Development of a sea-based theater missile defense could be completed in five years and deployment of 650 interceptors on 22 ships could cost as little as $5 billion, according to Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.). "This system could then evolve into a national missile defense, whose development, production and development could be completed in a six to 10 years for $12-17 billion, according to preliminary Congressional Budget Office estimates," Kyl said in remarks in the Oct. 1 Congressional Record.
HOLD YOUR HORSES: Naumann puts a damper on industry's hopes of big contracts from the NATO members-to-be Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. Although they are likely to spend some money in the near future, he says, the big decisions won't have to be made until 2003 or 2004. Naumann says the three former Warsaw Pact countries should for the time being make use of the equipment they've already bought, some of which can meet NATO requirements.
U.S. AIR FORCE received its 34th C-17 airlifter in an Oct. 2 ceremony at Boeing Co.'s Long Beach, Calif., plant. Boeing said a crew from the AF's 437th Airlift Wing at Charleston AFB, S.C., took delivery of the plane and flew it to their home base.
Detroit Metropolitan Airport will be the first in the U.S. to get the full-scale development version of Northrop Grumman's Airport Movement Area Safety System (AMASS), designed to monitor airport surface traffic and automatically tell controllers of potential conflicts. Northrop Grumman's Norden Systems is under contract to the FAA to produce, install and integrate three FSD and 20 production systems at various airports.
WHITE HOUSE SCIENCE ADVISOR John H. Gibbons formally approved launch of NASA's Cassini Saturn probe Friday, clearing the way for a Titan IV/Centaur vehicle to lift the probe from Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., at 4:55 a.m. EDT Monday. NASA said Gibbons signed the approval on behalf of President Clinton, who must authorize the launch because Cassini carries about 72 pounds of plutonium as fuel for the radioisotope thermoelectric generators that will provide electricity to the spacecraft's instruments in the gloom of deep space (DAILY, Sept. 5, 9).
AGING RAPIDLY: India's new Earth remote sensing satellite probably will reach a useful orbit after its shortfall on launch last week (DAILY, Oct. 1), but its service life will suffer from the fuel it will consume using on-board thrusters to raise its altitude. Engineers in Bangalore had hoped the Indian Remote Sensing Satellite would last for eight years, but now they fear it will be only three years before remaining fuel is exhausted.
NEW CHIEF: Gen. Michael E. Ryan is scheduled to be sworn in today as U.S. Air Force chief of staff by Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre in a private ceremony at the Pentagon. Ryan replaces Gen. Ronald R. Fogleman who resigned.
NASA can trim $107.9 million from its fiscal 1998 budget request, plus another $24 million if next week's Cassini Saturn launch goes well, according to the congressional General Accounting Office. NASA, however, wants to preserve at least some of the funds for possible use covering International Space Station overruns, GAO stated.
GENERAL DYNAMICS LAND SYSTEMS, Warren, Mich., and General Motors' Diesel Div., London, Ontario, signed a memorandum of understanding to pursue the $600 million Canadian Armored Combat Vehicle Program (ACV). Production of the ACV, set to replace about 200 Cougar vehicles, is scheduled to begin in 2002. GM will be the prime contractor and supply the chassis. Land Systems will provide the 105mm, two-man automated turret. Computing Devices Canada will provide the turret electronics and fire control software. Land Systems will become the prime contractor if there are U.S.
The U.S. Air Force's Milstar satellites will be due for replacement in 2005-2006, the timeframe estimated for the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (EHF) communications satellite system to come on line, said Col. John Keesee, Milstar Program Manager at the service's Space&Missiles Systems Center here. Currently, two Milstar I satellites, each with a Low Data Rate capability, are in orbit and performing well, Keesee told The DAILY in an interview. Milstar II satellites, which will have a Medium Data Rate capability, are in development.
Defense Secretary William Cohen has approved a U.S. Army plan to test a high intensity laser against a U.S. Air Force satellite in the next few days. The decision allows the Army to fire its megawatt Mid-Infrared Advanced Chemical Laser against the AF's MSTI-3, or Miniature Sensor Technology Integration program satellite (DAILY, May 2). MSTI-3 has completed its useful life on orbit.
