The Pentagon should prioritize U.S. theater missile defense programs and make downselection recommendations on competing systems, according to a draft report of the House National Security Committee. The committee, calling for the TMD shakeout in its draft on the fiscal year 1996 defense authorization, said it was concerned about the long-term affordability and need for various TMD programs. Listing the programs in order of priority, it said, would speed development and deployment of preferred systems.
The House National Security Committee recommends adding $68 million to the Pentagon budget to deal with the growing threat posed by cruise missiles. In its fiscal 1996 draft report, the panel called for:
ORBCOMM ENGINEERS at Orbital Sciences Corp. headquarters near Washington have used a prototype personal "communicator" to send and receive messages from one of two Orbcomm satellites launched in early April. The Panasonic prototype continues testing of one satellite, while controllers work to fix a problem on the other (DAILY, May 23, page 291).
NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY selected Harris Corp. following an eight- month competition for a five-year, multi-million dollar contract to provide computer services. Harris said the contract calls for Harris to "implement Regional Intelligence Centers."
In light of financial constraints and technical risk, the U.S. Army should rein in its Enhanced Fiber-Optic Guided Missile (EFOG-M) demonstration program, the House National Security Committee abrasively advised in draft language of the fiscal 1996 report.
Sikorsky President Eugene Buckley has promised to sell 30-36 UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters a year to the U.S. Army for the same price he's been selling the service 60 a year under a multi-year procurement, according to Maj. Gen. Dewitt "T" Irby, the Army's aviation program element officer. "The Army would be ill-advised to walk away from that," Irby told The DAILY Thursday during rollout of the RAH-66 Comanche here.
As the commercial space launch market outstrips U.S. government demand for launch services, the Transportation Dept. office responsible for regulating commercial spaceflights is moving toward the same sort of role the Federal Aviation Administration now plays in the aircraft industry.
SPACE SYSTEMS/LORAL said yesterday it was picked to build a C- and Ku-band telecommunications satellite for Mabuhay Philippines Satellite Corp. The three-axis stabilized satellite will be launched in December 1996.
In the current budget environment, conversion or shared use of military capabilities is a predominant choice for Russian space communications developers and service providers instead of developing new systems, based on the status of several space communications projects displayed at the annual Moscow exhibition Communications '95. A new full-scale system development appears to have a chance to succeed only if there is a clear customer committed to long-term large- scale funding.
LORAL DEFENSE SYSTEMS-ARIZONA, Litchfield Park, Ariz., will supply an advanced synthetic aperture radar system for the SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft program. Under a $3 million contract from Lockheed Martin, Loral will refurbish and recalibrate the ASARS-1 system, and install it on three of the Mach 3 planes. The SR-71 program was terminated by the U.S. Air Force in 1990, shortly after ASARS-1 was introduced the U.S. The program is being reactivated under congressional direction to improve radar intelligence collection capability.
MCDONNELL DOUGLAS said a U.S. Air Force C-17 airlifter on May 28 flew from a base near Calcutta, India, to Kunming, China, retracing the "Burma Hump" route of the World War II China-Burma-India theater of operations. The flight was part of the AF's World War II 50th anniversary commemorative activities.
TRW AND ISRAEL AIRCRAFT INDUSTRIES said the Hunter Joint Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle has logged 3,000 hours. About 325 hours have been for system development, 120 for technical testing, 2,215 for user training, 315 for user operational testing, and 25 for shipboard utility demonstration, the companies said. The milestone was reached May 19 by air vehicle No. 205 during a six-hour flight from Rugge-Hamilton airfield at Ft. Huachuca, Ariz., they said.
Hughes Space and Communications Co. is planning an October unveiling of a new satellite it is designing as a follow-on to the HS-601 model. Company spokespersons here were mum on the specifics of the new satellite, but indicated it would be compatible with the Atlas, Ariane, Proton, Long March and new Delta III rockets. Hughes customers have expressed a desire for more power and more capacity, they said.
