Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) announced yesterday that she is leaving the Senate Armed Services Committee and the chairmanship of the seapower subcommittee to take a seat on the powerful Senate Finance Committee. Senate rules prevent Snowe from sitting on both committees. She said she decided to take the Finance post only after it became clear that Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) would get a seat on Armed Services, where their home state would continue to have a voice on military issues.
Boeing Co. said it will launch a U.S. Air Force weather satellite aboard a Delta IV rocket in 2003. A Delta IV Medium vehicle will place a Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellite in a near-polar, sun-synchronous orbit. The satellite, DMSP-17, will be launched from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., and is part of a 22-launch U.S. government manifest for payloads aboard Delta IV rockets.
Honeywell shareholders "overwhelmingly" blessed the company's proposed link-up with General Electric Co., with 74% of the outstanding shares voted in favor of the merger. Yesterday's vote pushes the two giants one step nearer to closing the deal, said Michael R. Bonsignore, Honeywell chairman and CEO, who will step down once the transaction is consummated.
Spectrum Astro said that it will spend its own money and resources to continue to seek solutions for the next Global Positioning Satellite (GPS III) system architecture, and that this will position it to be competitive for the Program Definition and Risk Reduction (PDRR) phase by November 2001. The Gilbert, Ariz., company said it will communicate its study results with the GPS Joint Program Office to determine how GPS will best meet the needs of the military and civil communities.
President Clinton's final budget will call for a $14 billion increase in Defense Dept. spending in fiscal 2002, according to a document obtained by The DAILY yesterday. The budget, which is to be sent to Congress later this month, calls for spending $310 billion in FY 02 and the same amount in FY 03. DOD spending would rise to $317 billion in FY 04, $324 billion in FY 05, $333 billion in FY 06 and $342 billion in FY 07.
ASM Lithography Holding N.V. of the Netherlands and Silicon Valley Group Inc. of San Jose, Calif., have withdrawn a petition asking the U.S. government to conduct a national security review of their proposed merger. Tinsley Laboratories, a SVG subsidiary, makes precision optical equipment, and its projects have included mirrors for the Hubble Space Telescope.
United Parcel Service has ordered 60 Airbus A300-600 freighters, which are to be delivered between 2003 and 2009. UPS ordered 30 A300-600 freighters in 1998 and has taken delivery of seven. The 90 freighters can carry 22 A2H containers on the main deck and seven LD9 containers on the lower deck. They have a structural payload of 109,600 pounds and a range of 2,500 nautical miles.
Navy Secretary Richard Danzig yesterday pressed for new aircraft to replace aging planes now in the service's fleet, but said the real focus should be on how many will be needed and what it costs to operate them. He said that he didn't regard the Super Hornet as an issue in terms of a new buy because Congress has already approved multi-year procurement for the Boeing jet, but that the Navy does need to determine how it will proceed with respect to the P-3 patrol plane and helicopters.
Expanding their strategic partnership, Spacehab Inc. and Astrium GmbH have agreed to offer new versions of the Integrated Cargo Carrier, the unpressurized payload carrier designed to fly in the Space Shuttle's cargo bay. In announcing the sale-leaseback deal yesterday, Spacehab said it would gain $15.4 million in cash and services as a result of the Astrium investment.
Pittsburgh-based Alcoa Inc. enjoyed the benefits of its acquisitions of Cordant Technologies Inc. and Reynolds Metals sooner than expected, with both contributing to fourth quarter earnings. "Today we are reporting both the best quarter and best year in the company's history," Chairman and CEO Alain Belda said Monday.
Northrop Grumman has launched its cash tender offer for all shares of Litton Industries, Inc. The offer, for $80 per common share and $35 per Series B preferred shares, was made Jan. 5 and expires at midnight EST Feb. 2. The action is a step toward completion of the definitive agreement between the two companies announced Dec. 21 under which Northrop Grumman will acquire Litton.
The Secretary of Defense should direct the services to identify the equipment and technologies needed to more effectively combat terrorism and protect U.S. forces, according to a report released yesterday by the USS Cole Commission. The commission found, in part, that "More responsive application of currently available military equipment, commercial technologies, and aggressive research and development can enhance the AT/FP and deterrence posture of transiting forces."
Britain plans to keep depleted uranium (DU) weapons as part of its arsenal "for the foreseeable future," U.K. Armed Forces Minister John Spellar said yesterday in a Parliamentary statement. He was responding to public concern following reports from a UN team monitoring radiation of some areas in Kosovo from DU ammunition used in past operations in the Balkans, and the revelation that similar ammunition had been expended in the U.K. during military training.
