Three separate military investigations are keeping the Bell Boeing MV-22 tiltrotor aircraft program under close scrutiny, while a program insider says the U.S. Marine Corps has gone to far in trying to save the program at any price.
The U.S. Navy has warned that it may have to cut 12 aircraft and one ship in fiscal 2001 if Congress and the new Administration don't approve supplemental spending for "urgent shortfalls" in other areas. A Navy "information paper" said that a FY '01 supplemental appropriations bill "could provide these crucial resources and thereby preserve our critical investment accounts."
Bell-Boeing Joint Project Office, Patuxent River, Md., is being awarded a $14,683,138 modification to a previously awarded cost-plus-incentive-fee contract (N00019-99-C-1090) for the design, development, manufacture, installation and testing of a CV-22 aircraft Flight Training Device (CV-FTD#1) for the U.S. Air Force. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas (92.4%) and Ridley Park, Pa. (7.6%), and is expected to be completed by May 2003. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
JAPAN AIRLINES has ordered $350 million worth of GE engines to power 11 Boeing wide-body aircraft. JAL ordered GE90 engines to power eight Boeing 777-200ERs and CF6-80C2 engines for three Boeing 767-300ERs, following a technical review.
ANTE UP: Following a $2 billion commitment by the United Kingdom to the engineering, manufacturing and development phase of the Joint Strike Fighter program, program officials say other interested countries are expected to make similar investments soon, albeit in lesser amounts. JSF program officials say they are expecting Italy, considered a Tier 2 investor, to commit around $1 billion for EMD, but Pentagon sources tell The DAILY the amount may be as high as $1.5 billion. The investment should come in the next few weeks.
CENTER UNVEILING: Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. plans to unveil the new Payload Operations Center for the Space Station on February 2, at a ceremony hosted by Marshall Center Director Arthur G. Stephenson and former astronaut Jan Davis, director of the Flight Projects Office that operates the POC. The center will serve as the hub for science commands and payload safety, receiving requests from Station science centers in Russia, Germany and Japan and routing them to the station via Mission Control Center-Houston.
Standard&Poor's has lowered its ratings on Pacific Aerospace&Electronics Inc. The ratings remain on CreditWatch, where they were listed with negative implications on Sep. 7, 2000. The company's corporate credit rating was downgraded from CCC to CCC minus, and its subordinated debt rating went from CC to C. "These are very low quality ratings. They are really just one level above default," said Martin Knoblowitz, a Standard&Poor's director.
The Air Force is seeking $499.1 million in emergency funding for 15 weapon systems mainly to pay off old obligations and keep existing programs going rather than to pursue new or significantly expanded programs, a service official told The DAILY yesterday. "This is not about substantial growth," the official said.
Fairchild Fasteners, a division of Fairchild Corp., said that Olivier Jarrault, senior vice president and vice chief operating officer of Fairchild Fasteners, has been named Fairchild Fasteners' chief operating officer, United States operations. Jarrault has been with Fairchild Fasteners since April 1996.
The Air Force announced Friday it plans to send 18 Northrop Grumman Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles and almost 1,000 program personnel to Beale Air Force Base in Marysville, Calif., the first operating base for the high-altitude, 34-hour-endurance reconnaissance aircraft.
The Indian Air Force is advocating formation of a "nuclear air command" that would include all the country's strategic resources. The IAF has taken the position because it says it is the only service that has the required delivery platforms. In a paper titled "Vision 2020," the IAF says the army might not need a nuclear arm because of the incongruity of tactical nuclear weapons in India's draft nuclear doctrine. It also says nuclear submarines are still "beyond the Indian navy's reach."
MISSION CONTROL: NASA's Mission Control Center-Houston (MCC-H) will soon be taking over control of the International Space Station from its counterpart in the suburbs of Moscow. Hardware to be delivered with the U.S. Laboratory Module "Destiny" on the upcoming STS-98 Space Shuttle mission will allow MCC-H to control the Station through NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS). Russia has been controlling the Station as it passes over ground stations on its national territory, but the TDRSS hookup will allow U.S.
NASA remains at risk of unexpected cost increases on the International Space Station because its managers plan to continue the practice of making unnegotiated changes to Station contracts, the General Accounting Office has found.
