Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.), who upset Bob Dornan in a House race he is still contesting, is now replacing him on the House National Security Committee. Sanchez was one of three Democratic freshmen named to fill vacancies on the committee. The other two are James H. Maloney (D-Conn.) and Mike McIntyre (D-N.C.).
ANAHEIM, Calif. - Certification of the MD 600N helicopter likely will not come until late March, about three months later than planned, because McDonnell Douglas wants to carry out additional height/velocity tests. The new helicopter, however, is expected to boost 1997 sales.
Defense Secretary William Cohen yesterday named members of National Defense Panel, intended to provide an alternative to the force structure proposals of the Quadrennial Defense Review. The nine members were to have been appointed by Dec. 1, but Congress and the White House couldn't agree on the composition of the panel. The Pentagon has said repeatedly, however, that the NDP will still be able to provide an assessment by mid-May and an alternative force structure by Dec. 15, as required by law.
NASA yesterday released a $13.5 billion FY '98 budget request, representing a $200 million dip from the FY '97 appropriation, but protecting the agency's top technology and exploration programs. The budget also contains a reprogramming of $20 million from the Shuttle-Mir flight account to help Russia get its International Space Station work on track.
ALL SEVEN F/A-18E/F strike fighter test aircraft have been delivered to NAS Patuxent River, Md., McDonnell Douglas said Wednesday. It said No. 7, designated F/A-18E3, flew from St. Louis to Pax River in an hour and a half. MDC said the plane will be used for loads testing, and is slated to make its first flight from Pax River on Feb. 10.
An improved variant of the U.S./German Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) hit its target in its first test flight, the U.S. Navy reported yesterday. The missile, fitted with an improved seeker, intercepted a BQM-84 drone at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., on Feb. 1, the Navy said. The Block 1 RAM features a seeker that allows targets to be engaged by infrared or radio frequency. Block 0 RAMs require both seekers to track and engage a target.
DOD program acquisition costs by weapon system Combined procurement and RDT&E costs of major programs in the Defense Dept.'s fiscal year 1998 budget request are listed in the following table, released by the Pentagon. Dollar figures are in millions. FY 1997 FY 1998 FY 1999 AIRCRAFT Army OH-58D Kiowa Warrior 201.2 38.8 34.9
The Dept. of Defense today will request a fiscal year 1998 budget of $250.7 billion, a 2.3% drop from the FY '97 budget. The overall national defense budget, including the Energy Dept., totals $265.3 billion. The budget being sent to Capitol Hill delays the ramp-up in modernization spending and means DOD won't reach the $60 billion modernization funding level called for by senior military officials until FY 2001, a year later than planned last year.
The U.K.'s Ministry of Defense has terminated a contract with Siemens Plessey Systems for the Vixen electronic warfare system, the MOD announced Monday. Vixen failed tests conducted by the army in 1995 and 1996. The MOD had already invested 50 million pounds ($81 million) in the system, which was five years behind schedule. It is considering legal action to recover the money.
The U.S. Navy has had to trim its fiscal 1998 aircraft spending plans by more than 11% from FY '97 levels as the Pentagon moves to push off the real beginning of re-capitalization one more year to FY '99. The Navy is asking Congress to give it $6.086 billion for aircraft procurement in FY '98 - well off of last year's levels, but still nearly 37% ahead of FY '96's "low-point" budget (DAILY, Feb. 7, 1995) - saving the real hikes for FY '99, when aircraft procurement spending would rise another 26% to $7.669 billion.
The U.S. Air Force has received its first F-117A Nighthawk equipped with a new Global Positioning System navigation unit that is intended to increase operational readiness and cut cost. The system is "more reliable, maintainable and accurate" than the Standard Precision Navigator/Gimballed Electrostatic Aircraft Navigation System (SPN/GEANS) which it replaces, the AF said. And, it said, cost savings from fielding the capability are put at about $2.5 million a year.
