President Clinton has appointed the final two industry members to the congressionally established Semiconductor Technology Council. The Dept. of Defense said Hugh Barnes, senior vice president and general manager of Compaq's Portable PC Div., Houston, Tex., and George Sollman, president and CEO of Centigram Communications Corp., San Jose, Calif., will join the now 16 member council drawn from members of academia, government and industry.
Lockheed has narrowed its JAST ideas to a single basic design for a family of aircraft, says Dave Wheaton, company VP-program manager for JAST. However, the company is still juggling such things as the size of the wings and the number and placement of tails and canards. Lockheed remains "pretty firm" on its shaft-driven lift fan for the Marine Corps' short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) requirement, Wheaton tells The DAILY. Lockheed will have a preferred weapon system concept by July, when the JAST office next reviews its work.
AlliedSignal Aerospace said it was awarded $175 million in contracts by Southwest Airlines to supply a "package of cockpit avionics, including the world's first forward-looking windshear detection system and to provide maintenance for wheels and brakes."
LEBANON wants to buy 225 U.S. M113 Armored Personnel Carriers, communications equipment, machine guns and logistics support elements for an estimated $37 million. The APCs would be drawn from current U.S. stockpiles in the U.S. and Europe and add to Lebanon's already existing M113 inventory.
The Army's vision of itself in 2010 looks like this: a smaller, faster, more efficient force that can more easily control, more quickly distribute and more effectively exploit information. But the 21st century force-or Force XXI, as the Army calls it-is more than today's Army with advanced command and control technologies or "with more computer networks," according to the service's 1995 science and technology master plan, released in a limited distribution to contractors Wednesday.
MOTOROLA Government and Space Technology Group, Scottsdale, Ariz., said it has received a $2.5 million contract from the South Korean Ministry of Transportation for more than 50 ground-to-air transmitters and receivers required to maintain voice communications with aircraft passing through Korean airspace. The CM-400 series of transmitters and receivers for the Korean program are based on the CM-200 systems being deployed throughout the U.S. National Airspace System, Motorola said.
MCDONNELL DOUGLAS said the U.S. Navy launched four Standoff Land Attack Missiles (SLAMs) off San Nicolas Island, Calif., during a recent exercise. The company said it was the first time that multiple land attack missiles were launched in a simulated strike. All four missiles scored direct hits. McDonnell Douglas said the missiles were launched and controlled by F/A-18C aircraft from four squadrons based at NAS Cecil Field, Fla., (VFA-82, VFA-81, VFA-83, VFA-131) and one at Naval Air Warfare Center, China Lake, Calif. (VX-9).
UNISYS CORP. said it has received a $1.1 million contract to provide live-fire training equipment and installation services to the Royal Saudi Infantry Corps School at Khamis Mushayt in Saudi Arabia. The McLean, Va., corporation also said it has received $4.4 million in funding for the second year of a five-year contract from the U.S. Army for similar equipment and services.
The Defense Dept.'s science and technology budget may be holding steady, but that's not necessarily true of the nerves of Pentagon S&T officials. As pressure for procurement dollars intensifies and it becomes increasingly clear that the Republican-promised tax cut would prevent defense growth, DOD's top scientists are circling the wagons to protect coffers that up until now have pretty much been labeled "hands-off." Through much of the drawdown, DOD leaders have stuck to a policy of not allowing S&T budgets to fall.
Renso Caporali, who headed Grumman Corp. before it was acquired by Northrop Corp., has gone to Raytheon Co. as senior vice president- government and commercial marketing. Caporali, who left Northrop Grumman earlier this month (DAILY, March 20, page 418), will provide management direction for Raytheon's domestic and international marketing efforts, the company's Washington operations and marketing offices in Dayton, Ohio, and Norfolk, Va., Raytheon said. It also said he will assist Raytheon Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Dennis J.
The Hellfire II anti-tank missile scored five hits in five attempts during recent live fire exercises in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Lockheed Martin said yesterday. Missiles were fired from the Lockheed Martin/Boeing-built Ground Launched Hellfire II System (GLH II), mounted on a High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV), the company said. The launches included one at night and four during the day. All were aimed at T-54 tank targets positioned 3.38 miles downrange.
Gen. Robert Rutherford, head of U.S. Transportation Command, warned the House National Security procurement subcommittee that it "could make the wrong decision" if it decides too early how many C-17 airlifters to buy. He made his appeal as it was clear that there were sharply divided views on the panel. At the same hearing, Lt. Gen. Richard Hawley, principal deputy assistant secretary for AF acquisition, said the final request for proposals for the Non-Developmental Airlift Aircraft (NDAA) will be issued today.
