Raytheon Co. will develop a seeker for the Patriot missile that will allow it to counter cruise missiles. The company said the U.S. Army will spend $35 million in R&D funds on the program in fiscal 1996 as the first phase of a $75 million effort. A $9.4 million contract awarded March 6 is the initial funding increment and supports immediate engineering development of the seeker.
Companies able to produce some 730 GPS/Instrument Navigation kits for all models of the F-15 fighter are being sought by the U.S. Air Force's Aeronautical Systems Center. The Wright-Patterson AFB center said in a March 7 Commerce Business Daily notice that it is seeking "sources able to produce retrofit kits for the Embedded Global Positioning System (GPS)/Instrument Navigation System (INS) (EGI) program for the F-15 A/B/C/D/E aircraft."
A single contract to McDonnell Douglas for production of eight C-17 airlifters pushed U.S. defense procurement to $5.72 billion last month, a sharp increase from the previous month's total of $3.9 billion. MDC received $1.877 billion from the Air Force's Aeronautical Systems Center on Feb. 23, the same day United Technologies received $159.4 million from ASC for C-17 engines.
Former astronaut Bryan O'Connor quit last month as NASA's Space Shuttle director and left the agency because he was worried a shift in Shuttle program management could resurrect problems blamed in the 1986 Challenger disaster. O'Connor broke the silence he had kept since his resignation was announced last month (DAILY, Feb. 5) in an unusual interview with the Los Angeles Times published yesterday.
The U.S. Air Force has cut about $10 million out of its planned fiscal year 1997 budget request for F-117 Night Hawks and has decided to slip or cut entirely a number of upgrades planned for the stealth fighter.
Ballistic Missile Defense Organization Director Lt. Gen. Malcolm O'Neill yesterday raised the price tag for a "thin" national missile defense system to $7 billion-$8 billion, up from the $5 billion maximum figure cited by advocates of making a deployment decision now. Air Force Brig. Gen. John Hawley, who testified with O'Neill, told a joint hearing of the House National Security Committee's procurement and research and development subcommittees that a breakthrough in the Airborne Laser (ABL) program will permit the AF to field the system.
The House last evening was expected to pass the Balanced Budget Downpayment Act II, an omnibus package containing supplemental funding for military operations in Bosnia and $70 million to allow for the transfer of 12 F-16 fighters to Jordan. House appropriators cut in half the Administration's request for $140 million in supplemental funding to pay for the F-16 deal (DAILY, March 7).
Instead of using the $493 million Congress appropriated in the fiscal year 1996 defense bill as long-lead money for additional B-2 bombers, the Pentagon wants to use the money to buy spare parts and shore up a $125 million cost overrun debt, Pentagon Comptroller John Hamre told members of the House Appropriations national security subcommittee yesterday.
AIRBUS INDUSTRIE said Russian flag carrier Aeroflot will lease four more A310-300 airliners, giving it ten of the planes. Aeroflot will also receive an A310 simulator, Airbus said.
Raytheon and Northrop Grumman have joined forces to compete for the U.S. Air Force-led Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) development program, a contract for which is slated to be awarded later this year. Raytheon will be the prime contractor and have system integration responsibility and Northrop Grumman will provide the missile's airframe. The companies plan to bid "a low-cost, production derivative" of Northrop Grumman's Tri-Service Standoff Attack Missile, the AGM-137, Raytheon said yesterday.
An apparently minor computer problem aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia could force managers to order a costly diversion of today's planned landing from Kennedy Space Center, Fla., to Edwards AFB, Calif., but the seven-man crew was not considered in unusual danger yesterday.
JAST PROGRAM OFFICE has delayed by about one week the release of the request for proposal for concept demonstration, a program spokeswoman said yesterday. The RFP was slated for release yesterday, but will now be released once the source selection plan is approved. The upcoming source selection will eliminate one of the three weapon system prime contractors - Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and a McDonnell Douglas/Northrop Grumman/British Aerospace team are competing - before the concept demonstration phase begins in October.
