When Tiger helicopter partner Aerospatiale and the French government argue that the anemic U.S. dollar tipped the balance in favor of AH-64 Apaches in recent British and Dutch attack helo competitions, McDonnell Douglas Aerospace's number two executive, Herb Lanese, has a ready reply: "If I were subsidized to the tune of two billion dollars a year, I'd make excuses too." Tiger has yet to win an order other than from the French and German governments that created the program.
Why do investors want such high returns? Demisch says one reason is that the ventures, which are in the construction phase, aren't generating cash yet. Increasing competition in the low-Earth orbit mobile satellite arena is also making investors wary. And while banks deal with the ventures' parent companies, such as Loral and Motorola, "as a bond holder all you have is an indenture," he says.
Machinists union members at Boeing, on strike as of midnight Thursday, have a considerably weaker hand than they did six years ago when the union last walked out, suggesting this labor dispute will last days rather than months, financial analysts and company executives said Friday. Officially, Boeing's stance is only that it "cannot speculate on the overall impact" of the strike by employees at Boeing plants in Washington, Oregon and Kansas represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.
Appropriations sources see slow going this week in redrafting a new fiscal 1996 defense appropriations compromise bill that can win approval in the House, which rejected the first compromise money bill 267- 151 on Sept. 29. Congress is back in session today, but the conferees probably won't meet before tomorrow or Thursday at the earliest. With the continuing resolution running through November 13, "there's no hurry anymore," a source noted. Stalled national security authorization conferees are scheduled to meet tomorrow.
McDonnell Douglas' helicopter and missile businesses are both now healthy enough to keep them off the auction block for the foreseeable future, even though several offers have come in for those units in the past year or so, said McDonnell Douglas Aerospace Deputy President Herb Lanese.
The U.S. Air Force's B-52Hs are going to get a bit more protection with an impending electronic countermeasures upgrade, says Maj. Peter Katsufrakis, the B-52 program element monitor (PEM). Research, development, test and evaluation funding for the ECM will be made available in FY '97. Katsufrakis wouldn't disclose details about the countermeasures system, saying only that it is intended to "better deal with threats" and that the B-52 "is going to be much more capable."
What's behind the recent decisions of the Globalstar and Iridium mobile satellite ventures to withdrew offerings to raise cash to finance their low-Earth orbit constellations? Wolfgang Demisch, managing partner at BT Securities, says bondholders apparently wanted returns in the mid-teens and some sort of participation in the project-terms that Globalstar and Iridium found unpalatable.
The Joint Advanced Strike Technology, or JAST, program is getting a new name along with its new funding profile (DAILY, Oct. 6, page 42). Henceforth it will be called the Joint Strike Fighter, or JSF, apparently reflecting the program's conceptual evolution from exploratory hobby project to groundwork for an operational aircraft.
Spain is poised to be the first in a string of overseas customers for used U.S. Navy McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet fighters, and is expected to sign an agreement within days for 24 used planes fitted with new engines financed commercially, Navy and industry officials confirmed Friday. "We do see continued opportunity here, because we've been contacted by others," such as the Czech Republic and "others, European largely," said Herb Lanese, deputy president at McDonnell Douglas Aerospace, during a briefing last week for Washington defense reporters.
More prototyping is in store for the Navy. John Douglass, Assistant Navy Secretary-designate for research, development and acquisition, tells the Senate Armed Services Committee that he expects to work closely with industry "to ensure that the technology with specific capabilities be proven through fieldable prototypes." He says this approach will mitigate technical and production risk and provide proof of concept prior to a commitment to full-scale production or incorporation of an upgrade in an existing system.
The U.S. and Russia are still trying to hammer out demarcation rules specifying which ballistic missile defense systems don't violate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty, even though an initial agreement was signed in May by President Clinton and Russia's Boris Yeltsin (DAILY, May 11, page 228). Russia and the U.S. have been sparring over what operational characteristics and geographical parameters will constitute ABM treaty violation.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is reviewing 15 applications from companies that want to operate commercial satellite services using the Ka-band high-frequency portion of the radio spectrum. An FCC official said Friday that applications to construct, launch and operate commercial satellite systems in the Ka-band were filed by AT&T, Motorola subsidiary Comm, Inc., Echostar Satellite Corp., GE American Communications, Lockheed Martin, Morningstar Satellite Corp., Netsat 28, Orion Network Systems and Visionstar.
