ALLIANT TECHSYSTEMS' Power Sources Center (PSC) won a $1.2 million contract from the U.S. Army Communications Electronics Command (CECOM) to develop and implement flexible manufacturing processes for lithium ion polymer batteries used by the Army, Alliant announced yesterday. The work will be performed with Valence Technology under a joint venture called Alliant/Valence I.L.C. that will make batteries for the military market.
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) says that draft bill language being circulated in the Pentagon by Defense Dept. Comptroller John Hamre would "significantly loosen controls" over progress payments.
France's Aerospatiale and Renault are teaming to develop and sell a new generation of 180- to 300-hp light aircraft piston engines running on jet fuel, promising lower fuel consumption and longer stretches between overhauls. "To coordinate this program, Aerospatiale and Renault Sport have formed an equally owned subsidiary, 'Societe de Motorisations Aeronautiques,'" the companies said yesterday in a jointly issued statement from Paris.
Delta Air Lines engineers and technicians were expected to perform an NTSB-supervised teardown inspection yesterday of the Pratt&Whitney JT8D- 15A that suffered an uncontained turbine failure Monday. The National Transportation Safety Board said that the first turbine stage of the engine, powering a Delta 727 departing New Orleans, failed during the climbout (DAILY, Jan. 29). The carrier shipped the engine to its Atlanta, Ga., facilities for inspection after the incident.
MACDONALD, DETTWILER AND ASSOCIATES, a Canadian subsidiary of Orbital Sciences Corp., won new orders for satellite ground stations in the fourth quarter of 1996 totaling about $45 million. Orbital said the orders were for Earth observation ground systems including data processing and related software and upgrades to existing ground systems. Customers were located in Europe, China, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and other Asian countries, Orbital said.
Carpenter Technology's Certech unit, which makes ceramic cores used to make aircraft and industrial gas turbine components, will open a new plant Saturday in Carlstadt, N.J., expanding its ceramic core capacity. Carlstadt will focus mostly on industrial gas turbines, freeing more capacity at the company's existing Wood Ridge, N.J., plant for aerospace work.
The U.S. Air Force in late February will deploy a second Advanced Expeditionary Force to Qatar, Air Force Gen. Richard Hawley, commander of Air Combat Command said yesterday. "AEF-Four will deploy to Qatar in late Feburary," Hawley told the Air Force Association here, "once again demonstrating the ability of land-based air power to move quickly to provide visible deterrent and tangible combat power."
In a U.S. Navy whose personnel levels have been cut by about one-third, the percentage of sailors needing the highest skill levels has increased from 20% to 27% but training budgets have been reduced by up to 50% in some cases, said Vice Adm. Patricia A. Tracey, Chief of Naval Education and Training.
SPOT IMAGE CORP. said it will distribute imagery of Radarsat International satellites in the U.S. under terms of a new license agreement. Radarsat, launched by Canada in 1995, features a synthetic aperture radar for all- weather, day and night imaging. Ted Nanz, president of Spot Image Corp. of Reston, Va., said the agreement "complements the world's first two commercial remote sensing systems, Spot for optical and Radarsat for radar."
BOEING NORTH AMERICAN, Seal Beach, Calif., yesterday received a $179.1 million U.S. Air Force contract for engineering and manufacturing development of the Block E Computer Upgrade and Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser integration program for the B-1B aircraft.
Northrop Grumman said its Electronic Sensors and Systems Div., Baltimore, won a $262 million subcontract from Boeing to modify AWACS aircraft radars. The award follows a decision of the NATO Airborne Early Warning and Control program management organization to authorize retrofit of its fleet of 17 E- 3As under the Radar System Improvement Program (RSIP). A total of 28 aircraft (17 for NATO, 7 for the U.K. and 4 for the U.S.) and three ground- based radar support systems (one each for NATO, the U.K.
Annual U.S. defense spending will be on a steady rise from about $270 billion in fiscal year 1998 to $345 billion in FY 2007, according to the Congressional Budget Office. "Soon after the turn of the century, large blocks of equipment purchased during the buildup of the early 1980s will require refurbishing or replacement," CBO says in new report released. "The end of this procurement holiday may necessitate higher defense spending in the next decade."
