The U.S. Army, with tight budgets, is considering providing its heavy forces with the electronic warfare system used by its light forces. Plans have called for the Ground Based Common Sensor-Heavy to mount the Intelligence and Electronic Warfare Common Sensor (IEWCS) on a Bradley chassis. One Army official told The DAILY, however, that "the -Heavy would be working right now, but it has been pushed off because it costs too much money."
The U.S. Air Force has successfully completed a mid-course guidance test of an AGM-130 stand-off weapon fitted with Global Positioning System/Inertial Navigation System guidance. "This is the most important milestone in providing the warfighter the best capability in a standoff precision-guided munition," said Col. Frank de Luca, AGM-130/GBU-15 program director.
Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) warned yesterday that "sweetheart" provisions written into the fiscal 1996 defense authorization conference report could lead to retaliation against U.S. aerospace exports.
ITT ELECTRO-OPTICAL PRODUCTS DIV., Roanoke, Va., has received a $5.4 million U.S. Air Force contract for Part II of the Night Vision System (NVS) program. The 15-month contract is for the development, test and evaluation phase of the program.
Contractors competing for the concept demonstration phase of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program will have to limit their objectives but they will have some leeway in achieving them, according to a draft request for proposals released Monday. "Offerors should select a manageable number of technical objectives and establish flight demonstration goals and objectives based on cost, schedule, technical tradeoffs and risk," said the document, released by the Joint Advanced Strike Technology (JAST) program office.
House-Senate intelligence conferees yesterday concluded their conference on authorization of funding for the intelligence community in fiscal year 1996, but deferred one of the key issues until next year. Conferees decided to appoint a panel of experts to determine whether it is feasible to build a new generate of small spy satellites, congressional sources said. The panel would be directed to report by May 1, 1996, to the Senate and House Intelligence Committees, they added.
U.S. military forces in the field will need information on terrain that is of increasingly greater resolution than that provided by current mapping methods, according to a Defense Science Board (DSB) report released at the Pentagon last week, and only a digital database along the lines of the Internet with multiple-user access was considered satisfactory.
Boeing is raising its jetliner production rates for the first time in three years, and should reach 24 aircraft per month by early 1997 as 777 production rises faster than originally planned, the company reported yesterday.
Engineers and managers from Boeing, General Electric and British Airways met throughout the day yesterday in Seattle to decide whether to open up blade-tip clearances on GE90s powering some of the carrier's 777 widebody twins, following a "stall event" earlier this month that has held up deliveries of BA's second and third aircraft. The plan would be an interim solution designed to ensure delivery of the planes before the end of the year, GE and Boeing officials said, although Boeing is "very confident" the deliveries will go ahead.
Thiokol Corp. and aerospace-heavy merchant bank The Carlyle Group closed last week on their joint purchase of gas turbine components and repair giant Howmet Corp. for $750 million. "The new owners support Howmet's management philosophy and the direction we are taking the company," said Howmet President and CEO David Squire. "With their encouragement, we will continue to sharpen our focus on serving customers, while pursuing the many growth opportunities that lie before us."
LORAL'S GLOBALSTAR low-Earth orbit communications satellite venture has received a five-year, $250 million bank facility, cutting its external financing requirements to about $600 million for the $2 billion constellation of 48 satellites. Globalstar said yesterday it doesn't plan to draw down the bank facility "for several months."
Last week's U.S.-Ukraine space launch trade agreement allows the former Soviet republic and its U.S. partners more Zenit launches if the international space launch market averages at least 24 attempts a year, the FAA official responsible for licensing the flights said yesterday. Frank C. Weaver, associate FAA administrator for commercial space transportation, told reporters that the still-secret agreement sets a 24- launch trigger for increasing launches to geostationary orbit with Ukrainian boosters.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN has reversed a decision to close its B-2 plant at Pico Rivera, Calif., in 1997, and will keep it open until 1999 "to more efficiently fulfill remaining commitments in the current program to produce 20 B-2 stealth bombers," the company said. The decision was made to support the mod program at Palmdale, Calif., and to allow orderly transition of software support functions to Tinker AFB, Okla.
