Lost in the shuffle at the latest Gore-Chernomydin meeting is a big slip in the flight test program NASA is funding aboard a modified Russian Tu-144 supersonic transport. Documents released after the Moscow meeting indicate the leaders directed the Tu-144 team to "make every effort to complete preparations on the aircraft for a first flight in August 1996. That includes finishing modifications to the aircraft and instrument installation and "finishing the detailed planning" for the 32-flight test series.
The U.S. Air Force doesn't want to conduct an independent cost estimate (ICE) on the F-22 fighter by March 30 as called for in the Senate version of the fiscal year 1997 defense authorization bill, the service tells House and Senate defense authorization conferees in a second appeal package sent to Capitol Hill last week to influence the outcome of the conference. The Senate authorizers have fenced 92% of F-22 funds pending the report. "An ICE on the F-22 is not required until milestone III, which is planned to occur in FY '02," the service says.
Upgrades to the Pioneer unmanned aerial vehicle could double its endurance without requiring much investment, an industry official said. A new engine and a wet wing could boost the UAV's current six-hour endurance to 10-12 hours, said Steven E. Reid, director of programs and business development for Pioneer UAV Inc. The operation, based in Hunt Valley, Md., is a joint venture of AAI of the U.S. and Israel Aircraft Industries.
Profits seem to be holding steady throughout the defense and aerospace industry, even in the face of upheavals and restructurings at nearly every major company, suggest second-quarter results posted last week. Honeywell, Rockwell International, GE, TRW, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman and McDonnell Douglas all turned in strong or at least respectable results, sometimes in the face of adversity (DAILY, July 18, 19).
EDO CORP., College Point, N.Y., will supply components to Sparton Corp. for use in Foreign Military Sales of the U.S. Navy's AN/SSQ-62C sonobuoy. Edo said Friday it received a $2 million follow-on contract for the work from Sparton's Electronics Div.
A package of proposals by the Senate defense authorization conferees to their House counterparts aimed at settling all outstanding conference issues except controversial veto-bait items (DAILY, July 19) probably reflects the fact that both sides are negotiating under a tight schedule laid out by the leaders of the conference, sources said. The schedule calls for agreement on a compromise, writing the report and winning approval of the House and Senate before the August recess. The recess starts in two weeks.
The General Accounting Office's program evaluation division, which recently criticized effectiveness of the F-117 stealth aircraft, the Tomahawk cruise missile, smart bombs and precision guided weapons in the Gulf War, has been disbanded, the victim of a 25% cut in the GAO budget over two years. Sen. John Glenn (Ohio), ranking Democrat on the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, calls the cutback "one of the most short-sighted things I've seen since I've been in the Senate."
So far the Administration is taking a "maybe-if-we-ignore-it-it- will-go-away" approach to the lawsuit filed by GOP lawmakers last week to force President Clinton and Defense Secretary William Perry to accelerate the current plan to field certain theater missile defense systems, congressional aides say. GOP aides called the Pentagon to inform them the suit was going to the U.S. District Court on Wednesday, but Pentagon officials didn't respond. Perry and Deputy Defense Secretary John White have declined to meet with lawmakers to discuss the issue.
Spending to develop the MD-95 ate into profits and a buildup of jetliner inventory crimped cash flow, but fatter margins and contract improvements in the military segment helped McDonnell Douglas yesterday post 11% stronger net earnings for the second quarter.
The DarkStar unmanned aerial vehicle, which crashed last April on its second flight, isn't expected to fly again until next spring, a Lockheed Martin official said. James W. Stoling, Skunk Works' acting chief engineer for the program, said the Lockheed Martin/Boeing DarkStar team is conducting "an in-depth audit" of all hardware and software following completion last month of an investigation of the crash, which occurred at Dryden Flight Research Center, Calif., as the stealthy, 8,600-pound UAV was taking off.
Textron Systems, Wilmington, Mass., won a $157 million U.S. Air Force contract for full rate production of the Sensor Fuzed Weapon (SFW). Awards are expected annually through 2004, bringing the total value of the program to nearly $1.5 billion, the company said. The new contract contains a warranty which calls for Textron to guarantee the performance 10 years from the date of sale. The first lot of 500 units will be deployed on F-16 fighters.
