U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ronald Fogleman tells reporters he has recently asked about exporting the F-22 fighter. The idea has attracted attention in recent weeks because an independent cost estimate team identified potential production cost increases, which the AF is now working to counter. Fogleman says F-22 prime contractor Lockheed Martin believes exports "would help the vendor base [and] perhaps lower the cost" of the aircraft. But, he notes, the Pentagon's low observable executive committee would need to approve such a deal.
Several companies that closed their fiscal years in the past month finished on a down note. But many of the losses were the result of transition periods, as the companies moved to jettison non-aerospace related units and concentrate on the aerospace/defense market. Whittaker Corp., Simi Valley, Calif., closed its fiscal year on Oct. 31, 1996, with a net loss of $17.1 million on sales of $221.9 million. That compares with a 1995 profit of $7.9 million on sales of $159.5 million.
Miniature munitions and hypersonic weapons are among the goals of U.S. Air Force weapons developers, according to Lt. Col. Dennis Miner, who coordinates weapons requirements for the Air Staff. Hypersonic weapons are critical because they reduce the time in which a mobile target can escape attack, he told The DAILY in an interview. "Hypersonics is a next step" in development, he said. "We need to step up to the next [level]."
The new Director of Central Intelligence "needs to be independent - not just a political rubber stamp," Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) tells The DAILY. Shelby has not been a big fan of DCI nominee Anthony Lake, but says he will wait until the confirmation hearing to decide if he will support the former national security advisor. Shelby also says he supports a longer tenure for the DCI. "I would like to see some longevity there," he says. "If we have a director who is doing and well and is strong, the agency will thrive."
The Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency on Friday selected teams led by General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman to refine their concepts for vessels to be built under the U.S. Navy's proposed $3 billion Arsenal Ship program. Eliminated from the competition to define the ship, which would aim massive fire at land targets from littoral waters, were teams led by Hughes Aircraft Co. and Metro Machine Corp.
The engineering and manufacturing development phase of the U.S. Air Force's Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) program could net GenCorp Aerojet about $780 million for its work on the ground station and primary payloads. Aerojet will receive about $190 million for its ground station work. It stands to get $105 million in 1999 and $85 million in 2001, the company said.
"There are absolutely no geographic limitations" to the use of air expeditionary forces, Fogleman says. AEFs got a lot of attention with recent deployments to Jordan and Bahrain. But now Army Gen. John Tilleli, commander of U.S. forces in Korea, has expressed an interest, Fogleman says.
The Pentagon is capable of drafting an acceptable fiscal year 1998 funding request if its "priorities" fit within the overall plan of balancing the budget by 2002, House Budget Committee Chairman John Kasich (R-Ohio) told The DAILY yesterday. Whether the Republican dominated Congress accepts the Pentagon's FY '98 plan depends largely on how the Pentagon ranks its needs, Kasich said following a press conference with Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-N.M.).
BOEING CO. received a $10 million U.S. Air Force contract to re-engine 10 KC-135 tanker aircraft for foreign military sales. Boeing Defense&Space Group's Product Support Div., Wichita, will replace the aircraft's Pratt&Whitney J57 engines with CFM International CFM56s.
SEN. CARL LEVIN (Mich.), ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, yesterday was named to fill a vacancy on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
ORBITAL will launch satellites for Korea and Brazil under contracts announced so far this year. Later this year Brazil's Satellite de Coleta de Dados-2 (SCD-2) is scheduled to fly on a Pegasus air-launched booster. Like SCD-1, also launched on a Pegasus, the satellite will relay data from ground sensors in Amazonia. In mid-1999 the company is to use its Taurus ground-launched booster to boost the Korean Multipurpose Satellite (KOMPSAT) for the Korea Aerospace Research Institute.
Russia's delayed Service Module is a weak point in shielding the International Space Station from orbital debris and should be upgraded as soon as possible, a National Research Council panel has urged. In a new report "Protecting the Space Station from Meteorites and Orbital Debris," an NRC panel headed by retired TRW chief engineer George Cleghorn urged that a high priority be given to strengthening the Service Module against impacts.
