Executives at Boeing's Space Shuttle overhaul facility here don't believe it would be cheaper to overhaul and upgrade Shuttles in Florida, and they expect a pair of new studies of the question to back them up.
Senate Appropriations Chairman Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) yesterday suggested that successful performances by the THAAD and PAC-3 missile defense systems in key tests this spring and summer could boost their funding in a tight budget year.
EUROKONSORTIUM, a joint venture of Britain's GKN plc, Germany's ARGE and France's Giat Industries, won a contract for the development and production of a new family of Multi-Role Armored Vehicles (MRAVs) for the British, French and German armies. GKN said an initial order of 600 vehicles is planned, followed by an eventual combined requirement of 5,000 vehicles. Other European countries could join the program, leading to orders for more than 7,500 vehicles.
The U.S. armed services have $9.652 billion in unfunded requirements for fiscal 1999 and $58.274 billion over the five - year period ending in fiscal 2003, according to service lists released by the House National Security Committee. The lists, submitted in response to a request that HNSC Chairman Floyd D. Spence (R-S.C.) made to the four service chiefs at a hearing on March 12, over five years amounted to $23.873 billion for the Army, $13.536 billion for the Navy, $8.298 billion for the Marine Corps and $12.567 billion for the Air Force.
SIX ASIAN COUNTRIES agreed yesterday to promote multilateral cooperation in space technology development and applications. Senior officials from China, Iran, Pakistan, Mongolia, South Korea and Thailand signed a memorandum of understanding for cooperation in the Small Multi-Mission Satellite (SMMS) project and related activities, China's Xinhua ageny reported. The countries agreed to take joint actions to support the implementation of the SMMS project, conduct joint research and applications, and initiate training programs in the related areas.
Eutelsat said it will place a new satellite, Europesat-1, at 29 degrees East, close to a system of satellites belonging to SES. Eutelsat said the new satellite, to be built by Matra Marconi Space, is slated to be in orbit by mid-2000. The design of Europesat-1, it said, will allow coexistence with the SES system of satellites at 28.2 degrees East.
COSMONAUTS Talgat Musabayev and Nikolai Budarin returned to the Mir space station after a six hour, 21 minute space walk to attach an external propulsion unit to the Kavant module, Itar-Tass reported yesterday. The work marked the end of extra vehicular activity for April, with the crew having spent a total of 30 hours, 15 minutes outside of Mir.
AEROSPATIALE has delivered the main cryogenic stage of the Ariane 503 rocket, scheduled to make the second qualification flight of Europe's new generation of Ariane launchers. It will be transported shortly to the Guiana Space Center.
The Belgian aeronautics company Societe Anonyme Belge de Constructions Aeronautiques S.A. (SABCA) saw a drop in both sales and net profit in 1997 compared to the previous year. SABCA, headquartered here, attributed the decrease to declining military sales, but said it expects work for Airbus Industrie and Aerospatiale to take up the slack.
CEREMONIES marking completion of the first E-2C Hawkeye early warning command and control plane for the French Navy will be held Aug. 28 at Northrop Grumman facilities in St. Augustine, Fla.
The FAA wasted $1.5 billion on the Advanced Automation System, according to a report by Dept. of Transportation Inspector General Kenneth Mead. The report, prepared at the request of Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations transportation subcommittee, termed the $1.5 billion a "total loss." AAS was the "centerpiece of an ambitious effort begun in the 1980s to replace the computer hardware and software, including controller workstations, in en-route, terminal and tower air traffic control facilities," the IG said.
Alliant Techsystems has delivered an Outrider tactical unmanned aerial vehicle system to the U.S. Army at Ft. Hood, Tex., for use in the program's military assessment phase. The company said that during the assessment, the system - which includes both air vehicles and ground control stations - will be checked for effectiveness in three categories: delivery of reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition information; coverage of a commander's area of interest, and sustainability.
CHINA TELECOM agreed to invest $37.5 million to become a full partner in Globalstar L.P. Globalstar said China Telecom, which provides fixed and wireless services, along with China Telecommunications Broadcast Satellite Corp., will retain sole rights to provide Globalstar services in China.
