DEFENSE NUCLEAR AGENCY has been renamed Defense Special Weapons Agency, the Defense Dept. announced June 26. Harold Smith, assistant secretary of defense for nuclear, biological and chemical weapons defense programs, told The DAILY earlier that the new name will better reflect the agency's mission (DAILY April 24). The agency is headed by Maj. Gen. Gary L. Curtin.
McDonnell Douglas Corporation, McDonnell Douglas Aerospace, St. Louis, Missouri, is being awarded a $26,900,000 modification to previously awarded advanced acquisition contract N00019-95-C-0031 to provide additional funding for the Fiscal Year 97 production procurement of 18 F/A-18C aircraft for the Finnish Air Force (100%), under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) Program. Work will be performed in St. Louis, Missouri (67%), and Hawthorne, California (33%), and is expected to be completed by August 2000.
The Johns Hopkins University/Applied Physics Laboratory, of Laurel, Maryland, is being awarded a $99.5 million cost-plus- fixed-fee contract for Technical and Engineering Services in support of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization. Work will be performed at the Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. The contract has a two-year base period and three one- year options. Fiscal year (FY) 1996 and FY 1997 Research Development Test and Evaluation funds will be used for the base period. This contract is being awarded on a sole source basis.
CTA Space Systems Incorporated is being awarded a $25,170,418, McLean, Virginia, firm fixed price contract to provide for a space test mission for the Space Technology Research Vehicle 2, sponsored by the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization and the Compact Environmental Anomaly Sensor(sponsored by Phillips Laboratory, Kirtland Air Force Base New Mexico). The work will be completed at McLean Virginia (90%) and Kirtland Air Force Base (10%). Contract is expected to be completed in July 1998. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
Recently expressed concerns about the U.S. Air Force's Airborne Laser program don't reflect progress during the last few years and aren't warranted, according to ABL program manager Col. Richard Tebay. Just after leaving his post as director of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, Army Lt. Gen. Malcolm O'Neill said he was concerned about the technical "packaging" of ABL, its susceptibility to countermeasures, and the number that might be needed to defend a given area (DAILY, June 17).
Using a modified SR-71 Blackbird and air- launched expendable rockets together could dramatically cut the cost of putting small payloads into space, preliminary investigation by NASA engineers reveals.
The Defense Dept. on June 28 announced award of six contracts totaling $114 million for work on the Kiowa Warrior, Chinook and Longbow helicopter programs. It said the U.S. Army Aviation and Troop Command, St. Louis, awarded the following contracts: -- $33.7 million to Bell Helicopter Textron for Lot 13 OH-58D Kiowa Warrior production. -- $25.9 million to McDonnell Douglas Aerospace for 20 mast mount sight systems to support production Lot 13 of the Kiowa Warrior.
The Senate wrapped up work Friday on the fiscal year 1997 defense authorization bill and plans to vote on final passage of the legislation when senators return from the week-long July 4 recess. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said the Senate will vote Wednesday, July 10, on final passage of the bill, which provides $267.4 billion for FY '97 defense spending - $12.9 billion more than the White House request. No additional amendments will be offered before final passage of the bill, which President Clinton is expected to veto.
Top executives at Fairchild and Learjet have moved into top slots at the new Fairchild Dornier Luftfahrt. The shifts follow the June 5 acquisition by Fairchild Aircraft of the majority share of Dornier from Germany's Daimler-Benz Aerospace (DAILY, June 6). The following changes were announced: -- Fairchild Aircraft Chairman Carl Albert becomes chairman of the management board and managing director of Fairchild Dornier Luftfahrt. -- Harold Williams, president of Fairchild, also was named a managing director.
SENATORS WILL VOTE July 10 on final passage of the fiscal year 1987 defense authorization bill. On Friday the Senate finished with the bill, which at $267.4 billion adds $12.9 billion to the Administration's request, but left the final vote until after the Independence Day recess.
It is unlikely President Clinton will ever sign the fiscal 1997 defense authorization bill, Senate aides say. While work on the bill was slow in the Senate last week, several aides say it doesn't matter because Clinton will veto the bill regardless of when it passes Congress. In addition to realigning a number of the Administration's defense priorities, the bill adds $12.9 billion to the president's request for FY '97 defense spending. "This has been a lot of work for nothing," one Senate aide remarks.
The recently concluded and classified CIA and Defense Dept. Inspector General's investigation into the National Reconnaissance Office and its almost $4 billion in forward funding turned up several recommendations for change, says David Kier, the NRO's associate director for technology. But Kier points out that the report also reinforces some of NRO's business practices. The report says the NRO is "intensely mission driven," he says notes, and it develops its systems "with passion, record time, and minimal bureaucracy."
