The Senate approved, by a vote of 57-41, the $1.73 trillion fiscal '99 federal budget resolution after accepting amendments urging the Clinton Administration to purchase three Black Hawk helicopters for drug-fighting in Colombia, and calling on the White House Office of Management and Budget and the Congressional Budget Office to settle their differences on national security outlay estimates by April 22.
Bell Helicopter Textron's H-1 Program, an effort to remanufacture the U.S. Marine Corps' fleet of AH-1W Super Cobra and UH-1N utility helicopters, is 40% complete, and four major milestones are scheduled within the next six months, company officials said. Under the program, 180 AH-1Ws and 100 UH-1Ns will be remanufactured, giving the Marines 280 new helicopters to operate beyond 2020.
The Pentagon should begin developing a plan to replace the U.S. bomber force, says the Long-Range Air Power panel headed by former Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Larry Welch. Options include a B-2 variant and development of technologies for a more modern aircraft. "A continuing program to demonstrate advanced technologies in support of long-range air power should be given a high priority," the panel says.
Boeing Co. said it has completed a series of reviews with Joint Strike Fighter officials, including checks of affordability and performance aspects of the company's operational aircraft design and two JSF X-32 demonstrator aircraft. Data was reviewed by officials from the JSF program office, the U.K. government and representatives from Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands and Canada.
SWEDEN'S SAAB AB would be listed on the Stockholm stock exchange under a proposal by Investor AB, the large Swedish investment group that has major holdings in the company. Investor said it believes that broadening ownership would increase Saab's opportunities to actively participate in any future restructuring of the international aerospace and defense industry. A broadening of the ownership also would give the Saab Group direct access to capital markets and a visible market valuation, which is viewed as positive for Saab as well as Investor and its shareholders.
British Aerospace and the U.S. Navy are seeking a U.S. site for work on the Nulka decoy being developed and built in a U.S.-Australian program to defend ships against missiles armed with radio-frequency seekers. A site survey will be concluded by June to allow the Navy to pick a location about a month later, said Michael Hedrick, project support director for BAe. The site would allow the Navy to do depot work in the U.S., rather than shipping decoys to Australia. Eventually, the site might be used for production, Hedrick said.
The U.S. Defense Dept. expects to add two new civil signals to Global Positioning System satellites set for launch in 2004 and later, raising the question of how service for aviation can be made available by 2005 as promised by the Dept. of Transportation.
LAUNCH from the Baikonur Cosmodrome of a Proton booster carrying seven Iridium communications satellites was postponed yesterday. Russia's Itar- Tass news agency said that the delay may have been caused by low resistance in launch pad cables, and that the cables have been replaced.
Rudy Palladina has resigned as president and chief executive officer of CHC Helicopter Corp., St. John's, Newfoundland, the company announced. "There is a philosophical difference of opinion as to the long-term strategic direction of the company with regard to maximization of shareholder value," Craig Dobbin, chairman of CHC, said in a prepared statement released Wednesday. Sylvain Allard, currently president of the international division, will assume the role of acting president.
The U.S. Navy's plan to buy 7,800 AGM-154C unitary variants of the Joint Standoff Weapon is expected to change drastically as the service reevaluates the program. The Navy is conducting a scrub to try to take the unit cost of the missile from around $300,000 to less than $200,000. It is also assessing overall procurement plans for each of the three JSOW variants.
Raytheon Systems Co. has won a $3.9 million contract for software sustainment and operations support of U.S. Air Force Milstar Extremely High Frequency (EHF) satellite communications terminals, systems and facilities. The contact has a potential value of $11.7 million, if options are exercised, Raytheon said. Under the deal, Raytheon will provide systems engineering, requirements generation and analysis, and design, code, test and integrate software into more than 120 Air Force Milstar terminals.
A team led by Alliant Techsystems Defense Systems Group has been selected to develop the military's next-generation individual weapon. Alliant said Wednesday it has won an $8.5 million contract for the Objective Individual Combat Weapon (OICW).
The U.S. aerospace industry set records for exports, imports and trade surplus in 1997, according to the Aerospace Industries Association. Exports jumped $10 billion to $50 billion, while imports grew $4.5 billion to $18 billion, according to AIA's Aerospace Research Center. It said the industry posted a trade surplus of $32 billion, up $5.6 billion from 1996.
