India is going to procure a license to manufacture about 100 Su- 30MKI fighters as part of a package of weapon buys from Russia extending until 2010. On Friday a Russian delegation arrived in New Delhi for three days of talks on arms-trade issues in preparation for a planned visit to the Indian capital by President Boris Yeltsin early next year. India wants to move away from direct purchase of Russian weapons and materiel to licensing arrangements.
The U.S. Air Force yesterday picked TRW over Alliant Techsystems to maintain and support its arsenal of Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles over the next 15 years under a program that could be worth up to $3.4 billion. TRW Strategic Systems Div. won an initial $84.9 million contract in an effort that covers about 550 Minuteman III missiles. By outsourcing the support role, the AF is looking to cut by 30% what it would have otherwise spent on the program. Annual options could bring the value of the contract to $3.4 billion through the year 2012.
MIR MOVIE: Russia's aging space station looks to be a busy place as it lumbers to the end of its days, now scheduled sometime in 2000. In addition to already-planned visits from French cosmonauts, Russian physicians have just started winnowing cosmonaut candidates in the Slovak Republic for a Mir visit, and there is also a plan to send an Indonesian visitor to Mir. Russian officials have held talks about hosting a U.S. television correspondent on Mir (DAILY, Nov.
The U.S. Navy plans to buy six additional Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night (LANTIRN) pods for F-14 fighters, boosting the inventory to 58 systems. The Navy announced its intention in a Dec. 22 Commerce Business Daily notice.
Three House committee chairmen with jurisdiction over the Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office (DARO) have complained to a senior Pentagon official about what they say is the Defense Dept.'s decision to seek a below-the-threshold $4 million reprogramming increase for DARO despite Congress' decision to cut DARO funding and downsize its mission.
Flight test anomalies last month are prompting the U.S. Air Force to temporarily delay low rate initial production of the Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser. During a Nov. 18 test at Eglin AFB, Fla., two WCMDs dropped by an F-16 encountered problems, Col. Bill Wise, the Air Force's program director for area attack weapons said in a telephone interview.
YAK TRAINERS: Slovakia is negotiating with Russia for more than 40 Yak-130 and Yak-131 aircraft. Nikolay Dolzhenko, deputy general director of Yakovlev OKB, tells Interfax news agency that after a demonstration of the Yak-130 trainer in Slovakia this autumn, officials there expressed interest in buying about 12 of them. The Yak-131, a weaponized version, is fitted with nine external mounts and associated weapons control avionics. The Yak- 130 costs about $10 million each, and the Yak-131 costs slightly more.
The U.S. Air Force on Friday awarded Boeing Co. an initial contract for C-17 Globemaster III sustainment that could be worth as much as $5.6 billion over eight years. The initial period of performance is for one year at a cost of $160.6 million. Two options years would raise the value to about $800 million. Boeing will assume responsibility for the program on Jan. 1, 1998.
The total cost of buying 548 F/A-18E/F strike fighters is estimated to be $47.3 billion in then-year dollars, according to updated figures provided by the Navy Friday in response to questions. The estimate reflects the recommendation of the Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense Review that the Super Hornet program be cut from 1,000 planes costing $89.5 billion in then-year dollars, and that annual procurement rates be reduced.
U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command as early as today is expected to make public a plan to restructure and recompete the Advanced Interceptor Technology (AIT) program, intended to develop technologies that could be inserted into programs like Theater High Altitude Area Defense, Navy Theater Wide, Boost Phase Interceptor and Medium Extended Air Defense System. Following a review this month, the service decided to recompete portions of the program, sources told The DAILY said.
ABL HIT: At the same time, the Airborne Laser (ABL) could take a hit in the FY '99 DOD budget, which is getting the finishing touches this week by the Office of the Secretary of Defense. While the Air Force has demonstrated commitment to ABL in its budget submission, sources say it's one of the most likely candidates for a last minute cut.
X-MIR RECOVERED: German ground controllers say the X-Mir Inspector is working "perfectly" after its abortive attempt to study the Mir orbital station from the outside last week. Russian controllers ordered Mir's crew to back away from the yard-long free-flyer when it became apparent they couldn't control it because its attitude sensors weren't working properly (DAILY, Dec. 18).
