Given the amount of defense spending in today's economy, "Fortress American and Fortress Europe" won't be able to exist independently much longer, a Lockheed Martin executive said.
An expected cost overrun in the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) program will be about $42 million, an official of the Pentagon's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization said. BMDO, releasing its fiscal year 1999 budget this week, said it anticipates an overrun at the completion of the PAC-3 missile development contract (DAILY, Feb. 3). The overrun "is expected to be funded with existing resources," BMDO said.
The Russian Government has adopted a proposal by the Ministries of Economy and Defense to create elimination facilities for solid-fueled missiles at the Votkinsk Plant and the Zlatoust Machine-building Plant where the missiles were manufactured. Under terms of the START-2 Treaty, which has yet to be ratified by the Russian Parliament, Russia will have to dismantle hundreds of ICBMs and SLBMs and dispose of many thousands of tons of highly toxic UDMH as well as solid rocket propellants.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has asked for $514.8 million for new weather satellite procurement in fiscal year 1999 as part of its $615.1 million National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (NESDIS) budget request.
A joint venture company to be established by GKN Westland Helicopters and Boeing Co. will provide training services for the British Army's WAH-64 Apache attack helicopter under a contract that will be worth about $1 billion over a 30-year period.
Boeing Co.'s consolidation of facilities continues the slow, steady changes started by McDonnell Douglas and the aerospace businesses of Rockwell International before they were acquired by the company, Alan Mulally, president of Boeing's Information, Space&Defense Systems unit said yesterday.
RUSSIA'S MIG MAPO is testing a "ground jump" ramp that allows the MiG-29 fighter to take off from a bomb-damaged runway, according to the Itar-Tass news agency. Tests at the Zhukovsky flight test center near Moscow with pilot Sergei Tresvyatsky at the controls have shown that, with the ramp, the plane needs a stretch of intact runway only 150-300 meters long to become airborne, Itar-Tass reported. It said the first test required 205 meters.
Spanish flag carrier Iberia yesterday announced an order for 76 single-aisle aircraft from Airbus Industrie, one of the largest orders ever placed by a European carrier. Iberia placed 50 firm orders and 26 options on up to nine A319s, 36 A320s and 31 A321s. List price for A319s is about $43 million; for A320s, it is about $47 million, and for A321s it's about $57 million. Iberia President Xabier de Irala said the decision to go with Airbus was part of a fleet standardization program.
Following is a breakout of NASA's fiscal year 1999 budget request, released Monday (DAILY, Feb. 3). Dollar amounts are in millions. FY 1998 FY 1999 HUMAN SPACE FLIGHT 5,679.5* 5,511.0 SCIENCE, AERONAUTICS&TECHNOLOGY 5,552.0* 5,457.4 MISSION SUPPORT 2,388.2* 2,476.6 INSPECTOR GENERAL 18.3 20.0
The year is 2021. The U.S. is in the second day of a war. The adversary has positioned his satellites to physically block the downlink of U.S. satellite communications to ground stations. The enemy also is using jamming techniques to stop any signals that do slip through. The U.S., with an anti-satellite (ASAT) capability, faces a tough decision - when or if to strike when commercial satellites are involved.
While assessment of past performance can be an important factor in awarding contracts, the U.S. government and prime contractors must realize that it affects large and small companies differently, industry officials said yesterday. Dennis Little, vice president and general manager of General Electric Aircraft Military Engine Operations, Cincinnati, and Kathryn Turner, president and chief executive officer of Standard Technologies Inc., Rockville, Md., provided differing perspectives on the issue.
BOEING said the first two 767 AWACS aircraft have completed the final series of tests before delivery to Japan. It reported that in bringing production acceptance testing to a close, the U.S. Air Force, which oversees the test program, concurred that systems are working as designed. Boeing is building four 767 AWACS for Japan. The first two are slated for delivery in March 1998, and the second two in 1999.
