House Speaker Newt Gingrich has endorsed the proposed International Space Station, but the two largest contributors to the European Space Agency want to cut ESA's share to the project in half. In a statement released by his office late Monday, Gingrich confirmed Administrator Daniel S. Goldin's report that the Republican speaker supported the space agency's plan to cut personnel to save programs like Station (DAILY, Feb. 7, page 187).
KPMG Peat Marwick is sponsoring an April 19-29 aviation and aerospace trade mission to Beijing and Xian, China. The Washington-based firm said it has teamed with China Aerospace Corporation, Aviation Industries of China, and the Chinese General Administration of Civil Aviation to sponsor the event.
The Defense Dept. plans to give B-2 bomber builders as much as $95 million to keep the industrial base warm while it decides whether it needs to buy any more of the stealthy aircraft, DOD acquisition chief Paul Kaminski said yesterday.
A statement of intent to jointly develop the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) was signed in Paris by France, Germany, Italy, and the U.S. Under the Feb. 2 agreement, MEADS will have a "single source" production line, with cost and work share divided between the countries- U.S. 50%, France 20%, Germany 20% and Italy 10%. The statement of intent allows other NATO members to join the project. For the past year, the U.K. has been studying whether to participate in the MEADS process.
The Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) has authorized the Pentagon to move forward with plans for a "pre-EMD" phase of its new Space-Based Infrared (SBIR) early warning program, a senior Pentagon official said yesterday. The DAB action on Monday cleared the way for an SBIR program that will cost about $13 billion, Tony Valetta, deputy assistant secretary of defense for C3I, said at a conference in Arlington, Va. yesterday.
Defense dollars saved from acquisition reform and infrastructure reductions will fund the bulk of modernization in the outyears, Defense Secretary William Perry told reporters Monday. In particular, the Pentagon predicts that by fiscal year 1998 it will save about $4 billion annually on 1989-93 base closures-all of which Perry says will go toward weapons recapitalization. "We're counting on that savings downstream," Perry said. Base closures will continue to cost the Defense Dept. money through the end of FY '97.
The U.S. Army wants Ireland's Shorts Missile Systems to study the idea of an air-to-air Starstreak missile that would be carried by the AH-64A Apache helicopter. The Army's Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD), Fort Eustis, Va., said in a Feb. 6 Commerce Business Daily notice that plans to award a sole-source contract to Shorts for the work.
AIR FORCE GEN. HENRY VICCELLIO, commander of the Air Education and Training Command at Randolph AFB, Tex., has been nominated to succeed Gen. Ronald Yates as head of the Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. Yates plans to retire. Maj. Gen. Lawrence Farrell, principal deputy at the Defense Logistics Agency, has been nominated to be AFMC's vice commander, a position that would give him a third star.
U.S. airworthiness authorities want to require modifications to the nacelles, struts and wings of Boeing 747s powered by Rolls-Royce engines to reduce the chances of fatigue cracks and corrosion, and yesterday signaled a regulatory shift away from inspections towards hardware changes to solve airworthiness problems.
Republicans yesterday hit what they say is a $9 billion difference between the Clinton Administration's year-ago projection for fiscal 1996 defense procurement and the actual amount. House Budget Committee Chairman John R. Kasich (R-Ohio) said "procurement of new weapons systems has fallen even further in FY 1996 than the Administration itself had projected for FY 1996 last year-$9 billion less."
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) criticized President Clinton's $257.8 billion fiscal 1996 national defense budget authority request ($246 billion for the Pentagon and $11.8 billion for Dept. of Energy) as "nothing more than a Band-Aid measure." He set two goals for the committee: raising the amount to $270 billion and resolving the defense shortfall issue.
The Commerce's Dept.'s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is requesting $552 million in its fiscal 1996 budget for funding associated with its satellite observing systems. The budget, released Monday, calls for a $55.9 million increase to cover the cost for the continuation of contracts for the GOES I through M geostationary weather satellites and to begin procurement of additional GOES satellites to assure continuity of operations into the next decade.
Defense Secretary William Perry wants Congress to give the Defense Dept. new authority to pay for "unexpected, last-minute" contingency operations with "emergency" funding from accounts other than operations and maintenance.
