Obey sees the "unreality" of the situation continuing well beyond FY '97 if Congress and the White House persist in trying to balance the budget over seven years, no matter which budget-balancing plan ultimately is adopted. "The DOD bill pretends that we can buy a number of new weapon systems in the early years, and then avoid canceling a lot of contracts in the out-years when we hit the budget ceilings that are very much lower than in the early years," Obey says. "That obviously is not possible, so we're delaying confronting reality."
The Hungarian government has decided to delay its decision on whether to buy new fighters until next year, an official at the Hungarian embassy in Washington said. He told The DAILY that cost and the issue of NATO membership both played a role in the move. A decision is expected in the spring or summer of next year.
Meanwhile, the Senate Armed Services Committee's Ranking Democrat, Sam Nunn (Ga.), plans to offer an amendment to the bill that would alter the language on missile defense. "If Nunn offers his amendment, Democrats can be guaranteed they will see Defend America Act offered as a second degree amendment to the Nunn amendment," one GOP aide says. Regardless of how the missile defense fight makes its way to the Senate floor, there's a threat that the authorization bill, like last year, could get hung up for several days.
The House Intelligence Committee expects in the next week or two to pass its legislation directing reforms of the intelligence community. Staffers are tweaking the language, an aide says. After the committee signs off, the House National Security Committee, which has jurisdiction over some matters in the bill, will have up to 30 days to review the legislation. Intelligence Committee leaders plan to pass the bill on the House floor and then append it to the FY '97 Intelligence Authorization bill, passed by the House last month, to facilitate conference with the Senate.
Aviation support and parts specialist UNC Inc. closed this week on its $150 million buy of Garrett Aviation Services, immediately after winning antitrust regulators' blessing for the deal by selling off a key business jet engine repair line to rival Sabreliner. The company contended Thursday that the purchase firmly establishes UNC as the world's largest independent aviation services company, with annual revenues approaching $1 billion just in the aftermarket segment alone.
Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), chairman of the House National Security research and development subcommittee, warned that the ballistic missile threat posed by instability in the Russian military "is real," and leaves the U.S. with no means to control the sale of Russian technology.
KOREAN AIR LINES has become the first customer of the new Airbus A330-200, ordering two for delivery in August and September 1998. The carrier earlier ordered seven A330-300s, slated for delivery beginning in mid-1977. It also holds options on 10 more of both versions. Pratt&Whitney is supplying the engines.
To cope with defense spending cutbacks, Raytheon offered last week to buy out 4,400 hourly employees in Massachusetts as an alternative to layoffs. But it wasn't clear Friday how many total jobs the company hopes to eliminate, nor whether management will go ahead with layoffs if not enough workers accept the buyout offer. "We need to remain as sharp and competitive as possible given the decline in defense budgets and given the competition we face from other firms," said a Raytheon spokesman.
The Air Force's $2.5 billion national missile defense plan appears to have underestimated the cost of the kinetic kill vehicle "by approximately a factor of five," and the Army's three NMD deployment options, ranging from $3.5 billion to $5 billion, have a "high risk" schedule estimate, Congress has been told by Lt. Gen. Malcolm R. O'Neill, who retired Friday as director of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization.
Britain is committed to cooperating with the U.S. on development of the Joint Strike Fighter because that may be the only way to replace its Harriers, says James Arbuthnot, Britain's military procurement chief. "I don't believe that other European countries are interested in STOVL aircraft," he tells reporters in Washington. The U.S.-U.K. option is, therefore, "the best chance" to replace the Harrier.
Capitol Hill appropriations panels are beginning to mark up their fiscal 1997 spending bills, but absent a final budget resolution the bill-writing may be nothing more than theater. Wisconsin Rep. David R.
O'Neill is also critical of the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on threats. He tells reporters the NIE shouldn't show a single year as the time when a threat will materialize. "Anybody who gives you a single number is making it up," he says. The most recent NIE says a threat to the U.S. from ballistic missile attack is 15 years away. The work that went into the NIE was "fair" and "impartial," O'Neill says, but he doesn't think it was comprehensive, and has asked for another estimate. "It was unscientific," he says. "I'm a scientist.
Pentagon procurement chief Paul G. Kaminski says the Pentagon now expects to achieve $130 million more than the $895 million originally projected for a seven-year buy of the remaining 80 C-17 airlifters.