Russia's NPO Energomash has started testing components of the RD-180 engine selected to power Lockheed Martin's newest Atlas variant. Boris Katorgin, General Director and General Designer of the enginemaker, tells Russian reporters the testing started even though the contract for delivery of a completed engine has not been signed yet. Meanwhile, the Russian company is operating under a few separate contracts for the manufacture of units and assemblies for the new engine, and doesn't plan to start full-scale testing until November. Energomash and its U.S.
NASA's Galileo space probe got generally high marks on its first close encounter with a Jovian moon last Thursday, activating its sometimes balky tape recorder to store imagery and other data on Ganymede during a close flyby but foregoing particle field measurements because of an on-board shutdown.
Greenwich Air Services received contracts valued at $25 million from ING Aviation Lease for heavy maintenance and field support services for CF6-50 engines, which power ING's Airbus A300-B4 aircraft. In addition, Greenwich received an $8 million contract from Vanguard Airlines for heavy maintenance and field support of the carrier's JT8D-9A-15 engines, which power Boeing 737-200s.
Congressional opponents of the $10.6 billion plus-up in defense spending in the $245.2 billion House's fiscal 1997 Pentagon money bill say they were encouraged by the closeness of this year's vote on freezing defense spending and plan to try again next year. The freeze amendment, sponsored by Reps. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) and Barney Frank (D-Mass.) lost, 194-219.
Rockwell International will open a semiconductor design center in Israel, the company said yesterday. The center, in Herzliya, Israel, is an expansion of Rockwell's Semiconductor Systems Div., and will be involved in the development of communications protocols, signal-processing algorithms and semiconductor solutions for data, fax and multimedia applications, the company said.
The International Space Station may gain an extra crew member and an extra assembly flight by a U.S. Space Shuttle under the memorandum of understanding between NASA and the Russian Space Agency, now in the final stages of negotiation. Administrator Daniel S. Goldin and Yuri Koptiev, his Russian counterpart, are expected to initial the MOU in Moscow during Vice President Gore's visit there July 14-16 for another in the series of meetings he has held with Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin.
Top House Republicans are miffed that they won't get to take part in tomorrow's announcement of the winning design for NASA's X-33 reusable launch vehicle prototype, and they hint darkly the snub could cost X-33 some support. "Until now, this program has enjoyed general bipartisan support in the House and Senate," complains House Science Committee Chair Robert Walker (R-Pa.). Vice President Gore, who will make the announcement at JPL tomorrow, is termed a "johnny-come-lately" to the RLV movement by Rep. F.
Boullioun Aviation Services, Seattle-based subsidiary of Sumimoto Trust and Banking Co., ordered eight 737-300 aircraft valued at $350 million, Boeing said Thursday. The company currently leases eight 737-200s, seven 737-300s, four 737-400s and one 757 to airlines, and it manages 10 airplanes on lease for other investors.
Hughes has filed a protest with the General Accounting Office after losing the recent competition for the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile development contract to Lockheed Martin and McDonnell Douglas, a move that is likely to delay the program until November. Hughes filed the protest late Thursday, several days after receiving its debriefing on source selection criteria from the Air Force. Its bid, the AirHawk, was based on the Tomahawk cruise missile.
The BMW Rolls-Royce BR710 engine, which will power the new Gulfstream V and the Bombardier Global Express, is on schedule for European certification in August. Meanwhile, the more powerful BR715 engine, for Douglas Aircraft's MD- 95-30, is on target for its first engine run next March. The BR710 completed its fan-blade-off test recently, demonstrating the effectiveness of the containment system. Tests in June confirmed that emissions were well below International Civil Aviation Organization requirements.
The House Thursday night threw back an attempt to remove China's most favored nation (MFN) trade status, clearing the way for a pending large sale of Boeing commercial aircraft to China. The amendment to remove China's MFN status was defeated in a 141-286 vote. The Senate will not take up the measure since it was defeated in the House. China, as early as this week, is expected to announce it will buy almost $4 billion worth of commercial aircraft from Boeing, Capitol Hill aides and industry officials told The DAILY Friday.
U.S. Air Force officials say a recent General Accounting Office recommendation that the service seek infrastructure savings by increasing the size of its fighter squadrons from 18 aircraft to 24 would overburden the eight to ten people that make up a squadron's leadership.
White House officials are expected to put out a policy statement soon barring sale on the world market of satellite imagery of Israel with spy-quality resolution of less than three meters, congressional aides report. Following Senate passage of an amendment last week warning of the danger to Israel's national security due to such imagery sales (DAILY, June 27), White House officials started informally telling industry officials that the Administration agrees with the Senate and will say so in writing. The sale restriction could dampen sales for a number of U.S.
