WISCONSIN RACE: Rep. Mark Neumann (R-Wis.), who is seeking to defeat Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) in their Senate race, has raised more campaign funds than Feingold for the three-month period ending March 31, according to Federal Election Commission filings. Neumann raised $712,000 during this period compared to $465,000 for Feingold. Feingold, however, has more cash on hand for the campaign, $1,292,000 compared to $821,000. He also leads in the latest polls.
As the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) gets ready to select a lead system integrator (LSI) for national missile defense (NMD) next month, it also is examining options for creating a similar LSI role for its theater missile defense (TMD) program.
Dr. Louis Sullivan, secretary of health and human services in the Bush Administration, warned against taking advances in medicine derived from space research "for granted," and urged President Clinton to increase support for the human spaceflight program.
WHY BUILD EVERYWHERE... Split production lines as seen on the Air Force's F-22 fighter program aren't getting high marks at the Pentagon right now, which may be a signal to industry that it has to take a different route on the Joint Strike Fighter. Pentagon acquisition chief Jacques Gansler says that while it's too late to change, he wonders whether building large parts of the F-22 in different locations is efficient.
ABL GROWTH: Brig. Gen. Bruce Carlson, U.S. Air Force assistant secretary for acquisition, sees a future need to continually add new technologies to the baseline Airborne Laser (ABL) system. "There will be a continuing requirement for increased range, lethality and survivability of the platform," he says. When prospective enemies realize how valuable ABL is, Carlson says, they will try to devise ways to hamper its employment and shoot it down. For that reason, he says, there will always be room for better algorithms, faster software and more computer power.
ASIAN VISIT: Lockheed Martin is taking the C-130J airlifter on another leg of its world tour. It has arrived in South Korea from Marietta, Ga. The 9,276 n. mi. trip, with several stops, was flown in headwinds of up to 100 knots. The aircraft will visit Taiwan, Thailand, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia - which is already buying the plane - and New Zealand.
Russia's Strategic Rocket Forces fired an SS-18 heavy ICBM from the Baikonur Cosmodrome Wednesday to hit simulated targets on the Kamchatka Peninsula with 10 dummy warheads in a demonstration both of military prowess and possible commercial potential. Launch of the 20-year-old missile was not just an element of SRF combat training and evaluation of the operational performance of aging missiles. The launch was also intended to demonstrate the capability of the SS-18 as a future space launch vehicle.
FARNBOROUGH MiG-29: Moscow Aviation Production Assn. "MiG" (MAPO) is concentrating its dwindling resources on modification of their MiG-29 fighter in time for the Farnborough Air Show in September. The upgraded aircraft, designed article 9.17, is scheduled to get is first public demonstration then (DAILY Aug. 22, 1997; Feb. 6). Meanwhile, MAPO announces completion of flight testing of its MiG-AT jet trainer. Next phase of the MiG-AT program will be joint testing of the trainer with the Russian Air Force, scheduled to begin by the end of May.
GAO, DOD AND Y2K: The General Accounting Office tells a House Government Reform and Oversight subcommittee that the Defense Dept. lacks key management and oversight controls to enforce good management practices, direct resources and establish a picture of overall progress in fixing the "Year 2000" computer problem.
THE FAA said it plans to order changes to the fuel tank wiring on 737 aircraft to prevent possible ignition sources of fuel tank vapors. The proposed airworthiness directive is similar to one issued last November on 747 aircraft which closes May 27. Tom McSweeny, director, Aircraft Certification Service, said the proposed AD is aimed at protecting the fuel quantity indication system against transient electrical voltage spikes or short circuits.
The newest U.S. polar orbiting weather satellite, scheduled for launch from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., on May 13, will carry new instruments to help meteorologists refine the computer models that they use to forecast everything from rainfall to hurricane tracks, officials of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said yesterday.
