Parker S. Stafford, previously vice president of technical operations at Lockheed Martin Astro Space, East Windsor, N.J., was appointed vice president and chief engineer. Stafford also will serve as Mars Surveyor program manager.
If the U.S. Navy decides to develop an advanced precision-guided cruise missile based on salvaged Tri-Service Standoff Attack Missile technologies, the resulting weapon will be just one candidate in the Air Force/Navy TSSAM follow-on program, AF and Navy officials told The DAILY. "It will feed into this joint development," Lt. Gen. Richard Hawley, AF principal deputy for acquisition, said during an interview Wednesday. "It will provide some information that we will jointly use to proceed with a joint JASSM [Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile] program."
In early 1990, Hughes Communications, Inc. was part of a team of telecommunications heavy-hitters that announced plans to establish a pioneer direct broadcast satellite (DBS) service. Known as Sky Cable, the $1 billion venture included media mogul Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., NBC, and Cablevision Systems Corp. But within a year Sky Cable was dead, a victim of a recession-racked economy and jittery financial markets that wouldn't finance the project.
The Defense Dept. has boosted security at the Pentagon and Tinker AFB, Okla., in response to Wednesday's apparent terrorist attack in Oklahoma City, DOD said in a statement yesterday. Defense officials wouldn't reveal what is being done to increase security at Tinker or the Pentagon, noting only that the Pentagon routinely is at a higher state of alert than most federal buildings.
Extended testing of Eurofighter's fly-by-wire flight control system software threatens to put off the public debut of the second prototype, DA.2, slated for the Paris Air Show in early June, industry sources said. GEC-Marconi Avionics, which has development responsibility for Eurofighter 2000's flight control system, in February delivered upgraded software to Daimler-Benz Aerospace-the original design and integration prime contractor-for final verification rig-testing at Ottobrunn.
F/A-18E/F's first center/aft fuselage was delivered on schedule Wednesday by Northrop Grumman and will be shipped to F-18 prime contractor McDonnell Douglas, Northrop Grumman said. The fuselage was the first of between seven and ten that will be used on development aircraft. The total production number will be around 1,000 shipsets, depending on the Navy's total buy. The first F/A-18E/F is slated for rollout Sept. 19 in St. Louis.
The Pentagon's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization has struck a deal with a Ukrainian firm to buy detailed data packages and software simulations for the SS-19 MIRVed ICBM and two advanced former Soviet naval missiles.
Aerospace Corp. managers expect the Defense Science Board to recommend continuation of "core activities" at Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) next month, but worry congressional ceilings on the funds DOD may spend at FFRDCs like Aerospace will hamper the non- profit R&D centers' ability to do the jobs they were established to do.
United Airlines has ordered two 747-400s and four 757s worth $570 million from Boeing, to be delivered in April, May and June of next year, as part of its five-year strategy to retire and replace older aircraft and return to profitability.
Russian uncertainty over when the Spektr pressurized laboratory module can be launched to the Mir space station continues to stymie NASA managers trying to schedule three Space Shuttle flights in June and July. "Processing problems" with the oft-delayed Russian module have pushed the scheduling problem to the point where managers may be forced to consider whether they want to try to launch three Shuttles over a six-week period, according to a Kennedy Space Center spokesman.
Crewmen on the Russian space station Mir have launched a small German geodetic satellite in a commercial venture designed to produce some cash for the hard-pressed Russian space program.
Rear Adm. Richard West, the Navy's lead admiral in the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, said yesterday that he didn't expect the "partial successes" in the two most recent Lightweight Exoatmospheric Proectile (LEAP) test firings to cause Congress to refuse to add $150 million to $170 million to the fiscal 1996 request of $30 million for the Upper-tier missile defense system. Asked by reporters if there was a diminution of support in Congress following the LEAP tests, West said, "No, I think not."
Sweden will release a defense plan next year that will likely cut the number of its air force fighter squadrons and affect future orders, according to a Swedish military official. Between one and four squadrons will probably be eliminated under the five-year plan, Brig. Gen. Michael von Rosen, Sweden's air attache, said Wednesday at an American Defense Preparedness Association luncheon in Washington. The move is largely cost-driven, he said.
