RUSSIA WATCH: With Congress out of session until early December, it's unclear what, if anything, lawmakers will do about recent news that Russia plans to sell early-warning radar aircraft to China. Rep. Sonny Callahan (R-Ala.), who chairs the House Appropriations Committee's foreign aid panel, says the U.S. has less leverage to block the Russian deal than it had when Israel was trying to sell a Phalcon early-warning radar plane to Beijing. Unlike the Russian sale, the Phalcon deal involved American technology that Israel, a major U.S.
House International Relations Committee Chairman Benjamin Gilman (R-N.Y.) wants to redo a U.S. aid package for Colombia's drug war by shifting helicopters from the army to the national police and by adding three Buffalo supply planes to replace DC-3s, according to congressional sources.
TURKEY WATCH: Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking Democrat Joseph Biden (Del.) is threatening to block arms sales to Turkey if Ankara doesn't play a constructive role in United Nations-sponsored Cyprus peace talks. Biden has already placed a temporary hold on an export license for the sale of eight Sikorsky S-80E-1 heavy-lift helicopters to Turkey. He says he lifted the hold after receiving State Dept. assurances that progress is being made in the peace talks.
JSF PRICE HIKE: The cost of the JSF family of airplanes has now gone up, according to the government program office's leading official. "I was given the charter to build this airplane to a $28 million metric," explains USMC Maj. Gen. Michael Hough, JSF program director. "A family of airplanes had to be built between $28 million and $38 million, and the basic airplane - same motor, avionics, 78% commonality - had to built to a CTOL airframe for $28 million." The upper-end of the spectrum was $38 million for the more complicated STOVL version.
FLIGHT TEST: Cosmonaut Yuri Gidzenko may get another chance to demonstrate his prowess with the TORU manual docking system on Space Station Alpha. Flight controllers in Moscow suspect a software glitch kept the KURS automatic docking system from working properly when the latest Progress resupply capsule arrived, failing to distinguish clearly between the Zarya and Zvezda modules as it approached Zarya's nadir docking port (DAILY, Nov. 21). Last week Russian programmers were readying a software patch for uplinking.
European Transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio this week called for a resumption of dialogue with the U.S. on hushkits. The statement, issued in Brussels, followed last week's rejection in Montreal by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) of a European Union claim that the U.S. complaint against the ban of hushkitted aircraft in Europe was inadmissible.
Rep. Bob Stump (R-Ariz.), a candidate to head the House Armed Services Committee next year, says that securing "adequate resources and equipment" for the military "must be our highest priority." In a Nov. 13 letter to other House Republicans, Stump wrote that the military needs to improve its capabilities "immediately" to prepare for future threats.
Boeing temporarily pulled its X-32A conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) and carrier variant (CV) Joint Strike Fighter demonstrator out of flight test on Monday to fix a problem that kept the aircraft on the ground from Oct. 24 to Nov. 15. Flights were conducted for five days after the 15th, then halted for the fix. The company plans to resume flying next week and expects to complete the government requirements for the concept demonstrator flight test program in early December.
EarthWatch Inc. suffered another setback following launch on a Russian vehicle Monday, when the QuickBird 1 imaging satellite was lost after its Cosmos-3 rocket failed to place it in its proper orbit.
European Union defense ministers have agreed to look at a range of pan-European improvements in everything from intelligence to strategic mobility and missile defense as part of the framework for the proposed EU Rapid Reaction Force.
Computing Devices Canada, a unit of General Dynamics, won a $14.1 million design and development contract from the U.K. Ministry of Defense for the Bowman program, the British Army's next generation tactical communications system. "This contract award is a very significant step toward winning the full Bowman implementation program, and reflects the confidence that the U.K. has in Computing Devices," said Larry Johnson, senior VP for Computing Devices Canada and managing director of CDC Systems UK Ltd.
Vietnam Airlines has signed a letter of intent to purchase up to three Boeing 777-200Ers. Boeing said the order, when finalized, would be about $480 million. Vietnam Minister of Finance Nguyen Sinh Hung and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Norman Mineta participated in the Nov. 17 signing ceremony between Vietnam Airlines and Boeing. The event was held in Hanoi as part of President Bill Clinton's visit to Vietnam. "The agreement is the first step toward contract and configuration discussions between Boeing and Vietnam Airlines," Boeing said.