Rollout of the first production Anglo-Italian EH101 helicopter took place March 6 at GKN Westland's Yeovil, England, plant. The helicopter was one of 44 ordered by the U.K.'s Royal Navy. Westland said it has confirmed orders for more than 80 EH101s, and that "international sales prospects look extremely positive."
The Pentagon's fiscal year 1997 budget request funds two boost phase intercept (BPI) approaches, keeping alive hopes for a system that can intercept an enemy missile while it is still in the boost phase. The U.S. Air Force budget contains $775 million over the future years defense plan for an airborne laser demonstration, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology Paul Kaminski told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday.
Taiwan's military-run Aero Industry Development Center has been awarded a contract to manufacture tail fins for the MD-95 regional jet. An AIDC official said the contract, signed by AIDC Deputy Director Wang Shih- sheng Feb. 29, could create as many as 500 new jobs and be worth as much as US$73 million. AIDC, which is to be restructured into a state-run corporation this year, previously has been selected to build parts for the F-16 fighter and for Dassault's Falcon passenger aircraft.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN CORP. has launched a six-month program to prove that commercial practices can be used to produce major components of the Air Force/McDonnell Douglas C-17 airlifter. The effort, at Northrop Grumman's Vought Center in Dallas, is intended to cut the amount of government oversight by using oversight methods similar to those applied to commercial aircraft manufacturing, the company said yesterday.
The U.S. and U.K. governments are preparing a contingency agreement to merge the British Conventially Armed Standoff Missile (CASOM) program and the U.S. Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Attack Missile (JASSM) program. "The U.S. and U.K. are beginning negotiations on a contingency MOU that outlines a framework for cooperation in the event the same U.S. contractor is selected for both programs," the U.S. Air Force said yesterday in a written response to questions.
The Defense Dept. decided against launching a full blown Navy Upper Tier missile defense program because kill vehicle technology isn't mature enough and because of the potential for international cooperation down the line, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology Paul Kaminski told the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday.
International Lease Finance Corp. placed 38 firm orders and eight options for Airbus Industrie airliners and 18 orders and two options for Boeing airliners.
U.S. commercial aircraft manufacturers are on the "threshold of a long, sustained period of increasing sales," with "even the long-dormant general aviation sector showing signs of growth," FAA Administrator David Hinson said. Deliveries are expected to double by 2002 or 2003, "then double again within 20 years," Hinson said Tuesday at the Federal Aviation Administration's 21st Annual Commercial Aviation Forecast Conference in Washington.
Technology advances needed to make NASA's proposed "Origins" extra- solar planet-finder work will "revolutionize" the U.S. semiconductor industry, Administrator Daniel S. Goldin said yesterday, suggesting that the industrial spinoff effect could pay for the 21st century mission
ASSURANCE TECHNOLOGY CORP., Carlisle, Mass., has won a $42.6 million engineering design and development contract from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory "to optimize operational [space and avionics] systems and to advance new concept development for future generations of" such systems.
The U.S. Air Force decision to request procurement money for only one C-130J airlifter in its fiscal year 1997 budget submission released earlier this week means it will buy 13 of the aircraft through fiscal year 2002, rather than 14 as once planned.
ALLIED SIGNAL AEROSPACE has been chosen to modernize avionics of C-130 aircraft operated by the Spanish Air Force. Under the program, managed by Spain's CASA, AlliedSignal will retrofit the automatic flight control and mission management subsystems of 12 C-130s. The effort is part of the Spanish Air Force's avionics modernization program. Selection of AlliedSignal's "core avionics solutions will act as a launch pad for our C- 130 globalization strategy," said Ray Stark, president of the company's Government Electronic Systems unit.
Imagery from Predator unmanned aerial vehicles operating over Bosnia will initially be sent via Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSATs), but after several weeks the communications will be transferred to the Joint Broadcast System, Brig. Gen. James Beale, the Defense Information Systems Agency's deputy director for operations, said yesterday.
