funding for the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) and provided the requested $292 million for the Airborne Laser, both of which had been cut sharply by the Senate.
Study beyond recommendations of the Rumsfeld Commission are needed for a realistic assessment of U.S. capabilities to deploy a national missile defense (NMD) system, according to the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. CSBA, a Washington-based research institute, said Wednesday that while the commission's "conclusions on ballistic missile danger are compelling," a more comprehensive, rigorous assessment of the issue is now required.
The U.S. Air Force is considering adding to its B-1B enhancement program with another round of upgrades that could start as early as 2002 and introduce enhanced datalink and avionics to the aircraft.
BOEING RESCHEDULED first launch of the new Delta III rocket from Monday until Aug. 24, to take into account the time needed to redesign, test and verify the thin-line explosive system that separates the vehicle's solid- fuel boosters. A company spokesman said the system twice failed acceptance tests and, after the second failure, was redesigned. The new system has been tested and verified for the new launch date, which will carry the Galaxy X satellite to orbit for PanAmSat.
Northrop Grumman will provide the U.S. Navy with 82 upgraded Vertical Display Indicator Groups for the F-14B fighter under a $13.9 million contract, the company said Wednesday. Northrop Grumman will develop and install the system to mitigate poor reliability and parts obsolescence on the existing VDIG. It said the new system will cost about a third of the cost to maintain the old system. The principal prime contractor for the program is Flight Visions Inc. of Sugar Grove, Ill.-based Flight Visions Inc.
A government/industry team at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center has completed assembly of the first Fastrac engine, a low-cost rocket intended to power the X-34 flying testbed and future small launch vehicles that was developed in just two and a half years. The liquid oxygen/kerosene engine will be shipped to Stennis Space Center for full-engine tests. Component-level testing is ongoing at Marshall, where the Fastrac turbopump is currently in test, NASA said.
Fairchild Aerospace chose GE Aircraft Engines' CF34-8D turbofan to power the new 728JET family of regional jets, potentially handing GE a near-lock on future regional turbofan business. The -8C engine version is already baselined as the engine for Bombardier's new Canadair RJ-700 and earlier CF34 models power existing Canadair RJs already in service with carriers such as Comair and Lufthansa CityLine.
Raytheon Aircraft Co., Tracor Flight Systems, and Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical have expressed interest in competing for the U.S. Air Force's Near Term Subscale Aerial Target (NTSSAT) program, intended to meet a projected shortfall in BQM-34 targets. The AF plans to conduct a competition later this year for 50-100 targets at a total cost of up to $27 million (DAILY, April 24). The targets will have to be available around 2000 to handle the projected shortage of BQM-34s, which were built by Teledyne Ryan.
FlightSafety Boeing Training International picked London's Gatwick and Heathrow airports as finalists for a proposed $85 million European Training Hub. A final decision is expected next month. The new center, scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2000, will be the first outside the U.S. and part of a planned global network of large-scale training centers, FlightSafety Boeing said yesterday. Existing sites are located in Seattle and Miami. Future hubs are planned for the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America and other regions.
NASA failed to win White House approval last week for a plan to backstop shaky Russian contributions to the International Space Station with about $510 million in new spending, gaining the Clinton Administration's okay only for modifications to the U.S. Space Shuttle fleet that would allow Shuttles to shoulder roughly half the Station-reboost load.
USS BONHOMME RICHARD, the U.S. Navy/Marine Corps' newest large-deck amphibious assault ship, will be commissioned Aug. 15, Litton announced yesterday. The ship left Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Miss., on Aug. 8 to sail for NAS Pensacola, Fla.
A bipartisan group of 48 members of Congress yesterday introduced legislation that would make it the official policy of the U.S. to deploy a national missile defense (NMD) system. Previous attempts by members of Congress to pass legislation dictating a specific deployment date for NMD have failed. The new bill takes a stronger stance on NMD than current White House policy. The Administration's approach is to develop a system by 2000 that could be deployed three years later if warranted by a threat.
A hold placed on funding of the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) by the House and Senate Appropriations committees could kill the program, according to industry groups who have communicated their fears to key senators and representatives. Language in funding bills conditions support of the program on the resolution of several issues, including the question of WAAS' ability to provide sole-means navigation.
The U.S. Navy will likely be able to field a theater ballistic missile defense (TBMD) capability even though it has run into problems in the important stepping stone of integrating advanced versions of the shipborne Aegis radar with the airborne Cooperative Engagement Capability, according to a Navy official.
