The U.S. Air Force's Aeronautical Systems Center, Eglin AFB, Fla., is requesting information from industry on boosted penetrator warheads for application to air-to-ground missiles. The International Programs Office of ASC said in a May 25 Commerce Business Daily notice that it wants information "on off-the-shelf warheads in the 1,500 to 2,000 pound class capable of penetrating deeply buried targets."
Local television reporters at the Comanche rollout wanted to know what kind of commercial spin-offs there are to the RAH-66, forcing Boeing-Sikorsky program manager James Morris to dryly respond, "Well...there aren't a lot of civilian uses for an armed reconnaissance helicopter." But, he said, the aircraft's electronic technologies can be used in other helicopters and the Kaiser helmet-mounted display, which gives pilots night vision, could be used by law enforcement officials and surgeons.
New kinds of military missions and information warfare will evolve from a host of cultural and economic changes now sweeping the globe, quite apart from the cliched notion that the major change for the defense establishment comes from the end of the Cold War, a top Lockheed Martin executive argues.
A big reason buying additional B-2 bombers gets such a cold shoulder from the Pentagon, says acquisition chief Paul Kaminski, is that DOD modernization plans assume a 47% boost in the outyears, and more B-2s could lead to shortfalls in the modernization accounts. "Adding the B-2s in that sense is going to create huge problems," Kaminski tells reporters in Washington. "Even buying at the low rate...of 1.5 B-2s a year" would be problematic, not to mention inefficient.
Industry teams developing Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) concepts for NASA may have to invest "hundreds of millions" of their own dollars if they decide the X-33 RLV prototype they propose will be able to go into orbit, according to the director of the RLV program at NASA headquarters.
The House National Security Committee has authorized an unrequested $832 million for additional B-2 stealth bombers beyond the present 20, but is silent on the number to be bought. The committee, in its report on the fiscal 1996 defense bill released yesterday, doesn't go beyond saying that it provides $553 million in long lead funding and $279 million additional for "procurement past 20."
If Congress recommends an increase in funding for B-2 bombers, it will throw off the Defense Dept.'s long term planning, a senior defense official said yesterday. "Putting two or three additional B-2s in the budget certainly is going to have a considerable impact on the plans," Paul Kaminski, defense under secretary for acquisition and technology said. He also said the Joint Air- to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) won't be developed fast enough to match the schedule of the canceled Tri-Service Standoff Attack Missile (TSSAM).
In apparently the last U.S. military helicopter rollout of the twentieth century, the Army and Boeing-Sikorsky yesterday revealed a sleek, nearly rivetless RAH-66 Comanche armed reconnaissance helicopter at Sikorsky's plant here. Spectators were impressed by the smoothness of the virtually all- composite fuselage, which made the 47-foot-long demonstration/validation aircraft look identical to its mockup. "I want to see it fly," said one observer in mock skepticism.
Negotiating teams from Boeing and McDonnell Douglas are now in place in Saudi Arabia and hope, this time, to wrap up the long-stalled $8 billion Saudia fleet replacement order, industry sources confirmed Thursday. The Saudi government asked the teams to return earlier this month (DAILY, May 17, page 257), and since then optimism among senior executives has been growing that a deal may be near.
NASA HAS PICKED Lockheed Martin Engineering&Sciences of Houston to support life sciences programs at Ames Research Center with engineering and technical support services. The five-year, $314 million cost-plus-award-fee contract begins July 1.
The Pentagon's got a problem in the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile, or JASSM, also known as son-of-TSSAM (Tri-Service Standoff Attack Missile). These names-and a good number of former-but-still-in-use monikers like Affordable Standoff Attack Missile and Advanced Standoff Attack Missile- show the trouble that the Defense Dept. is having in getting development started on a long range, tactical precision-guided missile-one that's based on existing technology and will fill the void left by the canceled AGM-137 TSSAM.
USS RUSSELL, (DDG-59), fourth in a series of Aegis guided missile destroyers being built by Litton Industries, was commissioned May 20 at Naval Station Pascagoula, Miss. Home port of the new ship will be Pearl Harbor.
An alliance that includes two of the three U.S. systems licensed to provide mobile satellite services via hand-held receivers yesterday charged that the competing Inmarsat-P venture is violating principles set up to keep it separate from its parent company, Inmarsat.
