Former Director of Central Intelligence R. James Woolsey notes that in the midst of the cutback in weapons production, the Russians are still producing Typhoon class subs and a new version of the SS-25 ICBM, which he calls "a moderate feast." Woolsey tells reporters at a House National Security Committee hearing on the outlook in Russia that the new version of the SS-25 is the more accurate Mod 2.
O'Neill says he's concerned with the "packaging" of the Air Force's Airborne Laser (ABL) technology. "It's an engineering issue...we have some technical challenges," he says. "I can't tell you today it works." Problems could surface when sophisticated countermeasures are used against an ABL, he says. There also is a question about how many ABL- equipped aircraft would be needed to defend a given area. If it is a "limited" geographical region, maybe five ABL platforms would be enough, he says. But, "if it's something large like China you have a problem."
The Swedish navy is mulling whether to buy helicopters to fly from the stealthy Corvette-type ships it is buying now, Sweden's top naval officer said. Vice Adm. Peter Norbeck, Sweden's chief of naval command, told reporters here that the stealthy ships are capable of carrying one helicopter each. The helicopter would land aft of the bridge.
The Senate gave final congressional approval to the conference report on the fiscal 1997 budget resolution Thursday by a straight party line vote of 53 Republicans to 46 Democrats. The House, where support and opposition to the resolution was less partisan, approved it Wednesday night by a vote of 216-211 with four Republicans switching their negative votes to put it over. As a congressional resolution, the measure does not go to the White House for presidential approval.
The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization should use additional funding that Congress provides above the president's request to conduct a second integrated national missile defense system test, former BMDO Director Lt. Gen. Malcolm O'Neill tells reporters. O'Neill left his post last month and retires from the Army July 1. If the one integrated system test now scheduled for some reason fails, the president will lack sufficient data to determine if and when an NMD system should be deployed, O'Neill says.
New U.S. aviation technician and training regulations - the re-written FAR Part 66 - are expected to be issued this summer as a notice of proposed rulemaking, or NRPM, and one FAA official allowed that the complicated new rules have broad implications even though existing technicians are "grandfathered."
The Army wants to apply the lessons it learns about the use of aerostats this month during the Roving Sands exercise to become a smarter buyer when it goes out to industry. "We'll use that [experience] to help us evaluate contractor proposals," Col. Herbert Carr, the joint aerostat project officer, tells The DAILY. Aerostats will be used in cruise missile defense during the annual exercise at Ft. Bliss, Tex. (DAILY, June 3). Carr says he expects the Army to be on contract for the aerostat program in about a year.
JASSM, the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile, on Thursday got its milestone 1 approval from the Office of the Secretary of Defense allowing it to proceed into the pre-engineering and manufacturing development phase. The U.S. Air Force will announce at 5 p.m. today the selection of two contractors for that phase. Hughes, Lockheed Martin, McDonnell Douglas, a Raytheon-Northrop Grumman team, and Texas Instruments are competing.
Sweden may change its command language from the traditional Swedish to English to be better positioned for joint peace-keeping missions with the United Nations, says Sweden's supreme commander, Gen. Owe Wiktorin. "We probably have to change languages," he says.
Even though Sweden has said repeatedly it can't afford to buy the attack helicopters it very much wants, U.S. and European industry are continuing efforts to sell their respective systems to the Swedish army. One of the unsolicited offers is from the French/German helicopter consortium Eurocopter, which has asked Sweden to conduct cold weather testing next winter on its Tiger attack helicopter, Lt. Gen. Mertil Melin, the top army officer here, told reporters during a press conference.
House acceptance last week of an amendment repealing the writeoff of restructuring costs could jeopardize all the restructuring bills charged to defense contracts since August 15, 1994. If the amendment survives a House-Senate conference and overcomes Defense Dept. opposition, it would apply to all restructuring costs since then including the biggest of them all, the merger of Lockheed and Martin Marietta announced in late August 1994 and consummated in the first quarter of 1995.
Lucas Aerospace will build turbojet sustainer engines for McDonnell Douglas Aerospace if Britain chooses MDC's Grand SLAM entry in the conventionally armed stand-off missile (CASOM) contest, Lucas reported Friday. Although the CASOM business alone is substantial - the Defense Ministry is expected to buy some 750 CASOMs to arm the Tornados, Harriers, Eurofighters and Sea Harriers - the company acknowledged that McDonnell Douglas' selection of Lucas could also give it a strategic advantage in future competitions.