American Space Lines, the Orbital Sciences/Rockwell International joint venture that is developing a small reusable launch vehicle with NASA, wants to be launching 18 to 20 small satellites a year by 2005 on the commercial vehicle that derives from its X-34 prototype.
GENCORP said that John B. Yasinsky, president and chief executive officer, was also elected chairman of the board Wednesday at a regularly scheduled directors' meeting. He succeeds A. William Reynolds, who has held the post since 1987 and who is leaving the board.
A defense procurement reform bill being introduced in Congress would stop acquisition programs that come up short on half of their goals. The bill-sponsored by Sen. William V. Roth (R-Del.), Rep. John Kasich (R-Ohio) and three other House members-would cut the time for developing and fielding weapons to eight years at the most, merge three separate procurement and maintenance systems into one, and save $20 billion a year (DAILY, March 30, page 479).
The U.S. Southern Command, commanded by Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey, will move its headquarters to Miami from Quarry Heights, Panama, during the summer of 1998, the Pentagon said. A Defense Dept. selection committee chose the southern Florida area after considering 100 sites in the continental U.S. and Puerto Rico between 1988 and 1994. The leading site in the Miami area is the U.S. Coast Guard facility at Richmond Heights in South Dade County. To abide by the 1977 Panama Canal Treaty, U.S. military forces must be out of Panama by Dec. 31, 1999.
The Pentagon's Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) yesterday approved first low-rate production (LRP) of the U.S. Army's Sense and Destroy (SADARM) program, setting the stage for a contract award later this year. The approval allows the Army to go ahead with its production plan which calls for Aerojet and Alliant Techsystems to jointly manufacture projectiles for the first LRP run. Production is slated to take place at Aerojet's Azusa, Calif., plant and at Alliant Techsystem's Hopkins, Minn., facility.
Unable to resolve differences over whether defense rescissions should pay for part or all of the fiscal 1995 defense supplemental, House-Senate conferees did not meet yesterday and are not expected to resume negotiations until Monday, congressional sources said yesterday. Senate conferees insisted that the approach in their bill be followed. The Senate approved a $1.9 billion supplemental with $1.9 billion in defense rescissions and $1.5 billion in non-defense rescissions for deficit reduction only.
BRITISH AEROSPACE plans to raise 383 million pounds ($616.6 million) in a two-stage effort to buy ship-builder VSEL. The company wants to be ready to complete the merger if it gets the go-ahead from the Monopolies Merger Commission.
COMPUTER SCIENCES CORP., Falls Church, Va., is in line for a $67.7 million contract from NASA to supply engineering support services at the agency's Wallops Flight Facility, Va. The company said yesterday that NASA chose it for negotiations leading to the contract, which consists of a one-year basic period, two one-year options and one two-year options.
NASA has picked two space veterans-Shannon W. Lucid and Jerry M. Linenger-as prime astronauts for the next two U.S. visits to Russia's Mir space station. Lucid, a 52-year-old biochemistry PhD who has flown on four Space Shuttle missions, will spend five months on the Russian station in 1996, NASA reported yesterday. Linenger, 40, a commander in the Navy Medical Corps, flew on the Shuttle Discovery in September 1994 and will return to orbit aboard the Shuttle Atlantis in 1996 for the third U.S. visit.
The U.S. Air Force plans to buy three Boeing 707-347C aircraft from Canadian Commercial Corp. for use conversion to the E-8C Joint STARS configuration. The Air Force's Electronic Systems Center said in a March 28 Commerce Business Daily notice that the planes "have [been] or will be declared surplus by the Department of National Defence of Canada and are of the condition and configuration suitable for conversion" to Joint STARS aircraft.
Senate Governmental Affairs Chairman William V. Roth (R-Del.), House Budget Chairman Rep. John Kasich (R-Ohio) and three other House members yesterday introduced procurement reform legislation that they said would cut the weapons development and deployment cycle to eight years maximum, collapse three separate procurement and maintenance systems into one and save $20 billion annually. Sen.
SAIC, Arlington, Va., has won a contract potentially valued at some $50 million over five years for the system integration and demonstration component of ARPA's Synthetic Theater of War program.
Two non-invasive techniques developed for NASA's Ames Research Center to study the headaches some astronauts experience in orbit may also benefit head-trauma victims by giving their doctors a safe way to measure intracranial pressure (ICP). Space physicians postulate that increased ICP contributes to the headaches, nausea and nasal congestion some astronauts suffer in microgravity, but they have never been able to check the theory because they cannot measure ICP without surgically implanting a pressure sensor inside the skull.
