France is unlikely to rejoin the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) program any time soon, even though it has had the option since it dropped out of the multinational effort earlier this year, according to a senior Ballistic Missile Defense Organization official. MEADS is a cooperative effort by the U.S, Germany and Italy to develop a mobile missile defense system capable of protecting maneuver forces in the field. The U.S. currently has a 60% work and budget share of the program.
A high energy laser being developed by a Boeing-led team for the U.S. Air Force's Airborne Laser program has the performance needed to proceed with fabrication of a laser weapon that would meet requirements of a full- up, operational ABL, team member TRW said yesterday.
The U.S. Air Force says it will pick the contractor this week to provide interim Global Positioning System sets Defense Secretary William Perry ordered following the April crash in Croatia of a CT-43 transport that killed more than 30 people, including Commerce Secretary Ron Brown. The AF originally wanted to begin buying systems last week, but a brief delay in the program has shifted the contract award date to August 21, the Air Force said in a written response to questions.
Russia's Soyuz TM-23 capsule arrived at the Mir space station yesterday to relieve the two cosmonauts who have shared U.S. Astronaut Shannon Lucid's long stay in space, bringing the first French woman in space along for two weeks of scientific experiments. The three-seat capsule docked safely with Mir at 10:50 a.m. EDT after a Saturday launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. In addition to French rheumatologist Claudie Andre-Deshays, it carried Russian Cosmonauts Valeriy Korzun and Alexandr Kaleri, commander and flight engineer respectively.
NASA ABORTED a planned Sunday launch of the Fast Auroral Snapshot (FAST) Explorer when controllers found the scientific spacecraft was having trouble receiving commands as it was configured for launch. The spacecraft and its Pegasus XL launcher were already over the Pacific aboard the Orbital Sciences Corp. L-1011 launch aircraft when the problem surfaced, and were ordered back to Vandenberg AFB, Calif., for troubleshooting. The next launch window for the mission opens at 5:42 a.m. EDT tomorrow.
McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Systems engineers are studying a range of improvements to the MD600N no-tail-rotor helicopter in the wake of the May crash of a flight-test helo (DAILY, May 30), a process that can now begin in earnest following the first flight of the replacement aircraft on Aug. 9, the company reported yesterday. MDHS said last month that it wouldn't need to make any modifications as a direct result of the accident (DAILY, July 24).
Boeing started major assembly of the aft fuselage on the first production-standard F-22 Advanced Tactical Fighter, and expects to finish the job in October, "a significant step toward first flight of the F-22 next year," the company said last week. Major assembly began with the loading of a 650-pound, all-titanium left-hand forward boom into an assembly fixture, followed three hours later by a rib-shaped center keel assembly. Workers loaded the right-side forward boom three days later.
The U.S. Air Force is taking a close look at what may be needed to keep its veteran bomber, the B-52H, operating until almost the middle of the next century. "We're beginning to look at the fact that this airplane will be around until the year 2040," an Air Force official told The DAILY. That means "we're going to have sustainment issues that we need to take a look at." The AF plans to maintain a fleet of 71 B-52s, in addition to its forces of B-1 and B-2 bombers.
The U.S. Air Force plans to award Textron Systems Div. the second full-rate production contract for the Sensor Fuzed Weapon later this year, according to an Aug. 20 Commerce Business Daily notice. The contract will be for 400 SFWs with an option to buy 100 more, the Air Force said in the notice. Deliveries would begin 18 months after contract award.
Memphis, Tenn.-based Inventory Locator Service has started giving free industry-wide access to its seven-year-old online database of nearly 7,000 stolen aircraft parts through a World Wide Web site, as a public service to the industry, ILS President Bruce Langsen said.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has announced four contracts totalling $34.5 million to apply sophisticated information technology to improve existing ship design and construction processes, with the total program costs being shared by DARPA and industry.
Boris Yeltsin's new defense minister, Lt. Gen. Igor Rodionov, installed in June to overhaul Russia's bloated and costly military, declares that "the size of the armed forces, their equipment and logistical support, should correspond to the government's real economic capabilities.
ARMY MAJ. GEN. EDWARD G. ANDERSON is slated to take the reins at the Army's Space and Strategic Defense Command, gaining a third star in the process, provided he is confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Anderson is currently the Army Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and Plans. He will replace Lt. Gen. Jay Garner.
The U.S. Army and McDonnell Douglas Helicopter System Friday signed the anticipated AH-64D Longbow Apache multi-year procurement contract at a total cost of $1.9 billion, the Army reported. Under the terms of the agreement, MDC will produce a total of 232 Longbow Apaches. The MYP savings will allow the Army to buy 50 helicopters more than it could with the same amount of money during the five-year period using annual buys, the company and the Army's aviation program executive office said in separate statements.
