Britain is asking the U.S. for an initial buy of 65 conventionally armed Hughes Missile Systems Tomahawk cruise missiles at an estimated program cost of some $143 million, the Pentagon notified Congress yesterday. The U.K. officially selected Tomahawk this summer (DAILY, July 14, page 59), specifying Block 3 Tomahawks carrying a 750-pound high-explosive warhead for the Royal Navy's submarines.
Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Pico Rivera, Calif., unit last week received three contracts from the U.S. Air Force totaling about $100 million for work on the B-2 bomber program.
The first spacecraft in NASA's New Millennium series of small technology testbeds will use solar electric propulsion to visit a comet and an asteroid, the U.S. space agency reported yesterday. The near-Earth body probe will be built by Spectrum Astro, Inc. of Gilbert, Ariz., which was picked as "primary industry partner" to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which will lead the first mission team for the program initiated in the fiscal 1996 NASA budget.
Raytheon Co. was chosen by the U.S. Air Force over Loral Corp. to assess compatibility of the Hammerhead synthetic aperture radar seeker with the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM). Raytheon's Electronic Systems Laboratories in Tewksbury, Mass., and Electronic Systems Div. in Bedford, Mass., will split a $12.1 million contract from the AF's Wright Laboratory, Eglin AFB, Mass. Loral Defense Systems, Ariz., was the other competitor. Raytheon will supply three Hammerhead seekers and associated test effort, the Defense Dept. said Sept. 15.
Lockheed Martin Corp. yesterday named its Electronics&Missiles unit in Orlando, Fla., as its "center of excellence" in the smart munitions market. The corporation, which has announced "centers of excellence" in other fields (DAILY, Sept. 7, page 366), said that "significant programs, technologies and [key] people...will be relocating from several Lockheed Martin facilities to" Orlando. More than 80 individuals will move to Orlando and 50 more will move to company facilities in Ocala, Fla.
House-Senate conferees have reached tentative agreement on a missile defense provision in the fiscal 1996 defense authorization compromise calling for development and deployment of a multiple-site national missile defense, congressional sources said yesterday. Sources said the language appeared to be closest to the revised Senate Armed Services language which called for a congressional review before going ahead with an NMD. The review would consider the system's cost, effectiveness, the threat and its implications for the ABM Treaty.
The Defense Acquisition Board meeting in two months to decide whether McDonnell Douglas' C-17 airlifter program can come off probation will spend two days reviewing both the C-17 program and the future of airlift, industry executives and AF officials confirmed yesterday.
PanAmSat was negotiating the final stages of a contract this week under which Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) would build the PAS-7 and PAS-8 satellites, sources said yesterday. PanAmSat wants to have the two satellites in orbit in the late-1997 time frame to provide additional capacity to its satellite communications network, which achieved global coverage earlier this year.
LORAL FEDERAL SYSTEMS-Owego will deliver 13 receiver sets to enhance the B- 2 bomber's AN/APR-50 electronic support measures system under a $14.6 million follow-on production contract from Northrop Grumman Corp. The contract calls for delivery of the sets between August 1996 and March 1997. Loral said the APR-50 is designed to protect stealth bomber aircrews by detecting, identifying and locating sources of RF energy. It said the APR- 50's line replaceable units are relatively small in size because of large scale integration and gallium arsenide technology.
The Dept. of Defense announced the following changes in top U.S. Air Force ranks: -- Maj. Gen. Brett M. Dula has been nominated as new vice commander for Air Combat Command, Langley, AFB, Va. Dula, 53, is the deputy inspector general for the Air Force and will replace Lt. Gen. Thad A. Wolfe, who will retire.
McDonnell Douglas denied a story in the Wall Street Journal yesterday which said the company is discussing a partnership with China to keep alive its MD-95 airliner program. The Journal said McDonnell Douglas is in early talks on selling a stake in Douglas Aircraft to Aviation Industries of China.