ECHOSTAR COMMUNICATIONS CORP. signed up 350,000 subscribers for its direct- to-home DISH Network by the end of 1996, averaging 2,100 subscribers a day in December. The Englewood, Colo.-based satellite television company based most of those sales on its Echostar I platform, and expects to do better this year with the addition of Echostar II. Echostar III, a Lockheed Martin AX2100 satellite, is set for launch this fall on an Atlas IIAS. The DISH Network offers more than 120 channels of video and audio programming.
Projected savings from base closing are running far below estimates and will actually result in a net loss for the Pentagon for the first three rounds of the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process, according to a Congressional Budget Office report released yesterday.
Shares of Hughes Electronics Corp. climbed $2 yesterday to finish at $63.12 on reports that Raytheon and Northrop Grumman both bid more than $9 billion for its missile and defense electronics unit. The Wall Street Journal reported that Raytheon, which said earlier this week that it plans to buy the defense electronics operations of Texas Instruments for $2.95 billion (DAILY, Jan. 7), bid about $9 billion for the Hughes unit.
ROBERT H. DUMAIS was appointed a vice president of Hughes Aircraft Co. and will serve as senior vice president of Hughes Information Technology Systems business, the company announced. Before coming to Hughes, Dumais was director of the Imagery System Acquisition and Operation Directorate at the National Reconnaissance Office. He has also worked as the deputy director of the Office of Technical Collection at the CIA.
One of two monkeys that returned to Earth Tuesday after two weeks aboard Russia's Bion-11 life sciences satellite died yesterday after surgery to remove bone and tissue samples. Joan Vernikos, director of the life sciences division in the Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications at NASA headquarters, said the animal died as it was waking up from anesthesia administered before the biopsies. An autopsy is planned, and both NASA and the Russian Space Agency will conduct separate investigations into the cause of death, she said.
U.S. DOT's COMMERCIAL Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC) will have seven new members in 1997. Outgoing Transportation Secretary Federico Pena named Eleanor H. Aldrich of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics; Emile Gardner, Gardner Consulting Planners; Louis R. Gomez, New Mexico Office of Space Commercialization; Richard J. Hieb, AlliedSignal Technical Service; Alex Liang, The Aerospace Corp.; Susan Meyer, MCI Communications Corp., and James C.
SKYDATA, a Melbourne, Fla.-based builder of satellite communications gear for paging and wireless applications, has been acquired by Israel's Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. for Gilat stock valued at about $20 million. The Florida company, which produces the Zeus line of paging products, will continue to operate with its same management as a wholly owned subsidiary of Gilat.
U.S. ASTRONAUT Michael (Rich) Clifford has left NASA for Boeing, where he will help the International Space Station prime contractor develop operational concepts for mission support and flight procedures. Formerly a Space Shuttle vehicle integration engineer, Clifford was selected as an astronaut in 1990 and subsequently flew on three Shuttle missions.
Differences between the FAA and Raytheon Co. on software requirements for the $1.5 billion Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) have been resolved and the air traffic control program remains on schedule for introduction in Boston in 1998, an FAA official said.
ORBITAL SCIENCES CORP. has privately issued 1.2 million shares of common stock, generating about $20.6 million. The Dulles, Va.-based company said it would invest proceeds from the December 1996 issuance in its Orbimage satellite remote sensing business. At the end of 1996 Orbital had about $70 million in total debt and $330 million in stockholders' equity, compared to about $110 million in debt and $240 million in equity at the end of 1995.
First launch of Iridium low-Earth orbit communications satellites slipped another 24 hours yesterday when a microwave link on the range at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., went down. A spokesperson for McDonnell Douglas, supplier of the Delta II that is to orbit the first three Iridium satellites (DAILY, Jan. 9), said if the spacecraft aren't launched today it will be the week of Jan. 20 before range and crew scheduling considerations permit another attempt. Liftoff today is scheduled for 8:35 a.m. EST.
Hughes Technical Services Co. (HTSC) assumed full control of the former Naval Air Warfare Center, Indianapolis, renaming the facility the Hughes Air Warfare Center, Hughes announced. "Today not only marks a significant milestone in Indianapolis economy, but it also sets the standard for how the federal government, local government and private enterprise can work together for the benefit of the whole country," Phil LePore, president of HTSC, said in a prepared statement.