The European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS) is reaching out to the global marketplace with a new marketing and sales office dubbed EADS International. "For EADS, which realizes 70% of its turnover on the global market, a strong international organization and market presence is key to success," said EADS co-CEOs Rainier Hertrich and Phillipe Camus.
DRS TECHNOLOGIES INC., Parsippany, N.J., said it has received new orders from the U.S. government valued at $2.3 million to provide UltraSPARC II computer network servers. DRS Technologies, a supplier of TEMPEST computer equipment, is teamed with Sun Microelectronics, a division of Sun Microsystems, Inc. For these new orders, DRS Advanced Programs unit in Columbia, Md., will design, integrate, test and deliver second-generation TEMPEST rack-mounted Servers, the company said.
Russia's two manufacturers of fighter aircraft - MiG and Sukhoi - seem to be struggling to stay alive, and many observers doubt that Russia can support more than one of the companies for much longer, according to a new report by the Congressional Research Service.
After studying all wing-level logistics issues, the U.S. Air Force said it's tweaking business practices to fit new operational realities and boost the Expeditionary Aerospace Force's combat readiness. "The Chief of Staff Logistics Review [CLR] was an opportunity to conduct an end-to-end analysis of how we conduct operations and maintenance, supply and transportation, and logistics planning at the unit level," explained Gen. Michael E. Zettler, deputy chief of staff for installation and logistics at the Pentagon.
KELLSTROM INDUSTRIES INC. won $30 million in financing from Key Principal Partners, an affiliate of the Key Corp., in the form of a seven-year subordinated debt financing with a 13% interest rate. Officials said the transaction represents an important step in recapitalizing the company. Kellstrom will take a fourth quarter charge of $2.2 million for prepaying the company's previous loan.
The State Dept. announced yesterday that it will waive space-related sanctions against China in response to Beijing's promise to stop giving missile technology to Iran and other nations.
EDO Corp. lost $0.2 million, or $0.02 per share in the third quarter of fiscal 2000, including costs and additional taxes related to the merger with AIL Technologies, but reported that fourth quarter charges will be "significantly less" than expected.
The Senate has approved a bill aimed at spurring the development of technology needed to prevent "catastrophic" terrorist attacks that involve weapons of mass destruction or other devices that can cause mass casualties. The bill, which the Senate passed by unanimous consent last week, now goes to the House for its consideration next month.
RACAL COMMUNICATIONS INC., sister company of Thomson Racal Defense, won its first deal to outfit U.S. Marine Corps riflemen with personal radio headsets, beating out "strong international competition." Paul Kahn, managing director of Thomson Racal Defense's Acoustic division, said, "The company's ability to deliver a cost-effective, high quality product against a tight time-scale has been a key factor in winning this highly competitive program."
Lockheed Martin plans to wrap up the flight test program for its X-35A conventional take off and landing (CTOL) Joint Strike Fighter today, and hopes to take the jet supersonic before it is pulled out of service and converted to the X-35B short take off vertical landing (STOVL) configuration, which is expected to fly about next February.
Kollmorgen Corp., Electro-Optical Division, Northampton, Mass., is being awarded a $5,900,000 modification to previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract N66604-99-C-5933 for one Type 8B Mod 3 Periscope Set, modified to provide an infrared imaging capability with corresponding radar camouflage unit, data, and developmental drawings. This contract contains an incentive clause, which if executed, will bring the total contract value to $6,020,000. Work will be performed in Northampton, Mass., and is expected to be completed by April 2003.
The most indispensable platform during last year's Kosovo operation was the aerial refueling force, one of the Air Force's eldest yet most relied upon capabilities, according to the former allied air force commander, retired USAF Lt. Gen. Michael C. Short. "Various manufacturers of aircraft and platforms have asked me what I thought was the most indispensable platform in [Operation Allied Force]," Short said last week at a breakfast on Capitol Hill. "There was not 'the most' - there was only one," he remarked.
