Only a united Europe stands a good chance of competing in the global aerospace markets of the future, according to Dr. Manfred Bischoff, chairman of Daimler-Benz Aerospace. "Globalization has turned competition between nations into competition between marketing areas," he said in an interview released by DASA. "... In this environment, the question is no longer, 'Will Germany manage? or France? Or England? But will Europe be able to assert itself in the competition between the marketing areas?"
The European Commission yesterday authorized a 200 million pound ($340 million) British government loan for the development of Rolls- Royce's new generation high-thrust engines. The European Union's competition watchdog said that "given the risk of partial failure of the R&D programs the investment cannot be considered as fully commercial."
The U.S. Defense Dept.'s investment for test and evaluation (T&E) is down by 33% since fiscal year 1990, while demands for advanced testing of technologies continue to grow, Patricia Sanders, DOD's director of test, systems engineering and evaluation, told senators yesterday.
Northrop Grumman Corp. will take a $180 million pretax charge in the 1998 first quarter as a result of costs related to its proposed combination with Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman announced yesterday. The charge will cover vesting of restricted stock that became issuable after the merger was approved by company shareholders in February and other costs such as investment banking fees, legal and accounting fees and costs related to responding to the government's request for information.
The U.S. Air Force and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have halted taxi tests of the second DarkStar unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to make a number of fixes to some engineering deficiencies, a DARPA program official told The DAILY yesterday. The stand-down decision was made on March 21, and taxi tests aren't slated to resume until mid-April, Harry Berman, DARPA's DarkStar program manager, said in a telephone interview.
Staffers of the House Appropriations national security subcommittee appear to have strong doubts about the U.S. Air Force's $11 billion Airborne Laser program and may be out in front of members of the panel in their opposition to the effort, congressional sources say. It is unusual but not unprecedented for staffers, who zero in on a limited number of issues, to have more strongly held views on certain programs than Representatives and Senators, who must follow and vote on a variety of issues.
An air-launch system to orbit small satellites from a MiG-31 interceptor is being developed by Russia's MiG Aviation Science and Industrial Complex (ANPK). According to Anatoly Belosvet, deputy general director of MiG ANPK, the plan calls for a long-range MiG-31 interceptor, capable of reaching a speed of 1,860 mph at an altitude of about 55,000 feet, to loft a newly developed air-launched rocket. Belosvet said his company started working on the project in the first half of 1997, but declined to name the company developing the rocket itself.
A PILOT assigned to the 51st Fighter Wing at Osan AB, Korea, was missing yesterday following the crash of his F-16 fighter over the Yellow Sea about 60 n.m. west of Osan, officials reported yesterday afternoon. The crash occurred at 8:52 p.m. Korea time Wednesday during a combat training mission.
Ground controllers last week lost contact with Russia's Kupon-1 satellite, threatening an ambitious project of Russia's central bank to establish an efficient data relay system for its widespread banking network. Kupon-1, the first of three planned satellites for the Bankir system, was orbited Nov. 12, 1997. The satellite was undergoing testing at its operational location in geostationary orbit above 55 degrees East longitude when it ceased communication with ground control center on March 18.
An Ariane 40 launch vehicle placed France's SPOT 4 Earth observation satellite in a sun synchronous orbit from Europe's Guiana Space Center on the north coast of South America Monday night. Liftoff came at 8:46 p.m. EST. The 6,061-pound satellite was placed in its targeted 98.7 degree orbit, with an apogee of 811.7 kilometers and a perigee of 790 km, according to the Arianespace launch consortium.
Boeing Commercial President Ron Woodard expressed concern yesterday about the Long Beach, Calif.-based MD-11 airliner program, but Chairman Phil Condit said the company wasn't pulling out of California as a result of its acquisition of McDonnell Douglas. Woodard said Boeing is "aggressively marketing" the MD-11 trijet and has successfully sold some freighter versions, but "our concern is whether we will have the sustained orders to keep the program viable."
A group of Russian military intelligence officers has sold about 200 classified satellite photographs of the Middle East to Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, according to press accounts here. On March 20 the Court of Moscow Military District sentenced two retired lieutenant colonels of the Space Intelligence Center of the Main Intelligence Administration to prison, one for two years and the other for three years. Four other suspects were cleared of charges earlier.
