The Dept. of Defense should accelerate replacement of its Defense Satellite Communications System by at least three years, according to the General Accounting Office. DOD's plan calls for replacement to begin in 2006, but the GAO said about $2.8 billion in commercial leasing costs could be saved by moving the date up to 2003, according to "Defense Satellite Communications: Alternative to DOD's Satellite Replacement Plan Would Be Less Costly" (GAO/NSIAD-97-159).
The Senate has rejected a subcommittee move to delete $1.3 billion in military assistance for Egypt from the fiscal year 1998 foreign operations appropriations bill. The Senate foreign operations appropriations subcommittee created a furor last month when it eliminated the total earmark of $2.1 billion in military and economic aid to Egypt. The earmark has been a staple of the bill since the Camp David Peace Agreement between Egypt and Israel in the late 1970s.
Top Russian space officials will decide today whether to proceed with repairs to the crippled Mir orbital station using U.S. Astronaut Michael Foale as a stand-in for ailing Cosmonaut Vasiliy Tsibliyev or follow the recommendations of hands-on Mir controllers and wait for a fresh crew to do the work. NASA maintained a careful neutrality on the issue Friday. Frank Culbertson, the astronaut who heads the Shuttle/Mir portion of the International Space Station program for NASA, told reporters either option would be acceptable.
STATION OVERRUNS: U.S. Space Station contractors mounted a lobbying effort against the House attack on extra money for Station contingencies in the NASA spending bill last week, and they have warned some Station backers in Congress not to expect any good news in the upcoming General Accounting Office report on Station contractor cost overruns. Pre-report GAO testimony already has suggested the Station program is bumping or even breaking its $2.1 billion annual cap because of poor performance by both the Russians and U.S. contractors (DAILY, June 16).
The Senate Appropriations Committee this week is expected to approve a draft report that includes the full $152.8 million requested for the FAA's over-budget Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) program in fiscal 1998, but only under strict guidelines. The draft directs FAA not to obligate more than 70% of the funds until certain milestones are met, and none would be obligated until the secretary of transportation reports to the Senate and House Appropriations transportation subcommittees on the status and management of the program.
MARKUP MENU: The House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to mark up the $248.3 billion fiscal 1998 national security appropriations bill tomorrow, one of three money bills on the committee's busy schedule for Tuesday. Approval would clear the bill for House action next week, the last working week before Congress' August recess. On the Senate side, the $246.9 billion defense appropriations bill has already cleared and is ready for conference, which couldn't start before Congress returns from the month- long recess in September.
Sikorsky Aircraft won a five-year, $745 million contract from the Dept. of Defense for 108 helicopters for the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force. The company said Friday that it will make 58 UH-60L Black Hawks for the Army, 42 CH-60s for the Navy and eight HH-60G Pave Hawks for the Air Force. "We appreciate this vote of confidence from our U.S. government customer, knowing that multi-year contracts are granted only to the most successful and efficient programs," Eugene Buckley, president and CEO, said in a prepared statement.
A House Appropriations Committee report to be released tomorrow, apart from zeroing the U.S. Air Force's $203 million fiscal 1998 request for the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile, provides $63 million "only for" Air Force participation in the Navy's Standoff Land Attack Missile-Expanded Response Plus program. According to report language made available to The DAILY, the HAC national security appropriation for FY '98 finds the merits of a Joint SLAM-ER Plus program "compelling," and "recommends termination" of JASSM.
WHITE HOUSE CONCERN: Criticizing the House's FY '98 defense authorization bill, the White House says a 25% cut in arms control programs will slow efforts to help Moscow dismantle and destroy nuclear weapons. It argues that such a move would delay by one year a program to reduce the amount of weapon-grade material produced by Russian nuclear reactors; delay security upgrades at storage sites for Russian warheads and potentially other sites that store nuclear materials, and slow efforts to help Russia destroy chemical weapons.
AUTHORIZATION CONFERENCE: House National Security Committee Chairman Floyd Spence (R-S.C.) expects the House-Senate fiscal 1998 defense authorization conference to start before the month-long congressional recess begins Aug. 2, but not to get very far. Starting, he says, would allow the conferees to split into panels to start working on problem areas, and permit the HNSC and Senate Armed Services Committee staffs to resolve minor issues before the big ones are taken up in September.
The second production representative Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey flew for the first time July 17, the companies announced. In a 1.5 hour flight at the Bell Helicopter Textron Flight Research Center airfield, Arlington, Tex., they said, the V-22 reached speeds of 150 knots, and the rotor systems were tilted to the 75-degree position. The next V-22, undergoing a systems check, is expected to make its first flight in early August.
