The Office of the Secretary of Defense within the next day or two is expected to sign off on a program budget decision (PBD) providing $44 million for the international Medium Extended Area Defense System (MEADS) program in fiscal year 1999. While Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre, who will have final say on the PBD, told The DAILY yesterday in Washington that he had not yet reviewed the document, industry sources said it is headed for his desk. And they expect the $44 million option to be approved.
NASA started raising its Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer Earth Probe (TOMS-EP) satellite to a higher orbit yesterday to extend its service life and provide broader coverage to compensate for loss of a Japanese satellite carrying an identical TOMS instrument.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) cited faulty communication and coordination on the part of air traffic controllers as a factor in a Feb. 5 incident off the U.S. east coast in which the crew of a Nations Air 727 airliner maneuvered to avoid what it thought was a dangerous approach by an Air National Guard F-16 fighter. The proximity of the F-16 activated the traffic alert and collision avoidance system (TCAS) on the 727.
Thiokol Corp., Ogden, Utah, completed its buy of 13 million shares of Howmet International Inc. common stock from an affiliate of The Carlyle Group for $183.8 million. The transaction increased Thiokol's stake in Howmet, Greenwich, Conn., from 49% to 62% (DAILY, Oct. 14). Thiokol has a two-year option available beginning Dec. 2, 1999, to acquire the remaining Howmet shares owned by Carlyle.
The acquisition schedule for the Brilliant Anti-Armor Submunition, or BAT, is "unnecessarily ambitious" and the low-rate initial production decision should be delayed to allow for additional tests, according to the General Accounting Office. The U.S. Army this month is supposed to decide on BAT LRIP, but the GAO said the decision could wait eight months and still allow the Pentagon to field the submunition concurrently with the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) Block II, which will dispense BAT.
Researchers using the same transmission electron microscope (TEM) imaging techniques that produced last year's announcement that a Martian meteorite may contain evidence of ancient life have concluded the "nanofossils" NASA scientists saw are actually minerals covered with metal coatings applied as part of the TEM process.
The U.S. Navy is looking closely at two possible F/A-18E/F configurations that so far seem to offer a solution to the plane's wing drop problem, but officials are waiting to gather more test data before they publicly announce that they've found a way to get around the phenomenon, according to sources.
U.S. military planners can stretch today's limited communications dollars by adopting commercial satellite applications developed from advances the military itself funded in the 1960s, '70s and '80s, the head of Space Systems/Loral is arguing. Robert E. Berry, SS/L president, told the MILCOM '97 conference in Monterey, Calif, last month that "one goal both military and commercial customers have is employing technology that gets information to individual faster no matter where they are."
A report from the President's Commission On Critical Infrastructure Protection sheds doubt on the U.S. Dept. of Transportation's policy of using the Global Positioning System (GPS) as a sole means of navigation.
The U.S. Navy is laying the ground work to continue its regular Tomahawk Land-Attack Cruise Missile procurement in case it doesn't get congressional approval to reprogram funds for the new Tactical Tomahawk program. The plan that would continue the TLAM remanufacturing program and include low-rate production of the TLAM Block IV calls for the Navy to buy up to 113 Block IV remanufactured missiles with an option for full-rate production of 128, the Navy said in a Nov. 21 Commerce Business Daily notice.
Earnings for Litton Industries climbed 9% in the 1998 first quarter to $43.4 million on sales of $1.039 billion, the company said yesterday. In the same period a year ago, it earned $39.8 million on sales of $1.049 billion. John Leonis, chairman and CEO of Litton, based in Woodland Hills, Calif., credited the earnings improvements to demand for electronic components from telecommunications customers, improved margins and reduced net interest expense.
Raytheon Co. is working under a $1 billion contract to develop Brazil's SIVAM Amazon surveillance system, and Orbital Sciences Corp. has received an award from Raytheon to supply two key elements of the system. The DAILY incorrectly reported in the issue of Nov. 26 that Orbital has won a $1 billion contract. The amount of Orbital's contract from Raytheon has not been disclosed.
Saad Alissa, one of the founders of the minority shareholders group that ousted the chief executive of Talley Industries, rejected a $12-per- share takeover bid by Carpenter Technology Corp. and will not be offering the more than 8% of Talley shares he owns, Alissa's investment adviser William Danzell announced yesterday.
While recognizing the importance of maintaining good relations with Russia, the U.S. cannot simply dismiss the fact that it may someday need an anti-satellite (ASAT) capability, U.S. Space Command Chief Gen. Howell M. Estes said yesterday at an Association of the U.S. Army symposium here.
Major systems approved for full-rate production that have not yet demonstrated their operational effectiveness or suitability should undergo follow-on testing until they are determined to be operationally effective by the Pentagon's Director of Operational Test and Evaluation, a General Accounting Office report has concluded. GAO, in its report "Test and Evaluation, Impact of DOD's Office of the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation" (NSIAD-98-22), would thus give OT&E a more formal role in clearing a system for full-rate production.
Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Magellan subsidiary is making available the first portable global positioning system (GPS) priced under $100. The "GPS Pioneer" is about the same size and weight of many of the newest cellular telephones, the company reported.
Astronauts Winston Scott and Takao Doi checked out a manual crane, a floating camera and other gear developed to help spacewalkers build the International Space Station during a five-hour extravehicular activity in the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle Columbia yesterday.
The Mid-Infrared Chemical Laser (MIRACL) was damaged during a test in October against an aging Air Force satellite, according to Col. Larry D. Anderson, director of the Army's High Energy Laser Systems Test Facility (HELSTF) here. He told reporters during a tour of the facility that MIRACL, the most powerful laser in the U.S., was slightly damaged twice during tests against the Air Force's Miniature Sensor Technology Integration (MSTI-3) satellite. The purpose of the tests was to evaluate the effect of the laser on the satellite's infrared sensors.
Orbital Sciences Corp. has merged its Magellan Systems Corp. with Ashtech Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif., in a move Orbital said will improve its position in the space products market. Under the deal announced yesterday, Orbital will pay Ashtech stockholders $25 million in cash for 66% of the company. After the merger with Orbital's San Dimas, Calif.-based subsidiary, the new company will do business as Magellan Corp.
Plans to upgrade existing U.S. Defense Dept. missile tracking assets and develop new ones for missile defense systems do not take into account NASA's need to protect the International Space Station from orbital debris, even though the potential exists to fulfill both functions with better coordination among federal agencies, according to the General Accounting Office.
Weight growth on the F-22 fighter doesn't concern the U.S. Air Force at the moment, and the service says it still has margin before performance is affected. The aircraft has "450-pounds of pad before the [operational requirements document] requirements are adversely affected," according to an Air Force official. That margin is figured against the weight the F-22 currently is expected to reach.
A $1 billion sale of Russian weapons to China concluded here last week includes delivery of two destroyers armed with the highly capable SS- N-22 supersonic anti-ship missiles, a move that could cost Russia continued U.S. Export-Import Bank aid.
Preparations for tests of the computer-human interface (CHI) between the STARS (Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System) and air traffic controllers are slated to begin this week at the FAA Technical Center in Atlantic City, N.J.
NASA MANAGERS scheduled a second spacewalk from the Space Shuttle Columbia this morning to give astronauts another chance to test hardware and techniques developed for International Space Station assembly. Winston Scott and Takao Doi will spend five hours outside, operating an assembly crane NASA hopes can be used to move Station components around and, if time permits, testing a small free-flying camera. The extra spacewalk was approved Monday evening (DAILY, Dec. 2).
