A General Accounting Office report reveals a 20-year decline in major military aircraft accidents, but found that human error - not necessary pilot error - was a factor in 73% of the crashes in the past two years. GAO also said in the report - "Military Aircraft Safety: Significant Improvements Since 1975" (NSIAD-96-69BR) - that "A recurring issue of concern has been the independence of accident investigators."
February 1, 1996 Bell Helicopter Textron, Incorporated, Fort Worth, Texas, is being awarded a $25,500,000 firm fixed price contract for retrofit of 33 OH-58D aircraft to a fully armed Kiowa Warrior configuration. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas, and is expected to be completed by December 31, 1998. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on January 31, 1996. The contracting activity is the U.S. Army Aviation and Troop Command, St. Louis, Missouri (DAAJ09-96-C-0116).
Lawmakers pushing for the purchase of additional B-2 bombers believe President Clinton is leaning their way, but a top Pentagon official insists "nothing has changed" in DOD's pposition to buying more of the planes. Rep. Ike Skelton (Mo.), one of a group of Democratic lawmakers pushing the White House to buy more B-2s, said yesterday that he thinks "we're getting through" to Clinton on extending the buy beyond the present program of 20.
The Ministry of International Trade and Industry has named Mitsubishi Electric Corp. (MELCO) prime contractor on its new $187 million effort to develop a recoverable satellite for testing low-cost spacecraft components. MITI is working with the German Space Agency (DARA) on the project, designed to cut the cost of fundamental satellite technologies as part of Japan's 10-year plan to build low-cost space infrastructure (DAILY, Jan. 30).
January 31, 1996 Hughes Missile Systems Company, Tucson, Arizona, is being awarded a $113,568,486 modification to previously awarded contract N00019-94-C-0257 for 164 Tomahawk All-Up-Round sea-launched cruise missiles and related depot support, supplies and services. Work will be performed in Tucson, Arizona (83%) and Poway, California (17%), and is expected to be completed by September 1998. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity.
The basic assumptions guiding the U.S. Air Force's Scientific Advisory Board as it compiled the 14-volume, 2,000-page "New World Vistas" study - and therefore the ground rules for development and procurement of future systems to the degree the study is implemented - are as follows: -- The Air Force will have to fight at great distances from the United States. Some operations may be staged directly from CONUS. Operations may persist for weeks or months, and they must be executed day and night in all weather.
CHINA'S reported deal with Russia's Rosvooruzhenye covering licensed production of Sukhoi's Su-27 fighter may mark the beginning of a major shift in the balance of Far East airpower. Signed late last year, the agreement could be worth some $2 billion, although Su-27 output from China isn't expected to begin until the turn of the century. It could involve considerable numbers, however, because China must replace some 2,500 combat aircraft through about 2005. Russia has also agreed to help build the factory and train technicians and managers.
Tucked away among the concepts for new space systems and exotic weapons contained in the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board futuristic study issued last week (DAILY, Feb. 1) is the outline of a new airlift capability that would deliver supplies and soldiers directly to combat units operating on the ground anywhere in the world. The USAF study, "New World Vistas," envisions a million-pound gross takeoff weight cargo aircraft capable of flying 12,000 miles, airdropping 150,000 pounds of cargo and returning without either ground or aerial refueling.
The General Accounting Office yesterday struck down the last protest in the Joint Primary Aircraft Training System competition, and the Air Force quickly signed its contract with JPATS winner Raytheon. GAO's ruling is protected until a redacted version is released publicly in several weeks, the agency said yesterday. But JPATS VP David H. Riemer told The DAILY that early indications are the GAO struck down Cessna's protest "on every issue." GAO's ruling is "a confirmation of the Air Force and Navy professionals who ran this source selection," he added.
Despite making up only a small fraction of the total U.S. airlift fleet, by the middle of last week McDonnell Douglas C-17s had flown some 42% of the cargo in Operation Joint Endeavor, the humanitarian peacekeeping mission in Bosnia.
Lockheed Martin, which last month folded its CalComp subsidiary into its new Commercial Systems Group (DAILY, Feb. 1), yesterday announced that it was buying a controlling interest in another company with a product line complementary to CalComp's to create a new $350 million-a-year computer graphics company.
The Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) and University Affiliated Research Centers (UARCs) have strayed from their core work in support of defense research, according to Paul Kaminski, under secretary of defense for acquisition and technology, and DOD is tightening the screws in what he called a "stick to your knitting approach."
Aerospatiale, Canada's Bombardier, British Aerospace, Samsung Aerospace Industries of South Korea and Taiwan Aerospace Corp. have emerged from the pack of more than a dozen tire-kickers as serious suitors for Dutch airframer Fokker. Fokker Chairman Ben Van Schaik revealed all of the potential bidders - except for Bombardier - to reporters Monday at the Asian Aerospace trade show in Singapore. Other Fokker executives said that of all the inquiries received, the five now on the short list are those companies interested in keeping Fokker intact.
Acquisitive engine overhaul specialist Greenwich Air Services Inc. (GASI) moved yesterday to buy Aviall's jetliner engine service operation - a business nearly three times larger than GASI - and if it goes through the once-tiny Miami company would instantly become the world's largest independent aircraft engine overhauler.
Israel Aircraft Industries has unveiled a new laser-guided bomb that uses a gyro-stabilized seeker to achieve a one-meter accuracy. The Advanced Laser Guided Bomb (ALGB) developed by IAI's MBT Div. "offers higher lethality against small targets like 'soft points' of bunkers (doors, ventilation shafts etc.) and hardened targets, such as entrenched tanks and armored vehicles," IAI said.
The upcoming shakeup at NASA headquarters (DAILY, Jan. 29) will put field center directors in charge of executing all agency programs, eliminating headquarters-level program managers and directors. Administrator Daniel S. Goldin tells senior headquarters staff Jan. 24 that headquarters control of programs will be held to "an absolute minimum," with center directors' salary bonuses directly tied to their performance running the programs based at their centers.
Under the new arrangement, "enterprise associate administrators" at headquarters will supervise the center directors under their purview, with different centers assigned different agency "enterprises." To keep better track of the money, Goldin wants "full-cost accounting" at the headquarters level, with the enterprise AAs allocating all resources for their areas of responsibility and defending their actions on Capitol Hill.
