NASA has assigned 14 astronauts to begin training for the extra- vehicular activities that will be needed for International Space Station assembly through August 1999. All but two are space veterans, and seven have performed spacewalks on past missions. They will begin performing Station assembly work outside the pressurized volumes of the Space Shuttle and Station modules on the first U.S. Station assembly flight, STS-88 in July 1998, and continue through STS-100 in August 1999.
U.S. Army Gen. Wesley K. Clark won NATO endorsement yesterday as the next Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR). He would replace Gen. George A. Joulwan, also of the Army. Clark must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate for his role as U.S. commander in chief, European Command.
The Navy Upper Tier, or Theater Wide, missile defense program has been boosted by $150 million to $344 million by the House National Security research and development subcommittee in its markup of the fiscal 1998 defense authorization, congressional sources said yesterday. The boost to the $194 million request was $100 million less than the $250 million increase that Navy sources were hoping to get.
The Senate Intelligence Committee says Congress must have an annual national intelligence estimate (NIE) on the threat of terrorist or other "non-traditional" attacks against North America with weapons of mass destruction.
Kanematsu Corp. exercised options for four U-125A airplanes from Raytheon Aircraft for use by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF), Raytheon announced last week. It said the planes, deliveries of which are scheduled for late 1999, are worth about $80 million. Japan already has five U-125As in service, and five more are in production. The JASDF requirement is for 27, and deliveries will take place through 2005 if all options are exercised.
The U.S. Army has decided how to divide up funds for programs that should be accelerated as a result of lessons learned earlier this year in the Force XXI exercise at the National Training Center in California. The Army said 11 programs will get a total of $47.7 million in fiscal year 1997. It had set aside $50 million, but about $2.3 million has since been lost to inflation, an Army spokesman said. The programs and the amounts they will receive are as follows: -- Tactical Internet, $8 million
South Korea wants to buy from the U.S. 1,065 Stinger RMP missiles less reprogrammable modules - designated "Stinger RMP (-)" - under a $307 million foreign military sales program. It would be Seoul's first buy of the Stinger RMP (-). The deal, which must be approved by Congress, would include 213 rounds, 213 gripstock control group guided missile launchers, IFF, support equipment spare and repair parts and related services, the Pentagon said Monday.
The Senate Intelligence Committee, in a report accompanying its fiscal year 1998 authorization bill, directs the intelligence community to increase its use of commercial, civil and foreign (CCF) satellite imagery.
NASA has picked four companies to negotiate for $2 million study contracts under its Bantam System Technology Project, an effort to develop a launch vehicle that can orbit payloads weighing about 400 pounds for about $1.5 million. Marshall Space Flight Center, site of the Advanced Space Transportation Program (ASTP) that includes Bantam, picked Universal Space Lines Inc., Newport Beach, Calif.; Summa Technology Inc., Huntsville, Ala. ; Aerojet-General Corp., Sacramento, Calif., and Pioneer Rocketplane, Bladewood, Colo.
A new-model imaging reconnaissance satellite launched Monday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome may have been nothing more than an expensive test article for the kick stage that boosted it toward geosynchronous orbit, a newspaper here has suggested.
The Air Force says the first lot of full-rate production F-22s is expected to cost 18% of the first lot of low-rate production aircraft. The first FRP F/A-18s, by comparison, cost 31% of what the Navy paid for the first LRIP aircraft, according to the GAO. The average unit cost of the 70 LRIP F-22s is expected to be $200.8 million, while the cost of the remaining 368 should fall to an average $92.4 million, according to Air Force data. That, says GAO, is a 54% drop. Before restructuring, it says, the cost was expected to drop by only 27.9%.
The Senate Armed Services airland subcommittee, marking up its portion of the fiscal year 1998 defense authorization bill yesterday, added three more C-130J airlifters to the U.S. Air Force's request for one of the planes, sources told The DAILY. It also provided $48 million for C-130J support services. The Air Force request included $51 million for one C-130J. It intended to close out its C-130J procurement with one aircraft. Reducing the buy was one way it proposed to shore up its operations and maintenance accounts.
Litton Industries' third quarter earnings grew 8% to $42 million on 9% higher sales of $1.1 billion due to growth of the telecommunications market and acquisitions completed during fiscal 1996 and 1997, the company reported. In the same period a year ago, Litton, based in Woodland Hills, Calif., recorded revenues of $1 billion and earnings of $38.8 million.
Defense Dept. concerns about shortfalls in operations and maintenance funding in the next few weeks have become more realistic with President Clinton's veto Monday of the fiscal 1997 supplemental bill. It included $1.9 billion for the Pentagon.
An article in The DAILY of May 28 incorrectly stated that launch of the Telstar V communications satellite requires only one ignition of the Russian Block D4 kick stage. The Proton launch required two D4 ignitions.
U.S. General Accounting Office evaluators have found costs on the International Space Station project "have been increasing substantially and are likely to continue doing so," Sen. Dale Bumpers (D-Ark.), a perennial foe of the Station project, said yesterday.
Senior members of the House National Security Committee have introduced a package of reforms in Pentagon business practices and staffing that include repeal of the requirement for industry guarantees as part of major weapons contracts. Such guarantees have been identified by the General Accounting Office as costing the Defense Dept. $271 million annually, without providing significant benefit in return.
LOGICON INC., Los Angeles, said it has rescinded a plan to spend up to $20 million to buy back shares of the company's common stock. The plan was announced on Aug. 5, 1996, but the company said no shares have been repurchased.
A German Tornado strike aircraft crashed early yesterday at the U.S. Army's White Sands Missile Range, N.M., the U.S. Air Force said. The aircraft was on a training mission from the German Air Force Tactical Training Center at Holloman AFB, N.M. Both crew members ejected safely, the AF said. A total of 12 German Tornados are stationed at Holloman.
Continental Airlines yesterday chose Boeing Co. as its supplier of widebody airliners for the next 20 years, following the example of American and Delta. Continental, based in Houston, ordered 30 767-400ERs - echoing Delta's decision to launch the type - and five 777-200s valued at more than $3 billion, though it likely got deep discounts from Boeing as part of the two-decade deal. The airline already had five 777-200s on order.
The U.S. Air Force's national missile defense plan utilizing converted Minuteman ICBMs has "many interesting features," but its claimed capabilities and costs haven't been validated, Defense Secretary William S. Cohen has told senior members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Cohen delivered the cautiously worded assessment in a report on the $4.071 billion plan.
The Senate Intelligence Committee, in its fiscal year 1998 authorization bill, cut funds for the DarkStar high altitude endurance unmanned aerial vehicle and Outrider Tactical UAV, while boosting the Global Hawk program. In an unclassified report accompanying its FY '98 bill, the committee expressed concern about the technological risk of developing the low observable DarkStar. Funds requested for FY '98 will complete air vehicles three and four. Initial fabrication of five and six could also start with FY '98 funds, the report noted.
The FAA has expressed concern about the U.S. Air Force's commitment to the civil sector to maintain the Global Positioning System, which will be vital to at least two new techniques of navigation for airliners and other commercial aircraft. The Air Force says it will sustain the GPS constellation.
The House National Security procurement subcommittee yesterday chopped the $2.261 billion fiscal 1998 request for 20 Super Hornets down to $375 million for four, and substituted a $900 million buy of 20 F/A-18C/Ds. The cut was made in subcommittee chairman Duncan Hunter's (R-Calif.) mark, which was not contested by the subcommittee in the closed session, Rep. Jim Talent (R-Mo.) said. An attempt to restore an amount close to the original F/A-18E/F request will be made when the procurement subcommittee budget comes before the full HNSC today.
