Traditional military "core competencies" should never be replaced by peacekeeping-specific requirements or training, say top officials of Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE). "If we can take on military [conflicts], we can handle whatever peace operations come up," says U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. John Logeman, commander of the NATO Airborne Early Warning Forces. SHAPE itself isn't likely to ask NATO nations to provide peacekeeping units only, according to U.S. Army Brig. Gen. John Rose, chief of SHAPE's requirements and programs branch.
The availability of leading edge technology worldwide means the Pentagon has to speed up its procurement process, says Colleen Preston, deputy under secretary of defense for acquisition reform. She says "the country that can integrate first will have the edge."
Granted orally an exemption to AllCanada Express to conduct charter all- cargo service between Canada and the U.S....Granted orally an exemption to Heavylift-VolgaDnepr Ltd.
Contractor teams vying for the Joint Primary Aircraft Training System (JPATS) have a little less than a month to rework all their proposal numbers to accommodate a 20-year program instead of a 12-year program, under a U.S. Air Force modification request (MR) released to the teams last week. "It makes all the numbers irrelevant," a senior executive on one of the contractor teams told The DAILY Friday. "It's fair to say [the program] is significantly restructured," although the program total stays at 712 aircraft for the Air Force and Navy.
Cathay Pacific has concluded, at least for now, that the potential benefits of establishing crew bases outside Hong Kong - not having to pay employees Hong Kong-scale wages - are not great enough to offset the potential problems. The airline has not ruled out foreign cabin crew bases in the future, however, and has appointed a project manager to lead a small team that will study the concept in more detail.
Alitalia will be permitted to fly transatlantic service this spring out of Milan's Linate Airport instead of the more remote Malpensa Airport, where all transatlantic flights currently are forced to operate. U.S. carriers serving Italy are likely to seek the same authority.
DOT on Friday officially named the nine countries to which it has presented open skies agreements. As reported, they are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland (DAILY, Jan. 27). DOT Secretary Federico Pena said the department expects the talks to move quickly.
American is once again urging DOT to deny renewal of the British Airways/USAir code share arrangement. BA filed last week for renewal of the code-share pact - the second renewal of the agreement; first approved in March 1993 and due to expire March 17 (DAILY, Jan. 18). American maintains the renewal would be contrary to the interest of the U.S. traveling and shipping public and airlines.
One week after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and saying it did not plan to reduce its schedule, Leisure Air is phasing out of the Atlanta market and has reduced its fleet to three A320s. The flights dropped were mainly to Los Angeles. Responding to reports that passengers were stranded in Orlando, a Leisure Air spokesman blamed a mechanical problem that caused a 24-hour delay.
Russia's Polyot Aerospace Assn. wants to give Orbital Sciences Corp. a run for its money in the small polar satellite launch business. The Omsk firm builds the Cosmos-3M booster that launched FAISAT- 1, the first U.S. satellite to ride to orbit on a Russian launcher (DAILY, Jan. 26,, page 125B), and sometimes has to add ballast to its launchers because it has more capacity than payloads these days. Last year there were five Cosmos-3M launches, and some of them could have carried piggyback payloads like FAISAT-1 and Sweden's Astrid.
Sens. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) and Slade Gorton (R-Wash.) are expected to introduce legislation this week to continue airlines' exemption from the 4.3 cents-per-gallon transportation fuel tax. The exemption will expire Oct. 1 unless Congress extends it.
The U.S. Air Force has pulled out of the joint DOD/NASA Hypersonic Systems Technology Program (HySTP), effectively killing the National Aerospace Plane (NASP) follow-on program to test scramjet propulsion at Mach 15 atop surplus ICBMs and costing some 210 contractor employees their jobs.
USAfrica Airways will become a partner in United's Mileage Plus frequent flyer program, effective Wednesday. Mileage Plus members will be able to earn mileage flying USAfrica and redeem it on USAfrica flights.
