"Spaceway" control is sure to be a growing concern as "Big and Little LEO" communications satellite constellations proliferate in low Earth orbit, industry representatives tell the FAA, and at least two companies already are working together to keep their satellites from colliding. Engineers working on Motorola's 66-satellite Iridium Big LEO voice communications system and on Orbcomm's 36-satellite Little LEO data relay system have discussed orbital parameters in an effort to deconflict their constellations.
The German Air Force is slated to host an activation ceremony for its Tactical Training Center (TTC) at Holloman AFB, N.M., on May 1. The TTC will be the only unit of its kind in the U.S. and will serve as the parent command for two German aircrew training units, the F-4 Training Squadron and the Tornado Training Squadron. Twelve Tornado aircraft initially will be assigned to the TTC, arriving by early summer. Once on line, the Tornados will fly about 2,500 sorties each year, according to the U.S. Air Force.
Two C-17 aircraft commanders have become the first U.S. Air Force pilots to log more than 1,000 flying hours in the airlifter, McDonnell Douglas reported. Lt. Col. Randy Sadler and Lt. Col. Paul Sykes, attached to units at Charleston AFB, S.C., both exceeded 1,000-hour mark, it said.
McDONNELL DOUGLAS shareholders will see a two-for-one stock split on May 10, after approving Friday an increase in the company's authorized common stock from 200 million to 400 million shares. Investors will get one share of common stock for each share they already hold.
Secretary of Defense William Perry Friday ordered the Army, Navy, and Air Force to begin an accelerated program to add Global Positioning System gear and flight data recorders (FDRs) to their aircraft in response to the fatal crash of a T-43 earlier this month that killed Commerce Secretary Ron Brown.
CTA INC. AND HUGHES will provide engineering and technical services to support the use of satellite technology in U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration operations. The five-year contract calls for the two companies to develop and fabricate devices for DEA, analyze advanced satellite technology applications, and carry out research and development studies. It has indefinite requirements for delivery and quantity and does not have a specified value, according to CTA. Instead, work assignments will be competed between the two companies.
Pentagon Comptroller John Hamre expressed concern about intelligence reform plans being promoted on Capitol Hill, saying they would hurt warfighters. Hamre, addressing an Association of Old Crows conference in Arlington, Va., on Thursday, said the Administration's intelligence proposal "is a carefully crafted compromise." Emphasizing that he was expressing his personal views, he conceded that President Clinton has "a much more limited proposal" than some of the ideas being promoted by the Senate and House intelligence committees.
HONEYWELL SPACE SYSTEMS will provide hardware for the International Space Station Payload Software Integration and Verification Facility (PSIVF) under an undefinitized letter contract/authorization to proceed issued by Boeing, prime contractor on the International Station. Under the agreement Honeywell will supply seven Enhanced Space Station Multiplexers/Demultiplexers flight equivalency units, plus spares, for simulating Station payload interfaces in ground tests.
The U.S., however, won't reduce its weaponry below START I levels until START II is ratified by the Russians, Carter says. He hopes START II will be completely implemented by 2005, and that the U.S. by then will have begun to pay greater attention to cutting non-strategic nuclear forces.
The Russians can start implementing the START II arms reduction treaty by 2003, says Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Ashton Carter, adding that U.S. officials believe the Russians will ratify START II after their summer elections. Some Democrats in Congress worry their Republican colleagues' position on ballistic missile defense may impede START II ratification. But Carter says the Administration believes the Russians will ratify the treaty, and the U.S. is willing to provide assistance to them to make it happen.
FAIRCHILD AIRCRAFT said it is negotiating to acquire control of Dornier Luftfahrt GmbH from Daimler-Benz Aerospace. The announcement confirms reports in the German press earlier this week that San Antonio-based Fairchild was one of 12 aviation firms vying for the regional turboprop manufacturer. There was no immediate indication whether the factory would be moved from Germany to the U.S., and no additional information about the transaction. Fairchild would benefit with the addition of a 30-passenger turboprop to its product line.
Identifying deep underground targets continues to be a problem for the U.S. military despite technological advancements to solve the problem, according to Donald C. Latham, vice president of command, control, communication, computers and intelligence (C4I) for Loral Corp. Latham, a member of the Pentagon's Defense Science Board and a former assistant secretary of defense for C4I, said "We keep finding them [underground targets] and we know there are more."
