Aerospatiale Chairman Yves Michot said plans to convert Airbus Industrie into an independent corporation should have no bearing on government aid to the four national industries that comprise the consortium.
Although he is in a close battle for the Republican nomination for his old House seat, former Rep. Bob Dornan and Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.), who ousted him in a disputed race in 1996, are locked into one of the most expensive House races. In 15 months of the 1997-1998 election cycle, through March 31, Sanchez raised $1,766,073 to Dornan's $1,765,417. That puts them behind only House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and Minority Leader Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.) in receipts in House races.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and Lockheed Martin are looking to resume flight testing of the DarkStar unmanned aerial vehicle this month, a DARPA official says. The No. 2 vehicle has undergone extensive modifications since the April 1996 crash of the No. 1 DarkStar as it was taking off on its second flight. The number of modifications prompted one program official to say the upcoming flight will be just like a first flight.
The House National Security Committee's insistence on the highest priority for rapid deployment of theater missile defense appears in its report on the fiscal year 1999 defense authorization, and in recent floor action. In the report, HNSC says it finds "considerable merit" in a study by a panel under retired Air Force Gen. Larry Welch that calls for more testing in ballistic missile programs, but disagrees with the panel's conclusion that schedules should be slowed and greater emphasis should be put on testing.
A shortfall of EA-6B training aircraft has prompted the U.S. Navy to temporarily stop qualifying U.S. Air Force pilots for carrier landings in the plane. The number of training aircraft has varied, but has dropped as low as four. The EA-6B training squadron is supposed to have 19. AF pilots and electronic warfare officers have begun flying the EA-6B since a decision was made to retire the EF-111.
LOCKHEED MARTIN-SAMSUNG team will develop the Korean Area Control center at Inchon under a Korean Ministry of Construction and Transportation contract. Samsung, as prime contractor, will manage and coordinate the project and install the ACC system, with responsibility for all work done in Korea. Lockheed Martin will provide the air traffic control system. Beginning in 2001, the center will control Korean upper airspace for the Korean Flight Information Region, interfacing with other international ACCs and Terminal Control Centers in Korea.
AlliedSignal will buy back up to $2.2 billion of its common own stock over the next two years, the company announced Friday. CEO and Chairman Lawrence Bossidy said increased free cash flow from operations will provide the resources for the buyback, and that at current market price levels, buying back the stock is more attractive than most acquisition opportunities. The company's stock closed up $1.63 Friday to finish the week at $42.75
Although the U.S. Navy applauds the idea of moving intelligence analysts from aircraft to the ground as proposed in the Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office's long-range architecture, it says that bandwidth presents a problem. Taking the analysts out of the airplanes would take them out of harm's way, the service says, but raises the question of whether there would be enough bandwidth to handle the raw intelligence data. "We are not there yet," the Navy says. Air Force officials agree.
U.S. intelligence officials said Friday that India and Pakistan would have to rely on aircraft to deliver nuclear weapons in the near term. The officials, who asked not to be named, said it would take a year or two for either country to fit nuclear warheads to the short- and medium- range missiles they are developing. The officials said both countries are expected to have about a dozen such warheads.
GenCorp Aerojet, Sacramento, Calif., completed delivery of the first shipset of Reaction Control Thruster Modules (RCTM) to Lockheed Martin Missiles&Space for the U.S. Air Force Milstar program, Gencorp announced. The RCTMs provide the attitude control for the Milstar satellite. Aerojet will deliver 49 RCTMs (three shipsets) to LMMS by September 1999 in support of three satellite launches in 2000, 2001 and 2002. Sixteen of the engines are used on each Milstar.
Indonesia's IPTN continues to operate despite upheaval in the country, a spokesman says. "IPTN is running right now," he said. "There was no change, even during the height of the unrest. The company stayed open and everybody is working." He said order activity remains high, and IPTN is training pilots and mechanics from Air Venezuela. "We were a little bit concerned about two weeks ago when we had the rioting and we considered evacuating the pilots at the time.
British Aerospace and France's Dassault Aviation plan to form a joint venture to study the next generation of European fighters, the French daily La Tribune reported Friday. The Reuters news agency quoted a Dassault Aviation spokeswoman as saying that "The strategic discussions on combat aircraft will be led by Dassault Aviation in consultation with its shareholders Aerospatiale and Dassualt Industries." France is shifting its 46% share in Dassault Aviation to Aerospatiale to help it form alliances with other European companies.
