Fokker Aircraft's biggest shareholder, Germany's Daimler-Benz Aerospace, will hold on to its 51% stake in spite of the Dutch company's restructuring, but won't say whether it will help make up Fokker's losses or pay for the restructuring program. "Whether DASA will offer a helping hand remains to be seen," Fokker Chairman Ben van Schaik said yesterday.
Following a week-long critical design review, the Air Force on Friday signed off on the design of the F-22 next-generation fighter, saying the Lockheed aircraft is "mature" and can be produced and supported as planned, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ronald Fogleman said. However, major challenges regarding weight, projected per-unit production cost and radar cross section reduction won't be closed until June, according to AF Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.
Debt-watcher Moody's Investor's Service assigned a junk-bond B2 rating yesterday to $150 million worth of notes Alliant Techsystems is using to raise money to buy Hercules Aerospace. The rating-below investment grade but among the higher speculative ratings-reflects "risks surrounding the gradual decline of the military market for the combined company's products and the potential elimination of specific Alliant products from future DOD budgets," Moody's said in a statement detailing its rating action.
Maj. Gen. George Muellner, Joint Advanced Strike Technology (JAST) program director, says cost will be a dominant factor in selecting JAST trainers and simulators because "if we can't afford it, it doesn't do any of us any good." The Air Force will emphasize the effect of trainers and simulators on reducing JAST's life cycle cost, Muellner told the National Training Systems Association last Wednesday in Arlington, Va. He called on industry to make this an "interactive" effort since the military lacks "the knowledge of everything that is out there."
South Korea wants to buy 136 AGM-88B HARM missiles for about $64 million and 32 Harpoon missiles for about $48 million to enhance its F- 16C/D fighter air-to-ground attack capability, the Pentagon said Friday. Missile containers, training missiles, spare and repair parts, support equipment, and engineering and logistics support services would be included in the proposed sale.
The Defense Dept. has fundamentally revised its East Asia strategy and committed itself to "maintain a stable forward presence" in the region, Joseph S. Nye, Jr., assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, said yesterday.
As of today, the U.S. Air Force has obligated $21.5 million on SR-71 Blackbird reactivation-$1.5 million more than the House's proposed defense rescission allows to be spent on the controversial project, according to AF Maj. Gen. Kenneth Israel, director of the Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office (DARO). "We are in the process of sending formal signals back to Congress that we have obligated more than is available to be rescinded," Israel told The DAILY in an interview Friday.
Science Applications International Corporation, Space and Defense Group, Torrance, California, is being awarded a $24,999,941 (Estimated) cost-plus- awarded-fee contract. This contract provides for engineering, analysis and design support for the Air Force Ballistic Missile Defense Program Office. Contract is expected to be completed by February 1997. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles, California is the contracting activity (F04701-93-C-0011, P00080).
A European role in the International Space Station remains in doubt as European Space Agency member states balk at the high price of admission, according to ESA's top human spaceflight official, who said arguments for the ESA Station program have so far failed to win support. Jorg Feustel-Buechl, director of manned space flight and microgravity at ESA headquarters, told The DAILY in a telephone interview from his Paris office yesterday that he remained optimistic ESA members will stay with the scaled-down Station program his office has prepared.
Thiokol Corporation, Brigham City, Utah, is being awarded a $10,499,470 firm fixed price contract for 17,470 2.75-inch rocket M257 illumination warheads in support of the HYDRA 70 Rocket System. Work will be performed in Brigham City, Utah, and is expected to be completed by April 30, 1996. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on September 30, 1994. The contracting activity is the U.S. Army Armament, Munitions and Chemical Command, Rock Island, Illinois (DAAA09-95-C-0011).
McDonnell Douglas Government Aerospace Transport, Aircraft, Long Beach, California, is being awarded a $10,120,000 face value increase to a fixed- price-incentive-firm contract. This contract provides for the First Evaluation Period (1 June 1994 - 31 December 1994) Award Fee for the Lot VI C-17 aircraft. Contract is expected to be completed August 1997. Contract fund will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-92-C-0037, P00041).
The Tier II medium-altitude endurance unmanned aerial vehicle is on the skids-at least if it wants to abide by congressional direction. "The Tier II is in trouble if you want more than 10 vehicles," Maj. Gen. Kenneth Israel, director of the Pentagon's Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office, told The DAILY Friday.
