China plans to implement a national program of human spaceflights using Russia's experience and technological potential, the Russian Information Agency (RIA) Novosti reported. RIA Novosti quoted Yuri Koptiev, general director of the Russian Space Agency (RSA). Koptiev participated in a session of the Russian-Chinese Inter-governmental Commission for Trade, Economic and Scientific and Technological Cooperation held in Beijing last week.
Aerospace/Defense Stock Box As of closing December 13, 1996 Close Change UNITED STATES DowJones 6304.87 + 1.16 NASDAQ 1284.93 - 13.40 UNITED STATES AARCorp 26-7/8 - 7/8 AlldSig 67-1/4 - 5/8 AllTech 54-5/8 - 5/8 Aviall 9-1/2 0
China plans to grow its military might largely through science and technology, says Bejing's defense minister, Gen. Chi Haotian. Chi tells military officers at the National Defense University in Washington that he plans to "make our armed forces strong through science and technology." He says S&T funding will get a "larger share of the budget," but that force strength "will not be growing further."
Johnson Space Center Director George Abbey sees a silver lining to the cloud that marred the just-completed Space Shuttle mission. "We probably learned much more from that EVA than we've learned from many EVAs we've done in the past, because it will cause us I think to reflect and focus on some basics such as opening the hatch," Abbey tells a Houston audience in reference to the two spacewalks scrubbed because a loose screw jammed the exit hatch (DAILY, Dec. 3, 12).
MCDONNELL DOUGLAS Space&Defense Systems, Huntington Beach, Calif., appointed Jay L. Witzling as division director, Delta II and Titan programs. MDC said he will be responsible for all government and commercial Delta II launch vehicle programs and the Titan IV payload fairing, which it builds under contract to Lockheed Martin. Witzling spent 17 of his 24 years at McDonnell Douglas in design and mission integration. Previously, he was deputy director, and then director of NASA and commercial Delta programs.
A top executive of the joint venture established to take on day-to-day Space Shuttle operations doubts that the U.S. spaceplane will ever become a purely commercial venture. James C. Adamson, chief operating officer of the United Space Alliance (USA) venture of Rockwell (now Boeing North American) and Lockheed Martin, told the American Astronautical Society here last week that market conditions and questions of national prestige probably will prevent the Shuttle fleet from becoming a purely commercial operation owned by private interests.
The much anticipated U.S. Air Force Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle downselect, which was supposed to take place today, has been postponed again, this time until Friday, officials say. Four companies - Alliant Techsystems, Boeing, McDonnell Douglas and Lockheed Martin - are competing for two pre-engineering and manufacturing development contracts.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN CORP. appointed George E. Pickett vice president, marketing and business planning for the company's Electronic Sensors and Systems Div., Baltimore. It said Barry D. Watts, senior analyst, will replace Pickett as director of the company's Analysis Center in Washington. Pickett will oversee marketing, strategic planning and business development functions for ESSD. Watts will oversee the administration of the center and its analysis of U.S. foreign policy and defense requirements as they relate to Northrop Grumman's strategic business interests.
Tracor Systems Div., Austin, Tex., has flown the first MQM-107E Streaker aerial target it is building for the U.S. Army and Air Force, and will build for Australia. First flight, at the McGregor Range of Ft. Bliss near Orogrande, N.M., on Dec. 10, lasted 40 minutes, the company said. Testing is slated to conclude next year and will include flights at Tyndall AFB, Fla. Tracor is in line to deliver 204 targets, including options, to the Army and Air Force under a contract worth about $43 million through 2000.
Members of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel have found NASA's plans to turn Space Shuttle operations over to a single prime contractor essentially safe, although they worry the contractor may cut corners for profit under unforeseen future circumstances.
Hughes Aircraft Co. on Friday won the U.S. competition to develop the heat-seeking AIM-9X missile, with its five-inch-diameter Evolved Sidewinder being selected over designs submitted by Raytheon. The Navy awarded Hughes a $169.2 million contract for engineering and manufacturing development that will include low-rate initial production, the Pentagon said. Hughes will produce the first 1,000 of a total planned 10,000 missiles during EMD. EMD will be worth $421.7 million, and the total program value could reach $5 billion.