Cosmonauts on Russia's Mir orbital station completed checkout of the new main computer delivered by NASA's Space Shuttle Atlantis, leading U.S. space officials to declare Mir on the road to recovery from a long summer of computer crashes and other mishaps.
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor has returned tantalizing glimpses of the science its instruments will be able to collect when it begins routine operations next spring, establishing once and for all that the Red Planet lacks a global magnetic field and returning images of the planet's surface that will only get better as MGS approaches its final orbit.
Raytheon Co. yesterday received approval of the U.S. Dept. of Justice to buy the defense business of Hughes, but Justice said it must sell two defense electronics businesses and set up firewalls to preserve competition for the Army's Follow-on-to-TOW anti-armor missile program. The transaction, expected to close around mid-December, will create a company with about $20 billion in 1996 pro forma sales, with more than $13 billion from defense electronics.
L-3 COMMUNICATIONS' Telemetry&Instrumentation Div., San Diego, will deliver a System 500 Model 550 ground station to Denel of South Africa for the Rooivalk military helicopter upgrade. System delivery is scheduled for later this month.
The Outrider unmanned aerial vehicle on Wednesday completed its longest mission to date, flying for 28 minutes from its test site at Hondo, Tex. It was the second flight in the program's autopilot integration phase, which involves the second Outrider air vehicle fitted with an upgraded Global Positioning System and central processor. Two more flights are expected to take place during this phase. Later this month a third Outrider air vehicle is expected to join the program. It will be equipped with a new engine.
The U.S. Air Force has issued a solicitation for a 600-gallon external fuel tank for its F-16 fighters after evaluating an Israeli tank. The AF said in an Oct. 1 Commerce Business Daily announcement that a minimum of 20 tank/pylon sets, each consisting of two 600-gallon tanks and two pylons, should be delivered by September 1998. The AF is limiting testing to qualify the tank as a certified external store for F-16s.
CANADIAN MARCONI CO., Ville Saint-Laurent, Quebec, said its CMA-900 FMS/GPS has been certified for installation on AOM French Airlines' fleet of 11 MD- 83 aircraft. This will allow the MD-83s to meet Eurocontrol Basic RNav requirements slated to take effect on Jan. 29, 1998.
The National Defense Panel, established by Congress to provide an alternative to the Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense Review in December, is set to begin the final phase of its work, the panel's chairman said yesterday. Philip Odeen said the NDP "is only just beginning to come to grips with the decisions we'll be making." He said at a conference in Washington that this will be the "critical part" of the NDP process.
Arinc and Mitre have formed a company to provide a "single, integrated source of aeronautical information that will facilitate collaboration" between airspace users and the FAA.
FAA's Wide Area Augmentation System got varying degrees of support during a House hearing Wednesday. The Air Transport Association's Jack Ryan took a harsh view of the satellite-based system that is intended to allow more precise aircraft landings. He told the House Transportation aviation subcommittee that there should be a "technical time-out" for a review after the first 24 ground stations are fielded. FAA Associate Administrator George Donohue said ATA was repeating "inaccurate" criticism he had seen in the press during the past year.
The three Lockheed Martin F-16s that Congress appropriated for the U.S. Air Force in fiscal 1998 will incorporate several upgrades that have been developed for the fighter. Congressional appropriators provided $82.5 million for the three fighters. The AF requested no funds. Lockheed Martin said the F-16s will feature color multifunction displays and programmable display generator, a new Modular Mission Computer, a digital terrain system, an upgraded data transfer unit, and a system to record the pilot's view through the head-up-display.
SEXTANT AVIONIQUE of France signed a contract in Moscow with VPK Mapo and Mapo MiG to supply nav/attack systems for 15 MiG-AT advanced trainers. The contract covers more than 25 different products, including displays, navigation units, sensors, instruments and computers, along with radio- communications and navigation equipment. The contract will lead to 15 pre- production models, primarily targeting the export market.
CHC HELICOPTER CORP., St. John's New Foundland, finalized the underwriting agreement and completed the private placement sale of $39 million in special warrants. CHC said the net proceeds from the offering have been placed in escrow and that it intends to use a portion of the money to support the growth of its repair and overhaul business and helicopter operations.
