Installation of the first redesigned main landing gear pods for the U.S. Air Force's C-17 airlifter has begun at McDonnell Douglas Military Transport Aircraft facilities in Long Beach, Calif., the company announced. Estimates have placed the saving for the new pods at more than $45 million over the remaining 88 C-17s of the planned 120-aircraft acquisition. The first Globemaster III to receive the pods, production aircraft 33, is scheduled for delivery to the U.S. Air Force in July.
Lockheed Martin Corp. is eyeing upgrades to the AGM-142 air-to-surface missile and derivatives to allow use without man-in-the-loop control. One of the key advantages of an automated system would be "single-seat operations," Pete Spivy, Lockheed Martin's business manager for AGM-142, said Wednesday during an interview at company facilities in Orlando, Fla.
American Eurocopter Corp. President David O. Smith and two other men were indicted by a federal grand jury on a series of charges relating to the sale of helicopters to Israel.
The ninth circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals has reinstated a class action lawsuit brought by salaried retirees of Hughes Aircraft Co. The lawsuit seeks to compel Hughes and its pension plan to turn over more than $1 billion in pension surplus to participants of the plan.
Malaysia Airlines (MAS) has selected the Pratt&Whitney 4056 engine for 10 Boeing 747-400s it had ordered in January 1996. MAS ordered 44 engines. The PW 4056 was chosen because of its capability and outstanding performance in comparison with other engines that were under evaluation, said MAS managing director Wan Malek Ibrahim. The airline will release price details later. Other users of the PW 4056 in the Asia-Pacific region include Singapore Airlines, Japan Airlines and Korean Air.
The biggest problem for U.S. aircraft that would have to operate over Korea in case of hostilities between South and North Korea wouldn't be enemy aircraft, but deconflicting friendly aircraft, Lober says. One of the specific needs is improved identification-friend-or-foe to allow use of beyond-visual-range missiles.
The U.S. Air Force is including three F-15 fighters in its fiscal 1998 budget request, and plans funding for another three the following year, according to officials said. The service is slated to buy at least six more of the McDonnell Douglas planes than it now has to complete its attrition reserve requirement. The first three will be included the upcoming budget request, as will long lead funding for the FY '99 buy.
Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology Paul Kaminski has approved the U.S. Navy's request to move the Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) baseline variant into low rate initial production (LRIP), according to a Pentagon acquisition decision memorandum (ADM) released Friday. Also, Kaminski, who reviewed the program on Jan. 17, signed off on the exit criteria the Navy says JSOW must pass before it can enter into full- rate production.
When Defense Secretary William S. Cohen comes to Capitol Hill to defend the Pentagon's fiscal 1998 budget request, GOP lawmakers will give him some leeway in explaining decisions that are sure to come under fire from congressional Republicans, Hill aides say. "When things get controversial, Cohen will be able to say he was not at the Pentagon at the time the budget was drafted," says one Senate GOP aide. DOD Spokesman Ken Bacon seems to agree.
While he supports the bipartisan effort in Congress to go after "corporate welfare," Rep. Bernard Sanders (Ind.-Vt.) says the effort does nothing about "paying defense contractors to merge their companies." As chairman of the 56-member Progressive Caucus in the House, he plans to introduce his own bill. He was co-author of the successful fiscal 1997 defense appropriations amendment that required an increase in contract savings to the U.S. before merging companies could write off restructuring costs.
The governments of the U.S. and U.K. are continuing to keep each other informed on their respective standoff missile programs despite the fact that an initiative to pursue a cooperative program faltered last year. U.S. Air Force program representatives will fly to the U.K. next month to brief the Royal Air Force on progress of the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) development program being pursued by Lockheed Martin and McDonnell Douglas, Terry Little, the AF JASSM program director, told The DAILY.
Elbit Ltd., Haifa, Israel, will upgrade helicopters for the Romanian army to bring them in line with NATO standards. The $100 million program to upgrade 24 IAR-330L Pumas will run through 2001. The helicopters will be converted from troop transport and logistics use into tactical support aircraft. The changes will include new weapons, night-vision gear and head-up displays. In another development, Elbit won a $25 million contract from the Italian Air Force for Opher guided weapon systems.
The Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense Review isn't going unnoticed overseas, and is prompting concern in some circles, according to the Commander of Pacific Air Forces for the U.S. Air Force, Gen. John G. Lorber. "Just the examination of our force structure causes concern" in some countries in Asia, he says. The thought that the U.S. won't be able to maintain stability in the Pacific theater could "cause arms proliferation," he says at an Air Force Association meeting in Orlando, Fla.
Budget constraints could force a decision to cut some tactical aircraft programs during the fiscal 1998 defense budget debate, says Senate Armed Services Committee member Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.). He said in an interview Thursday that several senators, including himself, would prefer to hold off on any major defense modernization decisions until the Pentagon completes its Quadrennial Defense Review, and the independent National Defense Panel has an opportunity to take a fresh look at the defense budget and infrastructure.
Lockheed Martin Corp. hopes to sell Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser systems to international customers and deliver the first one overseas before the year 2000, said Michael Inderhees, who directs the program for the company. The U.S. Air Force on Monday chose Lockheed Martin over Alliant Techsystems to build 40,000 of the inertially-guided tail kits for its own tactical munitions.
Republican defense appropriators are expecting the Administration to take at least $10 billion out of the $244.3 billion Congress appropriated for defense spending in fiscal 1997, a House appropriations committee aide says. "The Clinton Administration did the same thing last year," the aide says. "We have to restore the levels just to stay even." But most Democrats who support the Clinton request think the $10 billion Congress added in FY '97 is unneeded.
Russian government representatives are scheduled to visit Airbus Industrie executives this week in Paris to discuss yet another approach to a superjumbo jetliner -- development of a passenger version of the Antonov 124 cargo carrier. The Russian delegation, to include Aviastar Managing Director Viktor Mikhailov, will also raise the possibility of equipping Antonov aircraft with non-Russian engines.
CANADIAN MARCONI CO., Quebec, won a $2 million contract from Daimler-Benz Aerospace's Navigation and Flight Guidance Systems division to develop an integrated circuit and provide Microwave Landing Systems engineering assistance. The development phase will last two years.
McDonnell Douglas has expanded to 30 the number of countries it is briefing on the Joint Direct Attack Munition, says Charles Dillow, MDC's program manager. He declines to name them, but notes that discussions with three countries are the most advanced. International JDAM sales will likely concentrate on the 2,000-pound variant, rather than the 1,000-pound bomb.
FOLLOWING COMPLETION of a flight readiness review, NASA managers set Feb. 11 as the official launch date for NASA's next Shuttle mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The mission, STS-82, is the second in a series of planned servicing missions to the orbiting HST.
The fiscal year 1998 defense budget request to be sent to Capitol Hill Thursday by President Clinton is on the edge of being too little and more weapons modernization dollars will be needed in the outyears, new Defense Secretary William S. Cohen told reporters at the Pentagon Friday. He said he believes the FY '98 budget request is at a good level, but acknowledged there could be shortfalls in the future.
Dubai-based Emirates will power 16 new Airbus A330-200 widebody twins with Rolls-Royce Trent 700 turbofans worth about $500 million, adding to the 14 Trent 800s already in service or on order to power the carrier's Boeing 777s.
The Saudi Arabian government has requested pricing information on Lockheed Martin's F-16 fighter, but no official request to purchase the planes has been made yet, Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon told reporters at a briefing yesterday. Because there is no formal request for proposals, he declined to comment on details of the cost request and whether the issue would be on the agenda when Saudi officials visit the U.S. in February. The Washington Times reported that the Saudis want to buy 100 F-16s.
GE90 operators British Airways and China Southern this week had to pull a combined five engines powering Boeing 777 widebody twins from service after discovering early fatigue problems with bleed air manifolds in the high-pressure compressor, AP has learned. China Southern only pulled one engine, and was able to resume flight immediately with a spare engine. BA, however, had to pull four engines, and at least two BA 777s were grounded for three days awaiting spares from GE.
