A top challenge for Defense Secretary-designate Donald Rumsfeld will be to tackle a problem whose solution has so far been elusive: how to pay for the Defense Dept.'s ambitious weapons modernization effort, congressional sources said yesterday.
The U.S. Air Force F-22 Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) meeting scheduled for today has been postponed for the second time, giving program officials more time to complete remaining exit criteria before a low rate initial production (LRIP) decision is made. But with less than three weeks until the Bush Administration takes over, the postponement may mean the decision to approve $2.1 billion in funding production money for 10 LRIP aircraft and long-lead materials for 16 airplanes will fall to the new Pentagon structure.
Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., Savannah, Ga., was awarded on Dec. 22 a $42,164,072 modification to a firm-fixed-price contract to provide for one C-37A (Gulfstream V) aircraft for the Navy. The work is expected to be completed July 2002. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-00/C-0018).
Pascal Lamy, European Commissioner in charge of Trade, said the European Commission would protect Airbus from any American attacks concerning subsidies and would retaliate. Recent U.S. allegations that government loans for the development of the A380 superjumbo airliner violate World Trade Organization rules "do not hold water," he said. "We are there to act as a shield, a solid and thick shield that will stay in place," Lamy said in an interview broadcast Dec. 28 by French radio Europe 1. "And I can say that we will defend our Airbus."
General Electric Aircraft Engines, Lynn, Mass., is being awarded an estimated $21,509,260 requirements contract for seven types of items supporting the F404-400/402 engine on F/A-18 aircraft. These items include combustion liners and low pressure turbine shafts. Estimated quantity of purchase in the first two years is 849. This contract contains options, which if exercised, would bring the total cumulative value of this contract to $53,773,150. Work will be performed in Lynn, Mass., and is expected to be completed by December 2007.
President-elect George W. Bush has named three people to his Defense Dept. policy coordination group: Zalmay Khalilzad, corporate co-chair for international security at the RAND Corp.; Randall Schriver of Armitage Associates; and Christopher Williams, a foreign policy and intelligence aide to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.). Khalilzad is lead coordinator of the group, which will help Defense Secretary-designate Donald Rumsfeld prepare to govern.
Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Marietta, Ga., was awarded on Dec. 22 a $734,500,000 firm-fixed-price contract to provide for 12 C-130J aircraft (one C-130J and two C-130J-30 aircraft for the Air National Guard, three KC-130J aircraft for the Marines, and six C-130J aircraft for the Coast Guard). The work is expected to be completed December 2006. There was one firm solicited and one proposal received. Solicitation began October 2000; negotiations were completed December 2000.
SEA LAUNCH is set to launch the first of two geostationary digital radio satellites for XM Satellite Radio on Jan. 8. The international joint venture's Odyssey launch platform and Commander launch control vessel have left their home port in Long Beach, Calif., with the XM-1 spacecraft - dubbed "Roll" - aboard for the equatorial launch site at 154 degrees West longitude. Sea Launch also plans to launch XM-2 - "Rock" - in the first quarter of this year to set up a commercial digital audio broadcast system in the U.S. (DAILY, Sept. 19, 2000).
Forget the giant orbiting wheels and tourist-class shuttles of Arthur C. Clarke's dreams. The real 2001 will see the end of one rickety space station - Mir - and Earth's struggle to build and outfit another on a Russian foundation that was once known as "Mir 2." The new International Space Station will face steep economic hurdles in the year ahead, as well as a festering cultural barrier that threatens to make "Babel" a more likely name for the Station than the "Alpha" moniker picked by its first crew.
Defense investors have generally pocketed healthy returns in 2000 and are looking forward to a prosperous new year, but companies and shareholders may face a bumpy road if the Bush Administration makes sweeping changes in military programs and policies.
Congress will have a full agenda of aerospace-related issues in 2001, ranging from key personnel decisions to a possible rejiggering of the Pentagon's aircraft, missile defense and space programs. The selection of several new committee leaders, including the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, will be among the first matters the House takes up in the new 107th Congress. A steering committee led by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) will meet Jan. 4 and 5 to make recommendations to the entire House Republican membership.