The final decision on the winner of the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) contract has been made: Lockheed Martin wins out over Raytheon. The decision, made Dec. 20 by an international arbitration tribunal, affirmed the July 1999 decision by the NATO Medium Extended Air Defense System Management Agency (NAMEADSMA) to deny the protest by MEADS Inc., a company consisting of Raytheon, EADS Deutschland, Alenia Marconi Systems S.p.A and LFK.
CAROL DIBATTISTE, under secretary of the Air Force, resigned Jan. 8 and will return to civilian life. She served on active duty for 20 years as an airman, noncommissioned officer and a commissioned officer, and the last 17 months as under secretary, the second highest civilian position. DiBattiste will become a partner at the law firm Holland&Knight, the AF said. She will begin practicing in Washington in March and will relocate to its Miami office shortly thereafter.
Orbital Sciences Corp. has won a seven-year U.S. Air Force task order contract to provide target vehicles and related support for the Sounding Rockets Program-2 (SRP-2) effort. Orbital is one of four companies qualified to vie for up to $96 million in SRP-2 contracts. The others are Coleman Aerospace, Lockheed Martin and Space Vector Corp.
Two commercial launches were called off within moments of each other Monday - and an ocean apart - in what were to be the year's first space missions. In the first scrub, a last-second technical glitch at 5:35 p.m. EST halted the launch of a Russian-Ukrainian Zenit-3SL rocket from its floating launch pad in the Pacific Ocean. The Sea Launch rocket had come within 11 seconds of launching when the countdown clock was stopped.
Defense leaders in Congress urged President-elect George W. Bush Monday to come up with a recommendation for the Pentagon's three major fighter programs, warning that the aircraft projects can't all be carried out without bigger defense budgets, according to Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), who participated in the Austin meeting.
Beijing moved quickly Tuesday to denounce President-elect George W. Bush's apparent plans to push ahead aggressively with a new national missile defense system, despite Bush's signals during defense policy meetings Monday that his presidential missile defense position will be a little more measured than the one he took on the stump.
The $176 million Mars Odyssey 2001 spacecraft was transported from Buckley AFB, Colo., to Cape Canaveral at the Kennedy Space Center, Fla., on Jan. 4 by a U.S. Air Force C-17. The spacecraft is slated for launch April 7, and was transported to Florida for processing and loading on a Delta II rocket.
Northrop Grumman Corp. and Raytheon Co. are working under Air Force contracts to conduct research supporting the Affordable Moving Surface Target Engagement (AMSTE) II program. The effort, according to the AF, is aimed at investigating and developing technologies to affordably engage moving surface targets such as tanks, tactical ballistic missile transporters and small boats from long ranges and in all weather conditions.
Northrop Grumman Corp. is working under a $30 million U.S. Air Force contract for 17 AN/ALQ-135 Band 1.5 electronic countermeasures subsystems for the F-15E fighter. Work on the contract is to be completed by December 2001, the company said yesterday. The contract, it said, follows notification from the Air Force that the AN/ALQ-135 Band 1.5 has successfully passed Initial Operational Test and Evaluation (IOT&E), verifying that the system has met service criteria and can enter into full-rate production for the F-15E.
French accident investigators said yesterday that they have not yet received answers from Continental Airlines on questions about the possibility that last summer's crash of a Concorde near Paris came after the supersonic transport struck a piece of a Continental jet on the runway. The investigators are certain that a Continental DC-10, N13067, had lost a wear strip from one of its CF6-50 engines during its takeoff roll five minutes before the Concorde accelerated down the same runway at Charles de Gaulle airport on July 25.
Lockheed Martin Corp., Marietta, Ga., has been awarded a $267.4 million contract to extend through March 2001 the advanced procurement in support of 10 low rate initial production (LRIP) F-22 aircraft, the Pentagon announced yesterday. The work will be shared among Lockheed Martin facilities in Marietta, Ga. and Ft. Worth, Texas, as well as at the Boeing Co. facility, Seattle, Wash., and other locations.
Raytheon Systems Co., Norfolk, Va., is being awarded a $9,517,195 time and materials contract for 1,600 repair parts for the Sidewinder missile, SPS-49 radar system, NATO Sea-Sparrow and WSC-6 communication system, and four other weapons systems. Work will be performed in Chula Vista, Calif. (63%); Norfolk, Va. (26%); and Goleta, Calif. (11%); and is expected to be completed by December 2001. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitive procured.