LOCKHEED MARTIN ATLAS II BOOSTER placed the U.S. Navy's fifth UHF Follow- On (UFO F5) communications satellite in its geosynchronous transfer orbit after an on-time launch yesterday morning Liftoff came as the launch window opened at 11:27 a.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., and controllers later contacted the Hughes-built platform and determined that it was "functioning normally," according to the satellite-maker. Hughes has a $1.7 billion contract to build and launch 10 of the ultra-high frequency (UHF) communications satellites for the Navy.
An old Nash Rambler automobile plant across the street from Los Angeles International Airport has become the focal point of Hughes Space and Communications Co.'s efforts to churn out high-tech satellites quicker, cheaper and more efficiently. The plant, owned by Hughes since the 1960s, was converted into the Integrated Satellite Facility (ISF) last year, and the numbers tell it all.
Boeing rescued its Air France order book, reaching a deal made public yesterday to put off seven jetliners that would have been delivered this year and next while booking new firm orders for another 15 planes.
Russia's Khrunichev State Space Center has signed a contract for $3 million with the Austrian firm ACEA for delivery of electric power systems at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. ACEA won a contract competition by offering hardware able to survive the harsh continental climate of Southern Kazakhstan. Under the contract ACEA will supply three sets of a system for continuous electric power supply.
LORAL FEDERAL SYSTEMS-GAITHERSBURG said tests have proven that its new ground control software is showing that it's ready to perform navigation duties for Block IIR Global Positioning System satellites to be launched in 1996. The company said tests have proven the ground control system can modify software onboard the satellite's reprogrammable processors, a new feature of the IIR spacecraft. This, Loral said, will allow controllers to program the spacecraft's computers from the ground and add new mission capability when it is in orbit.
ROCKWELL INTERNATIONAL moves into the production phase of the E-6A TACAMO aircraft's High Power Transmit Set (HPTS) under a $26.5 million U.S. Navy contract. The contract, awarded May 1, follows a $29.6-million add-on award in April 1994, and a $17.7-million initial production contract in 1993, Rockwell said. Rockwell said the new contract provides for fiscal 1995 fabrication and test of two 200 Kw HPTS systems.
Acting U.S. Air Force acquisition chief Darleen Druyun yesterday unveiled eight new acquisition reform initiatives that would affect major changes in the system program offices (SPOs) and at AF headquarters, including cutting the size of SPOs by at least 50% and reviewing all requests for proposal, contract modifications and contract options of more than $10 million.
NASA may invite the Defense Dept. to participate in the science institutes it plans to create at its field centers as a way to spread the science-funding burden, Administrator Daniel S. Goldin said yesterday.
Preparing for a Nov. 30 first flight, Boeing and Sikorsky will start ground tests in late June of the RAH-66 Comanche helicopter propulsion system testbed at Sikorsky's flight test center in West Palm Beach, Fla. The testbed includes all of Comanche's dynamic systems, such as the main transmission, the rotor system, the fan-tail and the engines. The first RAH-66 prototype, rolled out last Thursday, will start ground tests at West Palm Beach on Oct. 1.
Russia has inaugurated its first satellite-based business data relay system, with an AT&T subsidiary specializing in very small aperture terminal (VSAT) technology working under contract to Russia's largest retail bank. The Sbercom system, developed for Russia's state Savings Bank (Sberbank) by AT&T Tridom and the Pilot Design Bureau of the Moscow Energy Institute (OKB MEI), went on line May 19 under an agreement that was signed in October 1994 (DAILY, Nov. 22, 1994, page 272).
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine over the Black Sea Fleet of the former Soviet Union is preventing the presidents of the two countries from signing an agreement on space cooperation that has already been completed. The agreement must be signed by Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma in Kiev, but at the Commonwealth of Independent States summit in Minsk on May 26 Yeltsin said that "until we agree [on the Black Sea Fleet] there can not even be talk about me coming to Kiev."