CLARK REVIEW: NASA's Program Management Council has the Clark Earth- observing mission under review after a meeting Friday, and could reveal the troubled program's fate as early as today. The top-level officials who make up the council want to brief Administrator Daniel S. Goldin on their findings first, something that could happen as early as today, according to agency spokespersons.
Washington Consulting Group's protest of FAA's award of the National Airspace System Implementation Support Contract (NISC II) to Lockheed Martin (DAILY, Dec. 18) is based on the claim that a conflict of interest may arise from the acquisition of BDM Corp. by TRW, a Lockheed Martin NISC II subcontractor, sources said.
R.V. JONES, considered the father of electronic warfare, died Dec. 17 of a heart attack in a hospital in Aberdeen, Scotland, at the age of 86. Reginald Victor Jones, born in 1911 in London, was instrumental in countering German radio beams that guided Luftwaffe pilots to targets during the Battle of Britain in World War II.
The U.S. Air Force says that new estimates of the cost of the F-22 fighter program presented by contractors on Friday meet the FY '99 budget request, but it didn't say whether the total program cost comes in under the $43.4 billion cap.
USING DOD RULES: NASA and the FAA may be asked to adopt the Pentagon's new guidance on gathering past performance data for contract awards, according to a DOD official. The Pentagon is working under a new set of rules to assess contractors' past performance on services, operations support and systems (DAILY, Dec. 17).
MONEY'S TIGHT: Several staffers on the congressional defense panels are slated to be briefed early next month on the U.S. Air Force's Space Based Laser (SBL) program, which faces funding constraints. Congressional authorizers have directed the Air Force to accelerate SBL and conduct a demonstration by 2005, but Pentagon officials say they need at least $200 million to run a smaller scale program before then, and that money is tight.
Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), who is most likely to be chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee a year from now, told President Clinton that if the U.S. military presence in Bosnia is to be continued as Clinton wants, the funding for it must come from sources other than the defense budget. Commenting on Clinton's announcement last Thursday that U.S. forces would stay in Bosnia beyond his June 30, 1998, deadline, Warner told reporters the U.S. operation in Bosnia has cost about $8 billion to date, with the funds coming out of the military budgets.
The U.S. Air Force Special Projects Organization was officially acknowledged to have been a part of the National Reconnaissance Organization. Keith R. Hall, director of the NRO, said in a Dec. 6 speech in Los Angeles that "Today we formally declassified the fact that SP was an integral part of NRO. Tonight I am announcing that fact for the first time in an unclassified setting." The existence of NRO itself was officially acknowledged in 1992.
INTERNATIONAL JPALS: The U.S. Defense Dept. is looking to expand the Joint Precision Approach Landing System program beyond the current Army, Navy, and Air Force participants. Lt. Col. Alan Overbey, who manages the Air Force-run program, says a message will go out to other countries to attract interest in an international program.
DUAL ROLE: The U.S. Navy/Boeing T-45C aircraft will do more than just train pilots - at least according to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss). It also will serve as insurance for NAS Meridian, Miss., in case, "heaven forbid," there are further rounds of base closings, Lott said during the ceremony there to accept the first of the trainers (DAILY, Dec. 16).
MOSCOW - Russia's State Duma has adopted legislation that envisions tax and other benefits to Russian and foreign investors who help finance research and development in aviation technology. Similar benefits are addressed in the Dec. 10 law to domestic enterprises operating Russian aviation technology, including leasing agreements. Foreigners are allowed to participate in Russian aviation companies, provided that the share of foreign capital will be less than 25% and they do not take a management role in the Russian companies.
Three Latin American airline groups are in final negotiations for orders and options to buy nearly 200 Airbus aircraft for $8 billion. Specifics on engines and deliveries are still be negotiated. Bob Booth, editor of DAILY affiliate Aviation-Latin America&Caribbean, said the transaction will give the carriers "aircraft ownership at a competitive cost to their U.S. and European competitors." He said it also gives Airbus a foothold in a market which has "historically been dominated by Boeing and Douglas."
