The follow-on to the Tri-Service Standoff Attack Missile definitely won't have the performance capabilities of Northrop Grumman's TSSAM, said George Schneiter, the Office of the Secretary of Defense's director of strategic and tactical systems. "The department judged we could get by with a more affordable but less capable system," Schneiter said Monday at a Cruise Missiles Association luncheon at Ft. Belvoir, Va. "..."We'll have to give something up here."
Trying to be more helpful and cooperative, the Defense Dept. plans to change the Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) process to cut time, save money and work better with program officials, according to George Schneiter, the Office of the Secretary of Defense's director of strategic and tactical systems. The DAB's committees "as such" will be dismantled and replaced "in effect" with integrated product teams (IPTs), Schneiter said at a Cruise Missiles Association lunch at Ft. Belvoir, Va.
Concerned about the F-22's ability to meet its specifications, program officials are studying the aircraft's cost and operational effectiveness analysis (COEA) to determine how changing the next-generation fighter's performance requirements might affect its mission effectiveness, according to Defense Dept. and congressional officials.
RUSSIAN PROGRESS M-27 supply ship was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome Sunday, the Associated Press reported from Moscow. The spacecraft is carrying food, fuel and equipment to the crew on Russia's Mir space station, which includes American astronaut Norm Thagard. It is scheduled to dock at Mir on Wednesday. The first Space Shuttle docking with Mir is set to take place in June.
Although officially billed as simply a chance to offer detailed information to the Pentagon, foreign comparative testing, or FCT, on the U.K.'s Advanced Short-Range Air-to-Air Missile is shaping up as a nearly definitive test of whether the design really could meet U.S. requirements, program backers in industry and Capitol Hill believe.
The U.S. Air Force's Wright Laboratory, Eglin AFB, Fla., is seeking industry input for development and testing of a guided munition weighing only 250 pounds. The weapon being eyed under the 18-month Miniaturized Munition Technology (MMT) program, according to an April 3 Commerce Business Daily announcement, is projected to have a warhead of at least 50 pounds of high explosives, a diameter of six inches, and a length of 72 inches. It should be able to penetrate six feet of concrete and have an accuracy of three meters circular error probable (CEP).
The House National Security Committee's "confidence level" in its available information will determine whether it heeds the warning of the head of U.S. Transportation Command not to make an early decision on how many C-17 airlifters to buy, says procurement subcommittee chairman Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) Hunter told The DAILY that the panel's decision depends on "how much information we can gather independently."
Cobra Gold, this year's biggest exercise for U.S. Pacific Command forces, will run May 1-24 in Thailand. The program is the latest in a series of U.S.-Thai military exercises practicing the U.S. cooperative engagement strategy and designed to strengthen the ability of the Royal Thai armed forces to defend its nation, the Defense Dept. said.
April 5, 1995 Hughes Radar Systems, El Segundo, California, is being awarded a $13,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for APG-65 radar spare parts for the F/A-18 aircraft. Work will be performed in El Segundo, California, and is expected to be completed by June 1996. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. The Navy Aviation Supply Office, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the contracting activity (N00383-94-G-B501-0011).
The first satellite aimed at enabling seamless cellular telephone service across the U.S. was successfully placed in geostationary transfer orbit Friday by a Lockheed Martin Atlas rocket. American Mobile Satellite Corp.'s (AMSC) MSAT-1 satellite lifted off from Cape Canaveral on an Atlas IIA at 7:47 p.m. EDT. A company spokesman said yesterday that ground controllers had established contact with the satellite and all signs were good.
The U.S. may be within weeks of sketching out its intentions on allied participation in the Joint Advanced Strike Technology (JAST) program, but the long-expected framework document defining how allies can take a role probably still won't be ready until at least the autumn, a British Aerospace executive said yesterday.
$3.5 BILLION ENERGY DEPT. CONTRACT for the cleanup and conversion of the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site was awarded to a team led by Kaiser-Hill that includes DynCorp and CH2M Hill, DynCorp said Thursday.
JOHNSON CONTROLS ASSURANCE CO., Greenbelt, Md., has been selected to negotiate a $94 million cost-plus-fee award contract to provide quality assurance and engineering support services to the Office of Flight Assurance at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The contract will run from July 1 through June 30, 2000, and will include quality assurance for flight hardware, software and mission integration for Goddard's flight assurance program.
German charter carrier LTU has ordered one 757 and one 767-300ER in a deal worth $160 million, Boeing said yesterday. The 757, to be powered by Rolls-Royce engines, will seat 209 passengers. The Pratt&Whitney-powered 767 will seat 276 passengers. Both aircraft are scheduled for delivery in spring 1996. Boeing said the 757 will be certified to fly at high gross weights, enabling LTU to use it to serve the East Coast of the U.S. from Germany. The 767-300ER will have enough range to serve the entire North American continent.
Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan's prime minister, will urge President Clinton to repeal the law that has barred the delivery of 28 F-16s to Pakistan since 1990. "The planes or our money back. Plain-simple-and fair," Bhutto said yesterday at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington. She said she would present the option to Clinton today.
Table details SAR programs for fourth quarter Status of Selected Acquisition Report (SAR) programs for the three- month period ending Dec. 31, 1994, are detailed in the following table, released by the Dept. of Defense. Dollar figures are in millions. Current Estimate Cost Quantity Weapon Base Base Then System Year Year $ Year $ ARMY:
April 4, 1995 Rockwell International Corporation, Command and Control Systems Division, Richardson, Texas, is being awarded a $6,770,000 face value increase to a Firm Fixed Price contract for various spare parts and additional equipment for the Milstar Command Post Production Program. Contract is expected to be completed December 1996. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Electronic Systems Center, Hansom Air Force Base, Massachusetts, is the contracting activity (F19628-93-C-0033/P00010).
McDonnell Douglas expects to start cutting jobs at its Douglas Aircraft jetliner unit "very soon," blaming the continued delay on finalizing the big Saudia fleet replacement order. Douglas notified employees at its Long Beach, Calif., plant last week that job cuts were coming, but the unit's management is still evaluating how many jobs would have to be lost to cope with the Saudi delay. "We told employees that there will be reductions in the near term," said spokesman John Thom.
April 4, 1995 Lockheed Missiles&Space Company, Inc., Sunnyvale, California, is being awarded a $20,742,075 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for continued technical support of the United Kingdom's Polaris (A3), and Trident (D5) missile systems. Work will be performed in Sunnyvale, California, and is expected to be completed by March 1996. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. The Navy's Strategic Systems Program, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00030-95-C-0048).