A $373.7 million cut to NASA's Mission To Planet Earth included in the House Science Committee's fiscal 1997 markup of the space agency's budget could be "devastating" to the Earth Observing System (EOS) program, Administrator Daniel S. Goldin told Congress yesterday.
Although substantial savings are expected from the Pentagon's acquisition reform efforts, the savings from ongoing initiatives may be significantly less than the 18% expected, the General Accounting Office reports. As of Dec. 31, 1995, the 10 contractors involved in DOD's Reducing Oversight Cost Reinvention Laboratory had targeted activities to reform DOD's requirements that would achieve only a 1% savings, GAO says.
Congress is likely to increase the Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office's funding for RC-135 Rivet Joint aircraft and U-2 sensor upgrades, but may take money for other efforts out of its program, a senior DARO official said. The Pentagon is buying its 15th and 16th Rivet Joints and is slated to receive No. 16 next year. But Terry Ryan, DARO's deputy for plans and policy said yesterday that it looks like Congress is "going to give it to us a year early."
U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Dennis J. Reimer told a key Senate subcommittee Wednesday that a budget increase of $2 billion would essentially meet the service's modernization needs in fiscal 1997, although the Army submitted to Congress a hardware-dominated wish list calling for add-ons of more than $7.1 billion.
The U.S. and Russia are slated to conduct a joint theater missile defense exercise at the Joint National Test Facility in Colorado Springs, Colo., in June, Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Ashton Carter said yesterday. U.S. and Russian military planners have held five meetings to iron out plans for the exercise, he said.
U.S. and Russian negotiators will soon sign the first written agreement governing which low-velocity theater missile defense (TMD) systems the two nations will be permitted to develop and deploy, a top Pentagon official said yesterday. Ashton Carter, assistant secretary of defense for international security policy, explained that under the agreement, TMD systems with interceptors that have a three-kilometer per second velocity or lower will be allowed.
WITH HALF A YEAR LEFT before completion of an 18-month effort to define "the Air Force after next," the general chosen to head the job has been named to a post at the Central Intelligence Agency. The Pentagon yesterday announced that Maj. Gen. John A. Gordon has been nominated for promotion to lieutenant general and appointment to the position of associate director of Central Intelligence for Military Support at CIA. Gordon was picked by Air Force Chief of Staff Gen.
The Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency are likely to modify the second DarkStar unmanned aerial vehicle to replace the one destroyed in a test flight this week, according to Terry Ryan, DARO deputy for plans and programs. DarkStar No. 2 was slated for pole-testing and would require modifications to be made airworthy, Ryan said yesterday after an Association of Old Crows conference in Arlington, Va. He said he wants the second vehicle flying "as soon as possible."
Although the final decision for the B-1B defensive system upgrades program won't have be made until later this year, Col. Jack Booher, the U.S. Air Force's electronic warfare acquisition chief, said yesterday that the Integrated Defensive Electronic Countermeasures program probably will be selected. "IDECM is the apparent winner based on studies right now," Booher said yesterday at an Association of Old Crows symposium in Arlington, Va. "It will become increasingly difficult not to use it," he said.
Appropriations conferees okayed Air Force plans for a multi-year buy of McDonnell Douglas C-17 airlifters, but want more savings than the $895 million promised under a seven-year buy and told program officials to start talks with the contractor team for an accelerated, six-year multi-year procurement (MYP) of the final 80 airlifters.
The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization has supplied the congressional defense committees with a "wish list" of $935 million in added fiscal 1997 funding, congressional sources revealed yesterday. The '97 request is $2.8 billion.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN said its Electronic Sensors and Systems Div., Baltimore, working under a contract from the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program office, has demonstrated technologies that will benefit low-power radio frequency avionics. It said ESSD, through the JSF RF Miniature Filter project, has "designed a generic miniature filter multi-chip module that is expected to cut RF support electronics production costs by 30%, operations and support costs by 64% and line replaceable module life cycle costs by 20%."
Northwest Airlines on Tuesday confirmed a $1 billion order for 20 Airbus Industrie A320 single-aisle jetliners powered by CFM International CFM56 turbofans, a move which will make the carrier the world's largest A320 operator. The carrier said in February it wanted to buy the planes, but only just placed the firm order. The bulk of the aircraft - 13 - will be delivered in 1998, with the remainder in 1999.