The fate of North Korea will be decided in two or three years, Deutch says. He tells the Senate Intelligence Committee that it will either invade South Korea, collapse because of a worsening economic situation, or resolve its problems.
The two methods of collecting intelligence, technological collection and human, should be more closely linked in the future, particularly when dealing with terrorism and proliferation, says outgoing Director of Central Intelligence John Deutch. He also says that in the 20 months he has served as DCI, the quality of intelligence and the speed with which it delivered to military operators have improved tremendously.
Underscoring India's emphasis on self-reliance, First Secretary of Defense and Technology John Augustus said the Ministry of Defense is considering indigenous development of a medium combat aircraft, and isn't interested in buying Russia's Su-37 fighter. The medium combat aircraft, however, is "just an idea being floated" at this time, Augustus told The DAILY Thursday following an American Defense Preparedness Association luncheon in Washington.
Congressional Republicans have cut off funding for the U.S. team negotiating changes to the ABM Treaty until the White House better explains whether the Senate will have the last say on any proposed changes to the Treaty. House GOP lawmakers sent a letter to President Clinton Dec. 11 informing him that a report on the issue of demarcation - the difference between missiles used for theater and national defense - was unsatisfactory, and that funding has been halted.
Rep.-elect Nick Lampson (D), who beat Rep. Steve Stockman (R) in a Texas runoff election last Tuesday, is not only replacing Stockman in the House but on the House Science Committee as well. Sources say it's a natural fit since the southeast Texas district in question includes Johnson Space Center and there are vacancies on the committee, which is usually the first assignment for many freshmen anyway. The runoff election closed the 1996 election season, giving the House 227 Republicans and 207 Democrats and one independent, who usually votes with Democrats.
The Quadrennial Defense Review is assuming the future U.S. Defense Dept. budget will remain relatively steady at around $250 billion to $260 billion, deputy defense secretary John White said. "We're going to operate in the president's budget guidance to us," he said, around "$250 to $260 billion." That means "we're talking about basically current size plus inflation," he told reporters at a Pentagon press briefing last Thursday.
The U.S. Army is fielding an upgraded Patriot missile with a more robust communications and radar capability, the service's Missile Command reported Friday. Authorization to field the Patriot Configuration-2 was received on Nov. 27, MICOM said. It said two Patriot battalions have been retrofitted with the new configuration and fielding of remaining units with the 10 active duty and one National Guard Patriot battalions is slated to begin next June.
As NASA struggles to recover from the embarrassing hatch snafu, its congressional backers are hunkering down for the fallout from Russia's failure to come through with the funds needed for the Station's Russian Service Module (DAILY, Dec. 12). Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) says congressional opponents of the Station project led by Rep. Tim Roemer (D- Ind.) are sure to use the Service Module delay in next year's attack on Station funding.
Rep. Randy (Duke) Cunningham (R-Calif.) is going to the House Appropriations Committee next year after six years on the National Security Committee, and would like to get a spot on the Appropriations national security subcommittee. But, congressional sources say, there's no Republican vacancy on the subcommittee. Cunningham, therefore, probably has a better shot at getting on the Appropriations military construction panel.
About the only thing the Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense Review isn't expected to affect is the fiscal 1998 DOD budget submission. Deputy Defense Secretary John White tells reporters that "we're going to submit the FY '98 budget submission before we're finished with [the QDR]." But he had to concede that QDR findings, to be reported in mid- May, "may affect the final outcome from the Congress."
BELL HELICOPTER TEXTRON and Taiwan's Industrial Development Bureau have signed a memorandum of agreement to manufacture helicopter parts in Taiwan. The agreement was signed by Yin Chi-ming, director general of the Industrial Development Bureau under the Ministry of Economic Affairs, and Webb Joiner, chairman of Bell Helicopter, at ceremonies in Taipei on Dec. 10.
