Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) said yesterday that he thought House and Senate authorizers could work out "a reasonable compromise" on the contentious national missile defense dispute that would skirt the "multiple sites" issue by calling for a missile defense that covered all 50 states. Missile defense is the last major issue that has to be resolved before agreement is reached on a compromise fiscal 1996 national security authorization.
Senior Senate Appropriations Republicans yesterday were hopeful that President Clinton would sign the $243 billion fiscal 1996 defense appropriations bill or let it become law, but admitted to uncertainty about his intentions. Tomorrow is the deadline for Clinton to act. He could sign the bill into law, veto it, or take no action, in which case it would become law without his signature.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Kenneth Clarke effectively excluded defense from yesterday's fall budget statement, signaling what the Defense Ministry happily describes as "a period of stability" for British military spending following years of turbulence. Much of that stability is thanks to the Treasury, which reluctantly went along with MOD demands to carry forward spending shortfalls from fiscal 1995 and 1996 totaling 680 million pounds, or a little more than $1 billion.
Japan's Space Activities Commission and the National Space Development Agency (NASDA) have set a Feb. 1, 1996, launch date for the new J-1 booster developed by NASDA, the Institute of Space and Aeronautical Science (ISAS) and Nissan Motors. The all-solid-fuel booster will fly from the space launch center at Tanegashima in southeast Japan with the HYFLEX payload, a 1,050-kilogram flight experiment vehicle built as part of the HOPE spaceplane program.
China launched a U.S.-built telecommunications satellite yesterday in its first commercial spaceflight since the Long March 2E failed to reach orbit in January with the Hughes-built Apstar satellite aboard. Liftoff came at 6:30 a.m. EST from the Xichang launch site in Sichuan Province, and early indications received in Hong Kong were that the Lockheed Martin-built spacecraft had reached orbit. Unlike previous commercial launches from China, yesterday's liftoff was not televised.
Britain is buying more Rapier 2000 air defense system radar trackers and support equipment, awarding a contract worth more than 100 million pounds ($154 million) to British Aerospace's Dynamics Div. In a prepared statement Wednesday, BAeD said it will supply "a further quantity" of Rapier 2000 ground equipment, but didn't reveal the totals. "The additional radar tracker will fulfill the British armed forces' operational requirement for all Rapier 2000 units to be fitted with the 'Blindfire' capability," BAeD said.
The U.S. Navy has accepted the first part built from computer- generated designs under the Defense Dept.'s Standard for the Exchange of Product Model Data (STEP) program for inclusion in the service's inventory, according to the prime contractor on the project, the South Carolina Research Authority (SCRA), North Charleston, S.C.
Hungary's Danubian Aircraft Company signed an agreement earlier this month with Sweden's Saab Military Aircraft to supply parts for the JAS-39 Gripen fighter, marking an important step in settling offsets needed for Hungary to buy Sweden's newest fighter. The purchase order agreement between Saab and Budapest-based Danubian was signed Nov. 16, Saab said.
Northrop Grumman has joined Israel's Rafael for the production and sale of the Litening target designator and navigation pod and will take the lead on marketing to the U.S. and to international customers that buy the system through foreign military sales channels. Northrop Grumman announced the arrangement yesterday and said it will be the prime contractor for Litening systems in the U.S. The missile division of Rafael Armament Development Authority will be in charge of direct international sales.
NASA has picked a comet sample return spacecraft, to be built by Lockheed Martin Astronautics, as the next vehicle in its Discovery series of relatively low-cost space science missions. Dubbed "Stardust," the mission was one of three selected for further study last spring when the U.S. space agency picked a lunar orbiter as its latest Discovery mission. NASA passed over proposals to send multiple probes into the atmosphere of Venus and to collect solar wind particles for return to Earth (DAILY, March 1, page 310).
Table details SAR programs for third quarter Status of Selected Acquisition Report (SAR) programs for the three- month period ending Sept. 30, 1995, are detailed in the following table, released by the Dept. of Defense (DAILY, Nov. 27, page 309). Dollar figures are in millions. Current Estimate Cost Weapon Base Base Then
MISSION MANAGERS have tentatively set another attempt to launch the European Space Agency's Solar Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) for Saturday, but the date could slip if a booster precision regulator on the mission's Atlas launch vehicle can't be replaced in time. The regulator malfunctioned just before launch of the joint ESA/NASA mission at Cape Canaveral last Wednesday.
Japanese defense officials are investigating why an Air Self-Defense Force F-15J was able to shoot down another F-15J with an AIM-9L Sidewinder missile during a training mission Wednesday, even though the missile firing system was supposedly turned off.
November 22, 1995 Hughes Radar Systems Hughes Radar Systems, El Segundo, California, is being awarded a $11,000,000 ceiling price order contract for the purchase of radar spares in support of the F-14 aircraft. Work will be performed in El Segundo, California, and is expected to be completed by November 1997. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. The Naval Inventory Control Point, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the contracting activity (N00383-94-G-B501- 0026).
The U.S. Army has delivered the first two AH-64A Apache helicopters to McDonnell Douglas which will remanufacture them into AH-64D Longbow Apaches. The helicopters were delivered to MDC's Mesa, Ariz., facility on Nov. 17. They belong to the 6th Cavalry Brigade at Ft. Hood, Tex., and were used during Desert Shield and Desert Storm, MDC said. The Army plans to have all its AH-64As stripped to their basic fuselage and built up into the "D," or Longbow, configuration. First deliveries are scheduled for 1997.
The U.S. Army has issued a requirement to quickly add a synthetic aperture radar/moving target indicator to its Airborne Reconnaissance Low (ARL) surveillance planes to offset the retirement of aging OV-1 Mohawk surveillance aircraft. The Army wants to add the SAR/MTI capability by early next year and deploy ARL aircraft to South Korea to take the place of the OV-1s, a service official said.
November 21, 1995 Northrop Grumman Corporation Northrop Grumman Corporation, Pico Rivera, California, is being awarded a $22,128,763 face value increase to a fixed price incentive fee contract for maintenance of technical orders for the B-2 aircraft. Contract is expected to be completed December 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 (F33657-87/C-2000, P00571).
Even as Germany and Britain seem closer to settling their differences, the same cost problems that led to the dispute may push Eurofighter partner Spain out of the program altogether. Spanish defense officials confirmed that as an economy measure the country is considering pulling out of the program after nearly a decade in the development phase, but they stressed that a decision is a long way off.
MCDONNELL DOUGLAS on Sunday successfully completed high- and low-speed taxi tests of the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, bringing it one step closer to first flight on schedule in December. During the tests at MDC's St. Louis facility, the Super Hornet reached speeds of 30 knots and 60 knots.
The German government granted TRW patent-like intellectual property protection in three areas for its Odyssey satellite constellation, marking Odyssey's first receipt of such guarantees outside the U.S. and signaling expansion abroad of the fight between TRW and its competitor, Inmarsat-P. Germany's patent office registered three of TRW's "utility models," which "protect the Odyssey system design in Germany until our European patents issue," according to Bruce Gerding, TRW vice president and managing director of Odyssey Services Organization.
November 21, 1995 Orbital Sciences Corporation Orbital Sciences Corporation, Dulles, Virginia, is being awarded a $14,000,000 face value increase to a firm fixed price contract for launch services for a classified Department of Defense satellite. Contract is expected to be completed December 1997. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles, California, is the contracting activity (MDA972-89/C-0089, P00041).
