The second Comanche prototype, slated to commence flight testing in 1998, will be the first of the RAH-66s to incorporate the Intel Pentium P5 processor in its mission equipment package, the Boeing/Sikorsky industry team said. The Army and industry for over a year have been considering the idea of using a commercial microprocessor on the new helicopter (DAILY, May 30). Northrop Grumman Sensors and Systems Div. is in charge of the MEP and has been testing the use of commercial computer chips for Comanche since last year (DAILY, June 20).
U.S. AIR FORCE on Friday launched the first Multi-Service Launch System rocket designed to support futur ballistic missile defense tests. MSLS flew a trajectory toward the Kwajalein test range in the South Pacific. It carried and deployed five inert targets in a test by the AF Test and Evaluation Directorate of the Space&Missile Systems Center at Kirtland AFB, N.M. Friday's launch was in preparation for the first experiment, which will be launched for the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization in November.
Whittaker Corp., Simi Valley, Calif., announced that chairman Joseph F. Alibrandi will take over as CEO effective immediately. Alibrandi succeeds Thomas A. Brancati, who resigned as president and CEO yesterday for personal reasons. Alibrandi previously served as CEO from the early 1970s until Brancati was appointed CEO in 1995. Brancati had served as president of Whittaker's electronics unit beginning in August 1987 and became president of the company in June 1993. Brancati will stay with Whittaker in a consulting capacity.
A realignment of U.S. Army commands will result in an expansion of responsibility for the Communications and Electronics Command at Ft. Monmouth, N.J., the service said. Beginning in the new fiscal year on October 1, CECOM will take operational control of Army Missile Command's Logistics Systems Support Center and the Industrial Operations Command's Industrial Logistics Systems Center, both in St. Louis. The move will bring about 520 people under CECOM's command, although they will remain in St. Louis.
Congressional appropriators have agreed to preserve the Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office, easing off on language released earlier this year that threatened to eliminate the Pentagon organization.
NASA has picked two contractors for general aviation engine development work aimed at lowering manufacturing costs and the engines' environmental impact. Lewis Research Center in Cleveland will enter cooperative agreements with Williams International and Teledyne Continental Motors for the work. Williams, based in Walled Lake, Mich., will negotiate for a four-year, $37 million effort to develop a turbine engine for six-seat aircraft able to reach a cruise speed of at least 200 knots.
The General Accounting office is raising questions about the Pentagon's bomber plan and proposes cutting back on the B-1B program to save money. In a new report - "Air Force Bombers: Options to Retire or Restructure the Force Would Reduce Planned Spending" (NSIAD-96-192) - the GAO criticizes several bomber programs, including the B-2 and B-1 modernization.
EXIDE ELECTRONICS GROUP has won a contract to sell up to $625 million worth of uninterruptible power systems (UPS) to the U.S. Air Force. The program was recompeted following a bid protest last year to the General Accounting Office. Exide, based in Raleigh, N.C., won the initial contract in June 1995. But, following the protest and a GAO recommendation to recompete the program, the AF cancelled the award for convenience of the government. An Exide spokeswoman said the company was notified Sept. 20 that it again won the contract.
The U.S. Air Force wants to buy 38 more HARM Targeting Systems in the next few years to bolster the 112 systems already fielded. The service wants to begin procurement of the additional Texas Instruments systems in the first quarter of fiscal 1997, AF program manager Janet Pandzik told The DAILY Friday in a telephone interview from Eglin AFB, Fla.
The U.S. Air Force used different pricing factors on two F-16 mid-life update (MLU) contracts for its European partners on the program, forcing them to pay much more than the U.S. government for the same product, the General Accounting Office says in a new report. "The contract prices for the European Participating Governments were $9.4 million higher due to the use of different rates and factors," GAO says in Contract Pricing: Pricing of F-16 Mid-Life Update Program Contracts" (GAO/NSIAD-96-232).
ROCKWELL INTERNATIONAL is combining its Communications Systems Div. and its Collins commercial and government avionics businesses into a single unit called Avionics and Communications effective October 1. Collins chief J.D. (Jack) Cosgrove was named president of the new unit, which will be headquartered in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Efforts by the U.S. Air Force to give the B-1B bomber an interim precision guided bomb capability before it gets the Joint Direct Attack Munition have been halted because the funding isn't being released. The B-1B System Program Office at the AF Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, recently released a draft RFP (DRFP) for development of the B-1B Global Positioning System-Aided Munition (GAM). But in a letter to potential offerers on Friday, it said "there is a very high probability that GAM will not be funded."
Senate and House intelligence authorization conferees added $22 million to the Pentagon's request for the Tier III Minus DarkStar unmanned aerial vehicle program. The DAILY incorrectly reported in the Sept. 26 issue (page 478) that the conferees did not accept the increase. In fact, the increase was included in the classified portion of the bill.
