The move to a pick reactive jamming system for the EA- 6B aircraft substantially boosts the plane's performance in certain situations. Lt. Cdr. Paul McKean, EA-6B operator, tells Capitol Hill staffers in a briefing that the system being brought onboard under the Improved Capability III (ICAP III) upgrade will "yield us, in some situations, 100 times" the effectiveness of the existing system, but without an increase in the total power requirement.
Serious shortages of personnel and spare parts resulting from shrinking defense budgets were largely responsible for the 16 major accidents suffered by British military aircraft in 1996, according to a British television report. The accident rate was the worst in five years, and twice as bad as that of the U.S. Air Force which lost 20 aircraft in fiscal year 1996 from a much larger force.
The Teledyne Ryan Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle was rolled out yesterday and is being readied for first flight in late summer or early fall. The UAV, with a wingspan of 116 feet for sustained flight at high altitudes, was unveiled at TRA's San Diego, Calif., facility and shown with U.S. Air Force insignia and tail number 952001.
Top U.S. Navy and Marine Corps officers say they aren't concerned about using the ITT/Northrop Grumman Airborne Self-Protection Jammer in certain threat scenarios despite General Accounting Office worries about the system.
AEROFLEX INC., Plainview, N.Y., received additional orders from Hughes Electronics Corp. for microelectronics devices for use on commercial and military satellites and missile systems. In July 1996, Aeroflex signed a multi-year Volume Purchase Agreement (VPA) with Hughes with a potential value of more than $14 million. Initial releases of $5 million were received. About $2.7 million in additional releases have been obtained under the VPA since July, and $3.5 million in orders not covered by the VPA also have been received.
PACER INFOTEC INC., Billerica, Mass., won a $6 million network integration contract from Lockheed Martin, the company announced. The contract is to develop engineering for the Air Force Satellite Control network.
NASA has scheduled a conference at Goddard Space Flight Center, Md., Feb. 26 to brief manufacturers on a proposal to streamline procurement of satellite buses by compiling a "catalogue" of buses and then buying them as needed through indefinite-delivery and indefinite-quantity contracts. The "NASA/GSFC Rapid Spacecraft Industry Conference," announced in the Feb. 20 Commerce Business Daily, will describe the U.S. space agency's plans to "leverage existing industry satellite bus capabilities to meet scientific needs."
SEN. JOHN GLENN (D-Ohio) yesterday announced he will not seek a fifth term in Congress. "Although my health remains excellent, and my passion for the job burns as brightly as ever, another term in the Senate would take me to the age of 83," the former astronaut and longtime Senate Armed Services Committee member said during a press conference in his hometown of New Concord, Ohio, on the 35th anniversary of his trailblazing Mercury orbital mission.
A top Pentagon official says an effort to develop a ballistic missile defense sensor for AWACS aircraft has been terminated. Paul Kaminski, under secretary of defense for acquisition and technology, said in a letter to the congressional defense committees that a program to develop the Extended Airborne Global Launch Evaluator (EAGLE) sensor for Airborne Warning and Control System planes has been killed, and that funding "will be reprioritized to support other airborne sensor activities to include Airborne Laser sensor suite adjunct mission studies."
Lockheed Martin's first Titan IVB, an upgrade of the U.S. Air Force heavy-lift booster that can carry about 25% more payload to geosynchronous orbit than the Titan IV, is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., tomorrow with the 18th Defense Support Program early warning satellite aboard. Liftoff is set for a launch window that opens at 12:40 p.m. EST and runs until 5:40 p.m. EST. The 5,200-pound TRW-built satellite will be boosted to its final orbit by a Boeing Inertial Upper Stage.
The U.S. Navy's lower-tier, or Area-Wide, theater ballistic missile defense program received verbal approval to enter engineering and manufacturing development (EMD), and is waiting only for the written go- ahead from Pentagon acquisition chief Paul Kaminski. Pentagon officials met Tuesday in a Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) readiness meeting to assess the program's status before a full-up DAB scheduled for early March. A Navy official told The DAILY yesterday that no issues were raised during the Tuesday meeting.