U.K. Defense Secretary George Robertson disputed press reports that the most radical changes in Britain's armed forces in many years are expected from the Labor government's six-month Strategic Defense Review (SDR). In a prepared statement on Monday, Robertson said, "stories since the weekend have presented speculation as fact. The only balance they provide is an equally misleading picture for each of the three services. Let me make it clear that no decisions have yet been taken and that Ministers are still considering options."
U.S. Air Force Air Mobility Command wants to reduce the number of C- 130 airlifter fleets in its inventory from the current half dozen to two in 12 years, Gen. Walter Kross said yesterday. Kross, commander of AMC and U.S. Transportation Command, said AMC has over 500 combat delivery C-130s. But because they are not interchangeable, "it's like having five separate fleets that just look the same." And, he said, "The C-130J will make it six." In addition, some of the Lockheed Martin planes are 36 years old.
Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) yesterday expressed concern that U.S. defense industry mergers "are getting to a point" at which the Pentagon will no longer realize the benefits of cost competition and contractor innovation.
The Pentagon's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization is reevaluating the course of all of its programs in response to a recently released independent study, which calls for a major restructure of the national missile defense (NMD) program to allow for more comprehensive testing, BMDO Director Lt. Gen. Lester L. Lyles told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday. Lyles told the SASC strategic forces panel he agrees with the independent panel's assessment that the NMD program is risky due to a compressed testing schedule.
Deployment of two Block 30 B-2 stealth bombers here for the next ten days will provide the U.S. Air Force its first opportunity to learn how to send the bombers overseas and whether the low observable characteristics of the airplane can be maintained at a forward location.
The Defense Dept.'s top 100 contractors for fiscal year 1997 are listed in the following table, released by the Pentagon (DAILY, March 24). Net value of prime contract awards to each contractor and the value of awards to their subsidiaries are given. Additional information is available at http://web1.whs.osd.mil/diorcat.htm Total of all contract awards $116,680,480 Total of 100 companies/subsidiaries $67,892,439
The rate of fatal approach and landing (ALA) accidents in the 18 European member nations of the Joint Aviation Authorities is 10 times lower than in non-JAA European nations, according to a report presented last week at a seminar in Amsterdam sponsored by Flight Safety Foundation.
New intelligent sensors and advanced communications technologies are needed for future nuclear stockpile surveillance, C. Paul Robinson, director of Sandia National Laboratories, told the Senate Armed Services Committee's panel on strategic forces. "One of the long-term challenges we face is how to ensure the reliability of an aging stockpile in the absence of testing and new weapon development programs," Robinson said March 19 in prepared testimony.
MRJ Technology Solutions, Fairfax, Va., is being awarded an $8,787,868 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to provide for design and development of the following prototype software tools in support of intelligence requirements: a Strategy Builder which will accept requirements and constraints to develop processing, exploitation, and dissemination strategies; an Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance Modeling and Assessment Toolkit; and an Indication and Warning Predicator. There were 19 firms solicited and 18 proposals received. Negotiations were completed March 1998.
SPACE ELECTRONICS INC., San Diego, signed a memorandum of understanding with Actel Corp., Sunnyvale, Calif., to develop and market a line of high- reliability, radiation-tolerant Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) products, SEI announced yesterday. The two companies will combine SEI's RAD-PAK package shielding technology with Actel's commercial FPGA products. SEI said the combination should be able to withstand a total radiation dose in the 30-100 krad (SI) range. First deliveries are expected by the second quarter of this year.
STANDARD Missile Co., McLean, Va., is being awarded a $81,257,941 modification to previously awarded contract N00024-97-C-5353 for the FY98 requirements for the STANDARD Missile - 2. U.S. requirements are for 68 STANDARD Missile - 2, BLOCK IIIB All Up Rounds (AURs), 73 STANDARD Missile - 2 BLOCK IIIB Modifications Kits, telemeters and containers.
Boeing Co., Seattle, Wash., is being awarded a $40,000,000 cost-plus-fixed- fee contract to provide for services and modifications required to upgrade and sustain the Advanced Concept Election Seat (ACES) II system on the A- 10, F-15, F-16, F-117, B-1B, and B-2 aircraft. This effort will include: system/concept design and analysis; subsystem design and integration; design, fabrication, and test of modifications; and sustainment engineering and logistics support. Funds will be obligated as individual delivery orders are issued.