The U.S. Navy and Lockheed Martin are looking for international development and production partners for a shipboard infrared search and track system. Lockheed Martin is in the first phase of developing the IRST, which could be used to cue Aegis cruisers and destroyers for theater air defense. The system is designed to provide accurate position location, but it can't provide range. Data from two IRSTs, however, can be cross-referenced to provide range.
Boeing Co. yesterday picked Rockwell Collins to develop and eventually build the cockpit for the CH-47 Improved Cargo Helicopter (ICH) program. Rockwell Collins officials said here yesterday at the Army Aviation Association of America convention that their company has been selected to provide the glass cockpit of the new helicopter. Collins was chosen over Honeywell and Canadian Marconi. Lockheed Martin was invited to compete, but did not respond with a bid.
Rep. Walter B. Jones Jr. (R-N.C.), a second term congressman whose district includes the U.S. Navy Aviation Depot at Cherry Point, N.C., is challenging the Marine Corps' decision to change the designation of the V- 22 tiltrotor aircraft's T406-AD-400 engine from "core" system to "commercial." The decision, if it stands, would allow Rolls-Royce Allison Engine Co. subsidiary producer of the engine, to compete for the heavy maintenance award. Keeping the core designation would require heavy maintenance to be done at a government depot.
Northrop Grumman early next week plans to make the first flight of its E-2C Hawkeye 2000 surveillance aircraft, which features the U.S. Navy's Cooperative Engagement Capability system. In addition to CEC, an information link to help ships defeat an attack, the aircraft will be equipped with an integrated satellite communication system - the old version was a stand-alone system - and a vapor cycle upgrade. Electronic improvements of the mission computer program that flew for the first time last year also are incorporated.
The U.S. Army, following the decision last week to ground its fleet of 907 UH-1 Huey helicopters because of excessive engine vibrations, has awarded AlliedSignal Aerospace a not-to-exceed contract to help fix the problem, which also led to the grounding of Air Force Hueys. The Army, meanwhile, is scrutinizing its AH-1 Cobra helicopters.
NASA's Transition and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) spacecraft was placed in a 324-by-352 nautical mile Sun synchronous orbit late Wednesday by a Pegasus-XL rocket built by Orbital Sciences Corp. The rocket was released from an L-1011 aircraft off Vandenberg AFB, Calif. TRACE, developed under the Small Explorer (SMEX) satellite program managed by Goddard Space Flight Center, Md., will study the evolution of events in the sun's atmosphere that originate at the solar surface. This article was inadvertently omitted from the April 3 issue of Aerospace Daily.
BELL HELICOPTER TEXTRON'S Eagle Eye UAV has completed 10 flights and logged more than 10 hours in the air at the U.S. Navy-sponsored Vertical Take-Off and Landing UAV demonstration at the Yuma Proving Grounds in Arizona. The tiltrotor has conducted nacelle conversion from the 90-degree VTOL mode to 45 degrees for forward flight. Bell said that within the next couple of flights it expects to transition the nacelles to full forward flight, after which the flight envelope will be expanded further.
No major theater missile defense programs will be increased by significant amounts in the House National Security research and development subcommittee markup of the fiscal 1999 defense authorization, but increases are likely for the MEADS program and lasers, subcommittee chairman Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) said yesterday.
Israel Aircraft Industries recorded its first profit in five years, earning $24.3 million in 1997, the first year of operations following completion of a four-year recovery plan. Sales of $1.7 billion were 15% higher than 1996 sales of $1.5 billion, IAI said. Profit before taxes and special expenses stood at $30 million, compared to a loss of $41.1 million in 1996.
The B-2 bomber's sortie rate could be doubled with an extensive maintenance program that would improve both low-observable maintainability and stealth performance, former U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Larry D. Welch testified yesterday. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), who chaired the House National Security procurement subcommittee hearing that reviewed the Long-Range Airpower report prepared by Welch, indicated that he is likely to increase the B-2 account in the subcommittee's fiscal 1999 defense authorization markup.
The U.S. Dept. of Transportation will have to fund the second coded GPS civil signal, according to a White House panel (DAILY, March 31). The Interagency Global Positioning System Executive Board said selection of the new civil signal - whether L2 or another new frequency - for exclusive allocation to aeronautical radio navigation service (ARNS) should be made by next August.
