Latin American countries can make a strong case for reversal of a U.S. policy that effectively bars them from getting high performance American fighters, the head of U.S. Southern Command said yesterday. "Certainly the fact that these countries are democracies and increasingly democratic...is a powerful argument in favor of reconsidering past policies," Gen. Wesley K. Clark told reporters at a breakfast meeting in Washington.
The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) can't afford to lose the heavy-lift variant of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV), even though many other military space payloads are getting smaller, NRO Director nominee Keith Hall told the Senate Armed Services Committee at a hearing yesterday on his confirmation to the post.
A consortium of Saab and British Aerospace plans to offer Saab's Gripen fighter to Poland, a BAe spokesman told The DAILY in a telephone interview from Warsaw yesterday.
The Pentagon will soon be sending a reprogramming request to Capitol Hill asking that the $70 million in advanced procurement money for the V-22 tiltrotor aircraft that Congress added to the fiscal 1997 defense budget be redirected to R&D on the program, John Douglas, the U.S. Navy's assistant secretary for research, development and acquisition, told the House Appropriations national security subcommittee yesterday.
Lockheed Martin Telecommunications has sold three more of its advanced A2100 satellites, two to GE Americom and one to Canada's Telesat, the company announced. The Lockheed Martin unit also announced that it has started production at its new Commercial Satellite Center in Sunnyvale, Calif., where it hopes to turn out as many as 16 satellites a year in an 85,000- square-foot cleanroom facility.
NASA has picked four industry teams to devise government/commercial partnering arrangements for a new low-cost synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite for Earth-imaging applications. The high-resolution "LightSAR" would be used to map the Earth's surface almost continuously, without regard to cloud cover or darkness. Its data would be used to track changes in land cover; monitor natural hazards like volcanoes, earthquakes and floods, and produce topographic maps.
Airbus Industrie in its annual forecast sees a demand for close to 16,000 jetliners over the next 20 years to satisfy traffic growth and replacement of aging aircraft. The figure includes 1,440 New Large Aircraft representing 25% total order value. Over the period, U.S. market dominance will fall to third place in world airliner seats, from the current 39% to only 28%, with Asia-Pacific rising to first place from 25% now to 32%, and second-place Europe rising from 25% to 29%.
Rolls-Royce said yesterday that 1996 operating profits, excluding operations to be discontinued, jumped to 242 million pounds sterling from $178 million in 1995. But after charges of 263 million pounds related to the businesses to be discontinued - Parsons Power Generation Systems and International Combustion - Rolls reported a before-tax loss of 28 million pounds compared to a before-tax profit of 175 million the previous year.
The Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile system yesterday failed for the fourth time to intercept a target, raising questions about the future of the program, on which more than $2 billion has already been spent. The failure occurred at about 8 a.m. EST during a test at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. The aim of the test, conducted by the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization and the U.S. Army, was to intercept a Hera target, the Pentagon said. The THAAD test series includes seven firings, with intercepts attempted in the last four.
AlliedSignal Aerospace has completed two flight tests of the newest variant of its Vandal missile, used by the U.S. Navy as a supersonic sea- skimming target. Successful tests of the Extended-Extended Range Vandal took place in December and January at the Barking Sands, Hawaii, test range and the Naval Air Warfare Center, Point Mugu, AlliedSignal said. The EER Vandal has a range of about 45 nautical miles, about 10 nm more than a standard Vandal.
An agreement by the U.S. Army Space and Strategic Defense Command (SSDC) and the Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) has given SSDC the lead for space and missile defense within the service. It means SSDC will "coordinate, review, and recommend space solutions to the TRADOC branches," and forward recommended requirements for TRADOC approval, SSDC said.
RAYTHEON E-SYSTEMS, Greenville, Tex., received a $10 million order under an existing contract with the U.S. Army for 950 high-mobility trailers. The order brings the total number of trailers ordered over four years to 4,300. Work will be done by E-Systems operations in Richardson, Tex., and subcontractor Silver Eagle Manufacturing Co., Portland, Ore.
