The U.K. Ministry of Defence formally launched its new 16 Air Assault Brigade at Wattisham air base in Suffolk, Friday. The new brigade-sized combat unit is described as the most powerful air maneuver fighting formation in British history Attending the formal launch was Defence Secretary George Robertson, HRH the Prince of Wales, who is Colonel-in-Chief of the Parachute Regiment and the Army Air Corps, which comprise key elements of the 16 AAB.
The Federal Communications Commission is considering the issue of "capacity portability" as it weighs whether or not to grant Lockheed Martin "authorized carrier" status, and thereby permission to buy 49% of Comsat's common stock. Unless the two companies extend their proposed deal, the FCC must give Lockheed Martin permission to buy the stock before Sept. 18 or Lockheed Martin's offer to merge with Comsat expires.
Raytheon Company has completed the "Performance Build" milestone for the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), the company reported Thursday. It was the third in a series of signal-in-space test milestones for Raytheon, the WAAS prime contractor for the FAA.
Aircraft manufacturers may once again be forced to increase their exposure to customer financing in the next industry downcycle, despite efforts to contain this exposure, Moody's Investors Service said in a recent survey.
September 3, 1999 Northrop Grumman Corp., Baltimore, Md., is being awarded a $40,833,152 firm-fixed-price contract to provide for twenty-four AN/APG-68(V)8 fire control radar systems applicable to the F-16 aircraft. This effort supports foreign military sales to Egypt. Expected contract completion date is Dec. 31, 2001. Solicitation issue date was April 29, 1999. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-99-C-0029).
Contractors competing for the U.S. Air Force's $1.5 billion-$1.8 billion Integrated Space Command and Control (ISC2) contract will now go through a down-select phase, a shift from the original plan which called for selection of one contractor after a comparison of each offeror's cost and system architecture proposals. The new approach, made at the suggestion of the Air Force leadership, means that the draft request for proposals is being released this week instead of in July as originally planned (Spacebusiness TODAY, April 13).
Israel Aircraft Industries earned $31 million in the first six months of 1999, up from $19.7 million during the same period last year, the company reported yesterday. Revenues during the period reached $1.03 billion, the first time IAI reported sales of more than $1 billion during a six-month period, said Moshe Keret, president and chief executive officer. In the first half of 1998, sales were $929 million.
Civilian researchers will soon be able to get their hands on the U.S. Air Force's Advanced Electro-Optical System, a 3.67-meter telescope that can track and study satellites moving overhead. Situated atop 10,000-foot Haleakala on the Hawaiian island of Maui, the big telescope is being equipped with lasers and deformable optics to remove atmospheric distortion. The Air Force Office of Scientific Research will contribute $2 million to a two-year grant program for projects using the telescope, and the National Science Foundation will also contribute funds.
THE U.S NAVY has awarded a $2 million contract to Teltron Technologies, a division of Video Display, for repair and replacement of cockpit displays in the P-3 Orion aircraft. The company is already doing similar work on the Navy's S-3 Viking aircraft.
International Space Station controllers believe a battery they had taken off line as a precaution may be able to power the orbiting facility in a pinch. A one-orbit test of the reconnected battery last week revealed it worked almost up to par, leading to speculation only one of the battery's cells is malfunctioning. A big drop in performance last month may have been caused by a one-time electronics problem not expected to recur, according to a Station status report.
Russia's Khrunichev space production center will tighten welding procedures and inspections on the rocket engines it uses and do a better job of filtering its rocket propellant to get its big Proton launch vehicle flying again later this month. A U.S. failure review board has agreed with its Russian counterpart that an engine fire in the second stage of the Proton which crashed on Kazakhstan July 5 was caused by the failure of a weld holding a turbine cover in place, and perhaps made worse by "microparticles" in the fuel.
The Army must soon consider a service life extension program (SLEP) for the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) ballistic missile defense system, according to Maj. Gen. Dennis Cavin, commanding general of the Army Air Defense Artillery Center and Fort Bliss, Tex. "Fleet obsolescence and expected life mandate a SLEP and essential improvements beyond the PAC-3," Cavin said at the Army Space and Missile Defense Command conference on Aug. 24.
The Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor has one more test - high-speed flight - to complete before the Defense Acquisition Board convenes in December to decided whether the program may proceed into low rate initial production. The program passed its most recent milestone Aug. 25, when an F-22 flew an angle of attack in excess of 60 degrees angle during high-angle-of-attack maneuvering at Edwards AFB, Calif.
The U.S. Army has awarded Boeing Electronic Systems and Missile Defense an $18 million contract modification to begin ground testing of the Kinetic Energy Anti-Satellite (KE-ASAT), the service announced. The money is part of $37.5 million initially eliminated from the 1998 budget by President Clinton's line item veto. The funds were released in December after the Supreme Court ruled the line item veto was unconstitutional.
Lockheed Martin has validated its Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) short-takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) propulsion system with a high-power clutch engagement of the shaft-driven lift fan. The August 28 test at Pratt&Whitney facilities in West Palm Beach, Fla., simulated the propulsion system's conversion from conventional wing-borne flight to jet-borne flight for a STOVL approach. The F119-611 engine operated above the typical in-flight conversion power setting for the demonstration.
It may be weeks before Senate and House defense appropriators resolve differences on the fiscal year 2000 defense budget, Capitol Hill sources say. The sticking area of most interest is whether the House will concede to the Senate position of fully funding the F-22 fighter. While Hill sources agree the funding cut by the House will be restored, exact details have not yet been worked out. The appropriations conference could wrap up by mid-October, sources said.
Boeing Space and Communications Group, Seal Beach, Calif., has won what is said to be the largest procurement contract in the history of the National Reconnaissance Office for the next generation of U.S. imagery reconnaissance satellites. The NRO announced the contract late Friday, saying its exact value and the number of satellites it covers was classified. Under the contract Boeing will develop, launch and operate the satellite constellation, with the first launches scheduled to begin in the middle of the coming decade, NRO stated.
The Navy is not looking to the Joint Strike Fighter as a replacement for the EA-6B Prowler, says service requirement officer Cdr. Kevin Albright. The 2010-era fighter is expected to protect itself with electronic jamming, but no provisions are included in the operational requirements document to convert the plane into a jammer.
Space Shuttle technicians are rigging flexible plastic tubing and other shielding to protect wires, and smoothing sharp places that might fray or cut them, as work continues on inspecting and repairing some 100 miles of electrical wiring in each of the four Shuttle orbiters. Hoping to avoid a repeat of the bad moment during the last Shuttle launch when a frayed wire shorted and took out two main engine controllers (DAILY, Aug. 27), technicians have found 38 places on Endeavour and 26 on Discovery where they need to repair or protect wiring.