CHRISTOPHER A. WILLIAMS is leaving the House National Security research and development subcommittee staff to become deputy staff director of the Senate Intelligence Committee, congressional sources said yesterday.
International Aviation Services Ltd. (IASL) in Fort Worth, Texas, ordered 12 new JT8D-200 series turbofans from Pratt&Whitney to support the joint P&W/Rohr VIP Super 27 Boeing 727 refurbishment program (AP, Aug 29, 1996).
TEAL GROUP, a Fairfax, Va.-based aerospace market analysis firm, has counted 1,771 orbital payloads proposed for launch over the next 10 years, nearly three quarters of them commercial and civil communications satellites and 54% of the communications satellites intended to provide mobile services. Broadband satellites designed for high-speed multimedia services account for another 30% of the communications payloads; 6% are direct broadcast satellite television systems, and 10% are traditional telecommunications and television broadcast satellites.
FRANCE'S SPOT 1 has been reactivated to fill the void left when Spot 3 abruptly went out of service last year. Launched in February 1986, the commercial remote sensing platform operated until January 1991 and has been maintained in orbit since, going operational temporarily in 1992, 1993 and 1996. Spot 1 and 2 data are available at all Spot offices worldwide, Spot Image Corp. reported. The company is now making its catalog of almost 5 million images available on the Internet at http://www.spot.com under the products and services heading.
SATCON TECHNOLOGY CORP., Cambridge, Mass., will design and build a prototype three-flywheel space power system under a $2 million contract with the U.S. Air Force's Phillips Laboratory. The company said it will draw on past experience in flywheel power systems at its Tucson, Ariz., facility for the Air Force project. The system, which will use the momentum of lightweight composite flywheels to store power for satellites in eclipse, will be tested at NASA's Lewis Research Center.
Russia's Ministry of Economy has come up with a proposal to cut funding for Russia's human space program, triggering tough criticism from the interdepartmental body responsible for independent assessment of the civil space program as well as from the Russian Space Agency. Minister of Economy Yevgeniy Yasin has sent a formal letter to the Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin urging the government to "revise the federal space program and adjust it to the present-day reality," meaning deep cuts in spending on human spaceflight.
Maryland's Ashurst Technology signed a deal with investment casting specialist Cercast Group of Montreal to supply aluminum structural and welding alloys to improve and develop new products for Cercast's international aerospace investment casting business.
The Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday approved a balanced budget constitutional amendment, which Pentagon Comptroller John J. Hamre has warned could lead to $500 billion in defense cuts between now and fiscal year 2003.
NASA AND INDUSTRY partners launched a hybrid-fueled sounding rocket from Wallops Flight Facility, Va., on Jan. 8, Lockheed Martin, a team member, reported. Fueled by hydroxyl terminated polybutadiene (HTDB), a synthetic rubber oxidized with liquid oxygen, the rocket reached 119,780 feet with a 25-second burn in the third flight of the Hybrid Propulsion Demonstration Program.
An upgrade to increase the accuracy of the Joint Direct Attack Munition is being considered by the U.S. Air Force and JDAM prime contractor McDonnell Douglas, program officials say. The effort would fall short of adding a terminal seeker, but would try to reduce JDAM's present circular error probable (CEP), McDonnell Douglas JDAM Program Manager Charles Dillow told The DAILY in an interview at the Air Force Association's Air Warfare Symposium here. JDAM uses inertial navigation and the Global Positioning System.
The Pentagon's Defense Acquisition Board for a second time has postponed a review of a potential $15 billion cost overrun in the F-22 fighter program. The review, which was slated to take place yesterday, is now scheduled for Feb. 5, a Pentagon spokeswoman said. She said it was postponed because of "administrative issues," adding that some of the principal members of the DAB were unable to attend. It was first scheduled for Jan. 6.
A committee of the National Research Council recommends that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) move "in a timely fashion" to buy four more geostationary weather satellites to ensure continuous coverage of the U.S. over the next 15 years, and expedite joint polar-orbiting weather satellite programs with DOD and Europe as much as possible.
