Senate Republicans yesterday failed in an attempt to clear the way for a vote on a bill that would make it U.S. policy to deploy a national missile defense (NMD) system as soon as technologically possible. The Senate fell short of the one vote needed to proceed with a second vote on the content of the American Missile Protection Act of 1998 (S.1873). A total of 60 votes was need to impose cloture, which would have ended debate and allowed for a vote on the bill. The Senate voted 59-41 against imposing cloture.
After several years of debating the need for a low observable, short take-off and vertical landing airlifter, the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) has finalized the requirements document for plane, called MC-X.
If the Office of the Secretary of Defense can't prove to Congress that it will adequately fund the Medium Extended Area Defense System (MEADS) beyond the next fiscal year, the funding provided in the fiscal year 1999 defense budget for the program will go to the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) program, according to the Senate Armed Service Committee.
The United Arab Emirates yesterday ordered 80 F-16 fighters for $7 billion, extending production of the Lockheed Martin plane through 2004 and keeping it viable in international markets until the Joint Strike Fighter arrives.
Leasat 5, a Hughes-built communications satellite formerly used by the U.S. Navy, is providing communications services to the Australian Defense Force under an arrangement involving Hughes Global Services, PanAmSat Corp. and the ADF.
A Proton rocket orbited the U.S. Echostar IV direct- broadcasting satellite from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Friday, marking the return to service of RSC Energia's Block DM3 upper stage after the stage failed on its previous commercial launch attempt. The launch occurred from Baikonur Site 81 at 3:45 a.m. Moscow Daylight Time (17:45 p.m. on May 7 EDT). The three-stage Proton vehicle, built by Khrunichev State Space Center, inserted the Block DM3 forth stage with the Echostar IV satellite attached into a low parking orbit.
Kaman Corp. will fly a variant of its Magic Lantern mine detection system aboard a K-Max helicopter in coming weeks as part of a mine countermeasures Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration. The K-Max will act as a surrogate for an unmanned aerial vehicle.
Aerospatiale said yesterday that it has delivered the Atmospheric Reentry Demonstrator (ARD) to the European Space Agency (ESA). The ARD, designed to demonstrate the technologies and techniques required for atmospheric reentry, is Europe's first guided and controlled atmospheric reentry vehicle. It will be injected into a suborbital trajectory and reenter the atmosphere after an hour and 20 minute flight. The ARD will splash down in the Pacific Ocean.
The Central Intelligence Agency is asking for an quick, independent review of why U.S. intelligence was caught by surprise when India conducted three near simultaneous nuclear tests on Monday. Retired Adm. David Jeremiah, the former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has been asked by the Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet to lead an intelligence community review team that will deal with questions surrounding the intelligence community's work related to the Indian nuclear tests, the CIA said in a statement yesterday.
The U.S. Air Force's UAV Battlelab plans to use the Schiebel Technology Camcopter unmanned aerial vehicle in a force projection demonstration alongside the Exdrone UAV. The battlelab is buying the services for use of the rotary-wing UAV from the Austrian company via the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center's rapid assessment contracting system, the lab said in a May 8 Commerce Business Daily notice. The battlelab demonstration will take place June 15 and 16 at Ft. Sumner, N.M.
Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency on Sunday completed second flight of the Global Hawk high altitude endurance unmanned aerial vehicle. The flight, at Edwards AFB, Calif., lasted 2 hours and 24 minutes, during which the UAV reached an altitude of 41,000 feet. Eventually, Global Hawk will operate at up to 65,000 feet on missions lasting 40 hours.
Despite a steep budget cut, South Korea's KTX-2 trainer program is expected to meet its in-service date of eight years from now, according to an official of Lockheed Martin, the principal subcontractor to Samsung. "The decision has been made that we will maintain the production schedule leading to an [initial operational capability] date of May 2006," Charles Smith, Lockheed Martin's KTX-2 deputy program director, said yesterday in a telephone interview.
