The first westernized version of the Russian MiG-21 fighter made its maiden flight yesterday in a 40-minute flight over Israel. The Lahav Div. of Israel Aircraft Industries' Military Aircraft Group upgraded the 1950s vintage fighter with a new cockpit design, western avionics, a new navigation system, flight and mission management systems and a new armament system. IAI said it considers the upgrade a major milestone in marketing to Eastern European countries its ability to improve former Soviet military aircraft.
COMPUTER SCIENCES CORP. will provide computer support and upgrades to the Aegis Combat Weapons System and other U.S. Navy Aegis programs under a five-year contract from Lockheed Martin Corp. worth $137 million if all options are exercised. CSC said the contract is a continuation of work it has performed for Lockheed Martin Government Electronic Systems in Moorestown, N.J., for 25 years. The Aegis Combat System controls the sensors and weapon systems for the Aegis class of cruisers and destroyers.
Bidding rivals GEC and British Aerospace are, officially, still deciding whether to re-launch their fight to acquire U.K. shipbuilder VSEL, but London traders yesterday said it's now only a question of when.
Rockwell Aerospace and the Czech Republic's Aero Vodochody signed an agreement to build a prototype L-159 multi-role combat aircraft, with the first phase of the effort involving the purchase of 72 planes by the Czech government. Rockwell said yesterday that its North American Aircraft Modification Division will proceed with design and integration of a new avionics suite on an L-159 prototype under an $18.6 million contract. Late last year, Rockwell announced that it had beaten out Elbit of Israel for the 33-month design and integration effort (DAILY, Dec.
U.S. NAVAL COMMAND, Control and Ocean Surveillance Center, San Diego, has awarded contracts for study of 3-D optical LADAR technology. Coherent Technologies, Boulder, Colo., got $168,140 on May 5, and Fibertek Inc., Herndon, Va., got $169,065 on April 27. Notices in the May 11 issue of Commerce Business Daily said the contracts were awarded by NCCOSC's RDT&E Div.
Motorola and Westinghouse said they have teamed to bid for the U.S. Army's command and control unit for the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System. The Common Ground Station is the Block Two upgrade to the Ground Station Module now in service. CGS will be produced in two versions: a version for light vehicles and a heavy version for the future Command and Control Vehicle. The Army says CGS will be key to digitizing the battlefield because it receives data from tactical, theater and national sensors.
NASA launched the newest Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-J) into its transfer orbit early Tuesday, but the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was worried that the House Republican budget would cut its weather satellite coverage in half. Liftoff of GOES-J atop a Lockheed Martin Atlas I booster came at 1:52 a.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., after day-by-day delays since last Friday, first with an electrical problem and then because of weather.
China Great Wall Industry Corp. will launch a communications satellite for Hong Kong's Asia-Pacific Satellite Communications Co. early next year under a contract signed Friday, China's official Xinhua news agency reported. The 1.4-ton Hughes-built Asia-Pacific 1-A satellite will be launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the first quarter of next year atop a Long March 3 booster, Xinhua said.
EGYPT is looking to buy night vision equipment worth up to $38.4 million for its AH-64A Apache helicopters. The U.S. Army has awarded Lockheed Martin a contract for 12 Target Acquisition Designation Sight/Pilot Night Vision Sensor (TADS/PNVS) systems in support of the foreign military sale.
House National Security Committee Chairman Floyd Spence (R-S.C.) and Government Reform and Oversight's Bill Clinger (R-Pa.) have jointly introduced the Federal Acquisition Reform Act of 1995 to lower the cost of all federal procurement and encourage purchases from commercial suppliers to the greatest extent possible. The measure has been referred to Government Reform and Oversight, which will hold a joint hearing with the National Security Committee on the bill on Thursday.
SOUTH KOREA on May 19 announced its intention to increase its submarine force by building four additional submarines. The Seoul government expects to spend approximately $735 million by the year 2000 on the project. The government wouldn't say whether the submarines would be driven by nuclear power or diesel engines.
The House National Security research and development subcommittee yesterday approved a $35.9 billion fiscal 1996 Pentagon R&D authorization that boosts the Administration's request by $1.2 billion and the overall ballistic missile defense number by $877 million. The subcommittee added $450 million to the $371 million request for national missile defense, the most visible and controversial aspect of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) program. The BMDO authorization would be $3.540 billion compared to the requested $2.913 billion.
