The House Appropriations national security subcommittee yesterday zeroed the Pentagon's $213 million fiscal 1998 request for the Joint-Air- to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM), congressional sources said. The move followed by a day the decision of the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee to reduce the JASSM request by $96.3 million "to evaluate alternative systems."
The Pentagon has released a list of 17 candidate Advanced Concept Technology Demonstrations for fiscal 1998, but it remains to be seen how many will be funded. For this fiscal year, the plan was to fund 18 ACTDs, but after Congress slashed the Administration's ACTD request, the Pentagon could fund only four.
The full House Appropriations Committee has passed a fiscal year 1998 VA, HUD and Independent Agencies appropriations bill providing $13.6 billion for NASA and adding $100 million to the human space flight account to help Russia continue its work on Space Station.
Northrop Grumman has completed final testing of the mission computer upgrade for the E-2C Hawkeye 2000, clearing the way for a low-rate initial production decision by the Pentagon in the near future, the company said. "We fully expect to receive the LRIP go-ahead this summer," said Bob Schwartz, Northrop Grumman's Hawkeye program vice president. He said the MCU appears to have worked without problems.
A Pioneer unmanned aerial vehicle flew for the first time Monday with a new set of avionics intended to reduce weight and cost, and increase reliability. The Lear Astronics Modular Integrated Avionics Group (MIAG) ran the UAV's flight control system, autopilot, navigation system and onboard sensor during a 53-minute flight at NAS Patuxent River, Md., according to the UAV program office.
Russia conducted the fourth test flight of its Topol-M ICBM Tuesday, sending the missile from the Plesetsk State Test Range to an undisclosed target area. The launch came at 15:25 Moscow Daylight Time (7:25 EDT). The Strategic Rocket Forces press center announced that the launch was successful but did not specify where the warhead landed.
AIR CHINA has selected Pratt&Whitney PW4000 engines for five new Boeing 777s. P&W said the order is worth about $170 million.The airline will buy 10 installed and three spare engines. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in October 1998.
Ducommun Inc. has recovered from a rough stretch in the 1980s to remake itself into a niche aerospace supplier that has almost doubled in size since 1994, growing from $62 million in sales to $118 million in 1996. The company, based in Los Angeles, has multi-year contracts on Boeing's 777 and next generation 737-700/800 airliners, and also supplies Airbus, Lockheed Martin, McDonnell Douglas and Northrop Grumman.
THE DEFENSE DEPT. has begun using the Global Command and Control System-T for joint command and control high-level security operations, the Pentagon said yesterday. The predecessor, the Worldwide Military Command and Control System Top Secret Support System, was officially taken off line on June 30.
Iridium launched another five of its low Earth orbit communications satellites yesterday, this time aboard a McDonnell Douglas Delta II rocket flying from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 2 came at 9:04 a.m. EDT, and all five satellites later reached their proper initial orbits and deployed their solar arrays, according to an Iridium spokeswoman. After "two or three weeks" all five satellites launched yesterday will have reached their mission orbit of 220 nautical miles, she said.
TRANS WORLD AIRLINES reached an agreement with International Lease Finance Corp. to acquire a new Boeing 767-300, the first new 767 to join its fleet since 1983. TWA said the Pratt&Whitney-powered aircraft will be used to serve the Middle East. TWA last year began taking delivery of 20 new 757s, and this summer will begin receiving 15 new and nine nearly new MD-80s. All are part of a $1 billion fleet upgrade. ILFC also leases TWA three other 767s, 10 757s and an MD-80.
Rolls-Royce and Russia's Lyulka Saturn jet engine bureau formed a joint venture to develop a new version of Lyulka's AL-31 turbofan as an industrial powerplant. As an aircraft engine, the basic Al-31F has a maximum dry thrust of about 17,196 pounds for a specific fuel consumption of .875 lb/lb thrust/hour. The engine powers the Sukhoi Su-27 series flown by Russia, China, India and Vietnam.