Air Products And Chemicals Inc., Lehigh Valley, Pa., won a contract to supply Sea Launch with liquid oxygen (LOX), liquid nitrogen (LIN), bulk helium (BHe) and high-pressure gaseous nitrogen (GAN) and the associated cryogenic delivery system. Air Products said it will begin supplying liquid and gaseous products for 18 launches scheduled to take place between October 1998 and December 2001. Air Products has supplied rocket propellant for NASA for more than 30 years.
An offer by Fairchild Corp., Dulles, Va., to exchange shares of its common stock for up to 4 million shares of common stock of Banner Aerospace Inc. not owned by Fairchild became effective May 8, Fairchild said. Fairchild, which currently owns about 67% of Banner, would own about 81% if all shares are exchanged. The exchange offer will remain effective through June 9.
The Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile failed yesterday for the fifth time in a row to hit a target. Preliminary investigation of the 5:20 a.m. test at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., indicates the missile "lost control shortly after launch," according to the Pentagon's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) and the U.S. Army.
A production version of the Lockheed Martin DarkStar unmanned aerial vehicle would likely have a bigger wing and more powerful engine, according to Maj. Gen. Kenneth Israel, director of the Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office.
Lockheed Martin Corp., Marietta, Ga., is being awarded a $22,591,650 face value increase to a cost-plus-award-fee contract to provide for engineering and manufacturing development of Mission Data Tools software and hardware applicable to the Mission Support System for the F-22 aircraft. The Mission Data Tools will facilitate the quick update of the radar system's data files allowing for rapid reaction to changes in the aircraft's threat environment. Estimated contract completion date is September 2003.
TRW ALSO HAS COMPLETED the Software Development Validation Facility it will use to validate and verify avionics and software for NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) satellites. The facility in Redondo Beach, Calif., is built around four on-board computers and engineering model electronics for the two EOS satellites TRW will build, including the five to seven instruments NASA will provide for each of the spacecraft - EOS-PM and EOS-Chem. Company executives say the facility can also be used to validate similar spacecraft in the future.
AKJUIT AEROSPACE INC., of Winnipeg, Manitoba, launched its first rocket April 29 from the SpacePort Canada sounding rocket facility near Churchill, Manitoba. The Black Brant 9 carried two experiments aloft for the Canadian Space Agency's space physics program. The rocket's first stage was recovered within two hours of launch, while a five-person Inuit team was dispatched to recover the second stage in the Keewatin region of the new Nunavut territory.
Although the marinized Army Tactical Missile System known as NTACMS lost the near-term budget battle for installation on Aegis cruisers and destroyers to the Land Attack Standard Missile (LASM), an NTACMS variant holds the greatest promise to meet the Navy's long-term land-attack needs, according to Rear Adm. Dan J. Murphy, the Navy's director of surface warfare programs.
Lockheed Martin Electronics&Missiles has signed an agreement with National Forge Co. for production of the BLU-116B Advanced Unitary Penetrator. National Forge, of Irvine, Pa., will build the main warhead body for the AUP, Lockheed Martin said yesterday. National Forge already works on the BLU-109 and BLU-113 penetrator warheads. The U.S. Air Force is expected to award a contract that could lead to the production of 1,500 AUPs, the Lockheed Martin said.
The U.S. Air Force is beginning to field a C-17 precision landing system. "We just finished our operations testing on this precision landing system for the C-17 and we're very happy with it," Maj. Gen. Tome Walters, the AF's director for Global Reach programs, said in an interview.
Lockheed Martin Corp., Marietta Ga., is being awarded a $58,331,990 face value increase to a cost-plus-award-fee contract to provide for the Period 14 (October 1997-March 1998) Earned Award Fee for engineering and manufacturing development of the F-22 aircraft. Estimated contract completion date is September 2003. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright- Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FF33657-91C-0006-P00359)
Raytheon Systems Co., Lexington, Mass., won a $49 million direct commercial contract from Itouchu Aviation Inc., El Segundo, Calif., for four Phalanx, Close-In Weapon Systems (CIWS) and associated spares for resale to the Japan Defense Agency. Raytheon said it was the first direct commercial sale of Phalanx to Japan. The system, the Block 1A version of Phalanx, will be installed on two of the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force's Murasame class destroyers.
