Army officials are looking for an upswing in their modernization budget, simply because they believe it can't get worse. The service has cut back or canceled more than 100 modernization programs in the past 10 years, says Gen. Jack Keane, vice chief of staff. The service's modernization budget has been reduced by 44% in the same time period.
U.S. Air Force ground controllers at the Eastern Range on Cape Canaveral, Fla., will communicate with downrange tracking stations via a dedicated satellite link instead of land lines as the first phase of a $1 billion range upgrade effort nears completion.
Ball Aerospace, which built NASA's QuikSCAT ocean scatterometer satellite in record time as the first procurement through the agency's new satellite "catalogue," said the spacecraft will soon be ready to begin cost-saving autonomous operations. Launched from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., on June 19 aboard a Lockheed Martin Titan II, the 2,140-pound satellite has performed "flawlessly" since it was delivered on-orbit to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center on July 19, Ball said in a press release.
The House in the next few weeks is slated to consider a bill that calls for increased U.S. assistance in the defense of Taiwan through the sale of a variety of weapons, including ballistic missile defense systems. The House version of the Taiwan Security Enhancement Act (H.R. 1838) was introduced prior to the month-long August recess by House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.). Pentagon officials already have objected to the bill during debate of counterpart legislation in the Senate.
Emphasizing the priority given to life cycle cost and interoperability, the Defense Authorization Act 2000 adds logistics to the job of the under secretary of defense for acquisition and technology, a position currently held by Jacques Gansler. The law creates a new deputy under secretary for logistics, installations and environment, who must face Senate confirmation. Gansler or his successor also would get another helper under the bill, which creates an "Office of Interoperability" to ensure that weapons systems are designed for joint and coalition warfare.
The U.S. Navy has opted to boost the combat radius of its version of the Joint Strike Fighter to 600 miles, a 100-mile increase, according to Cdr. Kevin Albright, requirements officer for the program. "Moving the range back to 600 miles was our original goal for a high, high, high profile," he told The DAILY in a Pentagon interview. "It allows for launch, a 600-mile flight out to the target, weapons drop, some combat maneuvering and recovery."
Space assets will make the final frontier a battlefield as the U.S. attempts to deny space capabilities to its enemies with weapons like Space-Based Laser, Lyles adds. At the same time, he reiterates, the service needs to optimize its use of space by deploying Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) "to really do national missile defense in a robust manner" by 2005.
The House is slated to vote this week on the final version of the FY '00 defense authorization bill conference report. Following House passage the bill will move to the Senate for consideration. That will not be the end of debate, however. The White House is very opposed to provisions in the bill calling for a major reorganization of the Department of Energy and a veto could be possible.
Boeing delivered the first of 59 WAH-64 Apache Longbow helicopter kits to GKN Westland Helicopters Ltd., Yeovil, England, Boeing reported Wednesday. GKN Westland will assemble, flight-test and deliver the aircraft to the U.K. Ministry of Defense, which has ordered 67 Longbows and will receive all of its aircraft by the end of 2003.
The U.S. Air Force will use only precision guided munitions in the next conflict, predicts Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Lester Lyles. "When we have a mandate to minimize collateral damage, like in Kosovo, the only way to guarantee that is through the use of very, very precise weapon systems," he says.
Thomas Corcoran will retire as president and chief operating officer of Lockheed Martin's space&strategic missiles sector effective Oct. 1, the company reported last week. Corcoran is leaving Lockheed Martin to become president and chief executive officer of Allegheny Teledyne of Pittsburgh, where he will succeed Richard Simmons, who will remain Allegheny Teledyne's chairman.
Japan's National Space Development Agency (NASDA) has demonstrated for the first time the automatic capture and release of an orbiting satellite by a second spacecraft equipped with a robot arm, a technique that could one day serve in satellite recovery and repair.
Boeing will take a special third quarter charge to earnings of $225 million pretax associated with inventory on the F-15 program, the company reported yesterday. This is in addition to a $45 million charge taken earlier this year for F-15 inventories.
A second instrument aboard NASA's Chandra Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) has been activated, delivering the most precise measurements ever of the energy output of a star's corona. The High Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer, a grid of hundreds of gold gratings that separate x-rays concentrated by Chandra's mirrors into a spectrum that is read by the telescope's imaging detectors, is capable of measurements 1,000 times more precise than before, according to MIT's Center for Space Research, which developed the instrument.
MACHINIST UNION MEMBERS approved a new contract with Boeing that bars layoffs due to subcontracting and raises wages 11%, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers reported yesterday. Machinists in Washington, Kansas and Oregon voted 86% in favor of the three-year agreement. The contract covers some 46,000 IAM members in Auburn, Everett, Kent, Renton and Seattle, Wash.; Wichita, Kan., and Portland, Ore.
B/E Aerospace Inc. reached an agreement to sell its remaining 49% equity interest in Sextant In-Flight Systems LLC (SIFS) to its joint venture partner, Sextant Avionique Inc. The agreement takes B/E out of the in-flight entertainment business and increases Sextant's role in the field.
The U.S. Navy plans to conduct a full-court competition next month for engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) on the Land Attack Standard Missile (LASM) conversion, which Raytheon has been developing under a Navy contract. Capt. Kevin Quinn, head of naval land attack systems, told The Daily in a Pentagon interview yesterday the $80 million EMD effort should kick off by January, with the first operational missiles slated to go on Aegis cruisers and destroyers by 2003.
The French navy's new 35,500 ton aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle will return to the Brest shipyard in October for five months of work to repair problems experienced during initial sea trials from late January this year and in subsequent operations.
Boeing Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp. have signed an agreement providing for equal work-share on modifications and upgrades to F/A-18 aircraft of the U.S. Navy and U.S. Naval Reserve. The work will be performed at Northrop Grumman's maintenance facility at NAS Cecil Field in Jacksonville, Fla. Boeing is the F/A-18 prime contractor. Northrop Grumman said the agreement covers structural, modification and inspection work, as well as engineering change proposals for structural and avionic systems.
Controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory fired the maneuvering engines on NASA's Mars Polar Lander for 30 seconds Wednesday to set up a landing at the site in the South Pole region selected last month for its scientific interest and relative lack of hazards.
Litton Industries Inc. earned $120.6 million on revenues $4.83 billion in its 1999 fiscal year, compared to earnings of $181.4 million and sales of $4.40 billion in 1998, the company reported. Earnings in 1999 were hit by a $77.4 million after-tax special charge related to decisions to review strategic options, the Woodland Hills, Calif., company said.
DynCorp Technical Services has won a $97 million contract to run the maintenance program for the U.S. Air Force T-38 trainers and German F-4 fighters at Holloman AFB, N.M., beating out incumbent Lockheed Martin.