McDonnell Douglas Corporation, McDonnell Douglas Aerospace, St. Louis, Missouri, is being awarded a $49,533,168 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for fiscal year 1996-1998 weapon control system-system engineering and integration agent services for the Tomahawk and Harpoon Cruise Missiles. Work will be performed in St. Louis, Missouri, and is expected to be completed by July 1998. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured.
Loral Command and Control Systems, Colorado Springs, Colorado, is being awarded a $110,638,000 indefinite quantity contract for sustainment support services for the Cheyenne Mountain Complex Integrated System Support Contract. This effort will include maintenance, software studies and updates, modification and logistics support, documentation and training. Funds will be obligated as individual delivery orders are issued. Contract is expected to be completed September 2000. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
U.S. Navy and Air Force units operating in Bosnia will be issued a new prototype combination GPS receiver-survival radio to enable downed flyers to contact search and rescue personnel and simultaneously relay to them precise information on their location.
Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) said that a theater missile defense framework negotiated with Russia last month would permit all but the Navy Upper Tier among six programs to go ahead, but that the Clinton Administration plans to continue testing the Navy system anyway. Weldon, chairman of the House National Security Committee's research and development subcommittee, told The DAILY that he had been briefed on the theater missile defense agreement reached with Russia Nov. 17. It would limit U.S. interceptors to a speed of three kilometers per second.
Science Application International Corporation, San Diego, California, is being awarded a $284,231,119 indefinite quantity/indefinite delivery contract for the Parts and Repair Ordering System, a logistics supply/repair program which includes item research, item manufacture or acquisition, configuration/coordination, interface with Air Force logistics centers, packaging and transportation. Contract is expected to be completed February 1998. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There were 89 firms solicited and 5 proposals received.
The U.S. Army on Thursday signed a $279.6 million contract with McDonnell Douglas Aerospace to begin remanufacturing 18 Apache helicopters into the Longbow, or AH-64D, configuration. First deliveries of the 18 AH-64Ds are scheduled for 1997, MDC said Friday in a prepared statement. MDC is the system integrator, with Lockheed Martin providing the Hellfire missile and Westinghouse the Longbow fire control radar.
First-look results from the atmospheric probe NASA's Galileo spacecraft sent into the clouds of Jupiter include evidence of lightning and possibly even water, but because of the budget impasse in Washington there are no funds to release the historic results to the public.
President Clinton yesterday vetoed the fiscal 1996 VA, HUD and independent agencies appropriations bill, which would have set NASA spending at $13.8 billion, leaving the U.S. space agency without funds to operate.
Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services orbited a new Hughes telecommunications satellite on an Atlas IIA booster last Thursday night, and controllers reported the spacecraft performing normally after the launch. The Atlas lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., at 7:23 p.m. EST and the Galaxy III-R separated normally 29 minutes later. Hughes reported the satellite will be maneuvered into geosynchronous orbit over a 10-day period, and will enter service at 95 degrees West longitude in "a few weeks" if the checkout is normal.
Officials of the Russian factory building the first element of the International Space Station say a pressure-testing mishap that damaged the "structure" of the spacecraft won't delay its planned launch in November 1997, according to a spokeswoman for Station prime contractor Boeing.
SENATE MAJORITY LEADER Robert Dole (R-Kan.) hopes to schedule a Senate vote on the START II treaty with Russia before the Senate concludes for the year. But Dole said last week that the calendar may be working against him. The treaty was approved 18-0 by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Dec. 12.
Boeing plans to fly its first Sea Launch booster in the second quarter of 1998 from a converted oil platform in the Christmas Islands of Kirimati, 800 miles southeast of Hawaii, with a Hughes satellite aboard. The two U.S. companies announced a five-year, 10-launch deal yesterday that gives the U.S.-Norwegian-Russian-Ukrainian venture a basis to proceed. Terms of the deal, including the number of options for launches beyond the initial 10, were not disclosed, but Hughes reportedly will pay about $1 billion for the services (DAILY, Dec. 8, page 381).