The U.S. must replace its declining inventory of manned reconnaissance aircraft with unmanned aerial vehicles or buy more manned types, or risk being unable to meet current and future intelligence- gathering needs, according to the Pentagon's airborne reconnaissance chief.
Rockwell International has formed an Autonetics&Missile Systems Div. (A&SMD) under its new Aerospace and Defense organization, which was announced last week (DAILY, Sept. 27, page 477). The new division was formed by merging Rockwell's Autonetics Electronic Systems Div. in Anaheim, Calif., and Tactical Systems Div. in Duluth, Ga.
A restructuring of program funds for the Joint Advanced Strike Technology program has left weapon systems contractors looking at $700 million more in the Future Year Defense Plan than they expected earlier this year.
When the Senate Intelligence Committee finally dropped its longstanding opposition to the National Reconnaissance Office's procurement of the new wide-field-of-view Satellite 8X last year, it appeared there were no major roadblocks in the way of the NRO's plan to restructure its spy satellite fleet into a less costly but more capable constellation. But things haven't quite worked out that way.
KAZAKHSTAN will close its Degelen Mountain nuclear test tunnel complex at Semipalatinsk as part of a Cooperative Threat Reduction treaty signed Oct. 3 with the U.S. Defense Dept. Closure is slated to be completed by fiscal year 1999.
The U.S. Marine Corps has no money now for defensive armament for its MV-22 tiltrotor aircraft, but is addressing the issue in its 1998 program objective memorandum (POM), a program official said yesterday. "Right now, there is no armament on the aircraft," but "there is a requirement for a defensive weapons system," said Lt. Col. Bob Carresse, deputy for Marine vehicles and readiness support in the V-22 program office.
A Texas company has inked a deal with Orbital Sciences Corp. to launch cremated human remains into orbit as piggyback payloads on Orbital's Pegasus and Taurus rockets. Celestis Inc. of Houston said its first flight is scheduled for next year, pending final approval from the FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation.
Comsat Corp. is downplaying a Clinton Administration letter that urges the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to delay approving its proposed investment in the Inmarsat-P mobile satellite venture until it resolves concerns that the project not be given an unfair advantage over competitors.
BOMBARDIER AEROSPACE has chosen Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to participate in the 70-seat de Havilland Dash 8(X) Series 400 turboprop program. "Mitsubishi will design, develop and produce the fuselage and tail sections for the aircraft," said Robert Brown, president, Bombardier Aerospace Group-North America. The Dash 8 Series 400 program was launched June 12. The 350-knot plane is scheduled to fly for the first time in late 1997, and enter service in 1999.
U.S. MARINE CORPS F/A-18Ds on Wednesday fired High-speed Anti-Radiation Missiles (HARMs) against Serb surface-to-air missile radars in Bosnia- Herzegovina, a Marine Corps spokesman said. The Hornets were assigned to Squadron VMFA(AW)-224 flying out of Aviano, Italy. Three HARMs were fired, the spokesman said. The F/A-18s were accompanied by Marine Corps EA-6Bs from Squadron VMAQ-1. Both units belong to the 2nd Marine Air Wing.
The Pentagon's Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office has issued a draft request for proposal for development of a prototype component for its Joint Airborne SIGINT Architecture (JASA). The winning contractor will be asked to design, develop, integrate and test the Low Band Subsystem (LBSS) as part of the overall JASA Advanced Concepts Technology Demonstration, according to a notice in the Oct. 4 issue of Commerce Business Daily.
BOEING CO. delivered 51 jetliners in the quarter ended Sept. 30. Included were 25 737s, four 747s, 12 757s, eight 767s and two 777s. Deliveries for the firt nine months included 80 737s, 20 747s, 39 757s, 24 767s and seven 777s. The second of four 767s that will be modified as an AWACS aircraft for Japan was alo delivered.
The U.S. Army will focus its participation in the Joint Advanced Strike Technology program on interoperability of the projected aircraft with the digitized battlefield, according to a Training and Doctrine Command officer. "As the Army moves towards the digitization of the battlefield, we see great opportunity to assist the other services in making this aircraft's impact on the ground battle that much better," said Maj. Dennis B. Boykin, TRADOC's scenario team chief for the Army's JAST participation.