President-elect George W. Bush faces a crucial decision on how to increase the Pentagon budget and pressure to make it easier for mid-tier defense and aerospace companies to merge. "In terms of national security, the biggest threat that this Administration is going to face is the constant degradation of U.S. military capability over last 8 to 10 years," said William J. Taylor, senior advisor, international security affairs, at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
The year 2001 will be a watershed for several major new Pentagon aircraft programs, with the winner of the Joint Strike Fighter contract to be chosen in the fall; the F-22 to move into low rate initial production; the beginning of a multi-year procurement contract for the F/A-18E/F, and a decision on whether the MV-22 should move into full-rate production.
Spacecraft and terrestrial power grids will continue to be threatened by high levels of charged particles and plasma erupting from the sun's corona, even as the "solar max" period of the sun's 11-year cycle passes, according to the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Environment Center. Ernest Hildner told reporters at a NASA science update on the solar max yesterday that statistically the chance of disruptions will continue even though by the calendar 2000 marked the midpoint on the 11-year cycle.
HEXCEL CORP. has a new majority shareholder, with the Goldman Sachs-led investor group officially completing its purchase of over 14.5 million shares, or around 39% of the company's stock. Ciba Specialty Chemicals, Hexcel's former owner, still owns about 3.5 million shares but no holds board seats.
Arianespace launched two big U.S. commercial communications satellites and a 400-pound Japanese experiment on its big new Ariane 5 rocket Tuesday, depositing all three spacecraft in their proper orbits. Liftoff from the Guyana Space Center near Kourou came Tuesday at 7:26 p.m. EST, with Astra 2D, GE-8 and LDREX aboard. All three spacecraft separated as planned.
President Clinton believes NASA has demonstrated that it can spend its budget wisely, and so should get increases pegged to the needs of planetary exploration and work on the International Space Station. In a valedictory interview to be published in today's edition of Science magazine, Clinton praised Administrator Daniel S. Goldin - a holdover from the administration of President Bush - for cutting NASA's budget while doing "more with less."
A European Space Agency panel has determined that managers must decide by May 2001 on a course of action to correct a flaw in the data recovery plan for the Huygens probe that went unnoticed until more than two years after the probe was launched on NASA's Cassini spacecraft.
Northrop Grumman Corp.'s announcement after close of the markets yesterday that it plans to acquire Litton Industries Inc. for $5.1 billion in cash surprised industry observers for several reasons, but they agreed with the deal.
NASA MANAGERS decided Wednesday to wait until after the holidays to set a launch date for the Space Shuttle Atlantis on the STS-98 mission to deliver the U.S. Laboratory Module to the International Space Station. Engineers have been studying whether a damaged Solid Rocket Booster cable can be repaired or must be replaced, and so have postponed rolling Atlantis to the launch pad (DAILY, Dec. 20).
Defense contractors are joining other business sectors in opposing new federal procurement rules barring companies from receiving government contracts if they repeatedly break the law. A spokeswoman for the National Defense Industrial Association told The DAILY Wednesday that the so-called blacklisting regulations are too broad and vague. The regulations require contractors to have "a satisfactory record of integrity and business ethics," including "satisfactory compliance" with antitrust, consumer, environmental, labor, tax and other laws.
Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, Dallas, has signed four separate rocket system and missile contracts that collectively total $154.1 million. The company inked a $119.5 million contract for 66 multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) M270A1 launchers for the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM) in its fourth low rate initial production (LRIP-4) contract. Delivery of the LRIP-4 launchers is expected to be complete in calendar year 2004.
The Aerospace Industries Association plans to ask President-elect George W. Bush to set up a White House-level National Aerospace Council to coordinate U.S. aerospace policy. The commission would be similar to the old National Space Council but would also handle aeronautics.
Investigators found a hydraulic malfunction on the Bell-Boeing MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft that crashed Oct. 11, killing four Marines. While the U.S. Marine Corps hasn't determined the severity of the problem or whether it contributed to the accident, it's the first evidence that points to what might have happened represents that evening.
Boeing's X-32A Joint Strike Fighter completed 45 flights at Edwards AFB, Calif., as of Dec. 20, including its first aerial refueling test on Dec. 19. The test, with a KC-10 tanker, validated the handling qualities required for the Navy air-refueling task, Boeing said.
