PAMAMSAT, Greenwich, Conn., has signed an agreement for China Central Television (CCTV) to expand use of its satellites. CCTV, which has broadcast to Asia and North America on PanAmSat's PAS-2 Asia/Pacific region satellite since December, will also use the company's PAS-3 Atlantic region satellite, enabling it to extend broadcasts to Europe and Africa and establish the world's first global Mandarin Chinese television service.
The Defense Dept. should retain B-1B Lancers-the future "workhorse" of the military's power projection strategy-over older B-52H bombers, Air Force Air Combat Command chief Gen. Michael Loh said Wednesday. The B-1B proved in last year's operational readiness assessment (ORA) that it can achieve a 75% mission capable rate as long as it's properly equipped, Loh told The DAILY during a brief interview in his office here.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN yesterday received an anticipated $94.7 million Air Force contract as part of the congressionally mandated B-2 Industrial Base Preservation Effort (DAILY, Feb. 8, page 197). The monies will be split as follows: Northrop Grumman, $24.6 million; Boeing, $42.7 million; Vought, $5.3 million. The balance will go to other suppliers.
Work on the two new advanced wind tunnels the U.S. aircraft industry says it needs to stay competitive in the next century has advanced to the point that a White House decision on funding the $3.2 billion project will probably come this year, opening the door for two more decisions that must be made before the state-of-the-art facilities can be built.
China yesterday was backing away from reports by government-owned media that said the explosion of a Long March rocket during launch last month was caused by the Hughes-built satellite it was carrying. Officials of China Great Wall Industries Corp., a state-owned company that markets Long March launches in the west, told the Asian Wall Street Journal in a story published Feb. 9 that a newspaper report two days earlier blaming Hughes "does not reflect the thinking of the Chinese leadership."
JUST 118 PAYLOADS WERE LAUNCHED IN 1994, the lowest level since 1963 and 53 below the launch peak year of 1990, according to a new "Launch Log, 1957-1994" released by the Teal Group, Fairfax, Va. Six satellites did not reach orbit in 1994 due to failures, Teal said. A total of 4,809 payloads have been launched since Russia's Sputnik 1 in 1957, Teal said.
NASA is preparing "to rip apart our bureaucracy" in a major reorganization to find funds for the Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) and other high-priority programs, Administrator Daniel S. Goldin told the NASA Advisory Council yesterday. Goldin said NASA plans to spend $1.6 billion over the next five years on RLVs, even as the agency's budget drops by about $1 billion a year over the same period. To make up the difference the agency will undergo a major restructuring that will include laying off "a lot of people" and probably closing facilities, he said.
The Clinton Administration's $1.4 billion defense-related rescission of fiscal 1995 appropriations, to pay in part for the $2.6 billion defense supplemental, would knock out $500 million for the Technology Reinvestment Project, probably killing it, congressional sources said.
The U.S. Army Space and Strategic Defense Command (SSDC) launched a Storm target Tuesday in preparation for tests on the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) program. The target, which usually consists of two solid rocket motors, was modified to its THAAD test standard. This involved keeping the rocket's second stage and guidance system attached after burn-out, thus limiting the number of targets the THAAD interceptors will have to shoot at to one.
The Pentagon's plan to increase the rate of weapons modernization could be scaled back by cuts in the defense budget, Walter Slocombe, under secretary of defense for policy, said yesterday.
The U.S. Navy is planning a test in which a Lightweight Exoatmospheric Projectile (LEAP) kinetic-kill vehicle (KKV) integrated with a ship- launched missile will seek for the first time to intercept a simulated tactical ballistic missile in space. The Friday morning test is aimed at evaluating the compatibility of integrating technologies developed by the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) into Standard missiles and testing the performance of KKVs, a senior defense official said yesterday at a Pentagon briefing.
The German Air Force has awarded Whittaker Electronic Systems a $3.5 million contract to upgrade and add to two of its next-generation Hawk Missile Air Defense Training Simulators. The company, a subsidiary of Los Angeles-based Whittaker Corp., will provide two Air Defense Interoperability Validation Systems (ADIVS II), allowing trainees to exercise using actual Hawk hardware. ADIVS II relies on data link processing and sensor simulation to set up "hundreds of mission scenarios," a company statement said.
House Speaker Newt Gingrich yesterday called for a complete replacement of the Pentagon's procurement system and outlined sweeping goals to dramatically lower the cost of U.S. weapons systems. "My goal is to lower the length of time it takes to field a system by 80% and to lower the cost of procuring a major system by 40%," Gingrich said in an address to the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA) in Arlington, Va. "I see no reason why we can't do it."
