Pentagon officials for months have been trying to convince European leaders of the necessity for the U.S. to develop and deploy a national missile defense (NMD) system, Defense Secretary William Cohen said yesterday. The Administration also continues to try to persuade Russia of the need for amendments to the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty to allow for the NMD site deployment, Cohen told the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee. "Talks are ongoing [with Russia]," he said. "A lot will depend on persuading our European friends."
EUROPEAN GEOSTATIONARY Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), a system to augment the performance of the U.S. Global Positioning System and Russian Glonass navigation satellites in Europe, French Guiana and South Africa, has come a step closer to reality with qualification of an EGNOS System Test Bed by the European Space Agency. EGNOS prime contractor Alcatel Space will use the test bed at 12 European sites to make a "pre-operational" space signal available for demonstrations, tests and other uses.
Responding to recent reports of a software glitch in the Tornado GR4 aircraft's Thermal Imaging Airborne Laser Designator (TIALD), the U.K. Ministry of Defense said jet will have a capability superior to that of Tornado GR1 by July 2000.
DRS OPTRONICS, a unit of DRS Technologies, won a $6.5 million contract from Electro Design Manufacturing to provide components and assemblies for the ground-launched TOW missile system in conjunction with a U.S. Army Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. "Used by more than 40 allied nations around the world, the TOW missile system assemblies we provide enhance our leadership position as a global supplier of advanced electro-optical systems technology for military sighting and weapons systems for the digital battlefield," said Mark S.
South African Airways plans to order 21 Boeing next-generation 737-800 aircraft under a combination of leases and purchases, Boeing said yesterday. "Boeing is thrilled that SAA has decided to replace its Airbus A300 and A320 fleet with Boeing single-aisle airplanes," said Seddik Belyami, vice president of sales and marketing for Boeing's Commercial Airplanes Group.
Starsem's Fregat re-ignitable upper stage for the venerable Soyuz rocket re-entered after its inaugural launch Feb. 9 using an experimental inflatable device, but it has not been found yet because of deep snow at the landing site near Orenburg, Russia. Four days after its delivery to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) by the Fregat stage, a dummy payload fitted with its own "Inflatable Reentry and Descent Technology" (IRDT) package was found after its locator beacon started to operate. But this was not the case for the Fregat itself (DAILY, Feb. 10).
Gen. John P. Jumper, the new commander of the U.S. Air Force's Air Combat Command, said a big lesson of last year's Operation Allied Force is to not "confuse processes with product." Wars are not won by managing processes, he said, stressing that the product of war is targets destroyed.
Dutch industry participation in the Rolls-Royce Turbomeca RTM322 turboshaft engine program is planned from a memorandum of understanding announced in London on Tuesday. Signed with VGT, the Netherlands Gas Turbine Association, the MOU sets out arrangements for a minimum Dutch workshare in the RTM322, in proportion to the planned procurement of 20 NFH-90 frigate-based multi-role helicopters by the Royal Netherlands Navy from the four-nation NH-90 consortium, which also includes France, Germany and Italy.
INTELSAT has picked Lehman Brothers to advise it on capital markets, business and organization as it moves toward privatization. The consultant will help the Intelsat Board maximize the international satellite communications consortium's market value as a private company while maintaining its service to "Lifeline" customers who might not otherwise be served (DAILY, Nov. 8, 1999).
Russia's MiG Project 1.44 fighter technology demonstrator made its first flight Tuesday from the Gromov Flight Test Institute in Zhukovsky, 30 miles southwest of Moscow. During the 18-minute flight, the 1.44 climbed to a little more than 3,200 feet and flew twice around the airfield, the MiG Russian Aircraft Corp. said.
INTEGRAL SYSTEMS INC. has won a program definition contract from Lockheed Martin Missiles&Space to design satellite operations centers for the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS), the next-generation U.S. polar-orbiting weather satellite system. Based in Lanham, Md., Integral Systems will be responsible for systems engineering at the primary and backup satellite operations centers, which will be used for satellite mission planning, monitoring and control.