The Pentagon would not begin development of replacements for the F- 117A and F-15E aircraft for at least another seven years, and even then might not pursue the program, Defense Secretary William Cohen said in his "Annual Report to the President and the Congress." Cohen wrote in the report, released yesterday, that "Development of such a future interdiction aircraft, if it is determined to be necessary, would not begin until after FY 2005."
The Pentagon is considering using inert bombs to collapse chemical and biological weapons storage facilities, a move that would mitigate the risk of spreading the lethal agents, a senior Defense Dept. official said yesterday. "There's alternatives to blowing things up," said the official, who asked not to be named. Existing bombs can go through a lot of concrete, steel and dirt, he said, even without an explosive. The main bomb available now that could be used in inert mode to bury the chemical and biological agents would be the 2,000-pound Mk. 84.
Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) said yesterday that he would seek to add $72 million to the Senate Armed Services Committee's fiscal 1999 defense authorization to provide long-lead funding for two more Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) aircraft in the present 13-aircraft program.
NASA managers want to organize industry-led space transportation architecture studies in fiscal years 1999 and 2000 to help them decide how best to get U.S. astronauts and payloads to orbit after the turn of the century. Documents distributed with the agency's FY '99 budget request Monday indicate the agency wants $20 million for "Future Space Launch Studies," which will give NASA more information for its upcoming decision whether to continue the X-33 prototype program with Lockheed Martin to a full-scale "VentureStar" reusable launch vehicle (RLV).
British Aerospace's agreement with the U.K. government to develop wings for the Airbus A340-500/600 (DAILY, Feb. 3) will secure over 2,000 jobs at BAe and its suppliers, according to Margaret Beckett, president of the U.K. Board of Trade, who announced the deal. She also said the partnership, under which BAe gets a loan of $200 million, "will be of direct benefit to the 25,000 jobs in the U.K. which depend on our participation in Airbus."
Northrop Grumman Corp., Bethpage, N.Y., is being awarded a $31,000,000 ceiling-priced delivery order against a basic ordering agreement for non- recurring developmental engineering of upgrade kits for the Japan Air Self Defense Force E-2C aircraft. This purchase is for the government of Japan (100%) under the Foreign Military Sale (FMS) Program. Work will be performed in Bethpage, N.Y. (50%) and at various Grumman field support services sites, and is expected to be completed by December 2000. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
California Microwave-Airborne Systems Integration Division, Belcamp, Md., is being awarded a $5,600,000 modification to a cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost- plus-award-fee, firm-fixed-price contract for a joint integration effort of the Lowband Subsystem as mandated by the Joint Airborne Signal Intelligence Family (JASF) compliance. Work will be performed in Hagerstown, Md. (90%); and Belcamp, Md. (10%), and is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2001. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There were ten bids solicited on Jan.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN CORP. reported that its Vought Center, base of the company's Commercial Aircraft Div., has earned the ISO 9001 designation. Ralph D. Crosby Jr., corporate VP and CAD general manager, said the development is "a significant milestone for the... Division as we move toward a set of robust processes that insure quality is built into the product."
The Space Shuttle Endeavour landed safely at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., on Saturday, returning U.S. Astronaut David Wolf to Earth after 128 days aboard Russia's Mir orbital station. Endeavour touched down right on time at 5:35 p.m. EST, after a 10-day mission to retrieve Wolf and deliver U.S. Astronaut Andrew Thomas and more than four and a half tons of supplies to the Russian station (DAILY, Jan. 30).
British Aerospace will receive a $200 million loan from the U.K. government to develop the wings of the new Airbus A340-500/600 aircraft, Margaret Beckett, the British minister of industry, said yesterday in London.
Congress should be careful about making changes to the $257.3 billion fiscal 1999 defense budget because add-ons to one service are likely to affect the others, U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen said yesterday as he unveiled the Pentagon's budget request.
NASA has set aside $750 million in fiscal year 2000 and beyond as a "placeholder" for its share of a primarily commercial follow-on to the Space Shuttle, Administrator Daniel S. Goldin announced yesterday in releasing a $13.4 billion FY '99 budget that also envisions development of a winged Crew Return Vehicle for the International Space Station beginning in FY '00.