The U.S. Air Force's Phillips Laboratory is planning the "Mightysat" experimental satellite program, an effort that first calls for refurbishment of an existing small satellite for a test flight, and then proceeds into a series of missions by similar spacecraft.
Electronics and communications programs in the U.S. Navy's budget took a hit in the Pentagon's fiscal year 1996 request, but Army and Air Force funding for such programs increased. Included in Navy cuts was a drop in procurement funding for shipboard communications from an FY '95 level of $33.3 million to $6.6 million in FY '96. Ship communications automation also took a substantial hit, falling to $6.1 million from $28.1 million.
U.S. ARMY is seeking new munitions-dismantling technologies to increase the amount of recovered and reusable ammunition and reduce demilitarization costs The service's Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center, Picatinny Arsenal, N.J., said in a Feb. 2 Commerce Business Daily notice. The contract will involve the clean-up of rounds ranging in size from 60mm mortar cartridges to 8-inch projectiles.
Japan's National Space Development Agency Agency (NASDA) will not try to launch the third H-II booster in February, slipping the original Feb. 1 launch date at least a month because of problems with leaking fuel lines (DAILY, Jan. 5, page 17; Jan. 12, page 58; Jan. 31, page 149). The latest problem-in the Space Flyer Unit (SFU)-can't be corrected by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) before the Feb. 11 delivery date for the Shuttle-recoverable free flyer, making a February launch "impossible," NASDA said Friday.
Gen. Michael P.C. Carns (USAF-ret.), who is seen as President Clinton's top choice for the new director of central intelligence (DCI), has an impressive military record but is not well known in intelligence circles, observers said yesterday. Carns, the Air Force's vice chief of staff before his retirement last November, could be announced as Clinton's nominee as early as today, sources said.
Secretary of Defense William Perry called on European allies to increase Partnership for Peace (PFP) cost sharing, and laid out "four principles" of NATO expansion. Citing President Clinton's proposal to provide $100 million in PFP assistance, Perry on Sunday urged his European counterparts "to provide comparable bilateral assistance," during the annual Wehrkundetagung in Munich, Germany. "This is a worthwhile investment in European Security," he said.
A top U.K. trade official yesterday offered the strongest words yet to commit Britain to the eight-nation Future Large Airlifter, less than a week after French officials-miffed over London's lukewarm words to date-dropped hints that Britain could be squeezed out of Airbus. But U.K. Trade Minister Richard Needham, speaking at a Washington luncheon, also made it clear that it was up to industry to meet tough price and performance requirements so that Britain can keep its promise to European partners to sign up fully to the FLA program by next year.
LOCKHEED SHAREHOLDERS will meet March 15 at Chicago's Ritz Carlton hotel to decide whether to approve merging with Martin Marietta, Lockheed said yesterday. The special meeting to consider the merger, which has already passed muster with federal anti-trust regulators, will start at 9 a.m. CST. If the stockholders okay the plan, the two companies will be free to start their $10 billion stock swap right away, to create a $23 billion military aircraft and space systems company.
A Hong Kong newspaper that reflects the view of China's communist leadership is blaming two communications satellites built by Hughes Aircraft Co. for the loss of Long March rockets during launches last month and in 1992. The Ta Kung Pao paper further alleged in a story yesterday that the explosions may have been "caused by a remote control signal," and that the aim apparently was to sabotage China's entry into the commercial launch market.
The House Intelligence Committee revision of the National Security Revitalization Act (NSRA), making intelligence sharing subject to CIA, Defense and State Dept. guidelines, will prevail over House National Security Committee language even though the latter follows the wording of the GOP Contract With America, Intelligence Chairman Rep. Larry Combest (R- Tex.) said Friday.
The membership of a bipartisan commission that will review the mission of U.S. intelligence was rounded out last week when President Clinton made his long-awaited appointments.
Crew members of the Space Shuttle Discovery and Russia's Mir space station waved to each other from a distance of 44 feet as their two spacecraft orbited in formation yesterday, but only after their ground controllers overcame differences about the danger from a leaky Shuttle thruster that is not expected to be a factor in upcoming docking missions.