Acquisition reform initiatives being pursued by McDonnell Douglas Corp. will create annual savings on U.S. defense programs of at least $40 million, and this will be used to reduce the cost of weapon systems it has on offer, company officials said. Roger Witte, MDC's vice president for contracting and pricing, said the projected savings are "the first in a series." Future changes in business processes, he said, could add another $20 million to $40 million.
The Pentagon estimates it will cost about $970 million to overhaul its information technology systems to avoid a disastrous data processing problem in the year 2000, Defense Secretary William Cohen tells the congressional defense panels.
NASA and the U.S. Air Force Space Command have agreed to coordinate their spending on a variety of space-related efforts, including development of civil and military spaceplanes, measurements of the solar environment in near-Earth space, and use of launch and tracking facilities.
With only about two months left before the Pentagon presents its Quadrennial Defense Review to Congress, the U.S. military services are still in disagreement on their vision of a future warfighting strategy, as well as on modernization issues, a senior Air Force official familiar with the QDR process told The DAILY yesterday. He said the strategy issue is "a very difficult problem," but "we're very encouraged by the strategy panel's willingness to explore better articulation and more meaningful articulation of our national strategy."
COMPTEK RESEARCH INC., Buffalo, N.Y., won contracts through its Federal Systems Inc. subsidiary valued at $4 million. A NATO country, not otherwise identified by the company, awarded the Advanced Systems Div. a contract for the Advanced Multiple Environment Simulator (AMES II), an electronic warfare threat simulator. Also, Elta Electronic Industries Ltd., Ashdod, Israel, ordered a smaller, transportable version of the system, called Micro-AMES II.
PEMCO WORLD AIR SERVICES, Denver, won a contract through its World Air Services subsidiary from British Airways for maintenance and modification of three Boeing 757s and a Boeing 767. Work will be performed at Pemco facilities in Copenhagen, Denmark and Dothan, Ala.
Turkey will accept bids this week for heavy lift helicopters, and by March 15 wants information from companies interested in competing for a buy of early warning aircraft. Involved in the $120 million-plus procurement for four heavy-lift helicopters are the Boeing CH-47 Chinook and the Sikorsky CH-53 Super Stallion from the U.S., and the Mil Mi-26 Halo from Russia.
The vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told Congress yesterday that the Pentagon's tactical aircraft modernization plan should go forward because of a "significant worldwide...threat," and a General Accounting Office official countered that the U.S. has better fighters than any other nation and that air defenses of potential enemies "have not been substantially improved."
AUSTRALIA'S Defense Science and Technology Organization, Aeronautical and Maritime Research Laboratory, Melbourne, will perform tests on a Royal Australian Air Force F/A-18 in attempt to increase life of the type by 25%. Scientists will shake the fighter until it breaks, looking for fatigue cracks in the airframe. They hope to increase the life of the plane from 4,200 flying hours to 5,500 or 6,000 flying hours. The $50 million test program is being done in conjunction with Canada, which is spending a similar amount, according to reports from Australia.
TURKEY will buy 72 Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) under a $50 million agreement signed last year with Lockheed Martin Vought Systems Corp. of the U.S. Turkish military sources in Ankara said Turkey will pay around $700,000 per missile to the company. The missiles, which have a range of 150 kilometers, will be delivered in May or June 1998, military sources said.
Japan's Defense Agency released the unit prices of the 56 new aircraft it will purchase for $2.1 billion in 1997. The government budget plan, including defense, is expected to be approved by Japanese lawmakers before the end of the month and become effective April 1. (Figures in millions of U.S. dollars.) The government budget plan No. Unit Total No. Unit Total Aircraft bght price cost bght price cost
The U.S. military service chiefs yesterday gave House lawmakers their "wish lists" for fiscal year 1998 funding increases above President Clinton's defense budget request, but were careful to name programs already in the Pentagon's future years defense plan (FYDP).
