Defense Secretary William Cohen told the House Appropriations national security subcommittee yesterday he believes all the services are making sufficient progress with unmanned aerial vehicles, but will look into a complaint from one lawmaker that the Air Force may not be doing its part. Subcommittee member Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.) told Cohen he doesn't think the Air Force is approaching UAV development with the same enthusiasm and jointness as the Army, Navy and Marine Corps.
A Predator unmanned aerial vehicle crashed Tuesday on takeoff from prime contractor General Atomics' flight test facility at El Mirage, Calif., and wasn't expected to be repairable. The UAV had been accepted by the Defense Dept. but was provided to General Atomics for engineering work. It was supporting a classified effort that a Pentagon spokesman wouldn't describe further. However, a Predator was slated to support a west coast Tomahawk cruise missile firing this week (DAILY, Jan. 13).
Congress should redirect some of the funding proposed for the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) in fiscal 1998 to other programs with near- term user benefits while the General Accounting Office re-evaluates WAAS, a representative of the airline industry said.
Pioneer RocketPlane Corp., Denver, appointed retired USAF Gen. Merrill A. McPeak chairman of the board directors and named Lawrence M. Hecker president and chief executive officer. Dr. Robert Zubrin, co-founder and president, will become chief scientist and direct the team developing the Pathfinder space launch concept, the company said. McPeak served in the Air Force for 37 years and was chief of staff from 1990 to 1994. As a fighter pilot, he flew more than 50 types of military aircraft and accumulated more than 6,500 flying hours.
SPACEHAB INC., Vienna, Va., completed the purchase of the operating assets of Astrotech Space Operations L.P. from Northrop Grumman. A definitive agreement was announced Feb. 6. Terms were not disclosed. Astrotech provides commercial satellite payload processing services in the United States.
VITRO SERVICES CORP., Fort Walton Beach, Fla., received a contract from Computer Sciences Corp. to provide support for the U.S. Army's Electronic Proving Ground (EPG), Fort Huachuca, Ariz. Vitro Services will provide operations and maintenance of EPG's test equipment, systems, facilities and ranges. The subcontract is worth approximately $20.4 million if all options are exercised during the five-year performance period.
Lockheed Martin's Aeronautics Sector formed a "long-term alliance" with IBM and France's Dassault Systemes to create what it described as the next generation of software tools. One of the first applications, Lockheed Martin said, would be design of the Joint Strike Fighter. Boeing and Lockheed Martin are competing to develop the JSF. One of the companies will be chosen to produce the plane at the end of a 51-month concept demonstration phase.
BOEING CO.'S board said it plans a two-for-one stock split. Shareholders will vote to increase the number of shares from 610 million to 1.22 billion at the annual meeting on April 28. About 360 million shares are outstanding now.
Industry is being solicited by the U.S. Air Force for a follow-on to the Hard Target Smart Fuze (HTSF) that would be smaller and more capable, the service said in a Feb. 25 Commerce Business Daily notice.
U.S. Air Force executives defended the F-22 fighter program against a barrage of cost-oriented criticism from the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday, with Chief of Staff Gen. Ronald R. Fogleman warning that without the new plane, neither the Joint Strike Fighter as presently conceived nor the Navy's F/A-18E/F could proceed.
Even though funding has failed to materialize for an all-terrain vehicle that could be carried internally by the Bell Boeing V-22 tiltrotor aircraft, development of a new vehicle for the plane is being considered by the U.S. Air Force's Special Operations Command and the Marine Corps.
TEAL GROUP, Fairfax, Va., predicts that Boeing Co. will build the 747- 500/600 despite Boeing's decision last month to shelve the project. Richard Aboulafia of Teal said last week at the 1997 meeting in Seattle of the American Association for the Advancement of Science that Boeing will build the plane "to prevent Airbus Industrie from capturing the crucial launch customers."
