A British Aerospace spokesman dismissed analysts' comments that a BAe supplier deal with Boeing Co. signifies a weakening of BAe's commitment to Airbus. "We are absolutely committed to Airbus," the spokesman told The DAILY. BAe signed a contract to supply Boeing with wing stringers for the next-generation 737 for a period of 8-10 years. The value of the contract wasn't disclosed. Work will be done at BAe's Chadderton factory near Manchester, England.
EVA AIRWAYS CORP. of Taiwan ordered two MD-11 freighters for delivery in 1999 from Boeing Co. in a Long Beach, Calif., session at which it also took delivery of the first of two MD-11 freighters being delivered this year. EVA operates three MD-11 passenger aircraft and three MD-11Fs. Earlier this year, it ordered two MD-11 freighters for delivery in 1998. The new order brings its total MD-11s in operation or on firm order to 12.
Hughes Aircraft Co. will supply the mid-wavelength staring infrared imaging system for the Royal Australian Navy's new SH-2G helicopters under a multi-million subcontract to Kaman Aerospace, Hughes said. Australia is buying 11 SH-2G Sea Sprites from Kaman for over-the- horizon surveillance and targeting. Hughes will deliver 11 AN/AAQ-27 systems by February 2000. Deliveries will begin in April 1999.
The U.S. Army has concluded initial production testing of the Sense and Destroy Armor (SADARM) munition, and will now test the weapon operationally. The latest series included seven firings in Alaska during a period of several months. The tests, which included countermeasured targets, was finished earlier this month, an Army official said. He said some systems analysis remains to be completed, but that SADARM "performed very well." He said that some issues surfaced, but that they didn't relate to the munition itself.
Funding cuts in the AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile program are forcing the U.S. Air Force to alter its schedule to upgrade the missile. The AF later this year was planning to launch the third and last phase of the AMRAAM pre-planned product improvement (P3I) program. However, Congress cut funding for the effort in FY '98 and specified that the program shouldn't move forward this year.
QDR REVIEW: The National Defense Panel today is scheduled to release its critique of the Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense Review. The NDP was established by Congress to study the QDR and provide alternative force structures. Although the NDP says it won't offer such alternatives, it does plan to recommend areas to which the Pentagon should pay greater attention.
NEW MEMBERS: U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen and other NATO defense ministers will meet in Brussels this week to hear the military requirements of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, which have been invited to join the alliance, according to a senior American defense official. The requirements are expected to have resourcing implications, and could provide insight into where the three countries will have to spend money.
TWENTY-TO-ONE: The U.S. Air Force's F-22 will be able to shoot down 20 fighters for every one that is lost in combat, Lockheed Martin says. A company chart entitled "Notional Red Force Killed Per 1 Blue Force Loss" shows an increase in survivability because of supercruise, stealth and advanced avionics.
A European-Russian-U.S. team is conducting final preparations for the Dec. 2 launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome of a Proton rocket carrying the ASTRA 1G television broadcast satellite, International Launch Services (ILS) reported. The rocket is slated to lift off from the Kazakhstan site at 4:10 a.m. local time (6:10 p.m. EST), according to ILS, which is owned by Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services and the Lockheed Khrunichev Energia international joint venture.
NASA BILL: The Senate Commerce Committee plans to try to mark up the fiscal 1998 NASA authorization bill when the second session of the 105th Congress convenes next year. The bill was abruptly pulled from the committee's schedule before adjournment of the first session. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.) apparently wasn't satisfied with a section regarding NASA's authority to transfer funding accounts for International Space Station work. The hope is to iron out the language dispute and move the bill through committee in early February.
NASA may take several days to decide whether to release the solar observation Spartan satellite again from Space Shuttle Columbia. On Monday night, the Columbia crew retrieved Spartan-201, which spun out of control after its initial release last Friday. STS-87 Mission Specialists Winston Scott and Takeo Doi caught the satellite with their hands at 9:09 p.m. EDT Monday and Mission Specialist Kalpana Chawla used the Shuttle's robot arm to berth it, NASA reported.
A C-130 aircraft will fire targets for tests in the Gulf of Mexico of theater missile defense systems. The Pentagon's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization will launch the target missiles from the plane rather than one of the Florida Keys. A plan to fire Hera target missiles from potential launch sites on Saddlebunch Key and Cudjoe Key drew objections from several quarters. BMDO Director Lt. Gen. Lester Lyles made the decision after reviewing costs, testing requirements, projected budgets and environmental concerns.