The U.S. Air Force is debating whether to invest in a more complete upgrade of the B-52H bomber's electronic warfare suite, or forego the enhancements and relinquish the bomber's ability to penetrate some air defenses. At the heart of the debate is upgrading the aircraft's AN/ALQ-155 low-band jammer and ALR-20 radar warning receiver. One AF official said both "are just old." The ALQ-155 is manually controlled with some semiautomatic modes. The ALR-20 is receiving a new digital scope, but the system behind the scope remains the same.
The first U.S. signals intelligence (SIGINT) satellite program, which characterized air defense radars in the heart of the Soviet Union, will be declassified this month in time for the 75th anniversary of the Naval Research Laboratory. NRL built the satellites for the program, known as Poppy, and will feature them in its anniversary celebration the week of June 15. The first U.S. photoreconnaissance satellite program - Corona - was declassified in 1995 (DAILY, May 30, June 9, 1995).
Perhaps mindful of the uncontrolled reentry of Skylab, or the problems Russia faces getting Mir out of orbit without causing major damage on the ground, NASA's Senate overseers want to know how the International Space Station will be decommissioned even before its first element is launched. Language in the Senate Commerce Committee's NASA authorization bill would require an engineering study by the National Research Council that, among other issues, would address "the decommissioning and disassembly requirements" of the International Station.
An antenna deployment problem on the newest U.S. polar-orbiting weather satellite is hampering reception of low-resolution imagery from the spacecraft, but operators say the satellite's primary weather imager is working well. Meanwhile, the U.S. Air Force Friday transferred control of its own polar-orbiting satellites to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), moving a step closer to the single military/civilian weather satellite system President Clinton ordered four years ago (DAILY, May 11, 1994).
The two customers of the General Atomics GNAT-750 unmanned aerial vehicle - the Central Intelligence Agency and Turkey - are also customers of the enhanced version, known as Improved GNAT. The GNAT-750 has been used by a classified U.S. customer at 15 sites worldwide and in five combat operations, according to an industry official. The user is the CIA, which is known to have flown the UAV from Albania. Turkey, meanwhile, has used the GNAT-750 at six different sites.
Another UAV, the General Atomics Prowler 2, is expected to fly for the first time in June. It will be powered by a Rotax 582 engine. In July, plans call for the Prowler 2 to fly for the first time with a heavy fuel engine. This will extend the vehicle's endurance from 18 hours to 24 hours, and its range from 750 n.m. to 875 n.m., a company official says.
The House Appropriations national security subcommittee starts marking up its part of the fiscal 1999 defense request tomorrow with a $250.445 billion spending allocation. This compares to a request of $251.148 billion. The Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee has a target of $250.246 billion, but it probably is at least a week away from markup. Although the appropriators are moving ahead, don't look for any quick action on a defense authorization conference.
Bell Boeing's plan to sell the V-22 tiltrotor aircraft abroad are getting some help from the U.S. government. The Navy international program office is "encouraging" Britain to buy plane "to help reduce the unit cost," the Pentagon's inspector general says as part of a larger review of international cooperative programs. The V-22 is being pitched by industry to fill the U.K. requirement for about 50 aircraft for a Future Amphibious Support Helicopter.
Craftsmen at Johnson Space Center here have started work on the first orbital X-38, the most complete testbed for the Crew Return Vehicle (CRV) NASA is developing as a "lifeboat" for as many as seven International Space Station crew members. The nose of the X-38 lifting body that is scheduled to be carried aloft on a U.S. Space Shuttle in November 2000 is taking shape in a high bay shop across the street from the facility where Station simulators are already being installed.
Ballistic Missile Defense Organization officials today are expected to review Lockheed Martin's proposal for fixing the problem-plagued Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile program, which may include a move to a cost-share arrangement between the government and the contractor. The U.S. Army, on behalf of BMDO, sent Lockheed Martin a "cure letter" on May 12, the day the THAAD missile failed for the fifth consecutive time to intercept a target (DAILY, May 13).
Khrunichev State Space Center has revealed a new concept of the heavy-lift Angara launch vehicle that features a modular set of four launchers that would be developed step by step and provide Russia with modern light-, medium- and heavy-lift launch vehicles.
Romania made the first flight of the upgraded IAR 330 helicopter Tuesday, according to Elbit Systems Ltd., which performed the upgrades with Romania's IAR S.A. Brasov. The 330 was upgraded to meet requirements of the Romanian air force. The overall program, for 24 upgraded helicopters, will be worth about $100 million to Elbit, with completion scheduled for 2001. The first phase consists of development and initial deliveries.