The National Transportation Safety Board, saying that recent tests show that rudder reversals on Boeing 737 airliners "can no longer be considered an extremely improbable" event, yesterday recommended that the FAA move up its schedule for installing new rudder servo control valves in the U.S. fleet. It also wants FAA to require special training for pilots, saying it is "unlikely [they] would be able to diagnose a flight control reversal unless they have received specific training."
Japan's National Space Development Agency (NASDA) has started building a second launch pad and a large rocket assembly building at the space center on Tanegashima Island to accommodate commercial launch business aboard the planned H-IIA vehicle beginning in 2000.
ITT Industries Inc. reported earnings of $222.6 million in 1996, a 20% increase over 1995 profits of $185 million, which it said were lowered by $164.3 million from the sale of some non-core units. The White Plains, N.Y., company reported that sales fell slightly from $8.88 billion a year ago to $8.72 billion. Revenues for the Defense and Electronics segment grew to $1.57 billion as the international market expanded. In other aerospace and defense company financial news:
Progress has been made in development of an advanced gas turbine engine for ships that promises significant fuel savings, and the program is on track, U.S. Navy Secretary John Dalton has told the congressional defense committees. In 1991, Dalton said in a report to the panels, the Navy awarded a contract to AlliedSignal to develop the Intercooled Recuperated (ICR) gas turbine. In January 1995, premature air leaks were found, testing was halted, and the recuperator was returned to AlliedSignal.
ALL-COMPOSITE STRUCTURE for NASA's Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) has passed a series of proof tests at TRW's satellite manufacturing facilities in Redondo Beach, Calif., clearing the way for spacecraft integration work, the company reported. The cylindrical, all-graphite bus, which measures nine by 12 feet, withstood 120% of the maximum loads expected across the structural element - as much as 40,000 pounds in some instances - returning to its original position "in all cases," the company said.
RUSSIA made its first appearance at the Australian air show, which opened yesterday in Avalon, Victoria, according to am Itar-Tass report from Sydney. Russia is represented by Rosvooruzheniye, which offers Sukhoi aircraft and the Tunguska and Buk-M1 air defense systems.
PAUL B. SMITH, president of Boeing North American's Rocketdyne Div. since March 1994, has been named president and chief executive officer of United Space Alliance, the Boeing/Lockheed Martin joint venture that has the prime contract for U.S. Space Shuttle operations. Smith, a 32-year veteran of Rockwell and its Boeing successor company, will succeed Kent M. Black, who is retiring as planned, USA said.
SEN. JOHN GLENN (D-Ohio) is expected to announce today that he will not seek a fifth term in Congress. Thirty-five years ago today, Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, flying the Mercury capsule Friendship 7. Glenn is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. During his Senate tenure, he has also served as chairman and ranking Democrat on the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. In addition, he served on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
BOEING CO. said it is offering its 737-700 jet to Australia as an early warning and control aircraft. Joining Boeing and Boeing Australia Ltd. to compete for the project, which Australia calls Wedgetail after its native eagle, are Northrop Grumman and British Aerospace. Boeing said a competitive initial design activity is set to begin this year, and that a contract will be awarded in 1999.
The biggest defense fight in Congress this year will be on deployment of a National Missile Defense (NMD) system, says Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. There is only about a $2.5 billion difference between President Clinton's FY '98 defense budget and the level that Republicans proposed last year, Levin said. So, he told reporters at a breakfast meeting in Washington on Tuesday, "I don't think there's going to be a major debate about the budget numbers."
MICHAEL W. WYNNE was named senior vice president for international planning and development of General Dynamics. He replaces Henry J. Sechler, who will retire this year. Wynne joined General Dynamics in 1975 and has been corporate vice president and general manger of General Dynamics Space Systems since 1991.
The U.S. Navy has demonstrated that acoustic sensors operating in the Low Low Frequency Active (LLFA) range have no clear tactical advantage over systems in development for submarines, Navy Secretary John Dalton has informed the congressional defense panels. LLFA refers to the frequency range lower than that of the Navy's existing Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Low Frequency Active (LFA) program. The main reason for pursuing it was to investigate potential gains in acoustic signal strength.
