NASA will train Israeli astronauts as part of a joint U.S.-Israel Earth resources effort that will make use of the Space Shuttle and proposed International Space Station, as well as unpiloted spacecraft, President Clinton announced yesterday. Speaking at a White House appearance with Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, Clinton said the space-based scientific research with Israel will involve "experiments in sustainable water use and in environmental protection."
NAVAL AIR WARFARE CENTER Training Systems Div., Orlando, Fla., is soliciting industry for quantities of the Digital Command, Control and Communications Vehicular Trainer (DC3VT). "The purpose of the DC3VT is to provide initial and sustainment training for vehicle commanders, platoon leaders, company Commanders, S-1s, S-2s, S-3s, S-4s, and battalion commanders in digital command, control, and communications (C3)," the center said in a Nov. 13 Commerce Business Daily notice.
LITTON INDUSTRIES said Charles B. Hoffman, president of Litton's Amecom Div., College Park, Md., has been elected a corporate vice president and appointed president of the company's Applied Technology Div., San Jose, Calif. He will relocate to San Jose, but retain management responsibility for Amecom, Litton said. Hoffman, 56, replaces Clayton A. Williams, who has resigned from Litton and will assume an executive post with Western Atlas Inc., in Beverly Hills, Calif.
December 5, 1995 Beech Aerospace Services, Incorporated Beech Aerospace Services, Incorporated, Madison, Mississippi, is being awarded an $8,395,303 face value increase to a firm fixed price contract for FY 1996 logistics support for the C-12 aircraft. Contract is expected to be completed September 1996. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, is the contracting activity (F34601-92/C-0044, P00126).
France's Aerospatiale and Germany's Daimler Benz Aerospace (DASA) plan to merge their satellite businesses with the announcement that Germany will join France in building at least two new spy satellites, according to reports from Europe.
U.K. airline Virgin Atlantic has kicked off yet another big potential competition for Boeing and Airbus Industrie with plans to double the size of its 15-aircraft fleet in less than a year. The upstart carrier Monday confirmed it is in talks with both airframers about an aircraft order for as many as 20 aircraft - a $3 billion proposition - and the need is immediate.
South Korean prosecutors questioned two agents for General Dynamics in connection with a continuing corruption probe of former President Roh Tae- woo and other high-ranking politicians, according to published reports in Seoul. Prosecutors investigating charges that Roh, now in jail, accepted kickbacks as part of a deal in which Korea switched from McDonnell Douglas F/A-18s to General Dynamics F-16s under the Korean Fighter Program are also quoted as saying that agents for other U.S. defense contractors may also be called in for questioning.
MARTIN MARIETTA Government Electronic Systems, a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin, Moorestown, N.J., on Nov. 30 received a $10.2 million modification to an earlier contract for continued engineering services for the Aegis weapon system and interim-level depot supply and repair support.
NASA's Galileo spacecraft scored twice late Thursday, receiving data as its atmospheric probe plunged into the ammonia clouds of Jupiter, and then firing its braking rocket to go into orbit around the gas giant. Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory burst into applause as the first signals came in confirming that the probe, dangling beneath its parachute, was sending data to the main spacecraft, and again three hours later when telemetry confirmed the orbital braking.
Representatives of Rockwell, Orbital Sciences and NASA's Office of Space Access and Technology are scheduled to meet Administrator Daniel S. Goldin Wednesday with the results of their deliberations on the choice of an engine for the X-34 reusable launch vehicle. Look for the Russian RD-120 to get the nod over the Rocketdyne RS-27, with some language to protect Rockwell if the Russian engine doesn't pan out.
Republican Sens. Charles Grassley (Iowa) and William V. Roth Jr., and Democratic Sen. David Pryor (D-Ark.) are carrying their effort to save the Pentagon's independent Operational Test and Evaluation (OT&E) office beyond Senate floor speeches. They complained in the speeches last Tuesday that the fiscal 1996 national security authorization conference zeroed the office. Grassley and Roth have written to House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) asking him to intervene.
