For all the ruckus in the past few weeks about the Technology Reinvestment Project, you'd think that the House of Representatives and the Pentagon were miles apart on the future of this two-year-old program. But really, they're just standing across the street from each other.
The U.S. aerospace and defense industry achieved the 1994 goal of awarding 5% of its Defense Dept. subcontracts to small disadvantaged businesses (SDBs), the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) said it has been told by DOD. The goal was established in the FY '87 defense authorization act. In 1989, AIA told Congress it would help increase the SDB subcontract level from 1.9% at that time to 5%.
Commercial enginemakers are now racing to be the first to certify and fly growth versions of their biggest engines for heavier models of Boeing's new 777 widebody twins, now that all three of the basic so-called "bigfan" engines have been certified. General Electric and Pratt&Whitney this week revealed their formal commitment to certifying growth engines for the B-market 777. Rolls-Royce will say only that it will "continue to respond to" demands by the marketplace and Boeing for whatever engines are required.
U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ronald Fogleman is working with Pentagon acquisition chief Paul Kaminski to make the follow-on to the AGM- 137 Tri-Service Stand-off Attack Missile (TSSAM) a "true model acquisition program," Fogleman said yesterday. "I'd like to see us use really innovative [acquisition] approaches," he told The DAILY during an interview at the Pentagon. He wouldn't elaborate on his plans, saying he'd "prefer to allow that to unfold."
Secretary of Defense William Perry said yesterday he will defend his fiscal year 1996 budget proposal against congressional "deficit hawks," who he said are undermining the military's long-term readiness. The defense budget is being attacked by "two breeds" in Congress, Perry said at a conference in Arlington, Va.
The House yesterday approved the GOP's National Security Revitalization Act with the directive for a national missile defense so watered down that Democrats left the floor feeling like winners. To the surprise of many on the House floor, the Republican leadership made no attempt yesterday to roll back Wednesday night's defeat of their language calling for development and deployment of a national missile defense "at the earliest practical date."
The U.S. Air Force is soliciting industry on product improvement program (PIP) for the LANTIRN system. Responses to an RFP, released about Feb. 15, are due March 17.
Two senior Austrian politicians were forced to resign over links with British Aerospace during five-year talks to sell the government in Vienna BAe 146 transports for military use, The DAILY has confirmed. The unnamed politicians, from the Social Democrat and People's Party elements of the coalition government, allegedly sought commission payments through a local BAe agent in connection with an Austrian air force requirement dating from 1989 for up to four transports in the BAe 146 class, costing around $350 million.
Russia yesterday launched the Progress M-26 cargo capsule to the Mir space station with a cargo of equipment for U.S. astronaut Norman Thagard to use when he visits the station next month. Liftoff of the Soyuz-U booster from Site 1 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome came at 16:48 GMT (11:48 a.m. EST), with docking scheduled tomorrow. The Progress vehicle's initial orbit was described as normal.
A top U.S. Air Force officer warns the Pentagon to think carefully before buying any more Army Tactical Missile Systems, weighing the benefits of having additional ATACMS against the capability improvements being gained with AF assets. Maj. Gen. Charles Link, the AF's top roles and missions official, recommended during an interview with The DAILY that the Pentagon run a cost-benefits analysis before procuring additional ATACMS, noting the AF's declining need for their protection.
Raytheon Co. is threatening to move its defense and manufacturing operations out of Massachusetts unless it receives concessions from its employees and the state government this year. The company wants $125 million in concessions from employees and another $40 million-$50 million in tax and utility breaks to help bring its costs more in line with competitors in states like Texas and Arizona, which are "less expensive and more hospitable," a Raytheon spokeswoman said yesterday.
Forced by indefinite delays in the RAH-66 Comanche program, the Army is rethinking its Aviation Restructure Initiative (ARI) and aviation modernization strategy to figure out how to sustain its existing helicopter fleet, including continuing UH-60 Black Hawk procurement beyond the fiscal 1996 buy and starting a program leading to a CH-47D Chinook follow-on, according to the service's 1995 modernization plan.
U.S. Central Command lacks the airlift capability to carry out the Bottom-Up Review strategy of being able to fight and win two nearly simultaneous major regional conflicts (MRCs), the Senate Armed Services Committee was told by Gen. J. H. Binford Peay III, Centcom chief. But, Peay told the committee Tuesday, "I think the strategic lift is coming." Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio) said the Bottom-Up Review "is false" if the strategy is based on some future capability. "We're kidding ourselves," he said.
