Boeing Co. has chosen GEC-Marconi of the U.K. to develop the vehicle management system and avionics for its Joint Strike Fighter concept demonstration program. Boeing said yesterday that GEC-Marconi will coordinate with GEC- Marconi Avionics of Rochester, England, and Santa Monica, Calif. The vehicle management system will include the flight controls and utility controls, and the avionics will include the cockpit displays, communications, navigation and identification hardware and software, Boeing said.
The Clinton Administration's $1.3 billion fiscal 1997 Foreign Military Financing program for Egypt will allow it to continue five major programs - purchases of F-16 fighters, buys of Apache helicopters, armor modernization, Hawk missile modernization, and frigate procurement - according to testimony to a congressional committee.
General Electric and Pratt&Whitney agreed to form a separate 50/50 joint venture to work exclusively on an all-new center-line engine at thrust ratings between 72,000 lbst. and 84,000 lbst., aimed at Boeing's hoped-for growth models of the 747. In a joint statement yesterday, the companies confirmed plans to put in place a structure for the project that will follow the model set by GE's existing CFM International 50/50 venture with French enginemaker SNECMA, whose CFM56 turbofan is among the most successful commercial jet engines ever built.
The U.S. Army used a modified Hunter unmanned aerial vehicle to demonstrate a communications payload, Hunter manufacturers TRW and Israel Aircraft Industries said yesterday. The Hunter was flown on a track between two ground stations 120 kilometers apart and that had line-of-sight communications restrictions, the companies said. Duplex push-to-talk communications "were successfully conducted" between the stations, sending signals from a SINCGARS radio via the airborne payload, they said.
Taiwan would produce components of Russia's Yak-142 regional aircraft in a deal proposed by Yak Executive Vice Chairman Ramil Musin. While visiting Taipei early last month, Musin reportedly met with officials of several of Taiwan's aerospace firms to discuss the idea, saying the Yak-142 has a market potential of 1,200 units over the next 15 years in the former Soviet republics, Eastern Europe and mainland China.
The terms of Litton Industries' transaction to buy Sperry Marine Inc., a deal announced earlier this year with an investment partnership headed by former Navy Secretary John Lehman, have been amended, Litton said. Under the new agreement, Litton will pay about $158 million in cash. Initially, the companies planned a purchase price of about $160 million (DAILY, Feb. 12). Litton said yesterday that "a portion of [this] would have been paid by the issuance of approximately 2.2 million shares to Litton common stock to the seller."
Microelectronics technology that was just an engineer's dream a few years ago is entering the hardware stage at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, with shoebox-sized, fully autonomous spacecraft only a few years in the future and some JPL-developed devices already poised to challenge Japan in lucrative consumer-electronics markets.
The U.S. Air Force has, after some internal wresting, funded the AIM- 9X missile program in the outyears and the Pentagon has extended foreign comparative testing of the British Aerospace Advanced Short-Range Air-to- Air Missile (ASRAAM). The moves keep alive the U.S. short-range missile competition that is slated to lead to an engineering and manufacturing development contract next year.
Faced with $900 million shortfalls in each of the last two years of the fiscal 1998-'03 Program Objective Memorandum, the U.S. Army aviation community plans to take funds from the UH-60 Black Hawk, the CH-47 Chinook Improved Cargo Helicopter, and an assortment of other programs to meet its budgeted total obligation authority.
A top National Security Council adviser yesterday said U.S. intelligence sees "very low probability" of a missile threat to Alaska and Hawaii in the next five years, but that assessment of the North Korean Taepo Dong-2 missile program is "a much murkier issue."
The U.S. and U.K. were unable to work out a close cooperative arrangement for two future air-to-surface stand-off missile programs, but could still exchange some data if both choose the same contractor.
Pratt&Whitney began assembly of the first flight-test F119 turbofan for the F-22 Advanced Tactical Fighter, a job expected to be completed in June, the company reported. "We're right on schedule," said F119 senior VP Walter Bylciw in a prepared statement Monday. "We released the bill of material in November of '94, we began fabricating parts in January of '95, and now we're on the last lap."
Six major European arms-makers formed a consortium to bid against U.S. missile-makers Hughes Aircraft and Raytheon to supply medium-range air-to- air missiles for Britain's 230 Eurofighters, averting the possibility of a second European group. British Aerospace said yesterday that, along with partner GEC, it had agreed to join forces with Sweden's Saab, Italy's Alenia, Daimler-Benz of Germany, and France's Matra to put together a proposal in time to meet a U.K. Defense Ministry deadline of next month.