JOHN ENTZMINGER, the Advanced Research Project Agency's director for high altitude endurance UAVs, will retire from ARPA at the end of this week. A retirement ceremony is slated for Friday. Entzminger's deputy, Charles "Chuck" Heber, will assume responsibilities of the post.
LABARGE INC., St. Louis, has received contracts valued at about $6 million to supply electronic equipment to Lockheed Martin Corp. for the U.S. Navy's Aegis program. LaBarge produces printed circuit card assemblies, electronic modules and the antenna controller for Aegis, which integrates missiles, guns and electronic countermeasures.
U.S. NAVAL RESEARCH LABORATORY said in a Dec. 8 Commerce Business Daily notice that it wants input from industry for "support of an Electronic Warfare Command and Control Development Program, a Missile/Ship Software Modeling effort, Decoy Discrimination ECM Development, Single Ship Self Defense Modeling (SSDS) and IR Seeker Simulation Hardware and Algorithms developments." A 12-month effort with four one-year options is planned.
The U.S. Air Force's Rome Lab says in a broad agency announcement on military networking technology, in the Dec. 8 issue of Commerce Business Daily, that the primary mode of military communications will be fiber optic cables, and that "wireless extension" is necessary to reach airborne units. Known in the commercial cable TV industry as the "last mile problem," this is the last - and most expensive - link in any seamless communications system.
Three top promotions at Cessna Aircraft Co. were announced by parent Textron Inc. It said that David G. Assard has been named president and chief operating officer, Gary W. Hay becomes vice chairman, and Charles B. Johnson becomes executive vice president, operations. Assard, 61, has been Cessna's executive VP and chief operating officer for the past year. He will now also be responsible for Cessna's single piston engine business. Before joining Cessna, Assard was president of Textron Lycoming Turbine Engine Div., Stratford, Conn.
COMMISSIONING of the aircraft carrier John C. Stennis (CVN 74) was planned for Saturday, Dec. 9, at Norfolk, Va. Stennis is the eighth nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and the seventh of the Nimitz class.
The U.S. Air Force will send two Joint STARS aircraft to support the peacekeeping mission in Bosnia - one A model test aircraft used in Desert Storm, and the only production model E-8C being completed by prime contractor Northrop Grumman at Melbourne, Fla. - defense officials confirmed Friday during an AF press demonstration of the Theater Battle Arena (TBA) simulation facility used for mission planning.
The House National Security R&D subcommittee will hold hearings next month on theater missile defense, says Rep. Curt Weldon (R- Pa.), chairman of the panel. He says the hearings will go into command and control, and the whole problem of differentiating between strategic defensive missiles, which are restricted by treaties, and theater types, which are not.
A Georgia company that makes glass presses had to lease a Russian Antonov-124 last month to fly one of their machines to a customer in China, because ships are too slow and other planes are too small. The Lynch Machinery company's huge HDTV-11 glass press makes television picture tubes, and Chinese manufacturer Henan Anyang Color Picture Tube Glass Bulb Company demanded speedy delivery. The Georgia company expects to see more of the same, as does Dr. Cedric Suzman of the Southern Center for International Studies.
Hughes Aircraft Co. said it has completed test flights of its Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar System (ASARS-2) with a compact new, multi-mode processor that could be integrated and deployed within 30 days. Hughes' Radar and Communications Div., under contract from the U.S. Air Force Reconnaissance System Program Office, Wright Patterson, AFB, Ohio, developed the processor in a 14-month program. ASARS-2 is one of the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft's main sensors.
Secretary Perry's memorandum of December 6, 1995, requested that I promulgate guidance for making block changes to existing contracts to unify the management and manufacturing requirements of those contracts on a facility-wide basis, wherever such changes are technically acceptable to the government. Secretary Perry further directed that the single point of contact for this effort will be the Administrative Contracting Officer (ACO) assigned to a facility. Accordingly, I am providing the following additional guidance on these issues.
