The Russian Space Agency plans to intervene in a dispute between the U.S. Rimsat and Russian Informcosmos companies, withdrawing the license which has enabled Informcosmos to lease satellites to Rimsat and suggesting that the Intersputnik consortium take over control of the operational satellites. Officials of the RSA said the civilian space agency will finalize its posture and officially release it after completion of internal scrutiny by lawyers and consultants.
GDE SYSTEMS, San Diego, will supply automatic test equipment for avionics systems of U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter aircraft under a $13.6 million contract from Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems. GDE, a subsidiary of Tracor Inc., will provide advanced versions of the ATE through December 1996.
Russian Strategic Rocket Forces have tested the new silo- based version of their mobile Topol ICBM with timing that seemed to have more to do with interservice rivalry than with national defense. The Topol-M ICBM was launched Tuesday from the 53d State Test Range at Plesetsk at about 4 a.m. EDT. and apparently headed to the impact zone on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian far east.
LITTON INDUSTRIES' Aero Products Div. said it has developed a computer program for its new commercial aircraft navigation systems that can provide directional accuracy to navigate as low as 300 feet without reliance on ground-based radio aids. The technology, not yet certified for commercial use, will also allow non-precision approaches to uninstrumented airfields.
Lockheed Martin has announced the managers of five of the "Centers of Excellence" it will establish as part a consolidation plan. The company said Tuesday that Bruce Mitchell, a company vice president, will run a Communications Payloads center north of Philadelphia, between two Astro Space satellite plants it plans to close. Mitchell will initially report to the Astro Space headquarters in East Windsor, N.J., and later to Sunnyvale, Calif., as the Astro Space operations are shifted there (DAILY, Sept. 6, page 354).
THE HOUSE votes today on whether to keep the $493 million add-on for new B- 2 bomber production in the fiscal 1996 defense appropriation, with both sides acknowledging that the outcome is a toss-up. B-2 supporter Rep. Norman Dicks (D-Wash.) told The DAILY that "I think it will be as close as it was last time, but I think we're going to win." He said there were still "some undecided votes."
Any reusable launch vehicle that goes into commercial operation as a result of the X-vehicle RLV program underway at NASA will be certified for flight by the FAA, according to the director of the Transportation Dept.'s Office of Commercial Transportation (OCST), which is to be merged into FAA at the end of the month.
HONEYWELL INC., Albuquerque, N.M., will produce color, flat panel cockpit displays and display generators for the European Mid-Life Update and Taiwan F-16 programs under a contract with Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems worth more than $99 million. Honeywell said this is the first production of color displays for the F-16. The display, developed by Honeywell Defense Avionics Systems, will present radar, weapon and system information. Delivery of some units will begin in March 1996 for inclusion in new F-16s for Taiwan.
The Defense Dept. is considering a second Bottom-Up Review that could lead to a reduced force structure, Lt. Gen. George Muellner said yesterday. "I think what we're going to see happen, probably not this year but probably out in the '97 timeframe, [is] another Bottom-Up Review," said Muellner, the U.S. Air Force's principal deputy assistant secretary for acquisition. "You're going to see a review comparing our force structure with what our national and strategic goals are," he told reporters yesterday during a breakfast meeting in Washington.
SMITHS INDUSTRIES Flight Management System (FMS) software will be part of an integrated software package for commercial aircraft that will be offered by Rockwell International Corp.'s Collins Air Transport division. An agreement signed by the two companies covering the software is an extension of a strategic alliance they formed in 1992. Smiths Industries' FMS is now used only on jets with 100 seats or more. As part of the Collins avionics suite, it will be available to manufacturers of other aircraft and airlines upgrading existing aircraft.
The Senate yesterday accepted the missile defense compromise that dilutes the Armed Services Committee's directive for mandatory deployment of a multi-site national missile defense, and then approved the $264.7 billion fiscal 1996 national security authorization by a vote of 64-34. The bill now goes to conference with the House, which in June approved a $267.3 billion bill. The conference could get underway as soon as today, SASC sources said.
ELBIT LTD., Haifa, Israel, said it is negotiating a contract to supply avionic systems for an aircraft upgrade program. It didn't say who it is negotiating with or identify the program, but did say its portion of the work is expected to be worth $70 million to $90 million over a period of several years.
AIRBORNE SELF-PROTECTION JAMMER has undergone its baptism of fire during U.S. air strikes against Serb targets in Bosnia. ASPJ was installed on Marine F/A-18Ds and has been performing well, Adm. Michael Boorda, Chief of Naval Operations told reporters yesterday at a Naval Institute sponsored conference in Arlington, Va. Boorda said he was satisfied with the jammer for "this mission."
Japan's Defense Agency is asking the Finance Ministry for $8.238 billion for weapons procurement in Fiscal 1996, a 5.5% hike over this year's budget (DAILY, Sept. 6, page 353). Aircraft procurement requests are detailed below, but unit costs have not yet been disclosed. Japan's FY '96 military aircraft request Requested Bought Aircraft for 1996 in 1995 Ground Self-Defense Force
The U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps are set to specify the initial dates for operation of Joint Attack Strike Technology fighter variants, a move that will influence the AF's decision on how many F-16s it needs to buy, a top AF official said yesterday.
Here's one way to cope with a too-high FS-X price tag-buy extra fighters for the aerobatic team to bring the unit price down. Of the 141 F-16 derivatives planned by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force, 74 will go to front-line combat units. The rest go for training, attrition-and the Blue Impulse aerobatic team, which gets nine planes. The Blue Impulse is already in the process of cashing in its Mitsubishi T-2 trainers for T-4s, so why do it again? And why return to a supersonic aircraft, after just converting to a subsonic plane?
Whittaker Electronic Systems, Simi Valley, Calif., said yesterday it has been awarded a $1.6 million contract for secure communications equipment for the United Arab Emirates' AH-64 Apache helicopters.
Thomas B. Ross, the senior public affairs director at the White House National Security Council, is leaving his position to take a job with Globalstar L.P., the Loral-led consortium that is developing a 48-satellite low-Earth orbit communications network. Ross will be responsible for Globalstar's public relations, investor relations and government relations, the consortium announced yesterday. He will be based in New York. Ross had served as assistant secretary of defense for public affairs from 1977 to 1981.
Lockheed Martin said yesterday it has formed a new commercial satellite operating unit as part of its plans to fold its Astro Space satellite manufacturing operation into Lockheed Martin Missiles&Space Co. The new organization, known as the Astro Space Commercial operating unit, is comprised of Astro Space's commercial satellite operations, which account for about half of the unit's business.
Members of Congress and a U.S. federal court have warned several Russian entities to back off threats to seize two satellites that are being used by an Indiana firm and a U.S.-Russian business arrangement that has gone sour. Rimsat, Ltd., of Ft. Wayne, Ind., said it has paid for the construction, launch and operation of two Russian-built Gorizont communications satellites that were orbited in 1993 and 1994.
Boeing Defense&Space Group's Helicopters Div. said it has completed negotiations with the U.K. Ministry of Defence for 14 HC Mk. II Chinook helicopters for the Royal Air Force. The contract, valued at about $365 million, calls for deliveries to begin in 1997 and continue through early 1999. Boeing said the new procurement and current RAF business will mean the RAF will operate a fleet of nearly 50 Chinooks.
Soyuz TM-22 docked with Russia's Mir space station early yesterday, carrying a German cosmonaut to a 135-day "Euromir" microgravity sciences mission that will include the first European spacewalk. The three-man capsule boosted from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Sunday turned out to be the 3,000th spacecraft launched by the Russian space program and its Soviet predecessor since Sputnik in 1957.
