TRW has received a long-awaited U.S. patent for its Odyssey mobile satellite system that is aimed at heading off a competing venture planned by an Inmarsat spinoff. TRW said the patent, issued Tuesday after a two-month delay, essentially gives Odyssey the exclusive use of medium-Earth orbit (MEO)- altitudes of 10,000 to 18,000 kilometers-to provide satellite-based communications through gateway stations via hand-held ground receivers.
U.S. NAVAL SEA SYSTEMS COMMAND plans to issue a request for proposals on Aug. 1 for the New Attack Submarine (NSSN) Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence (C3I) system development.
The Senate Armed Services Committee authorized $2.1 billion in fiscal 1996 funding for the F-22 fighter, but said some $600 million should be held up pending a report by the Secretary of Defense addressing concerns on concurrency, projected weight and projected specific fuel consumption. The committee said in its new report on the '96 defense authorization that the Pentagon report must be delivered to the congressional defense committees by Sept. 1. It said none of the $600 million would be made available until 60 days after the report is submitted.
AH-1W SUPER COBRA HELICOPTERS will receive four-bladed rotor systems rather than an Integrated Weapons System, the Defense Dept. said yesterday. The U.S. Navy canceled the IWS competition in May to allow the Marine Corps to establish its helo improvement priorities. The need for additional lift capability led the Navy to move ahead with the rotor system upgrade and put a hold on IWS until necessary funding becomes available.
Congress should waive "impractical" and expensive full-up, full-scale live fire tests on the U.S. Air Force's F-22 and instead conduct an alternative survivability program that would test components and subsystems of the new fighter, the National Research Council said in a report released yesterday.
The House National Security Committee should set up a "bicameral" committee with the Russian Duma's defense panel, HNSC research and development subcommittee Chairman Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) said yesterday. Weldon has proposed this idea to HNSC Chairman Floyd Spence (R-S.C.), who said in March that he wanted to keep a dialogue going with the Russian parliamentary committee (DAILY, March 8, page 354).
WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC CORP.'s Electronic Systems Div., Sykesville, Md., received an additional $12.5 million July 12 from U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command for production of AN/SQQ-89(V)10 surface ship anti- submarine warfare combat systems.
TRW's space and defense segment posted a 20% increase in operating profit amid a 19% uptick in sales during the second quarter of 1995, according to earnings figures released Tuesday. Sales in the space and defense operation rose to $842 million, their third consecutive quarterly increase, as operating profit rose to $54.2 million. TRW said the increases were primarily due to higher volume. It noted that the space and defense operation had won $500 million in awards in the second quarter and $2.5 billion in the first six months of 1995.
Rockwell International reported hefty increases in operating earnings and sales during the third quarter of fiscal 1995 despite declines in both categories in its aerospace business. Earnings in the aerospace unit fell 5% from the same period a year earlier to $83.6 million. Aerospace sales were $607 million, down from $649 million a year earlier. That included a $28 million drop in space systems sales, to $474 million, and a $14 million decline in aircraft sales, to $133 million.
General Electric Co. said its Aircraft Engines business posted double digit earnings growth during the second quarter of 1995. A company spokesman said the increase was driven by spare parts sales. General Electric does not release specific quarterly numbers for Aircraft Engines or its seven other businesses. But company-wide it posted record second quarter net earnings of $1.726 billion, up 11% from the second quarter of 1994, on revenues of $17.7 billion, a 19% increase from the same period last year.
Improved earnings in the C-17 and F-15 programs fueled a $96 million increase in operating earnings for McDonnell Douglas' military aircraft segment and led to a record $415 million for the company in the first half of 1995.
LITTON SYSTEMS' Amecom Div., College Park, Md., on July 13 received a $9.3 million award from the U.S. Navy Aviation Supply Office in Philadelphia for various repair parts for the E-2C aircraft's AN/ALR-59/73 passive detection system.
NASA has picked McDonnell Douglas Aerospace to negotiate for a contract potentially worth $160 million to build a 40-foot, all-composite wing and a full-scale wing box, the agency announced yesterday. Under the eight-year contract, MDC will verify new wing technology through design, fabrication and testing of the semi-span wing component. Technology developed under the program will be transferred to all U.S. airframers as part of NASA's Advanced Composites Technology Program. Langley Research Center will manage the contract.