The U.S. Air Force would be put in charge of combat search and rescue (CSAR) and operations support airlift (OSA) aircraft if the recommendations issued by the Commission on Roles and Missions of the Armed Forces are adopted.
U.S. NAVAL AIR SYSTEMS COMMAND plans a competition for Advanced Tomahawk Weapon Control System (ATWCS), Track Control Group (TCG) phase I hardware production, phase 2 Launch Control Group (LCG) LRIP option, phase 1/2 LCG/TCG production option, submarine LRIP option, and submarine production option. NavAir solicited industry interest in a May 11 Commerce Business Daily notice.
The Dutch acquisition of McDonnell Douglas AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopters was finalized yesterday following a lengthy and controversial selection process and protests by Eurocopter which lost the competition. U.S. Army and contractor representatives met with officials Dutch government officials in The Netherlands to sign the foreign military sales (FMS) agreement worth slightly under $700 million, the Army's Security Assistance Command said yesterday.
WESTINGHOUSE NORDEN SYSTEMS, Norwalk, Conn., will receive a sole source modification to a previous contract for two or three-whichever is appropriated by Congress-AN/SPS-67(V)3 radars, according to a May 19 Commerce Business Daily notice from U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command.
The Defense Dept. shouldn't be subjected to additional strict accounting rules, but should look at bringing in outside assistance to fix its flawed system, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) said Tuesday. Comptroller General Charles A.Bowsher told Stevens' Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee that all federal government accounting systems are in bad shape, but that DOD "has probably some of the worst systems and probably some of the biggest problems." He said "the savings could be many billions of dollars" if problems could be eradicated.
The radio frequency technology advancements Rockwell International is developing for the Joint Advanced Strike Technology program could easily be transferred to the U.S. Air Force's F-22 program, company officials say. Rockwell's Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based Collins Avionics and Communications Div. is under contract from the JAST program office to develop RF technology but is "making it compatible so it can be a drop-in replacement on F-22," Paul Ronan, Rockwell Collins' modular avionics program manager, told The DAILY Monday.
The long-awaited report on military roles and missions, released yesterday, surprised observers by making no recommendation on whether to continue producing B-2 bombers. A report of the staff of the Commission on Roles and Missions of the Armed Forces, released earlier, did call for additional stealth bombers, and was cited in congressional debate leading to the House National Security Committee procurement panel's decision Tuesday to provide long-lead funds for two more stealth bombers (DAILY, May 24, page 297).
ROCKWELL INTERNATIONAL CORP.'s Tactical Systems Div., Anaheim, Calif., is working under a $4 million contract from U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command on target acquisition for ship defense. A May 10 Commerce Business Daily notice said the contract was awarded April 1.
The House National Security procurement subcommittee modified its fiscal 1996 defense authorization report language to give the U.S. Air Force a free hand in deciding whether and how many Non-Development Airlift Aircraft (NDAA) to buy, Rep. H. James Saxton (R-N.J.) said yesterday. He told The DAILY in an interview that the original procurement subcommittee language directed the AF to buy the NDAA. At Saxton's suggestion, however, the language was softened to permit the AF to buy the plane.
If a House National Security subcommittee initiative to select a second contractor for the Tier II Plus unmanned aerial vehicle program is approved by Congress, the Advanced Research Projects Agency wouldn't pick a design from proposals already received, according to John N. Entzminger, ARPA's advanced technology chief and Tier II Plus program manager. He told The DAILY that "we'll probably go back out to all four [competitors who lost] and get a rebid of a slightly revised program."
U.S. NAVAL COMMAND, Control and Ocean Surveillance Center, San Diego, is soliciting industry for engineering support services for development of a multi-TADIL Link system. It said in a May 18 Commerce Business Daily notice that the chosen contractor will develop and validate "software and associated hardware systems for integration of Link-4, Link- 11, Link-16, Link-22 and related joint United States Department of Defense and foreign country data link functions in applicable command-and-control systems in a multi-TADIL environment."
GEN. DENNIS J. REIMER was confirmed late Tuesday as the U.S. Army Chief of Staff. Reimer currently commands Army Forces Command, Atlanta, Ga., and will become the Army's 33rd Chief of Staff when he replaces Gen. Gordon Sullivan, who is retiring, on June 20.