ELECTRIC BOAT AND NEWPORT NEWS SHIPBUILDING agreed, at the request of the U.S. Navy, to cooperate in building the New Attack Submarine (NSSN), the companies said yesterday. They said they will be equal members on construction of each of the first four subs. Under the previous plan, the companies each built two submarines. Now, EB will perform final assembly, testing, outfitting and delivery of the first and third submarines, while Newport News will perform those functions on the second and fourth.
NASA won't make a decision on how to proceed with the International Space Station in light of Russia's lagging contribution until the second week in April, after Administrator Daniel S. Goldin visits Moscow to discuss the available options, Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), said yesterday.
Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation Ltd. has broadened its stake in the direct broadcast satellite (DBS) television market with the purchase for $1 billion of a half-interest in Colorado's EchoStar Communications Corp. The new "alliance," as News Corp. termed the venture in an announcement, will offer more than 500 channels via seven satellites controlled by Echostar or by MCI Communications Corp., News Corp.'s DBS partner, which will own 20% of the 50% share of EchoStar Murdoch's group acquired.
Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, currently developing NASA's X-33 subscale single-stage-to-orbit prototype, has teamed with Lockheed Martin units that operated U.S. Energy Dept. facilities at Oak Ridge, Tenn., to develop advanced manufacturing techniques and other technologies.
Preliminary findings of a review by the Office of the Secretary of Defense show that a potential cost increase in the F-22 fighter program is at least $2 billion higher than the U.S. Air Force's $15 billion estimate, congressional aides told The DAILY yesterday. The analysis, conducted by OSD's Program Assessment and Evaluation (PA&E) division, also concludes that the Air Force's plan to resolve the potential cost increase on the Lockheed Martin-led program remains undefined, the aides said.
The U.S. Air Force is looking for contractors to develop technologies for future military spaceplanes with ground-based advanced technology demonstrations, including an Integrated Technology Testbed (ITT) effort to build a computer testbed model. A briefing for industry has been scheduled March 11-12 at the Phillips Laboratory in New Mexico, according to an announcement in the Feb. 25 issue of Commerce Business Daily.
PACER INFOTEC, Billerica, Mass., won a $23.2 million contract from Naval Air Warfare Center, Weapons Division, China Lake, Calif., to support the software lifecycle and provide engineering services for the EA-6B aircraft and its electronic warfare systems. The company also won an $11.5 million, five-year contract from the Navy to continue providing technical support to the U.S. Pacific Fleet training group in their warfare computer simulation facility in San Diego.
AMERICAN AEROSPACE&DEFENSE INDUSTRIES INC. (AADI), Harrison, N.Y. and Hannover Fairs USA Inc. (HFUSA), Princeton, N.J., agreed in principle to a merger of their aerospace and defense industry activities. HFUSA will acquire the businesses of AADI and operate the company as a wholly-owned subsidiary.
A revitalized commercial aircraft market, along with a growing overhaul and repair market, helped several companies record strong 1996 years. BFGoodrich Co., Richfield, Ohio, reported record sales and operating income from its aerospace segment on earnings of $151.7 million, up from $118 million a year ago. Sales remained relatively flat at $2.2 billion, compared to $2 billion in 1995. Operating income in the aerospace segment grew to $161.3 million on sales of $1.3 billion.
Pratt&Whitney, Government Engines and Space Propulsion, West Palm Beach, Fla., is being awarded a $29,321,000 modification to previously awarded contract N00019-97-C-0050 for Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Engine Ground and Flight Demonstration Program. This modification will provide for preferred weapon system concept engine technology maturation studies. Work will be performed in West Palm Beach, Fla., and is expected to be completed by January 2001. Contract funds would not have expired at the end of the current fiscal year.
Russia will delay its launch of the FGB space tug that will be the first International Space Station element in orbit from November until next June to give itself time to complete the Russian Service Module, the head of the Russia space agency announced yesterday.
U.S. Atlantic Command, Norfolk, Va., will sponsor the concept development phase of the Tactical Control System, intended to offer scalable levels of control over all U.S. unmanned aerial vehicles, according to TCS program manager Navy Capt. Allen Rutherford.
