An omnibus space commercialization bill in preparation by the House Science Committee would require NASA to report on commercial space applications for the International Space Station, and might set up a non- profit corporation to promote commercial space projects.
LONGBOW LTD., Orlando, Fla., was awarded $44.3 million for Lot 1 production of AH-64D Longbow fire control radar production from the U.S. Army Aviation and Troop Command, St. Louis, the Pentagon said yesterday. Longbow Ltd. is a joint venture of Westinghouse and Lockheed Martin.
The U.S. Air Force is asking $26 million in procurement for the Space Based Infrared System in fiscal year 1997. Overall, the service is requesting $319 million for the SBIRS space and missile tracking system, a drop from last year's $362 million all- research request. SBIRS will replace the Defense Support Program, which tracks missile launches. DSP was funded at $100.4 million in '97, a slight increase over last year's $99.6 million.
The Pentagon's emphasis on tactical aircraft in its modernization program is warranted to ensure U.S. forces can operate with dominance of the air, Defense Secretary William Perry told reporters yesterday. "Our objective is to have not just air superiority, but air dominance," Perry said during a presentation of the Pentagon's fiscal year 1997 budget submission. "This is the program that achieves that," he added, showing an investment chart for the Air Force's F-22 fighter, the Navy's F/A-18E/F, the Marine Corps' V-22, and the Joint Strike Fighter.
Northrop Grumman Corp. said Friday it has completed its acquisition of the defense and electronic systems business of Westinghouse Electric Corp. for $3 billion in cash. It also assumed about $500 million in unfunded pension liability and other post-retirement benefits for current employees of the Westinghouse unit. The deal was announced early this year (DAILY, Jan. 4). The Westinghouse business will be operated by Northrop Grumman as a separate division to be known as the Electronic Sensors and Systems Div.
Recent crashes of the Navy F-14 fighters have prompted a modification to the plane's TF30 engine that would alert a pilot when pressure builds up, telling him to ease off on the throttles, and installation of the Digital Flight Control System (DFCS). Defense Secretary William J. Perry told reporters at the Pentgon yesterday that "There are things that we can and will do to improve the safety record specifically of the F-14A," noting that the aircraft will be phased out according to plan over the next eight years.
FY '97 Dept. of Defense program acquisition costs Acquisition costs of programs in the Defense Dept.'s fiscal year 1997 budget request are listed in the following table, released by the Pentagon (dollar figures are in millions). FY 1995 FY 1996 AIRCRAFT Army OH-58D Kiowa Warrior 228.2 70.8 RAH-66 Comanche Helicopter 474.9 292.2
Hughes Aircraft Co. said California Microwave Inc. has selected its radar for integration with the U.S. Army's Airborne Reconnaissance Low- Multifunction (ARL-M) system. Observers said Hughes beat out Westinghouse's Norden unit for the work. Hughes said two Moving Target Indicator/Synthetic Aperture Radar (MTI/SAR) systems were ordered for the Army's RC-7B aircraft. A Hughes spokesman said delivery occurred Friday at Van Nuys Airport near Los Angeles.
The fiscal 1996 bill for U.S. peacekeeping operations in Bosnia will probably be about $2.7 billion - $1.2 billion more than the Clinton Administration's original estimate, according to House Appropriations national security chairman C.W. (Bill) Young (R-Fla.). House National Security Committee Chairman Floyd Spence (R-S.C.) said he thought the total would be higher than $2.7 billion for FY 1996, and that the additional funding requests would come "in driblets."
A single authoritative leader for military intelligence would not improve the quality of U.S. intelligence and would only complicate existing roles and responsibilities, a presidential commission reports. The Commission on the Roles and Capabilities of the United States Intelligence Community considered creation of a separate assistant secretary of defense for intelligence, but concluded that the decision should be left to each secretary of defense.
The chairmen of the House Appropriations Committee and its national security subcommittee yesterday said in a joint statement that the Administration's fiscal 1997 defense budget would essentially confine a $5 billion procurement add-on to one year and delay by three years the Joint Chiefs of Staff aim of reaching $60 billion annually in procurement.
Faulty bolts discovered in a routine preflight check have forced Europe's Arianespace consortium to slip its planned Wednesday launch with Intelsat 707 aboard by "a few days" while some 1,000 of the bolts are replaced on the launch pad.
Ignoring warnings from Republican lawmakers to produce a fiscal year 1997 ballistic missile defense (BMD) budget that closely reflects congressional priorities, the Pentagon's new BMD budget does not deviate from the plan the Administration proposed last year. The Pentagon budget includes $2.8 billion in FY '97 for theater missile defense (TMD), national missile defense (NMD) and support technology. The budget is in keeping with DOD's recent overhaul of its TMD program structure announced last month (DAILY, Feb. 20).
HUGHES Space and Communications, El Segundo, Calif. yesterday received a $19.6 million contract modification to add Global Broadcast Service capability to the last three UHF follow-on satellites. GBS will operate along with the UHF and EHF payloads on each satellite. The contract was awarded by the U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Larry Combest (R-Tex.) yesterday unveiled a plan to overhaul the U.S. intelligence community that does away with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) in its present form and establishes a new agency for clandestine operations.