Indonesia wants 30% offsets in exchange for buying nine Lockheed Martin F-16 fighters, government officials confirmed yesterday. The official Antara news agency quoted Research and Technology Minister Jusuf Habibie as saying this week that Indonesia formally asked the U.S. to agree to offset 30% of the total cost of the aircraft, suggesting that using Indonesia's state-owned IPTN to supply components for the aircraft would be adequate to meet the offset demand.
PROGRESS M-31 cargo capsule docked with Russia's Mir space station yesterday after a Sunday launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan (DAILY, May 7). The automated spacecraft docked at 4:54 a.m. EDT.
Greenwich Air Services, whose hallmark in the 1990s has been growth through acquisition, posted record sales and profits in the second quarter thanks simply to strong sales in all four marketing and technical units of the business, the company reported. Profits at the Miami, Fla.-based company jumped 76% to $2.3 million in the quarter on sales 36% ahead of last year's pace at a record $60 million. Half-year results are even better - profits up 88% to $4.4 million on 43% stronger sales of $118.6 million.
NASA has resumed testing Pratt&Whitney's liquid hydrogen fuel turbopump for the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) Block 2 upgrade, the company reported. The U.S. space agency aborted a Stennis Space Center test of the increased-durability turbopump in January when sensors detected metal shavings in the exhaust and the system began losing power. Teardown analysis revealed some damage to the pump, according to a P&W spokesman.
Hughes and Danish Aerotech have signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a consolidated missile maintenance test center in Karup, Denmark, for maintenance of the Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM). The agreement, reached last week in Copenhagen, could lead to maintenance and repair of other missiles - TOW, Maverick, Sidewinder and Sparrow - Hughes said. The two companies will be able to "offer improved repair services with shorter turn-around-times and at extremely competitive prices," it said.
Arianespace and the Societe Europeennee des Satellites (SES) have signed a six-launch deal that will guarantee the Luxembourg-based direct- to-home satellite broadcast outlet launch availability as it completes deployment to one orbital slot and begins opening a second one. Under the deal SES will get three firm launches and three launch options between 1997 and 2000. The SES Astra platforms will fly on either an Ariane IV, which launched the first five Astra spacecraft, or the new Ariane V scheduled for its first launch later this month.
Precision Castparts Corp. is preparing to offer its vacuum-cast, nickel-based alloys and superalloys to customers throughout the U.S., a market currently estimated at $90 million. Under the name of PCC Precision Alloys, the company initially will market six nickel-based alloys in 4.25- and 6-inch diameter ingots. The company is fully certified to produce these alloys for the market place. Other alloys may be available on request, the company said.
The U.S. Air Force is considering buying its fiscal 1997 F-16 fighters with Texas Instruments' new Modular Mission Computer (MMC), rather than back-fitting later. This would be cheaper because the Air Force wouldn't have to buy hardware first and pull aircraft out of active service, an AF official told The DAILY.
The House National Security Committee added twice as much to the Pentagon's fiscal 1997 request for the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) program as the Senate Armed Services Committee, creating an issue for authorization bill conferees. HNSC boosted the program by $140 million - $65 million to the $212.7 million request for engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) for acquisition of a second radar beginning in FY '97 and $75 million to the $269 million request for demonstration and validation (demval).
To comply with congressional directives, the U.S. Air Force plans later this month to present lawmakers a six-year multi-year procurement plan for the C-17 Globemaster III airlifter that would shift buys of the final five aircraft to a two-year period beginning in fiscal 1997 - even though buying the aircraft over three years would save more money.
TRW AND THOMSON CSF have developed a new combat identification signal to reduce fratricide, TRW said yesterday. The new waveform is derived from the Battlefield Combat Identification System (BCIS) that TRW is developing for the U.S. Army and from the French Ministry of Defense's Battlefield Identification Friend or Foe (BIFF) system, it said. TRW called the development "an important first step toward development of a battlefield combat identification technique that can be used by all members of NATO coalition forces." The hybrid system was developed in nine months.
House defense authorizers have recommended establishment by the Pentagon of a new budget program element for cooperation with Russia on projects like ballistic missile defense. The House National Security Committee, in draft language accompanying its fiscal year 1997 defense bill, calls for consolidation of all existing cooperative projects within this new program element. The committee funds the new budget line at $20 million in FY '97.
