GEN. RICHARD E. HAWLEY will replace Air Combat Command chief Gen. Joseph Ralston, who has been confirmed to become the new vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, replacing Adm. William Owens, the Pentagon said. Hawley will be replaced as chief of Allied Air Force in Europe by Lt. Gen. Michael E. Ryan, who now is in charge of allied air operations over Bosnia. Ryan has also been selected for promotion to full general.
Some Republicans are outraged at the Administration's plan to restructure the U.S. theater missile defense (TMD) program, warning that if the Pentagon proceeds with the plan it will be breaking the law as put forth in the fiscal year 1996 defense authorization bill. Pentagon leaders said Friday the plan will yield $2 billion in savings that can flow back into weapon modernization accounts (DAILY, Feb. 20). But Republican lawmakers and their aides disagree, contending the White House is making false promises and hurting priority TMD programs.
Defense Dept. leaders and House Speaker Newt Gingrich have agreed to find a way for the Pentagon to increase out-sourcing of certain functions, Deputy Defense Secretary John White said yesterday. He said he, Defense Secretary William Perry and Gen. John Shalikashvili, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met with Gingrich Tuesday to "develop something this year that will help all of us next year" in terms of privatization and out-sourcing.
With the expiration this week of a court-ordered "cooling off period" for creditors of ailing Dutch airframer Fokker, the company said yesterday the next step is probably formal bankruptcy protection - regardless of whether a rescue takeover can be staged soon. Canada's Bombardier and South Korea's Samsung have emerged from the pack as the two most likely bidders for an intact Fokker, and both the company's executives and court-appointed administrators expect final decisions from Bombardier and Samsung next week on whether or not they'll bid.
FY '97 PENTAGON BUDGET is scheduled to be released Monday, March 4, Defense Dept. officials said yesterday. The level of detail to be released wasn't immediately known. The budget was to have been released Feb. 5, but the White House on that day forwarded to Congress only a letter outlining broad objectives.
ALLIANT TECHSYSTEMS said its version of the Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser (WCMD) has successfully completed a guided flight test at Eglin AFB, Fla. In the test, Alliant said Friday, the device was released from an F-16 flying at high altitude. "It flew a controlled flight profile that verified all critical flight maneuvers required to deliver the weapon's various payloads and confirmed the flight capabilities of an inertially guided tactical munitions dispenser," Alliant said. Alliant and Lockheed Martin are competing in the program.
Boeing awarded Whittaker Controls a contract to develop a flow control valve for the 777 widebody twin that allows airlines to carry livestock, perishable goods and other temperature-sensitive cargo in the forward cargo hold. While Whittaker has had multiple valves and controls on Boeing aircraft stretching back to 1942, the latest contract marks the company's first component for the new 777, a spokesman said. "Getting our products on this airplane was a major goal for the company," noted Whittaker Controls President Bruce Bannon.
Sixty billion dollars a year for the next 30 years will allow the U.S. military to stay modern, assuming there are no major conflicts, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said yesterday. Vice Adm. William Owens said this is the level Pentagon leaders want, and that it will be enough to pay for several big-ticket items now being planned for the first decades of the next century.
A DELTA II launched NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous probe to the asteroid 433 Eros Saturday after a one-day delay because of difficulties with Eastern Missile Range tracking equipment. Liftoff of the 1,775-pound spacecraft came at 3:43 p.m. EST from Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., meeting the one-minute launch window for a rendezvous with the 25-mile-long asteroid early in 1999. Along the way it will image a much larger asteroid - 253 Mathilde - in a flyby before returning to Earth for a gravity assist into the orbital plane of Eros (DAILY, Feb. 7).
ITT Night Vision, Roanoke, Va., will supply 100% of the U.S. Army's next buy of image intensification devices. The company, a division of ITT Defense&Electronics, said the work will be carried out under a contract that, with all options, is valued at $239 million.
The French government wants state-controlled Aerospatiale to merge with Bordeaux-based Dassault Aviation to boost the defense sector's strength in the face of planned French military spending cuts, Prime Minister Alain Juppe's office said yesterday. Executives from both companies on a newly created steering committee will report to the government by June 30 on how to create a single company within two years that still preserves important existing alliances and relationships - Aerospatiale's role in the Airbus consortium, for example.
Former National Reconnaissance Office Director Martin Faga expressed surprise at the size of unexpended balances in recent NRO budgets that have made the spy satellite agency the bill payer for programs or operations needing a sudden infusion of cash. "These balances sound to me much higher than I would expect," Faga told The DAILY last week following a talk to the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Law and National Security in Washington.
Russia's Proton launcher suffered a partial failure Monday with a malfunction of its kick stage left a military communications satellite apparently stranded in a geosynchronous transfer orbit, raising questions about next month's scheduled launch of a Hughes-built European television satellite on the booster.
Commercial launch rates to low Earth orbit can't be projected with any accuracy until the first commercial LEO systems are up and running and managers get a better idea of what the market for LEO services will be, a top official with an early LEO communications entrant said.
The Pentagon should prepare to restart the B-2 bomber production line now, regardless of the Administration's position not to procure more than the 20 planes now budgeted, according to a Defense Dept. report provided to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.). It also recommends a $10 million investment in research and development for work toward a next-generation bomber.
The Clinton Administration has made "a deliberate effort to downplay and denigrate the importance" of missile defense, and will replace Lt. Gen. Malcolm O'Neill as director of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) when he retires with a two-star general, Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) said.
Litton Industries said Friday it has completed its purchase of PRC Inc. for about $425 million in cash from The Black&Decker Corp. PRC, an information technology company based in McLean, Va., had estimated 1995 sales of about $720 million.
The Defense Dept. plans to keep some of the money it freed up after dropping the projected inflation rate in the out-years, and would distribute those funds to the services but congressional observers were skeptically watching the financial moves.
ISRAEL yesterday conducted the second flight test of the Arrow 2 missile interceptor. First attempt to hit another missile with the Arrow 2 is slated for the next test. Initial results of Tuesday test, conducted at 3:10 p.m. local time in Israel, "indicate the missile performed as planned," said the U.S. Army's missile defense program executive office in Huntsville, Ala. Arrow 2 is 1,000 pounds lighter than the Arrow 1 interceptor, which logged the first intercept of the program in June 1994. Arrow 2 is the version that will ultimately be fielded.
Moody's Investors Service yesterday confirmed ratings on $600 million in Northrop Grumman long-term debt, contending that the company's $3 billion buy of Westinghouse's defense units is a good deal and that the company has proved it can quickly pay down acquisition debt.
The U.S. Air Force is restructuring the Joint STARS program to account for program costs that had been pushed into the out-years and will stretch the program, an Air Force official confirmed yesterday.