U.S. Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Div., Warminster, Pa., has issued a broad agency announcement soliciting proposals in the area of acoustic and non-acoustic undersea warfare (USW) technology. NAWC-AD said in a May 8 Commerce Business Daily that the BAA is open until May 4, 1996, and that areas of fundamental research in which it is particularly interested include the following:
AEROSPACE CORP., El Segundo, Calif., yesterday received a $255.8 million increase to an earlier contract from the U.S. Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles AFB, definitizing a change order for 1,497 members of technical staff to perform engineering, space and satellite research and R&D consulting to support the AF and other agencies in fiscal year 1995.
The French National Space Agency, or CNES, resumed testing of the Ariane V rocket motor Friday, after preliminary investigation results showed that a missing drain plug caused an accident that killed two French technicians working on the motor earlier this month. Testing has been suspended since the May 5 incident at the Ariane launch complex in Kourou, French Guiana, in which the two were asphyxiated by breathing unusually high levels of nitrogen as they readied the motor for a test (DAILY, May 8, page 205).
Defense chiefs from eight European nations have started looking over four or five different versions of the proposed turboprop-powered Future Large Airlifter, or FLA, a process that should wind up in August with the partners agreeing on a configuration and technical specification. Claude Terrazzoni, who heads Aerospatiale's aircraft unit, told reporters over the weekend that the study shows FLA could carry anywhere from 1.8 to 2.2 times the payload of the rival Lockheed C-130J Hercules, at a unit cost just under twice as high as Hercules.
NORWAY has budgeted approximately $450 million to procure a ground-to-ground missile system for the Norwegian army. Loral-prime contractor for the Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS)-has been approached by the Norwegian Ministry of Defense regarding the acquisition.
JAPAN will experience a 3% drop in aerospace manufacturing in FY '95 compared to the previous year, while export orders will increase 15.4%, totalling $1.29 billion, the Society of Japanese Aerospace Companies projects. New orders are forecast to drop 1.5% to $7.97 billion, while airframe production is anticipated to drop 1.7%; also, 2.4% fewer engines by will be produced, parts manufacturing will drop 2.4%, and equipment production will be down 8.9%.
The House National Security procurement subcommittee yesterday deleted the $1.7 billion request for a third Seawolf submarine as it boosted procurement funding by $5 billion over the Administration's fiscal 1996 request.
The U.S. Patent Office has delayed issuing two patents to TRW Inc. for its proposed Odyssey satellite-based telephone system, including one that would give the company patent rights on medium Earth orbits, TRW reported last week. TRW said the anticipated May 16 issuance of the two patents had been delayed because of what the company described as "an internal quality control review" at the Patent Office. The second patent would cover design of the Odyssey spacecraft.
One of Britain's main objections to re-joining Europe's Future Large Airlifter program should evaporate next month-that's when the EuroFLAG consortium is transferring FLA management to Airbus Industrie. Not only was commercial management of FLA one of the main conditions for Britain's agreement to rejoin the project, it was also a key factor in whether Britain would buy any FLAs.
New Director of Central Intelligence John Deutch yesterday gave the most detailed public description to date of his plan to merge defense and intelligence imagery functions, pledging to solicit advice from experts for an "optimum" way to carry out what would be a massive reorganization.
Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical of San Diego yesterday won a coveted $164 million contract to develop the Advanced Research Project Agency's Tier II Plus unmanned aerial vehicle. Under the contract, Teledyne Ryan will pursue a 31-month advanced development and flight test effort, developing two high-altitude endurance air vehicles and a ground station. This will be followed by a year of flight and system performance testing.
Litton Industries' Itek Optical Systems division supplied cameras for the first U.S. spy satellites, according to a CIA article released yesterday. The 1973 article, classified until now, traces the history of the once closely held satellite program called Corona and reveals that Itek was chosen over Fairchild to supply cameras for the effort. It said the resolution of the cameras improved from 40 feet in 1960, when the first photo from space was taken, to five feet in 1972, when the Corona program was phased out.
BFGOODRICH AEROSPACE, Akron, Ohio, said it has acquired the assets of Technology Integration Inc., Bedford, Mass., for an undisclosed sum. TII is a research and development company that designs aircraft equipment and diagnostic systems. It employs 13, and will be operated as part of BFGoodrich Aerospace's Military Fuel and Integrated Systems Div. in Vergennes, Vt.