The Pentagon needs to be doing more on cruise missile defense, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology Paul Kaminski tells Congress. "The problem is we need to get our sensors up in the air," he says. An architect is needed to tie together advanced sensors, battle management command, control and communications and weapons, he says.
Ballistic missile defense testing is currently limited by a lack of a adequate targets, Kaminski and new BMDO Director Gen. Lester Lyles say. "It is an area where we see some limitations," Kaminski says. DOD has a problem getting industry to produce targets "fast enough and at a reasonable cost," he says. Lyles says BMDO is reviewing the problem and expects to have a solution soon.
Lockheed Martin Tactical Systems Co. on Friday beat out Recon Optical in a U.S. Air Force competition to provide 16 tactical reconnaissance pods for the Air National Guard. The Air Force's Aeronautical Systems Center awarded the Lockheed Martin unit, based in Syosset, N.Y., a $20.2 million contract to design, build and integrate the Tactical Airborne Reconnaissance System (TARS) and provide ground equipment, the Pentagon announced. Work under the contract is slated to be completed by September 1998.
You can thank the leasing companies for the recovery in jetliner demand (DAILY, Sept. 13). Last year, leasing companies accounted for 14% of all new transport aircraft ordered. For the first seven months of this year, they placed nearly half - 47% - of the new orders booked, according to data compiled by investment house Merrill Lynch.
A small Utah-based company appears to have hit aviation paydirt in Shanghai, signing a deal worth more than $40 million launching its Hawk H2X gryoplane program with an order for 200 Hawk III aircraft to serve as air taxis throughout China. If all goes well - winning Chinese aviation certification and financial backing are pre-requisites - Groen Brothers Aviation in Salt Lake City will begin delivering hardware to the Shanghai Energy and Chemicals Corp., or SECC, next year.
The U.S. Air Force has qualified the Texas Instruments GBU-22 laser- guided bomb on the F-16 aircraft. The 500-pound bomb was developed in the early 1980s along with the 2,000-pound GBU-24, but only the GBU-24 went into production. But, said TI, "Recent world events and changing air combat tactics have renewed the interest in a lighter weight weapon."
The U.S. Air Force believes it can keep its A-10 close support planes flying until 2025 without any further structural modifications. It would rely only on "proper maintenance," the AF says in response to questions. The service has already extended the A-10 from an 8,000 flight-hour limit to 12,000 hours with a wing root upgrade (DAILY, Sept. 27), but says it knows of no further structural improvement that would be required to fly the aircraft well into the next century.
Kistler Aerospace has started marketing flights on its K- 1 reusable launch vehicle, and at least one potential customer is interested. Bob Berry, head of Space Systems/Loral, tells reporters he has talked to Seattle-based Kistler and believes the privately financed rocket may be a possible launch vehicle for the Globalstar low Earth orbit satellites. Kistler, which plans to power the K-1 with Russian NK-33 moon rocket engines refurbished by Aerojet, recently won an FAA license to test fly the K-1 in Nevada (DAILY, Sept. 17).
Classified testimony last week to the House National Security Committee on China and U.S. national security "turned me on my head," says HNSC R&D (Cont. p. 488)panel chairman Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.). Next year, HNSC "like never before" will look at China, he says. The committee also wants to take a closer look at Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. Kaminski says the Pentagon is exploring cooperative missile defense projects in Asia, but is reluctant to make any details public at this time.
Rep. C.W. (Bill) Young (R-Fla.), head of the House defense appropriations conferees, says the restructuring law change in the fiscal 1997 defense appropriations compromise bill will become effective as soon as the measure is signed into law by President Clinton. The conference changed the law to require that the government get $2 for every $1 it allows in the restructuring costs associated with acquisitions and mergers.
Planetary scientists say it's possible there's life on Mars today, but it will be a lot harder to find than ancient microfossils like those some believe made it to Earth in the Martian meteorite ALH84001. Scientists advising NASA on where to send Mars sample return missions have agreed that the first place to look is the ancient highlands around the south pole of Mars, where ALH84001 is believed to have originated. After that would come "old" sedimentary terrain once covered by liquid water, which would require "extensive" surveillance from orbit and rovers to locate.
The chairman and ranking Democrat on the House Science Committee are relatively untroubled by near-term cost-growth in the International Space Station program (DAILY, Aug. 21), and believe the orbiting laboratory will retain enough support on Capitol Hill to be completed on schedule in 2002. Chairman Bob Walker (R-Pa.) thinks the Station program would benefit from the "stability" his proposed multi-year funding package would provide, but concedes the Senate is unlikely to accept the idea. Rep.
