Adm. William Owens, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will leave military service early next year, and symbols of his reign in the JCS slot and as chairman of the Joint Requirements Oversight Council are already disappearing. Removed from its place in the Pentagon is a display showing off-shore, floating air bases, only one of the advanced technology concepts Owens championed during his tenure. Owens, who said in September that he would leave the government, will join San Diego-based SAIC in March as vice-chairman of the board of directors.
Simula Inc., Phoenix, posted an increase in net earnings for the third quarter of 89%, and a 60% boost in revenue for the first nine months of the year. It said the figures reflect a 3-for-2 stock split, which was effective Sept. 28. The company, which produces high-tech energy absorbing aircraft seating systems, advanced composite structures, airbags and ballistic armor, said earnings for the third quarter hit $1,139,182 ($.13 per share), up from the $603,371 ($.10 per share) for the same period a year ago.
Missing from a list of future weapons laid out by U.S. Navy Air Warfare Director Rear Adm. Brent M. Bennitt is the Joint Air-to- Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM). Critics have charged the Navy with a half-hearted commitment to the program because the SLAM-ER fills some of the requirement. Included on the list - in addition to SLAM-ER - are the Joint Direct Attack Munition, the Joint Stand-Off Weapon and AIM-9X. Bennitt's list appears in the November/December issue of Naval Aviation News.
Undaunted (more or less) by industry's tepid reaction, ARPA plans to try the 845 procedure again next spring with a research and demonstration project for advanced missile manufacturing using commercial parts and techniques, including small batch production. All the usual suspects - the Big Nine missile makers - will be invited to bid
Of the first three ARPA contracts to be awarded under Section 845 of the defense authorization act, only one, Teledyne/Ryan's Tier 2 Plus UAV, is said to be approaching the level of streamlined procurement the agency had in mind to replace the traditional rigidity of mil specs. The Tier 3 Minus contract held by the Lockheed-Boeing team was essentially the continuation of an earlier effort, so it was probably too far along for Section 845 innovations. The third contract, also for UAV work, is a radar effort by Westinghouse.
ASSURANCE TECHNOLOGY CORP., Carlisle, Mass., is in line to continue space systems support of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. NRL said in an Oct. 25 Commerce Business Daily notice that it plans to negotiate with the company on a sole source basis for engineering and technical support of space systems R&D.
NATO's Conference of National Armaments Directors, or CNAD, last week accepted a steering committee recommendation to jointly buy a minimum number of airborne ground surveillance systems. The decision was supported by all participants, including the U.K., which originally wanted to delay a decision, according to a NATO official in Brussels. NATO's Defense Planning Committee will have the final say, at the end of November, on whether to accept the NATO-Owned Jointly Operated (NOJO) option.
NASA's Langley Research Center is looking for companies, universities and other government agencies interested in taking part in a feasibility and conceptual design study of a low-Earth orbit remote sensing spacecraft that would monitor the global effects of biomass burning.
SPACE IMAGING, Thornton, Colo., has received an FCC license to transmit remote sensing data over the 8 GHz Earth Exploration Satellite Services band. The company's satellite system, initiated by Lockheed Martin under the name Commercial Remote Sensing System, can provide 1-meter panchromatic, 4-meter multispectral and 1-meter color-enhanced imagery, according to Space Imaging.
GENERAL ELECTRIC's GE90 turbofan won its long-awaited certification on Boeing's 777 widebody twin Thursday, after final certification test issues with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration were resolved earlier in the week. Delivery of the first airplane, originally slated for late September, was expected sometime over the weekend to launch customer British Airways.
The CNAD moved to ensure that the related decision of which airborne platform to buy wouldn't be delayed unnecessarily, the NATO official said. The effort, which will include a platform selection and a draft memorandum of agreement, should be completed in 1997, the CNAD said. Completion of the job had been threatened earlier to be delayed until 1998.
House conferees trying to break the fiscal 1996 national security authorization deadlock Thursday sent over to Senate negotiators their compromise proposals on major issues which included new language on shipbuilding and national missile defense, congressional sources said.
Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) warned that adding on to current military aircraft programs would jeopardize funding for planned programs. "We have to modernize the right thing," he said. Levin, who as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is one of the conferees in the fiscal 1996 national security authorization conference, made it clear Thursday during a breakfast meeting with defense reporters in Washington that his targets were House add-ons for Air Force F-15 and F-16 fighters.
MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES has chosen Lucas Aerospace and Japan's Shinko Electric to supply electrically powered hoists for Japan's new UH-60JA helicopter, formerly designated UHX. Lucas said it will produce the hoists at its Cargo Systems plant in Brea, Calif. Shinko, with assistance from Lucas, will develop a power drive system using an integrated motor controller concept unique to Lucas hoists, according to Lucas.
Evans&Sutherland Computer Co. has reorganized its Government Simulation business, merging its U.S. and international efforts, the company said. James Oyler, president and chief executive officer of the Salt Lake City company, said Tuesday that the change was made "to better address the growth we are experiencing in" both markets.
The chairmen and ranking members of the Senate Armed Services and the House National Security Committee agreed yesterday that virtually all outstanding issues in their fiscal 1996 national security conference would be packaged with the hope of resolving them promptly, congressional sources said. Sources said the Big Four met yesterday to see if they could resolve outstanding differences and salvage a compromise authorization before Congress quits for the year.
Engineers developing the F-22 fighter's missile warning system hope to get a better understanding of tracking enemy missiles by firing a missile motor in a wind tunnel at the U.S. Air Force's Arnold Engineering Development Center that is usually used to test aircraft engines. A recent test at AEDC was the last in a series of four that included static tests, sled tests, flight tests and the work in AEDC's 16-foot transonic wind tunnel. It was also the first time in 16 years that a rocket motor had been fired in Arnold's tunnel.
Two of the aerospace and defense industry's top executives - C. Michael Armstrong of Hughes Electronics and Michael H. Jordan of Westinghouse Electric Corp. - yesterday attacked U.S. export regulations and policy, saying they have hurt their companies and industry in general.
The first of 64 F-18 fighters being bought by Finland from the U.S. arrived in Finland Tuesday, McDonnell Douglas reported. The Hornet prime contractor said four of the planes - two-seat "D" models flown by Finnish Air Force and U.S. Navy pilots - made the non-stop flight from St. Louis to Tampere, Finland, in nine and one-half hours. The aircraft refueled from a KC-10 tanker during their trip across the North Atlantic Ocean, McDonnell Douglas said.
U.S. ARMY plans to extend a three-year program under which it studies different intelligence and electronic warfare areas, and has invited industry to submit proposals for the work. A Nov. 9 Commerce Business Daily notice from the Army's C4IEW Acquisition Center at Vint Hill Farms, Va., listed the five topic areas. Contracts would last between six months and three years, including options. Submissions will be accepted through September 1996, but proposals received after Jan. 31, 1996 won't be considered for this fiscal year.
CESELA INC., Madrid, Spain, is working under a $6.7 million contract from the U.S. Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Div., Orlando, Fla., to upgrade AV-8B trainer aircraft at the Marine Corps Air Stations at Cherry Point, N.C., and Yuma, Ariz. The contract was awarded Nov. 1.
The U.S. Army has awarded Texas Instruments $3.1 million to supply night vision systems for the Bradley Fighting Vehicle (BFV) systems upgrade program. TI said yesterday it will deliver 184 driver vision enhancers (DVE) to the Army's Communications and Electronics Command, Ft. Monmouth, N.J., beginning in the second quarter of 1996. Bradleys will receive the uncooled thermal imaging system as part of the Operation Desert Storm BFV systems upgrade program, Texas Instruments said. Deliveries will be completed in 1997.
LOCKHEED MARTIN'S Sanders unit, Nashua, N.H., is in line for a sole source contract for 28 AN/ALQ-144(VP)2 infrared countermeasures systems. U.S. Naval Air Systems Command said in an Oct. 13 Commerce Business Daily notice t hat the system will be for the SH-60B helicopter.
NASA expects its annual Space Shuttle budget to drop by about $700 million after five years of operating under a single Shuttle operations prime contractor, with the Shuttle workforce falling by about 7,500 contractor and civil service personnel. Meanwhile, the Rockwell/Lockheed Martin joint venture picked to be the Shuttle operations prime contractor envisions the contract growing to between $2 billion and $2.5 billion a year over the same period, with its profits tied to performance and the savings it can squeeze out of the program.
Persistent C-17 critic Rep. Elizabeth Furse (D-Ore.) wants the General Accounting Office to review the Pentagon's decision last week to restore the airlifter program to 120 aircraft, rejecting options that would have included some number of militarized Boeing 747s.
