South Africa's Denel signed an agreement to become a strategic supply partner to BAE Systems and Saab, which are building 24 Hawk trainers and 28 Gripen fighters for the South African Air Force. The agreement, which Denel called the largest European-South African industrial deal to date, covers workshare contracts and could be worth R2.5 billion ($3.75 billion) to Denel over the next 10 years.
A new paint to increase stealthiness of the F-22 fighter was applied to the Raptor 02 Wednesday at Edwards AFB, Calif., according to Boeing Co., which developed the paint. Called a "topcoat," the paint is intended to protect the plane against threats that use a broad range of wavelengths, Boeing said. It replaces conventional topcoats, performing all the required protective functions while also reducing vulnerability to infrared threats.
President Clinton should be the one to decide whether to deploy a national missile defense system, not his successor, a top advisor to Vice President Al Gore said yesterday. "I think the president should make this decision -- he is the president," said Leon S. Fuerth, Gore's national security advisor. "It is, if anything ever was, a presidential decision."
The European Commission has approved the formation of Astrium, a merger of the space businesses of Germany's DaimlerChrysler Aerospace (DASA) and Matra Marconi Space. Astrium will be run as a joint venture shared by Aerospatiale Matra in France and BAE Systems in the U.K. one the one hand, and DASA on the other.
BAE Systems said it has joined the team of Racal Defense Electronics, Thomson-CSF and Marconi Communications in a competition for a U.K. rapid reaction force communication network. The 40 million pound ($62 million) Cormorant Theater-Wide Area Communications Network (TWACN) will be designed for operations by the Joint Rapid Reaction Force, BAE Systems said.
Administrator Daniel S. Goldin delivered a pugnacious defense of NASA's spaceflight record yesterday as Republican senators leveled charges that inept management at the agency was the ultimate cause of last year's mission failures and delays. Testifying before the Senate Commerce space subcommittee, Goldin noted that since 1992 when he took office NASA has launched 146 payloads worth about $18 billion.
Teledyne Continental Motors said it has reached agreement with Lockheed Martin to produce J402 turbine engines for the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) program.
The European Council is deciding whether to impose an environmental tax on jet fuel. A study "confirms that there would be significantly higher environmental benefits...from the introduction of kerosene taxation targeting all operations from Community airports," the EC said. "In addition," it said, "the significant revenues accruing from such a measure would allow member states to reduce other taxes and charges."
Slips in the test schedule of the Air Force's F-22 fighter program have worsened since the General Accounting Office (GAO) first reported the problem earlier this month, Philip E. Coyle, Pentagon director of operational test and evaluation, told senators yesterday.
U.K. military equipment manufacturers were urged yesterday by Defense Secretary Geoffrey Hoon to join the MOD in challenging critics of defense exports. He said they should also help in explaining the role such exports play in sustaining British industry, and maintaining the U.K.'s world standing.
KEITH HALL, director of the National Reconnaissance Office, will be awarded the Dr. Robert H. Goddard Memorial Trophy March 31 at the National Space Club's annual Goddard Memorial Dinner. Also, U.S. Air Force Col. John Cunningham will receive the Dr. Joseph Charyk Award for "his innovative ideas which pioneered a number of systems that directly benefited a wide range of NRO customers."
NATO's secretary general rebutted critics who have said alliance pilots flew too high during the Kosovo conflict to be effective against their targets. "Modern weapon systems can strike from great ranges and heights with extreme accuracy," Lord Robertson said in a report marking the first anniversary of the launching of the 78-day Operation Allied Force. "As aircrew themselves have pointed out, flying above most enemy air defenses allowed time to properly identify targets, even circling them, before striking."
Titanium Metals Corp. sued Boeing Co. for over $600 million in damages for what it said was the breach of a long-term contract to supply titanium. "We would strongly have preferred not to file this lawsuit," said J. Landis Martin, president and CEO of TIMET. "It is a last resort -- we have made every attempt to work with Boeing to resolve our problems."
Europe's big Ariane 5 rocket placed two communications satellites in orbit late Tuesday in its second commercial launch, one for the WorldSpace satellite radio consortium and the other for the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). Liftoff of the launch vehicle and its 10,663 pounds of payload came at 6:28 p.m. EST from the Guiana Space Center near Kourou. At third stage separation the orbital parameters were on target for the satellites' geostationary transfer orbits, according to the Arianespace launch consortium.
The variation management (VM) process is bringing savings to Lockheed Martin's Joint Strike Fighter team by reducing engineering changes, tooling, scrap and rework, the company said. By using information to predict outcomes of assembly and design concepts, it said, VM reduces assembly variation. The process brings statistical tools and methods to JSF design and production that will also benefit other company aeronautics programs, Lockheed Martin said.
NASA and Lockheed Martin are reviewing the entire X-33 reusable launch vehicle prototype program, including the commercial "VentureStar" follow-on, to see if the cooperative agreement that set up the X-33 partnership and the vehicle designs themselves can been reworked.
An amended budget to be sent to Congress will include a plan to combine Global Positioning System needs of the Dept. of Transportation with those of the Dept. of Defense, according to Darlene Druyun, principal deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition. The AF has spent "a tremendous amount of energy" restructuring the satellite program to include required DOT civil signals for commercial aircraft, Druyun said.
Venezuela's president has disputed Guyana's right to authorize a launch site for Beal Aerospace on grounds the resource-rich territory is claimed by his country. "We cannot accept it because that territory is in reclamation," President Hugo Chavez stated in a regular radio address. He said Venezuela plans to raise the issue with U.S. authorities.
Boeing put two office buildings and a warehouse on the chopping block yesterday as part of its continuing effort to streamline the commercial airplane division. The division has faced a number of challenges over the past few years -- production problems which reverberated throughout the entire aerospace industry, loss of market share to Airbus and, most recently, delivery delays due to the strike by engineers and technical workers. Boeing is thus trying to maximize efficiency and improve competitiveness.
The U.S. Navy's Fleet and Industrial Supply Center (FISC) has extended a contract with ProcureNet Inc. for logistics and fulfillment services for non-standard maintenance, repair and operating supplies, the Fairfield, N.J.-based business-to-business e-commerce services firm reported. Under the contract extension Navy personnel will use ProcureNet's technology and services to locate, price, acquire and deliver non-standard items.
The Pentagon's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) has slipped the next flight test in its national missile defense (NMD) program, further delaying a presidential decision on when to deploy such a system.
The General Electric-Pratt&Whitney Engine Alliance this week will begin testing the core of its GP7000 engine, which will be offered on Airbus' proposed A3XX superjumbo aircraft. The testing will be carried out at GE's Evendale, Ohio, facility, according to Pratt&Whitney spokesman Mark Sullivan.
LUXELL TECHNOLOGIES, Mississagua, Ontario, said it has won a $4.25 million contract from Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics&Surveillance Systems, Eagan, Minn., to supply data entry systems that use Luxell's flat-panel displays. The contract calls for deliveries to occur over a four-year period starting in May. The displays will serve as the data entry panels of avionics systems that Lockheed is installing in U.S. Navy P-3C patrol aircraft.