FAA and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association have agreed to the original date of June 1 for initial operating capability of the Display System Replacement (DSR) at the Seattle air route traffic control center. The union had balked at the date until FAA agreed that it will not proceed beyond Phase 2 of the program at Seattle or any other site until pending solutions to "deployment critical deficiencies," said Randy Schwitz, executive VP.
A NASA investigation board has blamed the crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia on STS-87 last fall for the unsuccessful release and dicey recapture of the Spartan free-flyer during the 16-day mission. According to the executive summary of the "STS-87 close call incident," the crew "inadvertently omitted" a step as it downloaded commands into the free-flyer, which was to have worked in tandem with the SOHO spacecraft to measure solar activity.
Future plans to thwart anticipated missile threats from Pakistan and Iran have been proposed to the U.S. intelligence community by the Pentagon's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization.
NASA managers scrubbed yesterday's planned launch of the Space Shuttle Columbia on a two-week Spacelab mission to study the nervous system when one of two critical signal processors failed to work during pre-flight testing. Liftoff of the nation's oldest Shuttle was rescheduled for 2:19 p.m. EDT today. The STS-90 "Neurolab" mission is planned for more than 16 days in orbit to conduct neurological experiments on the seven-member crew and a host of rats, fish, snails and crickets.
LOCKHEED MARTIN'S Vought Systems unit, Dallas, has won a $20 million contract for 30 Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles for Greece. The company said the foreign military sales contract is the second sale of ATACMS to Greece, and brings the total number of missiles ordered by the country to 71. The first sale, it said, was in April 1997.
Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon each won a $4 million contract yesterday from the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency for the initial phase of the Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle program.
Boeing has won nearly $2 billion in two U.S. Navy contracts for future production of the F/A-18E/F strike fighter. The contracts, awarded Wednesday, had been on hold while a "wing drop" problem was solved. Boeing got $1.3 billion for production of 20 F/A-18E/Fs and $68 million for long-lead funding for the fiscal 1999 buy of the Super Hornet. The Navy is buying eight F/A-18E single-seaters and 12 F/A-18F two-seaters this year and plans to buy 14 F/A-18Es and 16 F/A-18Fs next fiscal year.
The U.S. National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) next week will start reviewing industry proposals on how to improve the American national security community's access to commercial satellite imagery. NIMA, in a broad agency announcement released last month, invited industry to respond by April 20 with proposals for the Commercial Imagery Initiative (CII), which is aimed at examining alternative ways for the national security community to access commercial imagery from the commercial remote sensing industry.
One of the U.S. Army's goals as it slowly moves to the 'Army After Next' force structure is to reduce observability of its helicopters by 80%. This and several other technology objectives for aviation in the 2020 timeframe were outlined by Maj. Gen. Emmitt Gibson, commander of the Army Aviation and Missile Command, at the April 2-4 Army Aviation Association of America symposium in Charlotte, N.C.
RUSSIA AND BELARUS are working on a joint air defense system that will be operational by 2000, Lt. Gen. Valery Kostenko, commander of the Belarus Anti-Aircraft Defense Troops, said yesterday at a conference in Moscow. Itar-tass quoted him as saying "The American-Canadian anti-aircraft defense system could serve as a model to some extent."
Daimler-Benz Aerospace AG completed its acquisition of the German operations of Siemens AG's defense electronics division SI Sicherungstechnik, the company announced Wednesday, while British Aerospace said it received regulatory approval to buy Siemens Plessey Systems (SPS) in the U.K. and Siemens Plessey Electronics System in Australia (SPESA).
Despite funding problems, the Pentagon wants to keep the Medium Extended Area Defense System (MEADS) going and is studying several options that could include restructuring the program, DOD officials said yesterday. "We're trying to figure out ways to afford MEADS because we know we want it," Pentagon acquisition chief Jacques Gansler told reporters yesterday in Washington. He added that he's "optimistic" the program will continue, but conceded it is too early to say definitely whether MEADS will be funded beyond fiscal 1999.