A Blow To Boeing At least 35 Boeing aircraft are definitely affected by last week's moves, along with dozens more that Boeing says are still "under discussion." 1995 1996 1997 1998 Total 737-500 Continental 0 6 5 0 11 USAir 0 0 0 0 0 757-200 Continental 0 5 2 0 7 USAir 0 0 0 8 8 767-300
Cost constraints will lead the second phase of the Tier II Plus program to be a sole source contract, said John Entzminger, director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency's Unmanned Aerial Vehicle joint program office. Entzminger spoke this week at an Arlington, Va., conference sponsored by the Cruise Missiles Association and the Capital Chapter for the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems. He said ARPA will abandon its competitive phased approach in favor of a sole contractor because of lack of funds.
The U.S.Air Force's Wright Laboratory has accepted delivery of a highly modified F-16D after completion of its development as the Variable stability In-flight Simulator Test Aircraft (VISTA). Designated the NF-16D, the testbed first flew at Lockheed's Fort Worth, Tex., facility in April 1992. Designed to simulate other aircraft for aeronautical research and pilot training, it features a variable stability system based on three Rolm Hawk computers that adjusts pilot inputs into the appropriate motions for the simulated aircraft.
Martin Marietta Astronautics is scheduled to launch the next Navy Ultra High Frequency Follow-On (UHF F/O F4) communications satellite from Cape Canaveral Air Station tomorrow night, Martin Marietta reported. Liftoff of the Atlas II booster is set for an 80-minute window that opens at 7:21 p.m. EST and extends until 8:41 p.m. EST. Hughes Space and Communications Co., which build the HS 601-series spacecraft, is the launch customer.
Digital Equipment Corp., Maynard, Mass., said it has been chosen by Raytheon Co. to participate in an effort to upgrade the mission computer of the U.S. Navy's E-2C surveillance aircraft. Digital said yesterday that under this new phase of a long-standing agreement with Raytheon, it "will deliver a full complement of comprehensive solutions to the upgrade initiative."
China's attempt to grab a foothold in the world's commercial launch market was dealt another setback when a Long March 2E rocket carrying a Hughes-built satellite exploded 51 seconds after takeoff from Xichang in southwest China. Hughes said yesterday it still had not determined what caused the loss of Apstar 2 shortly after the launch Thursday morning (5:40 p.m. Wednesday EST). It was the second of two communications satellites the company had built for APT Satellite Co. of Hong Kong.
A B-2 bomber on Tuesday participated in its first operational exercise, Red Flag 95-2 at Nellis AFB, Nev. The plane, carrying two inert Mk. 85 2,000 pound bombs, flew from its base at Whiteman AFB, Mo., to the exercise in a round-trip, 7.5 hour mission that included one refueling.
Four of five United Technologies businesses turned in double-digit operating profit gains in 1994, including long-suffering Pratt&Whitney, UTC said yesterday. Net income grew 20% to $585 million in 1994, despite relatively flat sales of $21.2 billion, but most of the genuine growth came in the company's commercial businesses-P&W's contribution came courtesy of cost- cutting. Cash flow was nearly double 1993's rate at $481 million.
The U.S. Navy is expected to use one or more of its aircraft carriers in an upcoming Pacific Ocean test of the military capabilities of Comsat World Systems' Wideband Mobile Maritime Service. The test, to take place before the end of this fiscal year (Sept. 30), will complement Atlantic Ocean trials which ended in November, Paul A. Stern, Comsat World Systems business development manager, told The DAILY here.
The McDonnell Douglas/British Aerospace T-45A Goshawk U.S. Navy trainer aircraft was cleared for full-rate production this month along with its ground-based training system, following a successful Milestone III review on Jan. 17, MDC reported yesterday.
A draft of the U.S. Army's operational requirements document for the Aerial Common Sensor (ACS) will be available to industry for 60 days beginning about Jan. 30, the service said. The Communications-Electronics Command, Fort Monmouth, N.J., said in a Jan. 27 Commerce Business Daily notice that companies have until Feb. 15 to request a copy of the ORD.
A small California company that received the first U.S. government license to operate a high-resolution commercial remote sensing satellite system is merging with a new Ball Aerospace subsidiary that is planning a high resolution system of its own. WorldView Imaging Corp. will become part of EarthWatch, Inc., Ball's subsidiary based in Boulder, Colo. Worldview will merge its planned three- meter resolution system with Ball's planned one-meter system, which has also been licensed.