The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization is updating its acquisition strategy for proceeding with a national missile defense (NMD) program, Acting Deputy Director Douglas C. Kline tells The DAILY. In that strategy, BMDO will address how to use funds Congress has added to accelerate the NMD program. There "will be an effort to accelerate and multiply the number of tests" for NMD, he says. The detailed plan will be submitted to the Defense Acquisition Board in the beginning of January, he adds.
Meanwhile, Canada is keeping an eye on the U.S. NMD effort, says BMDO Deputy for Strategic Relations David J. Martin. Canada's new government is devising an overall policy on missile defense, which could lead to some future cooperation with the U.S., he says. While there is no ongoing dialogue with Canada on NMD cooperation as of yet, there has been discussion of a small collaborative technology program, he says. As a member of NORAD, Martin says, Canada makes a logical partner in the defense of North America against ballistic missiles.
Lockheed Martin's Augustine is optimistic the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) program will turn around, even though the system has suffered a series of flight test failures. "The good news is that each of them has been a fairly discrete understandable problem that doesn't challenge the laws of physics," he tells The DAILY, noting that the most recent failure will fall into the same category. "In my judgment we are suffering infant from mortality and reliability problems," he adds. "The basic concept of the system is good.
The Army has awarded Computer Sciences Corp. a $160.9 million, five- year Army contract to support the Electronic Proving Ground (EPG) at Ft. Huachuca, Ariz., and Ft. Lewis, Wash. Under the contract, CSC will support the EPG testing mission by providing scientific, engineering augmentation, research, development, fabrication and test and evaluation services. The company also will be responsible for the operation and maintenance of EPG's test equipment, systems, facilities and ranges.
British Aerospace Dynamics and Matra of France late last week finalized the deal for combining their missile businesses in a new 50/50 joint venture called Matra BAe Dynamics, BAe chief executive Dick Evans told employees Friday. After more than two years of talks and an agreement in May to set up the joint venture, Evans told employees in a memo obtained by The DAILY that the agreement to "create Europe's largest guided weapons business" has been signed. The deal now awaits governmental and regulatory approval.
NASA has handed out the crew assignments for the first International Space Station assembly flight late next year. Robert D. Cabana will command the STS-88 mission, with fellow Marine Frederick Sturckow in the pilot's seat. When the Shuttle Endeavour reaches the FGB "tug" sent into orbit a month earlier by NASA's Russian partners, mission specialist Nancy Currie will use the robot arm to attach the U.S. Node 1 to it, first moving the node from the cargo bay to the top of the Orbiter Docking System, and then snagging the FGB and attaching it to the node.
DOD has started developing an advanced materials insertion strategy to ensure new materials are integrated into future weapons systems and platform upgrades. The Suppliers of Advanced Composite Materials Association (SACMA) reports that while plan development is underway, its specifics remain unclear. Congressional defense authorizers recently directed DOD to look at lightweight metals, superalloys, metal matrix composites, ceramics and a host of other materials as it devises its overall insertion strategy.
After three full days of talks, negotiators for McDonnell Douglas and about 6,700 striking Machinists failed to resolve an impasse over union demands for job guarantees, prompting union leaders to break off negotiations Friday about two hours after they began. Gerald Oulson, president of the union's District 837, Friday repeated a vow he made as the talks began early last week - that the Machinists are prepared to continue to strike until McDonnell Douglas guarantees a job for every union member.
Look for Lockheed Martin to be a bidder the next time there's a competition for a new warship, and not as a supplier to one of the traditional shipyards. "Today where the sophistication and the complication and most of the cost in the ships is in what goes on them, it may be that the prime contractor for ships in the future should be the people who put those things on the ships, rather than the people who do the welding of the steel," says CEO Norman Augustine.
McDonnell Douglas Aerospace last week successfully fired for the first time a derivative of the Russian X-31-A supersonic anti-ship missile as part of the foreign comparative test program to provide the U.S. Navy with a supersonic sea-skimming target. The MA-31, the U.S. designation for the target system, was fired on Aug. 14, John Reilly, MDC's program manager, told The DAILY in an interview. "It was a flawless, perfectly successful flight," he said.
The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization's technology budget has dropped to such a low level that several critical advanced technology programs are falling by the wayside, senior BMDO officials told The DAILY. One advanced technology area in particular - the advanced sensors and interceptors program - has suffered the most, BMDO's Assistant Deputy for Technology Dwight Duston said in an interview Thursday.