Hughes Training Inc. said it will build 34 more F-16 fighter simulators for the U.S. Air Force under a new contract that brings the value of the Unit Training Device (UTD) program to about $58.3 million. Under the latest contract from the Aeronautical Systems Center, worth about $21.8 million, Hughes will said it build the following numbers and types of simulators: 12 F-16 Block 25, four F-16 Block 30, 11 F-16 Block 40 with LANTIRN, two F-16 Block 42 and five F-16 Block 50.
U.S. AIR FORCE Air Mobility Command this week has flown more than 1,130 passengers and 1,100 tons of hurricane relief supplies to Peurto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, AMC said yesterday. The C-17 airlifter participated, it said.
A joint U.S. Air Force/Navy program to develop a portable, end-to-end flight line tester for airborne electronic warfare equipment has been approved for engineering and manufacturing development, and contractors late last week were awaiting the final signature on the Operational Requirements Document as well as the formal request for proposal. JSECST, or the Joint Services Electronic Combat Systems Tester, completed its Milestone II briefing on Sept. 11, an AF official said.
Abort of the U.S. Army's second Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile test flight on July 31 occurred before seeker data could be acquired, forcing the service to try to obtain the data in the upcoming third test rather than attempt the first actual intercept, a spokesman for Army Missile Command said. At the time the July test was broken off, the Army "had not yet uncovered the seeker," which is blanketed by a protective shroud, the spokesman said. The infrared seeker guides the kill vehicle in the final stage of the intercept.
McDonnell Douglas Corp. rolled out the first U.S. Navy F/A-18E/F strike fighter here yesterday, hitting schedule and cost targets in a program established three years ago that is expected to produce 1,000 planes by 2015. Navy Secretary John H. Dalton told some 1,500 people at the rollout ceremony at MDC's facility that "In all respects, [the program] is on target, it is on budget, on time, and under weight."
Clinton Administration strategy for national security science and technology aims to facilitate the "spin-on" of commercial developments to defense systems as much as technology flow in the opposite direction, with government money bridging the gap between short-term development and long- range research.
September 11, 1995 Martin Marietta Corporation Martin Marietta Corporation, Littleton, Colorado, is being awarded a $8,227,634 face value increase to a Cost Plus Award Fee contract for the Titan IV Unified Payload Integration Contract award fee for the period 30 June 1994 to 1 July 1995. Contract is expected to be completed May 1996. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, California is the contracting activity (F04701-92/C-0028, P0003666).
Deputy Defense Secretary John White yesterday praised the accuracy of the U.S.-led NATO bombing campaign against Bosnian Serb targets. "We have used nothing but precision munitions and the accuracy has been phenomenal," he told an Air Force Association audience in Washington. "There are no holes in the ground; all the holes are in the targets, and the accuracy is so great that we're beyond selecting targets. They are now selecting aim points within targets."
September 14, 1995 Harris Corporation Harris Corporation, Melbourne, Florida, is being awarded a $10,217,124 face value increase to a Firm Fixed Price contract for replacement of the Tactical Telemetry System on 125 warheads applicable to the Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM). Contract is expected to be completed August 1997. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Aeronautical Systems Center, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida is the contracting activity (F08626-92/C-0001, P00037).
KAMAN CORP. said Adm. Huntington Hardisty (USN-ret.), a director of the company, has been named president of Kaman Aerospace International Corp., Kaman Corp.'s international affiliate. Hardisty was commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Command until he retired in early 1991. Kaman said KAI provides a spectrum of company technologies to the international market, including the SH-2G Super Seasprite helicopter and the K-MAX "aerial truck." Hardisty will continue to serve as a director of Kaman and as a personal advisor to Charles H.
Defense procurement funding in the fiscal 1996 future years defense plan, or FYDP, should post real-terms increases after the turn of the century to make up for program cutbacks this decade, according to an analysis prepared by the General Accounting Office.
Deputy Defense Secretary John White sought yesterday to downplay any notion that the House's add-on for renewed production of the B-2 bomber will spark a major battle between Congress and the Clinton Administration. "We're not up on the Hill threatening vetoes over the B-2," he said during a question-and-answer session at the Air Force Association's annual conference in Washington. "We're up on the Hill explaining why we can't afford it." There are "some other areas where we are emphasizing vetoes," he added.