CONFERENCE QUESTION: Even though the House rejected an attempt to delete $100 million from the fiscal 1998 NASA spending bill for backup hardware in case Russia is a no-show on the International Space Station (DAILY, July 17), the issue isn't closed yet. The Senate's NASA spending bill passed by the full Appropriations Committee last Thursday doesn't include the money, and the Senate Appropriations report states that NASA can use leftovers from $200 million reallocated in FY '97 for Russian contingencies if necessary in FY '98.
AYDIN CORP., Horsham, Pa., said it has won contracts from the U.K. Ministry of Defense, the Turkish Ministry of Defense and NATO. It said the U.K. MOD awarded it $4.2 million to deliver Service Practice Instrumentation (SPI) kits used in Skyflash air-to-air missiles. Deliveries will be completed in a year. An initial $13.5 million was won by Aydin Telemetry in February 1995. The Turkish MOD awarded a $7.4 million contract to Aydin Yazilim ve Electronik Sanayi A.S. for UHF Have Quick Radio Systems for the Turkish Air Force.
EXTENDED RANGE Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) completed a flight test June 26 at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. Lockheed Martin Vought Systems, prime contractor for the missile, also known as ATACMS Block IA, said it was the 11th flight of the type at White Sands. It said the weapon was fired from launch complex LC-33 to a target at the north end of the range. It carried a live warhead and anti-personnel/anti-materiel bomblets, and all systems performed as planned, Lockheed Martin said.
ATTENTION ORDERBOOK READERS: Those AP readers who also receive the OrderBook should be aware that due to a clerical error, an engine line updated during the most recent revision of the tables was inadvertently split. This resulted in British Airways' General Electric GE90s appearing under the Rolls-Royce Trent 800 section. The error will be corrected in the July 31 edition of the OrderBook, but readers can also simply move the BA line from the Trent section to the GE90 section. AP regrets the error.
Raisbeck Commercial Air Group, which six months ago offered a Stage 3 program for the 727-200, now is offering the program for the 727-100 which it claims requires neither hushkhits nor engine modifications. VP Jeffrey Lown tells AP affiliate Aviation Daily that the required kit "consists of paperwork for the most part - flight manual supplements - and we have a handful of parts that are very easy to install, such as a PC card into the avionics rack."
PRESIDENT CLINTON nominated Gen. Henry H. Shelton to replace Gen. John Shalikashvili as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff when the latter steps down at the end of September. Shelton, 55, is head of the U.S. Special Operations Command and oversaw operations in Haiti as the commanding general of the 18th Airborne Corps.
LucasVarity's Lucas Aerospace unit acquired Smiths Industries engine controls business for an undisclosed price, the companies reported yesterday. It's another step in Lucas' plan to beef up its place in the engine controls market - the company bought Dowty's Engine Fuel Systems unit in 1993.
Pratt&Whitney agreed to buy the Flight Repair units of Dutch company Interturbine, a deal which will add facilities in Dallas, Tex., and Singapore to P&W Eagle Services' shops in the U.S., Ireland, the Netherlands, Singapore and Taiwan. The businesses repair engine airfoils, stators and cases.
Weather at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., cleared sufficiently yesterday for the Space Shuttle Columbia to land there on its first opportunity, touching down on the KSC landing strip at 6:46 a.m. EDT after 15 days, 16 hours and 44 minutes in space. A reflight of the STS-83 mission aborted in April after four days in orbit, the STS-94 Microgravity Science Laboratory flight carried more than 30 experiments in its Spacelab module and went off without a hitch.
CONTINENTAL AIRLINES has selected GE Aircraft Engines to supply powerplants for 35 new aircraft, including 30 Boeing 767-400ERs. The CF6-80C2 engine will power the 767s and the GE90 will power five 777-200s in a contract that GE valued at $600 million. The deal, announced Wednesday, means GE has won both 767-400 engine contracts, after Delta launched the derivative earlier this year with an order for 21. Continental also accelerated delivery of five previously ordered 777s yesterday, with the first of 10 to be delivered in September 1998, and the last in May 1999.
NASA has decided to let Astronaut Michael Foale train for an indoor spacewalk to repair the crippled Mir orbital station, but his training can't start until the three-man Mir crew recovers from the latest mishap to beset them and their aging spacecraft.
President Clinton said yesterday he is "concerned about what appear to be the reasons" for the European Union's objection to Boeing Co.'s planned acquisition of McDonnell Douglas Corp., but said a trade war could probably be avoided. European officials, meanwhile, seemed to increase the pressure for such a war, saying that airlines buying Boeing or McDonnell Douglas planes after Europe's expected negative decision next Wednesday would expose themselves to legal trouble.
Litton Industries' Amecom Div. has been chosen by Switzerland's Pilatus Aircraft to supply the LR-100 electronic support measures (ESM) receiver for the PC-12 Eagle reconnaissance aircraft. Litton said the receiver will complete the plane's mission avionics suite.