The Senate Armed Services Committee has boosted the U.S. Army's $354 million fiscal 1996 request for the Longbow Apache helicopter by $82 million, and directed the Secretary of the Army to provide the funds to execute a multi-year procurement contract for the program. The committee recommended a provision that would authorize MYP for the Apache. The House National Security Committee approved the requested $354 million to buy 18 AH-64D aircraft and 13 Longbow fire control radars.
U.S. industry representatives will have access to technologies in the integrated electronic warfare suite of the FS-X fighter during a visit to Japan in December. The visit, to be led by the U.S. government, will be to facilities of Mitsubishi Electric Corp. (MELCO), the Japan Defense Agency's prime contractor for the FS-X EW suite.
SYSTEMS RESEARCH LABORATORIES, Dayton, Ohio, has received a five- year, multi-million dollar follow-on contract to continue to support the Passive Electronic Countermeasures Branch of the Electronic Warfare Div. of Wright Laboratory. SRL said the contract calls for it to continue to support development of the next generation passive electronic countermeasures technologies. SRL has provided services and support for passive ECM development to the U.S. Air Force for more than 20 years.
Every McDonnell Douglas C-17 airlifter flying simulated wartime missions from the near-deserted Barstow- Daggett Army Aviation Facility has departed on time, with no maintenance- related delays, the top officer here said Monday.
The Senate Armed Services Committee said the U.S. is developing too many Theater Missile Defense systems. Reiterating the view of many in Congress, the committee said in its new report on the fiscal year 1996 defense bill that it is "troubled by the expanding number of new TMD systems that are headed for acquisition." If the current efforts continue, it said, the U.S. will expend virtually all its effort and resources "on a plethora of TMD systems that are designed for narrow in-theater applications."
NASA engineers are planning to gather a wide range of data on supersonic transport flight dynamics in a series of 35 instrumented test flights by a Russian Tu-144 SST next year, according to the head of the agency's High Speed Research program. Louis J. Williams told The DAILY that work is on schedule for test flights from Tupolev Design Bureau facilities near Moscow to begin in February 1996, with modifications of the 1982-vintage Tu-144 testbed NASA will instrument already well underway.
TIER II Predator unmanned aerial vehicles have begun flying over Bosnia, a Pentagon spokesman said yesterday. All three of the vehicles that were scheduled to be deployed are in place at Gjander airfield, Albania, and are operational. Four flights have been completed since deployment. The first, which took place in the last few days, was restricted to Albanian airspace. The others are believed to have included intelligence gathering over Bosnia, a DOD source said.
The Senate Armed Services Committee has authorized $30 million for U.S. Army development of ground-based anti-satellite technologies in an effort to revive a program the Clinton Administration has repeatedly opted not to fund. In language accompanying its fiscal 1996 national defense authorization bill, the committee recommends $30 million in funding "for the continuation of the Army tactical anti-satellite technologies (ASAT) program for a user operational evaluation system contingency capability."
MACAULY-BROWN, Dayton, Ohio, has received an $8.7 million contract from the U.S. Air Force's Wright Laboratory on July 5 for evaluation of advanced development electronic warfare concepts and techniques. The Defense Dept. said the contract is expected to be completed July 2000.
The U.S. Navy wants to press ahead to the demonstration/validation phase of its Upper Tier theater missile defense program rather than spend time on additional tests of the Lightweight Exoatmospheric Projectile (LEAP) concept, a senior Navy official said. "In essence, the real issue that's being discussed...is have we done enough testing to go into the initial phase of system development," Rear Adm. Ron Rempt, the Navy's theater missile defense requirements chief, told The DAILY during an interview in his office.
U.S. astronaut/physician Norman Thagard sees bone loss and radiation exposure as the primary medical hurdles humans will face on long-duration space missions, discounting as minor concerns the weight loss and isolation he felt on his record-setting stay aboard Russia's Mir space station.
KUWAIT wants to buy 16 Sikorsky UH-60L Black Hawk helicopters to help rebuild its military forces following the Gulf War. In addition to the helicopters, it wants to 500 Hellfire missiles, 38 Hellfire launchers, four spare T700 General Electric engines, 11,500 Hydra 70 rockets, 20mm gun pods, .50 caliber machine guns, ammunition, chaff, night vision goggles, spare and repair parts and other related logistics support, the Defense Dept. announced Friday. The entire contract is said to be worth $461 million.