The Central Imagery Office is readying solicitations for work on the projected United States Imagery System (USIS). CIO, in separate Feb. 6 Commerce Business Daily notices, said it plans to issue a two USIS solicitations-one on about Feb. 24 for system integration services, and another on about March 20 for end-to-end planning.
The Pentagon expects to have a decision on a replacement for the canceled Tri-Service Standoff Attack Missile (TSSAM) in "a month or two," Defense Secretary William Perry said yesterday, but meanwhile has made what Pentagon Comptroller John Hamre called "offsetting investments" in other systems. Hamre said the offsetting investments were made in the Standoff Land Attack Missile-Expanded Response (SLAM-ER), the AGM-130, the Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) and the Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM).
Sens. Mark Hatfield (R-Ore.) and Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.) in the Senate and Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) in the House last week introduced identical bills requiring that before any country receives U.S. military assistance, it must live up to certain human rights and arms control requirements.
Lockheed Missiles&Space Co. will pay Russia's Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center $190 million for a flight-ready Functional Energy Block (FGB) space tug that will be the first element of the International Space Station to be launched. The figure, which includes delivery to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for a Russian government-funded launch aboard a Proton booster late in 1997, is much lower than the $300 million estimate floated last summer by NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin (DAILY, June 8, 1994, page 375A).
Boosted by acquisitions, Orbital Sciences Corp. turned in 20% higher earnings on 17% stronger revenues for 1994, the fifth straight year of gains for the company. Revenues were $31.7 million ahead of 1993's pace at $221.9 million, and net income was up nearly $1 million to $5.4 million, according to financial results posted yesterday.
The U.S. Navy has awarded McDonnell Douglas a $3 million contract for a flight test demonstration of a surface ship-launched Standoff Land Attack Missile (SLAM), the company said yesterday. Two SLAMs will be fitted with the Harpoon missile's ship-launch boosters. The SLAM is based on the Harpoon airframe. After launch, one of the missiles will be controlled by a LAMPS Mk. III helicopter, the other by a Marine Corps F/A-18, McDonnell Douglas said. The test-firing will be part of the Navy's Surface Fire Support program.
A TURKISH F-16 crashed into the Aegean Sea yesterday, but the circumstances surrounding the incident weren't clear. Turkey claimed 1st Lt. Mustafa Yildirim's fighter crashed after "mechanical failure" during a training flight over international waters, while Greece claimed the plane crashed as it was fleeing Greek Mirage F1s fighters sent to intercept it when it entered Greek airspace. The incident occurred near the Greek island of Rhodes, which is within sight of the Turkish mainland, and Yildirim was rescued by a Greek helicopter and taken to a hospital in Rhodes.
The chief executive of a Houston subcontractor to Rockwell International faces two years in prison and a $10 million civil settlement after pleading guilty to defrauding NASA's Johnson Space Center of as much as $8 million. Because Ralph Montijo Jr. is bankrupt, federal prosecutors said last week that Rockwell is likely to wind up paying some of the settlement under a clause in its NASA contract that makes it responsible for subcontractor liabilities, according to an account of the guilty plea published in the Feb. 1 Houston Post.
SR-71 sonic boom tests scheduled for 9:00 a.m. yesterday have been delayed because of flight restrictions at Dryden Flight Research Center, Calif., following the crash of the X-31 test aircraft Jan. 19. The restrictions began Tuesday to allow for a safety review in response to the X-31 crash, whose cause has not yet been determined. The pilot ejected (DAILY, Jan. 23, page 102). All NASA aircraft will remain grounded until the end of the week to allow for completion of the review, a NASA spokesman said.
Under the congressionally mandated SR-71 Blackbird reactivation, the Pentagon will spend $100 million this fiscal year to bring two A model planes out of retirement-and use them for no more than one month. And if the program continues in FY '96-which it's not expected to-the Mach 3 reconnaissance aircraft will operate under a concept of operations, or "conops," that calls for it to deploy only once for 30 days, making 15- 20 sorties.
Software remains the "Achilles heel" of defense systems, said Tony Valetta, deputy secretary of defense, C3I acquisition, stressing the need for greater reliance on industry. Valetta commented on the Defense Dept.'s "software crisis" at a conference in Arlington, Va., sponsored by the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA).
SatCon Technology Corp., Cambridge, Mass., said yesterday it has been awarded three new contracts worth $1.8 million to improve helicopter handling through the use of electro-magnetic acutators, which operate with greater precision and at lower cost than hydraulic controls.