The General Accounting Office dismissed protests of Lockheed Martin's Fairchild Systems unit and Recon Optical Inc. that said the U.S. Navy didn't properly evaluate their proposals to develop an airborne reconnaissance camera. The GAO, in a July 17 decision, said it rejected the protests because "the protesters are not interested parties."
Space launch producers and service providers in Europe and Russia have set up a joint venture to sell launches to low Earth orbit on the Soyuz booster, following Russian government approval of participation by its state-owned aerospace concerns.
Daimler-Benz Aerospace (DASA) briefed NATO officials here this week on a program in which Germany will use an unmanned aerial vehicle for interoperability testing with other NATO countries. DASA briefed a NATO project group here at the beginning of the annual Association of Unmanned Vehicles Systems International conference to get support for the effort, said Bert Polap, DASA's chief of reconnaissance system development. The group's purpose is to coordinate national requirements and develop a NATO requirement.
SENATE defense authorization conferees yesterday gave their House counterparts a package of proposals for settling all outstanding conference issues except the controversial veto-bait issues. One conference source characterized the Senate package as a "70 to 80% solution" of the remaining issues in the fiscal 1997 defense authorization conference. Another source called the Senate move "a serious effort," and substantially better than the usual opening compromise offers that are made early in a conference.
NASA MANAGERS at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., have recommended a Sept. 12 launch date for the Space Shuttle Atlantis, based on progress substituting solid rocket boosters made with a new water-based adhesive with boosters made the old way. The new lefthand booster will be completed this week, KSC said, and work on the righthand booster will begin next week. Concerns over hot-gas paths in the field joints of the old boosters led to the decision to make the switch, delaying astronaut Shannon Lucid's return from Russia's Mir space station by six weeks (DAILY, July 15).
FIRST MD-11 FUSELAGE built in Long Beach, Calif., has been rolled out, McDonnell Douglas said yesterday. MD-11 fuselages had been built in San Diego by Convair, which ended production last December. This led to a California Employment Training Panel contract to train Long Beach workers to build the fuselage and keep the jobs in California. MDC also said Federal Express has ordered an MD-11F freighter for delivery in November, and will operate 21 of the planes by the end of the year. FedEx is taking delivery of four MD-11s this year.
The U.S. has begun discussions with the Russian navy to improve control of nuclear materials, Dr. Stephen Younger, director of the nuclear weapons technology program at Los Alamos National Laboratory, told reporters yesterday. The talks are in early stages and center particularly on Russia's naval fleet, Younger said at a breakfast in Washington. He declined to elaborate. Younger has headed a team of U.S. nuclear scientists who have been working with their Russian counterparts on a range of projects.
NASA's Langley Research Center has a contract with Precision Standard's Pemco Aeroplex subsidiary for a period of one year, with one- year options to renew for up to five years - not a five year contract, as reported by The DAILY of July 17 (page 85). Pemco will provide maintenance services for NASA planes based at Langley in Hampton, Va.
The wing and fuselage of the Teledyne Ryan Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle were mated this week following completion of structural testing, company president Robert A.K. Mitchell said here. Mitchell said at the annual symposium of the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International that the first flight of Global Hawk, or Tier II Plus, is anticipated for December, but that this is a goal and that the flight will be driven by air vehicle readiness.
Forty-one members of Congress on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against the Clinton Administration for not adhering to direction in the fiscal year 1996 defense authorization act to develop and field theater missile defense (TMD) systems by certain dates.
British industry is anxiously awaiting key decisions on several major procurement programs - including the replacement maritime patrol aircraft, or RMPA, and the conventionally armed stand-off missile, or CASOM - as a looming parliamentary recess threatens to kick the decisions into late September.
NASA has some $3.6 billion in funds authorized by Congress but unspent, and in some programs could operate for almost a year without fresh funding from Capitol Hill, the General Accounting Office reported yesterday.
The Senate yesterday approved a $244.7 billion fiscal 1997 defense appropriations bill, but a conference committee with the House to work out differences in the House and Senate money bills won't get underway until September.
Proposals for development of a low cost system to defend against cruise missiles are being solicited by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. DARPA said in a July 18 Commerce Business Daily notice that the Low Cost Cruise Missile Defense (LCCMD) program will investigate ways that inexpensive weapons "can substantially improve the cost-per-kill against the proliferated cruise missile threat."