NO. 7 V-22 TILTROTOR aircraft flew for the first time yesterday at Arlington, Tex., marking start of the flight test phase of the Osprey's engineering and manufacturing development program. "You couldn't have asked for a better first flight," said Stuart Dodge, director of the Bell Boeing team.
Boeing Co. said it completed flight testing of its 767 Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft three weeks ahead of schedule. The aircraft has logged 130 flights and 383 flight hours since its first flight last August, Boeing said. Jim Smith, Boeing's 767 AWACS program manager, said in a statement the aircraft "met or exceeded our expectations."
Lockheed Martin says it has successfully demonstrated that the Advanced Threat Infrared Countermeasures (ATIRCM) system and prototype Common Missile Warning System (CMWS), designed to protect aircraft from missiles, can also be used to defend tanks.
The U.S. Air Force today will request a fiscal 1998 budget of $61.3 billion that delays the ramp-up for modernization one year until FY '99, but protects its core modernization programs. The $9.5 billion in procurement the AF is requesting marks an 80% drop from its peak of $47 billion in FY '85. It is also $800 million below what the AF said last year it would ask for in FY '98, and $300 million below the FY '97 appropriations.
The U.S. Army's $60.4 billion fiscal year 1998 budget request is $2.3 billion lower than the FY '97 appropriation and cuts procurement by $1.4 billion. While it doesn't kill any major modernization programs and fully protects the service's aviation priorities, the few program increases in the procurement and research and development accounts are modest at best. "We believe we've achieved the best balance we can under the circumstances we've been given," a senior Army budget official told reporters yesterday at the Pentagon.
Britain's BBA Group has acquired Dallas Airmotive in a $289 million deal that the U.S. company says will allow more intensive pursuit of its strategic plan to expand through growth and acquisition. "With BBA we will have the financial capability to make acquisitions," President George Derby said at the Helicopter Association International show in Anaheim, Calif. "We will have the strength of BBA behind us. This brings a lot of security for our 750 employees, and will enable us to better serve our customers."
HOUSE SCIENCE COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr., is urging Vice President Gore to resolve questions about Russia's commitment to the International Space Station during his talks this week with Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin this week. "Specifically, we need to know your assessment of the Russian government's ability to launch the Service Module in December of 1998 and to meet the remainder of its Space Station obligations," Sensenbrenner says in a Feb. 4 letter to Gore.
First flight of an E-2C Hawkeye early warning/command and control aircraft with a lighter and more powerful mission computer was completed Jan. 24, Northrop Grumman reported. It said the 2 hour and 9 minute flight took place at its St. Augustine, Fla., facility, and that the aircraft will undergo acceptance testing before being ferried to NAS Patuxent River, Md., for a joint Navy- Northrop Grumman flight test program.
Eurocopter officials said at the Heli-Expo show here that they are more optimistic this year about their civil and military programs than they have been in recent years. "I remember Anaheim '94; the mood and spirit of operators and exhibitors here was low and depressed," said Eurocopter Deutschland Chairman and CEO Siegfried Sobotta. "This year shows that the helicopter world has turned around, and that also is the case with Eurocopter."
The U.S. military's problem of how to pay for increasingly expensive programs in the face of tightening budgets is a false issue, according to Andrew Krepinevich, executive director of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. The real problem is strategic, he said at a briefing at the private think tank in Washington - U.S. armed forces "are buying the wrong things."
The FAA lacks an overall blueprint for developing and maintaining the "many interrelated systems" of its air traffic control system infrastructure, the General Accounting Office said.
CORRECTION: Delta Airlines suffered its fourth JT8D engine failure in a year, not its fourth 727 engine failure in a year, as reported in a Jan. 29 DAILY story (page 140). The fatal accident cited involved an MD-80 series aircraft, not a 727.
H2M CORP., Titusville, Fla., will upgrade the fire suppression system at Kennedy Space Center's Space Shuttle launch pads 39A and 39B under a $3.2 million contract from NASA. The agency said yesterday that work began Jan. 27 and is slated to be completed within two years. It said the "Firex" system will be kept operational all all times during construction work.