Members of the House Armed Services Committee blasted the Pentagon yesterday for shifting funding in its operations and maintenance (O&M) accounts without congressional approval. HASC Readiness Subcommittee Chair Herbert Bateman (R-Va.) at a hearing yesterday told the vice chiefs of staff for the military services that the practice of moving these funds undermines the work Congress does to shore up funding shortfalls in critical readiness accounts.
NASA's Stardust spacecraft has deployed the aerogel particle collector its controllers hope to retrieve in 2006, extending one of its sides into open space to capture microscopic bits of interstellar dust for later analysis. According to a Jet Propulsion Laboratory status report, spacecraft telemetry indicated the deployment sequence worked as planned. The aerogel collector was extended outside the spacecraft capsule after the heat shield was moved out of the way, JPL said.
Industry analysts see Singapore Airlines as the likely initial customer for Boeing's longer-range, 777-200 and -300 widebody jetliners. The critical selling point for the twin-engine jets in Asian/North American routes, versus the four-engine Airbus A340-500/600 series, they said, will be promised maintenance and fuel operating efficiencies.
Air Force Gen. Michael E. Ryan says it's time to examine the issue of cost sharing on certain platforms, particularly in cases where the AF picks up most of the tab. "There are a lot of programs out there that the Air Force does for other services, where the other services are the major beneficiary," he told reporters last week in Orlando, Fla. In fact, he said, other services and agencies, including the Office of Secretary of Defense, are often the drivers of these programs, but "the Air Force is the bill-payer."
NASA'S DRYDEN Flight Research Center plans to attempt another drop test of the X-38 Space Station Crew Return Vehicle on about March 29, according to a Dryden spokesman. Project engineers are narrowing down the cause of a technical glitch that thwarted a planned test last Saturday (DAILY, Feb. 29), with intermittent grounding or electromagnetic interference the prime candidates.
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Floyd Spence (R-S.C.) said the House Budget Committee should increase President Clinton's fiscal year 2001 defense budget request to better fund modernization and other shortfalls.
Aerospace Engineering, Inc. (ASE), St. Paul, Minn., won three separate contracts, worth an estimated total of $5.7 million, to provide "critical new equipment and upgrades" to jet engine test cell facilities. General Electric tapped ASE for test equipment, including the new ASE2000 computer system, for a new cell facility in China. Under the other two contracts, with an unidentified U.S. carrier and Italy's Alitalia, ASE will also supply the ASE2000 data acquisition system.
Boeing Chairman Phil Condit and General Electric Chairman Jack Welch yesterday announced the launch of the longer-range 777-200 and 777-300 airliners based on what was described as "strong market interest and customer commitments." No immediate launch orders were announced but Boeing's board Monday gave its go-ahead to the programs. "We have more than enough commitments to justify this launch," said Condit. "Our launch book is heavily influenced by Asian carriers," he said without naming specific airlines.
ECHOSTAR COMMUNICATIONS common stock will split one for one March 10 following approval of the action by the Littleton, Colo., company's board of directors, the company reported yesterday. The split will increase the number of shares of the company's class A stock from about 113.9 million to about 227.9 million, while class B common stock will increase from about 119.2 million shares to about 238.4 million shares. The company's class A stock (DISH) closed at 111.75 yesterday, having ranged over the previous year between 12.187 and 127.85.
The FAA is assessing Loran development in four key areas including a hybrid GPS-Loran receiver, with flight trials to evaluate all four areas planned for the second quarter of next year, an FAA official told ICAO's Air Navigation Committee (ANC) in Montreal. A European executive told the Feb. 23 meeting that European interests believe that Loran should be seen as a complement, not a competitor, to a global navigation satellite system, providing augmentation and backup capabilities. It was the first briefing on Loran for the ANC.
U.S. Air Force Air Mobility Command is standing down a little more than a third of its C/KC-135 cargo plane/tanker fleet for a "potential stabilizer trim actuator problem," but officials insist it's unrelated to the recent crash of the Alaska Airlines MD-80.
A possible solution to the standoff generated by U.S. objections to the European Union's proposed hushkit rule is being discussed, a senior U.S. official said yesterday. The rule, slated to go into effect in early May, would ban all non-EU aircraft fitted with huskits from operating inside the EU. Some 1,800 U.S. aircraft would be affected.