PROGRESS LAUNCH: Russia will try again Wednesday to launch the Progress capsule that will bring down the Mir orbital station to what officials hope will be an uneventful splashdown in the Pacific. Launch Wednesday would set up a docking with Mir on Saturday, provided the 15-year-old station remains stable enough for the automatic linkup. A power failure on Mir last week forced controllers to delay launching the Progress while they regained control of its target (DAILY, Jan. 19).
Defense analysts offered advice last week to President-elect George W. Bush about what weapons systems might be skipped or trimmed when his administration puts its stamp on defense spending. The three panelists, who spoke at the Washington headquarters of the libertarian Cato Institute, agreed that they really don't foresee any major military program changes in the next few years, but they offered suggestions anyway.
The U.S. defense industrial base can be restructured to reduce risk and attract Wall Street portfolio managers who are willing to make big commitments, according to a new study being sent this week to the White House, Congress, industry managers and shareholders.
DOD REFORM: Rumsfeld says the Pentagon should become a better customer for the defense industry. Responding to complaints that the Defense Dept.'s procurement process is cumbersome, Rumsfeld says in recent testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee that the U.S. government hasn't been a "good interactor" with the defense industry. "The last time I looked, the three top defense contractors in size, Boeing and Raytheon and Lockheed, had a market cap that was less than Wal-Mart," he says. "Now, why is that?
POWER PROBLEM: Increases in overhead costs from the California power shortages are expected at Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. At Boeing's Long Beach plant, 717 and C-17 production lines are on track. Northrop Grumman has run into minor delays in production for the F/A-18E/F program, which was running ahead of schedule. Aerospace plants overall are using diesel generators for electricity, but most industrial facilities must pay a premium if they have to cut back on power and can't fully meet their contracts.
HEARD IN THE HALLS: A variety of names have been mentioned in the halls of the Pentagon as possibilities to replace the departing service secretaries. The Air Force is said to be considering Thomas Cooper, GE Aircraft Engines' representative in Washington and assistant secretary of the AF in the late '70s and early '80s. The AF apparently is also considering Maj. Gen. Daniel James III of the Texas National Guard. Roger Staubach, Naval Academy graduate and former Dallas Cowboys quarterback, is said to remain a top contender for the post of Navy Secretary.
HO-HUM HORNET? The General Accounting Office remains unimpressed with the Navy's F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. The GAO writes in a report released last week - "Major Management Challenges and Program Risks: Department of Defense" (GAO-01-244) -that although the Super Hornet met key performance parameters, such as range and carrier suitability, the operational testers' comparisons of the F/A-18E/F to the F/A-18C showed that the Super Hornet didn't demonstrate superior operational performance.
The two fatal crashes of MV-22 tiltrotor aircraft last year were not related to faulty maintenance or an attempt to cover up maintenance records, Marine officials said. "Based on all the information that we have, we see no relationship" between the allegations and the causes of the two previous mishaps, USMC Lt. Gen. Fred McCorkle, deputy commandant for aviation, told reporters at the Pentagon Friday. In fact, he said, an anonymous letter to the Dept. of the Navy "specifically states that this is not what caused the two mishaps."
Lockheed Martin will provide 40 Consolidated Automated Support System (CASS) stations to the Navy under a contract modification worth about $63 million over three years, the company announced Friday. The equipment to be provided includes 20 hybrid and 20 radio frequency stations as well as various ancillary equipment and maintenance. CASS is the world's largest automated test support program and is the Navy's standard equipment used to test aircraft carrier avionics and in depots in the U.S.
The outgoing Clinton Administration has promised Israel that it would be one of the first nations to acquire the F-22 fighter, assuming it becomes available. "Israel, if it so chooses, will be among the first if not the first foreign customer" for the Lockheed Martin fighter, President Clinton said in a letter to the government of Israel on Friday. The F-22 would help "protect and enhance your security," the letter said. It will be up to the Bush Administration to decide if production of the plane should proceed.
NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin, who was picked by former President Bush for the top job at the space agency in 1992, will continue in that post for now until the newly inaugurated President George W. Bush can name a successor. Sources said Friday the incoming Administration asked Goldin to stay on temporarily and he agreed. However, the agency withheld a formal announcement until this week. Other political appointees at the space agency checked out of their jobs on Friday.
A committee of the International Civil Aviation Organization this week issued a series of recommendations to reduce aircraft noise and exhaust emissions, including a noise standard 10 decibels lower than current international noise rules. U.S. airlines, airframe and engine makers had unanimously supported a standard that would cut noise by eight decibels from current standards for aircraft in production.
