Members of the House Armed Services Committee expressed dissatisfaction with the $60 billion the Dept. of Defense is requesting in procurement for fiscal year 2001, saying they don't think it goes far enough. Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Henry H. Shelton testified before the committee yesterday, defending the FY '01 $291.1 billion DOD budget authority, which is $11.2 billion higher than FY '00, but results in real growth of only one percent.
As part of the first commercial contract with the Vietnamese government since the trade embargo ended in 1994, Raytheon Co. completed site testing of its TracView Airspace Management System.
A re-ignitable upper stage developed by the Franco-Russian Starsem launch services venture for constellation replenishment and other launches performed as planned on its first flight yesterday, but an inflatable reentry vehicle developed by the European Space Agency with Russian technology was lost in bad weather after an apparently successful descent.
Logicon, a unit of Northrop Grumman Corp., is leading a team of contractors that has been selected to provide engineering services for the U.S. Air Force through the Design Engineering Support Program (DESP). The Logicon team was one of ten receiving contracts from the Air Force Materiel Command's Ogden Air Logistics Center in Utah. The five-year multiple award contract has a total ceiling of $450 million for the teams.
Loral Space&Communications reported an increase in revenues for fiscal year 1999, but a decline in fourth quarter revenues. "We made progress across all of our business lines," said Bernard Schwartz during the company's earnings call. "The results are demonstrated not only in the numbers but by the total expansion of the very favorable business prospects."
A U.S. software company has joined forces with a couple of Israeli aerospace companies to develop a fleet of small satellites based on Israel's Ofeq military reconnaissance spacecraft that will collect high-resolution Earth imagery for sale on the Internet. Sales of 1.8-meter panchromatic data could start as early as this fall, according to William R. Usher, chairman and CEO of Core Software Technology. Ultimately the venture plans to offer 0.8-meter panchromatic data for sale, Usher said.
United Technologies plans to integrate Cade Industries, a recent acquisition, with its Pratt&Whitney engine unit. The transaction was completed Tuesday with the merger of Sphere Corp., a UTC subsidiary, and Cade. Cade produces advanced composite components for the aerospace and air transport industries. It also designs, manufactures and services jet engine test facilities and ground equipment.
The National Transportation Safety Board recommended that most government owned or operated turbine-powered aircraft which do not have crashworthy flight recorders be required to install an FAA-approved, crash-protective video recorder.
Hughes Network Systems, Germantown, Md., and Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd., Tel Aviv, Israel, will launch competing PC-based, high-speed wireless data transmission systems for the consumer market later this year. Top officials of the two companies told the Satellite CEO Conference 2000 sponsored by Merrill Lynch here yesterday that their respective products will be competitive in price and performance with cable modem and phone DSL technology.
Boeing Co. technical workers and engineers took to the streets yesterday after a key federal mediator failed to end the contract stalemate between the company and the Society for Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA). It was the first strike against the company since 1995, when the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers walked out for 69 days.
Litton Industries said cost savings will partially offset higher expenditures for two developmental programs in its Advanced Electronics unit, but not enough to meet second quarter estimates. Despite lower costs associated with the sale of Litton Enterprise Solutions (LES) business, higher pension income and other general corporate improvements, Litton said, second quarter performance and fiscal 2000 free cash flow will be hit by the higher-than expected price to develop two new systems at Litton's Guidance and Control Systems (G&CS) segment.
A BOEING DELTA II launched four more Globalstar "Big LEO" low-Earth orbit communications satellites yesterday, adding four spare satellites to the 48-satellite constellation. The launch vehicle lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 4:24 p.m. EST and went through a normal ascent.
NASA's fiscal year 2001 budget request Following is a breakout of NASA's fiscal year 2001 budget request, released Monday (DAILY, Feb. 8). Dollar amounts are in millions. BUDGET SUMMARY *FY 2000 FY 2001 HUMAN SPACE FLIGHT 5,467.7 5,499.9 SCIENCE, AERONAUTICS &TECHNOLOGY 5,580.9 5,929.4
Boeing regrouped its commercial aircraft operations under one umbrella, a move that it said is the first step in a strategy to drive efficiency across its businesses. The changes, announced yesterday by Boeing Commercial Airplanes Group, are aimed at increasing competitiveness and decreasing costs across the units, the company said. During 1999, the group achieved better production and financial results, and it said the new initiatives are intended to build on that performance.
BOMBARDIER AEROSPACE'S Q400 turboprop aircraft has won type certification from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the company announced yesterday. The Q400 is already certified in Canada and Europe. The Canadian-based aerospace company also announced the inaugural flight of the Q400 with SAS Commuter. The Danish carrier has firm orders for 22 Q400s, according to Bombardier.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner (R-Va.) yesterday said he will introduce a provision to ensure that NATO members are pulling their weight in Kosovo. Defense Secretary William Cohen and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Henry Shelton, presenting details of the fiscal year 2001 defense budget to SASC, acknowledged there is a problem with U.S. allies not spending enough money on equipment to support peacekeeping operations like the one in Kosovo.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has requested $41.7 million more for its weather satellite programs in fiscal 2001 than it received in FY '00, with another increase expected next year as the merged civilian/military polar-orbiting satellite program gathers steam.
An agreement signed by the U.S. and British defense secretaries "gives us a roadmap" for improved cooperation in a number of equipment and industrial areas, a top Pentagon official said yesterday. U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen and U.K. Secretary of State for Defense Geoffrey Hoon signed a Declaration of Principles for Defense Equipment and Industrial Cooperation in Munich last weekend.
The Dept. of Defense's fiscal year 2001 budget reflects lessons learned in the Kosovo campaign. A DOD report to Congress released this week, "Kosovo/Operation Allied Force After-Action Report," credits the success of the 78-day air campaign to precision weaponry such as the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) and the Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW).
Lockheed Martin Corp., Naval Electronics and Surveillance Systems, Baltimore, Md., is being awarded a $31,767,546 cost-plus-award-fee contract for engineering services in support of the MK 41 vertical launching system. Work will be performed in Baltimore, Md., and is expected to be completed by December 2002. Contract funds in the amount of $91,559 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Arlington, Va. is the contracting activity (N00024-00-C-5486).
NASA's $14.3 billion fiscal 2001 budget request marks the first time in seven years the Clinton Administration has sought increased funding for the U.S. space agency, adding $435 million to last year's amount as the agency undertakes new Space Shuttle safety upgrades, kicks off a new solar science program and adds almost $5 billion to the planned investment in advanced space launch technology over the next five years.
Textron Systems Corp., Wilmington, Mass., was awarded on Feb. 1, 2000 a $17,078,786 fixed-price-incentive-firm contract to provide for long lead materials to support production of 300 CBU-97C/S Sensor Fuzed Weapons. Expected contract completion date is March 31, 2002. Negotiation completion date was Jan. 27, 2000. Air Armament Center, Eglin AFB, Fla., is the contracting activity (F08635-00-C-0009).
Herley Industries Inc. said it has purchased a former competitor, privately-held Robinson Laboratories, in a cash and stock transaction. "For almost twenty years, Robinson Labs has been a leading supplier of microwave products to the defense/aerospace and commercial industries and competed directly against us, said Lee N. Platt, Herley CEO.