The U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center will release a request for proposals on the first phase of the Pentagon's "evolved" expendable launch vehicle (EELV) program May 9, offering as many as four contracts for a "Low Cost Concept Validation module" on plans for an upgraded version of one of the present U.S. space launch vehicles.
Air Force Secretary Sheila Widnall on Tuesday appointed deputy assistant secretary for acquisition Darleen Druyun as the acting assistant secretary for acquisition. Druyun will take on the responsibilities held by Clark Fiester, who died in Monday's C-21 crash in Alabama, until a permanent successor is named.
The Defense Dept. plans to release the results of the heavy bomber force study "relatively soon," DOD spokesman Ken Bacon said yesterday. Bacon would not confirm reports that the Institute for Defense Analyses study advocates maintaining the current fleet of 20 B-2 stealth bombers over buying another 20. IDA is evaluating how three different bomber force structures-including the current Air Force plan for 20 B-2s, 66 B-52Hs and 95 B-1Bs-would perform in two major regional contingencies (DAILY, Feb. 8, page 197).
The Defense Dept. in a year or two will go to an acquisition oversight system that monitors company processes rather than individual systems, a Naval Air Systems Command official said yesterday. Roger Goodson, the command's standards improvement executive, said the move would be in line with current efforts to shift the defense acquisition system away from military standards.
GENERAL DYNAMICS Land Systems will hire about 60 employees at its Tallahassee, Fla., plant by the middle of next year to make electronic parts for the M1A2 tank. The plant now produces and assembles the SINCGARS radio.
ARMY RESEARCH LABORATORY, Adelphi, Md., is looking for technical support of "all aspects of Low Observable (LO) technology from understanding the threat to field demonstrations of a potential application." The lab said in an April 12 Commerce Business Daily notice that "Knowledge of LO and Counter Low Observable (CLO) is necessary in all areas of the electromagnetic spectrum for current Army systems. Test support to DOD and contractor ranges is required in addition to basic video and instrumentation. Basic LO training and support will also be required."
U.S. ARMY MISSILE COMMAND, Huntsville, Ala., plans to release a solicitation June 27 to Loral Vought Systems, Dallas, for development of a lightweight launcher for the Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS).
Major European aerospace companies say the weak dollar threatens to spoil their financial results for 1995. Daimler-Benz Aerospace of Germany, which receives all of its aircraft and engine revenues in dollars, said it will miss its breakeven target for the year, losing at least 100 million Deutschmarks, unless the dollar returns soon to DM1.60, Reuter reported. Yesterday, the dollar stood at DM1.35. DASA is at risk even though it hedged about DM2 billion against the dollar before the dollar's value fell.
TEXAS INSTRUMENTS/MARTIN MARIETTA Joint Venture is receiving a solicitation from U.S. Army Missile Command for phase three low rate initial production of the Javelin anti-tank missile. The requirement includes a range of tactical rounds, from 557 to 1,150, and from 101 to 142 Command Launch Units.
McDonnell Douglas wrapped up March with a record first quarter financial performance and more cash on hand than ever before, thanks largely to the early glimmers of a recovery in the commercial aircraft business and a $300 million payment from the Pentagon-MDC's share of an omnibus settlement of C-17 issues. "It was the strongest quarter we've ever had" for cash flow, said Executive VP and Chief Financial Officer Herb Lanese yesterday, with cash flow in the period of about $600 million, "and about half was the C-17 settlement."
A package of innovative projects funded at a total cost of $1 billion per year could have the Defense Dept. spending "smarter" with the promise of major long-term payoffs in military effectiveness, a Defense Budget Project (DBP) report concludes. Given the relatively low cost of these initiatives, it should be possible to support the investments within currently projected defense resources, the DBP said in its report, "Funding Innovation: Low-Cost Options for Leveraging the Military Revolution."
Thiokol will convert Russian intercontinental ballistic missile fuel into chemicals to be sold to the chemical industry under a multi-year, multi-million dollar contract from the U.S. Defense Nuclear Agency.