A story in The DAILY of Feb. 6 (page 183) failed to clarify that cuts in the U.S. Army's SATCOM Ground Environment effort were in the RDT&E budget. Also, the two SATCOM efforts related to Milstar-SCAMP and SMART-T-received $25.8 million and $66.7 million in procurement funding, respectively. Neither had received procurement funding in fiscal year 1995.
DCS CORP., Alexandria, Va., has received a contract from U.S. Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Div., Patuxent River, Md., for technical and engineering services for ground proximity warning systems for various platforms. Ceiling amount of the contract, the company said, is $9.9 million.
EDO CORP., College Point, N.Y., said its Combat Systems unit has received a contract valued at about $3.3 million from Westinghouse Electric Corp. for a Tactical Digital Information Link (TADIL) processing and display system to be used as part of an upgrade to the Southern Regional Operations Center for the Caribbean Basin Radar Network (CBRN). Delivery is to be completed this year. Edo said the upgrade will allow air, land, and sea-based defense units in the Caribbean basin to exchange real-time surveillance information. The U.S.
MCDONNELL DOUGLAS HELICOPTER SYSTEMS said Japan's Aero Asahi has purchased 15 MD Explorer helicopters. Two additional single-aircraft orders, it said, were placed by Japan Digital Laboratory and Tomen Aerospace Corp. The Aero Asahi order is the largest so far for the newly certificated helicopter. Deliveries to these customers begin in mid-1995 and stretch through 1999, McDonnell Douglas said.
Wide scale corruption and organized crime are the main threats to control of Russian nuclear material, a group of panelists agreed Tuesday in Washington. Current mechanisms to prevent smuggling of such material work only against a single person on the inside, said one of the panelists, Bruce Blair, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. "The game is over," he said, if large scale corruption is involved.
The C-17 airlifter fleet passed the 10,000 flying hour mark Tuesday during a flight returning to Charleston AFB, S.C., from RAF Mildenhall, England, McDonnell Douglas said yesterday. It said more than half the hours have been flown by the 17th Airlift Squadron at Charleston. Since becoming operational on Jan. 17, the company said, C-17s have been flying to Howard AFB, Panama, to support U.S. forces there, and to various U.S. Air Force bases in Europe. McDonnell Douglas has delivered one test aircraft and 17 production C-17s.
The U.S. Army demonstrated its first Theater Missile Defense (TMD) Tactical Operation Center (TOC) during ceremonies outside the Pentagon. "The Army recognized the urgent requirement for a holistic approach to theater missile defense and developed the TOC to meet this requirement," Lt. Gen. Jay M. Garner, head of Space and Strategic Defense Command, said during Monday's ceremonies.
The defense portion of the House Republican Contract With America, known as the National Security Revitalization Act (NSRA), offers an answer for every GOP grievance in the defense area: extensive U.S. involvement in United Nations peacekeeping; the on-again, off-again pace of missile defense development; shifting defense funds to pay for domestic programs, and the steady downward ratcheting of defense budgets. But despite the NSRA's likely passage in the House today, few expect to see it enacted into law.
CHRYSLER TECHNOLOGIES AIRBORNE SYSTEMS, Waco, Tex., has received a $95 million contract from the U.S. Navy to modify and upgrade the E-6A TACAMO aircraft to incorporate the capabilities of the U.S. Strategic Command's EC-135 Airborne Command Post aircraft. CTAS will upgrade TACAMO operational capabilities and shift equipment from the EC-135. The modified aircraft, designated E-6B, will be capable of performing both the TACAMO and ABNCP missions. CTAS got its first E-6 contract, for an Avionics Block Upgrade (ABU), in October 1992.
The U.S. Army has identified four intelligence and electronic warfare (IEW) areas that require "priority fixes" to provide sufficient and capable IEW systems in the future. The IEW supplement to the U.S. Army's modernization plan (see preceding story) says that funding augmentation priorities are required following reductions in a number of programs in the FY '96 budget proposal.
Net earnings tumbled nearly two-thirds at Northrop Grumman for 1994 at the hands of two pre-tax charges for early retirements and excess assets that totalled $324 million. The company earned $35 million on $6.7 billion in sales for the year, versus $96 million earned on $5.1 billion in 1993. But operating profits more than doubled to $581 million, compared with $262 million in 1993.
The U.S. Air Force could spend as little as $2.1 billion or as much as $13.3 billion on non-developmental airlift between now and the end of the 1990s, depending on which procurement scenario pans out for the C-17 and its would-be rivals. In notional procurement funding guidance contained in the latest revision of the Non-Developmental Airlift Aircraft draft request for proposals, most of the money comes in fiscal 1999 (DAILY, Feb. 14, page 229).
