Congress increased the Administration's fiscal year 1996 intelligence budget request last year for the first time in many years and now there's talk on Capitol Hill about an increase to the FY '97 request, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Larry Combest (R-Tex.) said Friday. The goal isn't just to make an increase, but rather to ensure that the proper priorities within the budget are supported, Combest explained at a defense writers' breakfast in Washington.
India launched a new Earth remote sensing satellite atop the third and final developmental version of its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV- D3), according to news accounts from New Delhi. The IRS-P3 platform was placed in a sun synchronous orbit with an altitude of 584 miles. Liftoff came at 10:23 a.m. local time Thursday from the Shar Center in Shriharikota (11:53 p.m. Wednesday EST).
Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), who met with U.S. and Russian negotiators a week ago at a meeting of the Standing Consultative Commission in Geneva, feels there's no compelling reason for the U.S. to continue to negotiate with Russia and other states to reach agreement on demarcation between strategic missile defense systems and theater systems.
U.S. military commanders-in-chief have told Congress they support the Pentagon's restructure of theater missile defense programs, a move that has been harshly criticized by some Republican members of Congress.
There may be another X-vehicle in NASA's future. Administrator Dan Goldin says if the Mach 17 suborbital X-33 doesn't "retire the risk" perceived by the investment community in backing a reusable launch vehicle, "maybe we have to build an X-vehicle that goes to Mach 25 and goes to orbit full-scale, and then maybe we'll be ready for the investment community." Goldin tells the House Appropriations VA, HUD and independent agencies that an orbital X-vehicle would cost "a few billion dollars, and not $10 billion."
The Clinton Administration plans to spend $254.4 billion on national defense in fiscal 1997, the White House said last week upon release of the budget request for the entire federal government. The Pentagon's budget was released two weeks ago (DAILY, March 4). A White House spokeswoman said total budget authority for defense in '97 is estimated at $254.4 billion. Defense outlays in FY '97 are estimated to be $258.7 billion.
The request for proposals for concept demonstration of the Joint Strike Fighter, released Friday, shows an increase of 162 in the notional buy of JSFs for the U.S. Air Force.
NASA's Ames Research Center may be in line to get new computational fluid dynamics capabilities now that the White House has decided not to go ahead with the National Wind Tunnel Complex (DAILY, Feb. 26). Administrator Dan Goldin says "minor upgrades" in wind tunnels at Ames, combined with "some major new computational fluid dynamics tools, could help with the design verification of new aircraft. Meanwhile Robert E. Whitehead, associate administrator for aeronautics, will try to lure U.S.
The Pentagon wants to launch two new efforts involving commercial technology in fiscal 1997, Pentagon acquisition chief Paul Kaminski said during a Senate subcommittee hearing. He told the Senate Armed Services acquisition and technology subcommittee on March 20 that the Defense Dept. has requested $250 million for the Dual Use Application Program (DUAP) and $50 million for the Commercial Technology Insertion Program (CTIP).
LOCKHEED MARTIN Tactical Aircraft Systems, Fort Worth, Tex., has received an additional $9.5 million from the U.S. Air Force for support of electronic countermeasures testing and evaluation at the Air Force Electronic Warfare Evaluation Simulator (AFEWS). The contract was awarded March 15 by the AF's Development Test Center, Eglin AFB, Fla.
Combest says he wants to make sure control of intelligence systems is properly dispersed in the intelligence community. With a fleet of UAVs, for example, it won't matter which agency actually owns them because another one may be responsible for tasking. No single agency will control "all the toys," he says. Combest wants to see "more portable" intelligence systems, and UAVs are a "fairly cheap" investment and "very portable."
John W. Douglass, Navy assistant secretary for research, development and acquisition, tells the Senate Armed Services Committee that his aim is to duplicate in the arsenal ship program his experience in the F-117A development program. In that program, existing systems and components were used to hold costs down, and two F-117 squadrons were operational in six years. "We have set a goal" of designing and constructing the first ship for $550 million, Douglass says. The Navy wants four to six of the ships, which would launch precision guided weapons.