The U.S. Navy wants to field the penetrator variant of the Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW), or AGM-154C, a year ahead of schedule but so far lacks the funds to buy the first of the missiles in fiscal 2000. "We are looking at a buy of unitary AGM-154Cs in the year 2000, versus 2001," Capt. Bert Johnston, the Navy's JSOW program manager, said in a telephone interview from Naval Air Systems Command headquarters at NAS Patuxent River, Md. "The whole program would move to the left a year." The Navy received help from Congress this year to execute the acceleration.
The Pioneer unmanned aerial vehicle, whose service has already been extended several times because a replacement couldn't be fielded, may be retained for at least another two years to accommodate delays in the start of low-rate production of the Outrider UAV. Pioneer was slated for retirement in 2003, but now Defense Dept. officials are considering changing that until at least 2005. "We're working towards that," Steven E.
Rep. Ron Packard (R-Calif.), a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, expects "basically a doubling" of the fiscal 1998 requests for the Airborne Laser Technology and Space Based Laser programs in the fiscal 1999 defense budget, a Packard aide said yesterday. In the Tactical High Energy Laser (THEL) program, the situation is less clear, with much depending on what the Administration wants to do next, the aide said.
Orbital Sciences Corp., has won a $1 billion contract from Raytheon Co. to supply the ground station and synthetic aperture radars for SIVAM, Brazil's System for the Vigilance of the Amazon. Under the contract, Orbital will build and install a satellite ground station that will receive, process and distribute imagery from several existing radar satellites and future high-performance optical satellites. Orbital will also deliver three airborne synthetic aperture radar systems to be installed in Brazilian-built EMB-145 aircraft.
Iran, with technical help from Russia and China, will be able to deploy "one year from now" a missile that will pose a real threat to the 25,000 U.S. troops in Europe and Asia as well as to Israel and other American allies, according to Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.). Weldon's remarks were broadcast by the ABC radio and television Saturday an hour after President Clinton's weekly radio address. Clinton spoke on education.
Alliant Techsystems' Space and Strategic Systems Group completed the last in a series of three static test firings of the solid rocket motor for the new Boeing Delta III intermediate lift space launch vehicle. Alliant said the firing "accomplished its objectives to demonstrate and validate ballistic performance of the propellant."
LONGBOW LIMITED LIABILITY CO., a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, has received a $106.5 million U.S. Army contract for Lot 1 full rate production for the Longbow weapon system, the Pentagon said Monday. All work on the contract is to be concluded by Aug. 30, 2000.
Boeing Co. has resumed full production of 747 airliners and final assembly of new generation 737, but probably won't iron out all the challenges of going from about 18 airliners a month to more than 40 until the middle of next year, company executives reported yesterday. "We made some very tough decisions back in early October," President Harry Stonecipher said during a telephone press conference, referring to the move at that time to temporarily halt the 747 and 737 work until Boeing suppliers could catch up (DAILY, Oct. 6).
India and Pakistan may be planning new, largely indigenous ballistic missiles, the Pentagon said yesterday in a new report. India "likely is planning a follow-on to the Agni" long-range missile, the Defense Dept. said in "Proliferation: Threat and Response." It didn't elaborate. It did say, however, that India may resume the Agni flight test program, which has been dormant since early 1994. The missile is designed to have a range of 2,000 kilometers and a payload of 1,000 kilograms. India is also continuing work on its shorter-range Prithvi missile.
Tracor Aerospace, Inc., a subsidiary of Tracor, Inc., has begun the production phase of a $17.6 million three-year contract to build the AN/MSN-7 Tower Restoral Vehicle (TRV) for the U.S. Air Force. Tracor is building 19 TRVs, designed to provide mobile air traffic control tower services at temporary bases, alternative off-base landing areas or fixed air bases when permanent facilities have been disabled. The TRV can be set up and operational in under 10 minutes and fully deployed in less than 90 minutes, Tracor said.
The U.S. Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve Command have jointly embarked on an upgrade for the F-16 fighter that attempts to close the gap that has developed since the Gulf War between their jets and those of the active duty Air Force. "This is our attempt to get back together" with the active duty force, Col. Dave Brubaker, who oversees F-16 upgrades for the Air National Guard, said in an interview in his Arlington, Va., office. The underlying objective is to "get invited in theater," said Lt. Col.
Aviation interests were successful in retaining independent radio frequencies for navigation by satellite at the International Telecommunications Union World Aeronautical Radio Conference (WARC), recently concluded in Geneva. Industry representatives, including those from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), had urged the conference not to reallocate frequencies between 1559MHz and 1610MHz, now used exclusively for satellite radio navigation services, to permit use by fast-growing Mobile Satellite Services.