The Societe Europeenne des Satellites has exercised a second option to launch one of its Astra direct broadcast satellites on a Russian Proton booster, the International Launch Services (ILS) consortium of Lockheed Martin and Russian rocketmakers reported Friday.
Engineers on the International Space Station project were closing in on a fix Friday for the pressurization problems that surfaced last month on the two U.S. nodes, with the likely solution the addition of struts to strengthen the structure. W. Michael Hawes, chief Station engineer at NASA headquarters, said Boeing was scheduled to brief Johnson Space Center Director George Abbey Friday on its proposal to stiffen the node structures with struts running diagonally between the nodes' square ports.
Russia's independent NTV plans to start offering five satellite TV direct-broadcasting channels by this September, using funds raised through the sale of 30% of the network's stock to Gazprom Russian Joint-Stock Company. NTV is going to use the two Russian-made Gals direct- broadcasting satellites orbited in 1994 and 1995, broadcasting to homes equipped with about $150 worth of receiving equipment. Alexey Tsyvarev, NTV's chief producer, tells reporters in Moscow in the current economic environment the monthly user fee must not exceed $10 per channel.
Sen. Larry Pressler (R-S.D.) asked the White House to impose sanctions on China and Pakistan in response to reports alleging that M-11 missiles purchased by Pakistan from the Chinese are now operational. "Any attempt to ship military technology and equipment to Pakistan - via the so-called Brown amendment - should be stopped immediately," Pressler said in a June 12 letter to President Clinton.
NASA has made concessions to Russian on the composition of crews on the International Space Station. Yuri Koptiev, head of the Russian Space Agency, tells Izvestia that during the first years of operation there will be an equal number of Russian cosmonauts and American astronauts on the Station. The crew commander will not necessarily be an American, with the choice instead made on a case-by-case basis depending on the mission.
Tracor's Tracor Aerospace subsidiary acquired Codar Technology's Systems Integration Div., Tracor reported without disclosing financial terms. "Our acquisition of the Codar Systems Integration Div. is a continuation of Tracor's strategy to make attractive acquisitions during the current industry consolidation," said Tracor Aerospace President George R. Melton in a prepared statement issued Thursday.
Sweden is testing different types of unmanned aerial vehicles that will mainly support its intelligence battalions and divisions, says Lt. Gen. Mertil Melin, the top Army officer. Sweden's main interest is in the sensors, not the platforms, with particular interest in electro-optical and infra-red systems, he says. Sweden is also considering cooperative work with Finland and Germany, Melin says.
SYSTEM RESEARCH AND APPLICATIONS, Arlington Va., won a $929 million contract from the U.S. Air Force's Electronic Systems Center for Integration for Command, Control, Communication, Computers and Intelligence (IC4I).
The House yesterday cut the fiscal 1997 defense appropriations bill by $508 million to $245.3 billion, and agreed to an amendment repealing a law that permits the Defense Dept. to pay restructuring costs of defense industry mergers and acquisitions. By a vote of 396-25, the House accepted the amendment by House Appropriations defense subcommittee chairman Rep. C.W. (Bill) Young (R- Fla.) to cut funding by $508 million to conform to the budget resolution conference report.
The Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee will mark up the fiscal 1997 defense appropriations bill next Wednesday, committee sources said yesterday. A planned appearance of Defense Secretary William J. Perry as the windup witness before the markup will be put off until next month, they said.
U.S. ARMY Communications and Electronics Command is soliciting industry for a light infrared transmitter for the AN/ALQ-144 countermeasures system. "The drawings for this acquisition are classified, only those contractors eligible to receive and store classified documents should request a solicitation package," CECOM, Ft. Monmouth, N.J., said in a June 13 Commerce Business Daily notice, adding that "There is a 150% option with this acquisition."
BOEING CO. is developing technology to allow large numbers of unmanned strike aircraft to enter combat under guidance of a mission control plane. The company said the Control Augmentation and Task Allocation (CATA) concept, on which it has been working for three years, will be a component in designing and developing vehicles such as unmanned fighters. "We're looking at some very real advantages for the warfighter with this system," said Dave Churchman, a Boeing Defense&Space Group engineer.
U.S. ARMY Space and Strategic Defense Command solicited industry interest in a June 7 Commerce Business Daily notice "for the development and continued operation of the Anti-Radiation Missile (ARM) Countermeasure Evaluator (ACE) facility located in the [its] Advanced Research Center (ARC)...." It said the "facility is a hardware-in-the-loop (HWIL) Anti- Radiation Missile (ARM) countermeasure electronic warfare (EW) test bed/simulator which is used to develop radar survivability features to defeat and or mitigate the ARM threat."