RUSSIA'S Sukhoi Design Bureau will power its new S-80 light turboprop transport with General Electric CT7-9B engines rated at 1,870 shaft- horsepower, GE reported yesterday. GE will deliver two instrumented -9Bs to Sukhoi in early 1996 for flight testing, and production of GE-powered S-80s is expected to get underway in 1997. Originally designed for the Russian domestic market, the S-80 can be configured either as a 26-passenger regional airliner or a cargo plane capable of carrying 6,800 lbs. Sukhoi thinks as many as 650 S-80s could be sold by the year 2006.
The U.S. Army Close Combat Anti-Armor Weapon Systems Project Office, Redstone Arsenal, Ala. has received the first prototype of the Improved Target Acquisition System (ITAS) for the Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wire guided (TOW) anti-tank missile from Texas Instruments (TI). ITAS incorporates an improved fire control system, an eye-safe laser rangefinder, and a second-generation forward looking infrared (FLIR) system, TI said.
Hughes Aircraft Company, Electro-Optical System, Aerospace&Defense Sector, EL Segundo, California, is being awarded a $6,166,877 firm fixed price contract to upgrade 14 telescope sight units on the AH-1E Cobra Helicopter for the Bahrain Defense Force, to C-NITE configuration. Work will be performed in El Segundo, California, and is expected to be completed by July 31, 1996. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on December 20, 1994. The contracting activity is the U.S.
U.S. Navy budgeters are trying to figure out how to stretch their budget to make room for four more Trident submarines, Pentagon aide Ashton Carter said. To support the recommendations of the Nuclear Posture Review, the Navy needs 14 Tridents, but the budget supports only 10.
During his testimony, Peay tells the HNCS that the International Military Education and Training program provides the U.S. with tremendous leverage in foreign countries. The education of other countries' military elites, Peay said, results in direct influence in those countries that can be of tremendous benefit in politically difficult situations.
Using "a few billion dollars" in Nunn-Lugar funding, the Defense Dept. could accomplish by 2001 most of its goals for dismantling the Russian nuclear arsenal, according to Ashton Carter, assistant secretary of defense for international security policy.
Boeing's on the watch for acquisition opportunities and, although it doesn't see anything now, expects some things to crop up when recently merged companies discover they aren't suitable partners, according to Jerry King, president of Boeing Defense and Space Group.
The U.S. Army received the first Patriot Guidance Enhanced Missile (GEM) from Raytheon Electronic Systems Div. during ceremonies at the company's Andover, Mass., headquarters on Friday. Improvements have been made to the Patriot's radar, computers, software and ground equipment. The missile will have increased lethality, and the ability to intercept Scud missiles at higher altitudes and greater distances.
Gen. J.H. Binford Peay III, commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) tells the House National Security Committee (HNCS) that fratricide is still a problem for U.S. forces on the battlefield. Peay is blunt in his assessment of improvements based on lessons learned in the Gulf War, where fratricide was almost as dangerous as Iraqi weapons. Asked whether the problem has been solved to his satisfaction, Peay says "No, it has not."
A powered Joint Stand-off Weapon (JSOW) has recently emerged as another candidate in the not-yet-official contest to replace the Tri- Service Stand-off Attack Missile (TSSAM), Gen. Michael Loh, chief of Air Force Combat Command, said here Thursday. In the near term, Have Nap can address the stand-off weapon deficiency created by the cancellation of the Northrop Grumman TSSAM, Loh said at an Air Force Association symposium.
Top space officials warned the Russian government last week that the nation's space program is near collapse, threatening to evacuate cosmonauts from the Mir space station and cancel all international space contracts unless funding for space projects is increased. The State Duma took emergency action as a result of the warnings, shifting funds into an area where they may be used for space. But the space budget won't be finalized for at least another two weeks.
Adm. Henry G. Chiles Jr., head of U.S. Strategic Command, tells the Senate Armed Services Committee that "we are slowing down our move" to START I ceilings on accountable warheads and "I expect the Russians to catch up." Pentagon officials at the time of the Nuclear Posture Review last fall said the U.S. has reduced its strategic warheads from 8,800 to about 6,000, the START I ceiling, while the Soviet\Russian arsenal has gone from 10,000 to 9,000 (DAILY, Sept. 26, page 481).
If Congress comes up with more money to put in the defense budget, Air Force Air Combat Command Gen. Michael Loh knows exactly where he'd put any additional funding that came his way: first, into the F-22 to restore the full fiscal 1996 budget and second, into strategic airlift to "make sure" C-17 and Non-Developmental Airlift Aircraft are more efficient. Talking at an Air Force Association (AFA) symposium in Orlando, Loh said any he'd put leftover monies into AWACS readiness, the purchase of more F- 16s and F-15s, engine reliability and advanced munitions.