TEXAS INSTRUMENTS said its board of directors designated William P. (Pat) Weber as president and chief executive officer until the company names a successor to Jerry R. Junkins, who died suddenly of cardiac arrest Tuesday while on a business trip in Europe. Junkins, 58, had been president and CEO since 1985 and chairman since 1988. In 1993, TI established an office of the chief executive, comprised of Junkins and Vice Chairmen Weber and William B. Mitchell.
The U.S. Navy this week controlled a Predator unmanned aerial vehicle from a submarine for the first time in tests aimed at evaluating how UAVs can support submarine operations. In the test series that began Wednesday, a Predator took off from San Clemente Island off San Diego and flew to the attack submarine USS Chicago, which took control of the UAV, according to a Defense Dept. official. Control was returned to the ground station on San Clemente for landing.
PACER SYSTEMS INC., Panama City, Fla., is in line for a follow-on, sole source U.S. Navy award for engineering and technical services supporting the Surface Ship Torpedo Defense (SSTD) and Special Vehicles Program at the Naval Coastal Systems Station, Dahlgren Div. in Panama City. A May 30 Commerce Business Daily notice from the Navy unit said Pacer and its subcontractor team have "developed a detailed knowledge of these programs through the support they have provided" to date.
The House Intelligence Committee, in its fiscal year 1997 intelligence authorization bill, expresses concerns about the current and long-term capability of airborne signals intelligence (SIGINT) reconnaissance assets. Past upgrade developments have been "inadequately coordinated" between the services and defense agencies, the committee says.
U.S. MARINE Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron-2's EA-6B aircraft have been 100% operational at Aviano AB, Italy, since arriving there in March, according to the Marine Corps. The planes are supporting Operation Joint Endeavor over Bosnia-Herzegovina. VMAQ-2 "aircrews have fired more than 500 chaff rounds and 300 flares for training and operational purposes" in missions over the area, the Marines said. The unit is slated to return to MCAS Cherry Point in September.
House Appropriations VA, HUD and independent agencies subcommittee members yesterday voted $14.162 billion for NASA in fiscal 1997, rejecting a move to terminate the International Space Station but trimming $220 million from the agency's Mission to Planet Earth (MTPE) program.
The Defense Dept., sidestepping a potential controversy with Congress, has designated the multi-billion dollar Joint Strike Fighter as a major acquisition program, Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), chairman of the House National Security research and development subcommittee, said yesterday. The designation opens the multi-service program to greater scrutiny in the Pentagon and in Congress.
Romania's state-controlled Romaero agreed to supply components to Bombardier of Canada for Canadair's CL-415 amphibious fire-fighting water- bomber, Romaero reported this week. Canadair will assemble Romaero front fuselage sub-assemblies in Montreal, and Romaero has already started putting its CL-415 component production line in place and upgrading its tooling and equipment.
The U.S. Army has briefed senior Defense Dept. officials on a plan for national missile defense system that would cost $3.5 billion - well under the $5 billion cost of its original plan and more competitive with the Air Force's $2.5 billion approach. The new Army plan was reported by Army Space and Strategic Defense Commander Lt. Gen. Jay M. Garner in a May 21 letter to House National Security Committee Chairman Rep. Floyd Spence (R-S.C.). A copy of the letter was obtained by The DAILY.
Litton Industries enjoyed strong profit and revenue growth in its third fiscal quarter thanks to a growth-through-acquisition strategy to which Chairman John Leonis said the company remains committed. "During the first nine months of our fiscal year we have significantly expanded both the size and capabilities of our businesses through acquisition," Leonis said Wednesday in a prepared statement detailing the financial results.
DIAGNOSTIC/RETRIEVAL SYSTEMS INC., Parsippany, N.J., said its DRS Military Systems unit will produce additional AN/SQR-17A Sonar Signal Processing Systems for the U.S. Navy's Mobile Inshore Undersea Warfare System and supply related services under a $17.8 million contract. The system uses electronically equipped vans to help defend harbors and coastal regions, as well as for area surveillance during amphibious operations.
FIRST AIR FORCE CREW to fly EA-6B Prowler aircraft will graduate June 6 from a Navy training unit at NAS Whidbey Island, Wash., and join one of five new joint Navy/Air Force squadrons operating the planes. Under current plans, one Air Force crew of four will be assigned to each operational squadron, and another will be in training at all times, the AF said. Next month, it said, the first four aircrews will graduate from the EA-6B Fleet Replacement Squadron, with seven more in training.