Bahrain plans to buy Lockheed Martin F-16s from the U.S. for about $300 million, but hasn't decided which version it wants, the Pentagon said yesterday. Bahrain hasn't settled on the exact breakdown of the order, which could cover either 20 F-16A/Bs with mid-life update kits powered by Pratt&Whitney F100-PW-220E engines, or 10 of the more modern F-16C/Ds with General Electric F110-GE-129 engines. Support equipment would be increased in the deal, estimated to cost $303 million.
Reps. Bernard Sanders (Ind.-Vt.) and Christopher Smith (R-N J.), leaders of last year's successful fight to limit defense contractors' recovery of merger-related costs, plan to offer an amendment to end the restructuring costs writeoff entirely when the fiscal 1998 defense appropriations bill moves to the House floor, spokesmen for the two lawmakers said.
BOEING CO. delivered 92 commercial jet transports in its second quarter ended June 30. The company said Monday that it delivered 35 737s, 12 747s, 12 757s and 21 777s, bringing deliveries for the first six months of the year to 160. Boeing predicts it will deliver about 340 airliners this year.
Development problems with the Lockheed Martin C-130J airlifter are delaying delivery of the first two to the U.S. Air Force until next year. The two, bought in fiscal 1994 with money added by Congress, were to have been delivered last month, but are now set for delivery in January 1998, the AF said in a response to questions. Another pair was bought in FY '96. They are to be delivered this December and next January, and the AF said Lockheed Martin hasn't requested schedule relief. One C-130J is being bought this fiscal year.
FAA is negotiating an out-of-court settlement under which it would pay Wilcox Electric $50 million to cancel the company's contract for the Wide Area Augmentation System, sources said. They said the amount is about equal to what Wilcox would have made if it had completed the $500 million contract. FAA would neither confirm nor deny the reports.
Britain's General Electric Co. announced restructuring plans yesterday that reflected recent changes in upper management by moving away from the joint venture policies of former Managing Director Lord Weinstock, and ended speculation about a merger with British Aerospace.
The U.S. Air Force this week for the first time is testing the rapid deployment potential of its Air Expeditionary Force concept by giving forces about two days to reach their intended site. Orders to deploy were issued late Monday, with troops required to be in place today to support Pacific Air Force's exercise Cope Thunder '97 in Alaska. A total of 410 personnel will deploy to Elmendorf and Eielson AFBs there. Cope Thunder will begin July 10 and run through July 26.
Rolls-Royce and Turbomeca are finalizing a contract with the Australian Dept. of Defense to supply Adour Mk. 871 turbofans for the 33 British Aerospace Hawk 100 lead-in fighter trainers ordered by the Royal Australian Air Force. The Mk. 871, at 5,990 pounds of thrust, is the latest and most powerful version of the Adour and is similar to the F405 version in the McDonnell Douglas T-45 Goshawks for the U.S. Navy.
U.S. ARMY UH-60 HELICOPTER crashed yesterday near Ft. Bragg, S.C., during a training mission. All eight people on board were killed in the crash, which occurred at 2:15 p.m., EDT, according to an Army spokeswoman.
EDO CORP., College Point, N.Y., is working under two contracts from McDonnell Douglas Aerospace, totaling $8.7 million, to supply BRU-46/A and BRU-47/A bomb release units. EDO said the devices, to be built by the company's Marine and Aircraft Systems business unit in College Point, will be used on the F-15E fiscal '98 aircraft. It said deliveries under the contracts will start in February 1999 and extend into 2000, bringing the total number of these BRUs to over 4,800.
NATO yesterday officially invited the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland to join it, a move that would boost sales of U.S. and Western European aerospace and defense products. The "protocol of accession" that codifies the ties between the alliance and the three countries is slated to be signed in December, with ratification slated to be completed by April 1999, NATO said in a declaration at the Madrid summit.
The House Appropriations national security subcommittee yesterday began its markup of the fiscal 1998 defense appropriations bill, but made no decision on whether to add $330 million to take the initial step toward production of more B-2 bombers, congressional sources said. They said that the matter was discussed with staffers out of the room, but that no vote was taken. B-2 funding is expected to come up today when the subcommittee marks up the procurement title of the bill.