France may change its mind and restore funding for its share of the Future Large Airlifter, so long as designers move toward a cheaper, more off-the-shelf approach, French defense chief Charles Millon told reporters in Paris last week. "Everything is open," Millon said, according to an account of Millon's press conference carried by the Reuter news agency. "Currently, detailed negotiations are going on with Aerospatiale and European aeronautical consortiums."
Confronted by House defense appropriators unsatisfied with the $896 million in savings that a seven-year buy of the C-17 is projected to yield, McDonnell Douglas has provided a plan that accelerates the multi-year procurement and saves an added $300 million. Meanwhile, the U.S. Air Force briefed House defense authorizers on Friday on another plan to accelerate the C-17 buy, expected to yield savings as well.
The U.S. Army on Friday failed in a second attempt to intercept a target rocket with a THAAD missile. The service said the Theater High Altitude Area Defense interceptor "failed to execute in-flight command and control functions" during a test Friday at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. Range safety concerns prompted destruction of the THAAD after it missed its target, a Hera rocket.
The U.S. Air Force in September will release a request for proposal for four pre-production verification F-22 fighters and 12 F119 PPV engines that will be delivered in June 2000 for initial operational test and evaluation, according to notices in the March 20 issue of Commerce Business Daily.
U.S. Transportation Command Chief Gen. Robert L. Rutherford yesterday repeated calls for a buy of C-17 airlifters beyond the currently planned fleet of 120, this time on Capitol Hill. "It is my personal view that 120 C-17s is the absolute minimum, and I would expect we end up buying some more before its over," he told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Having completed the first phase of flight control tests of the F-22 fighter using the F-16/VISTA simulation aircraft, the U.S. Air Force describes overall handling qualities of the next-generation fighter as "satisfactory" and says power approach characteristics are "excellent."
NASA may consolidate as many as a dozen space operations contracts worth $500 million to $600 million at four field centers as it tries to cut $850 million from its long-term budget through management efficiencies. Representatives of both traditional NASA contractors and newcomers to the space business met at the agency's Washington headquarters yesterday to discuss plans for what Administrator Daniel S. Goldin has called "a major competition for the space operations."
Valentin Smirnov, head of the Russian design bureau that developed the S-300 surface-to-air missile, was killed by an unknown assailant early Wednesday in what the Russian press says could have been a business-related assassination. Smirnov, 62, was shot in the head outside his apartment in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg, site of the Novator weapons design bureau that he headed. Police were mum on a possible motive, according to reports from Moscow, but the Kommersant Daily newspaper reported it could have been business-related.
President Clinton has directed the U.S. Air Force to modify a B-2 test bomber to the operational configuration, boosting the projected force of 20 of the combat-ready planes by one, the Dept. of Defense announced yesterday. Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.), the Republican party's 1996 presidential hopeful, immediately charged Clinton with using the program to gain votes in California, home of B-2 prime contractor Northrop Grumman. A Northrop Grumman spokesman said, however, that the work wouldn't preserve the stealth bomber workforce.
The Pentagon is considering establishment of a center that would steer the Defense Dept.'s modeling and simulating efforts in the area of command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR), a U.S. Air Force general said yesterday. Brig. Gen. Tom Case, AF director of modelling and simulation, said several studies are underway at the Pentagon to address some of the C4SI challenges faced by modeling and simulation.
The terrain following/terrain avoidance radar of the U.S. Air Force's MC- 130H aircraft couldn't be formally certified for operational use even though it met all performance requirements, an Air Force official said. Col. Rodney B. Earehart, chief for acquisition management for the AF's Special Operations Command, told The DAILY that the MC-130H TF/TA radar "performed all aspects of the TMP [test master plan]." It met the requirement to operate in all kinds of weather, including rainfall of 10 millimeters an hour.
The Joint Strike Fighter program office has resolved a dispute over the release of proprietary Lockheed Martin data, and plans today to release the request for proposal for the concept demonstration phase, a spokeswoman for the program office said yesterday. The office said the protest has been rescinded, but didn't elaborate.
Boeing and the U.S. Air Force's Phillips Laboratory agreed to work together on developing new kinds of space technologies, and top company executives expect more specific deals - including formal Cooperative Research and Development Agreements, or CRADAs - to follow shortly. Signed by senior AF and Boeing executives, the partnership arrangement is being described by Boeing as an "alliance," which will last for two years.