Boeing Co. and the Russian State Science and Production Center Zvezda-Strela are about to agree on purchase of a quantity of Russian missiles for use by U.S. Navy as targets. The amount of the contract and the number of missiles must still be finalized. Last year, Boeing bought the first four Kh-31A missiles from Zvezda- Strela. They were fired from a refurbished F-4 fighter in demonstration tests. This contract, worth $4.7 million, was followed by a contract for nine more missiles, deliveries of which should be completed this May.
Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical won a $110.8 million contract from the Pentagon's Defense Advanced research Projects Agency for Phase IIB of the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle program. The company said the contract, finalized on April 10, calls for construction of three of the high altitude endurance UAVs and one integrated sensor suite, as well as technical manuals, spare parts, training development and software maintenance. When the contract is completed in late 1999, TRA said, five Global Hawks will have been built.
Boeing Co.'s profits dropped 90% in the first quarter, nearly $500 million, despite increased deliveries and sales of commercial aircraft, the company said yesterday. Boeing earned $50 million on $13 billion in sales during the quarter, compared to earnings of $540 million on sales of $10.4 billion in the first three months of 1997. Operating profit fell from $838 million in 1997 to $101 million in 1998.
COMPUTER SCIENCES CORP. said it signed a 10-year, $110 million outsourcing contract with Advanced Technology Systems, a unit of General Dynamics in Greensboro, N.C. CSC will manage data center operations for ATS, which supplies undersea surveillance and signal processing systems to the U.S. government.
FINLAND has been consulting with ten foreign helicopter makers about a requirement for military transport helicopters, Russia's Itar-Tass reported. It said the Finnish government has allocated 2.2 billion marks ($405.2 million) for helicopter buys between 1999 and 2004. Among the companies reportedly contacted are Agusta and Eurocopter of Europe, Rosvooruzheniye of Russia, and Boeing and Sikorsky of the U.S. Consultations will be held in May and June to discuss specific requirements, schedule of deliveries and terms of settlement, the news agency said.
General Electric Co. plc of the U.K. plans to acquire Tracor Inc. of the U.S. in a $1.4 billion deal, the companies announced yesterday. The British giant will integrate the Austin, Tex.-based information technology company with the North American Group of its GEC-Marconi unit. The transaction, expected to close this June, was unanimously approved yesterday by the boards of directors of both companies.
EarthWatch Inc. and Intermap Technologies Inc. won a contract to map the Panama Canal Zone for the U.S. National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA), EarthWatch announced. Intermap, the wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary of Intermap Technologies Ltd., will perform the work under subcontract to EarthWatch, Longmont, Colo.
Orbital Sciences Corp., Dulles, Va., completed on-orbit testing of eight Orbcomm satellites launched in December 1997 and two more launched in February 1998. The company said the data communication satellites have been transferred to its Orbcomm Global L.P. affiliate, which has begun placing them in commercial service. Orbital also said it plans to launch two more groups of eight Orbcomm satellites each on its next two Pegasus rocket launches scheduled over the next three months. These 16 will complete the 28-satellite basic space network.
The possibility that Congress will add funds for ballistic missile defense programs in the fiscal year 1999 budget is slim, and this could be a long term trend if industry and the Pentagon don't do a better job of informing members about their work, according to a former member of the House National Security Committee.
Rocketdyne Propulsion&Power hopes to use a mix of technology and management techniques to drive down costs in both development and production of new rocket engines as it looks for markets in the 21st century.
In a vote that followed party lines, the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday approved a bill making it the policy of the United States to deploy a missile defense system capable of defending the nation against a limited ballistic missile attack. All ten Republicans on the committee voted for the measure and all seven Democrats on hand opposed it. The bill, initiated by Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), says the threat is increasing and the U.S. must be prepared for rogue nations to acquire long-range missiles.
The defense ministers of France, Germany, Italy, Spain the U.K. pledged concrete help for the restructuring of the European defense industry, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said Monday. At a meeting in Paris, the ministers agreed to take action in five key areas to assist the industry-led process: -- Security of supply, ensuring that countries can depend on each other to provide necessary defense equipment if restructuring means equipment production is concentrated in other partner countries.
