The Dept. of Defense's comptroller has released $2.5 billion of the Kosovo supplemental funding to pay bills directly tied to Operation Allied Force, but the remaining $9.5 billion has not been allocated to specific accounts.
The U.S. Air Force lost two Boeing F-15C/Ds June 15 during Y2K Flag, a training exercise at Nellis AFB, Nev., in which systems were being tested for Year 2000 bugs. Both pilots ejected. The fighters, based at Eglin AFB, Fla., were about six miles apart when they crashed en route to the Nellis training range, an AF spokesman confirmed. A safety board is meeting and an accident investigation board is expected to convene this week.
SOUTHWEST AIRLINES ordered six more 737-700s, bringing its total 737 orders to 366. Southwest is realizing fuel savings of about 7% on the next-generation 737s, Boeing reported. The newest orders are to be delivered in 2000 and 2001.
STATION QUESTIONS: Space Station managers at Johnson Space Center could have a long day when Administrator Daniel S. Goldin returns from duty as President Clinton's representative to the Paris Air Show this week. While Goldin was away, ground controllers lost control of the Station when it went into a safe mode as they were trying to maneuver it out of the way of approaching space debris. The debris missed, and the loss of control is understood - software on Russia's Zarya hadn't been updated to take into account the mass of the U.S. Unity node. But NASA didn't tell Rep.
SALVAGE OPERATION: The House Appropriations defense subcommittee is delaying markup of the fiscal 2000 defense budget to avoid the fate of the first few appropriations bills on the House floor, congressional sources say. Those bills had to be reduced from the levels arrived at in the subcommittee and full Appropriations Committee because they were over the budget caps. House Appropriators also want to avoid the situation in the Senate, where $3.1 billion was added to the FY 2000 defense appropriations bill to pay for FY '99 shortfalls in other areas. House Speaker J.
P-3 REPLACEMENT: The U.S. Navy expects a Milestone O decision on its Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft this fall. The P-3 replacement, to be operational in 2010, will be either a new design, a remanufacture of the existing airframe, or a variant of the C-130, the Boeing 717 or the P-3.
LAUNCH FORECAST: Almost 1,500 satellites will be launched worldwide from 2000 through 2009, with an estimated total value of $126.8 billion, according to the latest Teal Group projections. Last year the Fairfax, Va.-based consulting firm counted 1,017 total launches over the then-upcoming 10 years (DAILY, Sept. 15, 1998). While the projections are good news for satellite makers, launch companies won't be able to cash in quite as much because of the trend to multiple payloads, Teal says.
Romanian Prime Minister Radu Vasile said his country would not follow through on its $1.5 billion AH-1RO helicopter deal with Bell Helicopter Textron, according to press reports out of Romania. Instead, Romania would begin talks with Eurocopter about launching a project, Vasile said in a television interview.
An International launch Services Proton D-1-e rocket put the Astra 1H telecommunications satellite with Europe's first commercial Ka-band payload aboard into a geostationary transfer orbit late Thursday. Luxembourg-based Societe Europeenne des Satellites (SES) will use the Ka-band capability as a return path for satellite-based interactive services that are presently provided by terrestrial systems like the X-DSL high-speed Internet standard and cable modems.
The Joint Land-attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System (JLENS) team participating in the U.S. Army's Roving Sands Exercise underway in New Mexico is conducting tests aimed at extending the system's flight time in poor weather, JLENS program manager Col. Herb Carr told The DAILY yesterday. JLENS consists of an aerostat with radars to provide over-the-horizon surveillance for defense against cruise missiles.
The FAA, whose oversight of repair shops was criticized following the crash of a ValuJet DC-9 in the Florida Everglades in 1996, is revising and strengthening rules governing domestic and foreign shops. "We intend to raise the safety bar at these facilities and require the same high level of safety in every U.S. repair station, wherever they are located," said FAA Administrator Jane Garvey. The new rules will drop the "airframe" ratings and require proficiency in English at the 525 repair stations abroad and the 4,509 stations in the U.S.
Discussions between air show Commissaire General Edmond Marchegay and Sukhoi following press reports that Su-30 test pilot Viacheslav Averianov attributed his crash last Saturday to the shortening of his demonstration by the display organization led to further clarification by Sukhoi at a press conference here yesterday.
The U.S. Air Force Airborne Laser (ABL) team was able to fire the system's laser module above 100% power for an extended period of time Tuesday in a repeat performance that surpassed requirements to shoot down a target missile. The laser remained at more than 100% power for 10 to 15 seconds, Program Director Col. Michael W. Booen said in a telephone interview. The test, at a TRW facility in Redondo Beach, Calif., repeated the laser's performance of June 10 when it exceeded peak power by 30% to 40% for the first time since it was redesigned.
An arbitration panel voted unanimously to allow the BFGoodrich-Coltec Industries merger, Coltec reported. The panel's decision found that the merger has not breached the Strategic Alliance Agreement between Coltec and AlliedSignal that begin in mid-1995, when AlliedSignal exited its landing gear business.
Five percent of inspected UH-1 Huey helicopters have cracked tail booms, half the number that had been expected, a spokesperson for the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command said. About 1,000 Bell Helicopter Textron Hueys in the active, reserve and National Guard fleets were grounded May 7 after a tail boom broke off one of the helicopters during a flight in Alabama.
Despite Airbus's delay in launching its proposed giant A3XX jetliner, plans to run a core engine technology demonstrator this October remain on track and the slip just gives engineers time to insert more advanced technology, says Bruce Hughes, president of The Engine Alliance venture of GE Aircraft Engines and Pratt&Whitney. The two rivals are sharing the $1 billion cost to develop a new 67,000- to 80,000-pound-thrust turbofan, the GP7200, for the aircraft (DAILY, May 9, 1996), which is set against Rolls-Royce's Trent 900 on the A3XX family.
Despite the end of NATO's air war against Yugoslavia, the U.S. Air Force has initiated a program to prevent service members in key career fields from leaving. The measure, known as Stop-Loss, is meant to preserve the service's ability to respond to a second war. It was initiated on Tuesday. "The Air Force will implement Stop-Loss as planned, until the post hostility requirements are known," an AF spokeswoman said, referring to the peacekeeping mission in Yugoslavia.
Boeing said it received orders for 19 transports from four customers - Tarom for four 737-700s and four 737-800s; Lauda for one 767-300ER; Delta for six 737-800s, one 757-200 and two 767-300ERs; and Hapag-Lloyd for one 737-800. Tarom will serve expanding markets in Europe and the Middle East. Delta plans for modest growth.
Though Rolls-Royce isn't working actively on a 115,000-lbst. engine to meet the power needs for Boeing's notional growth version of the 777 widebody twin, the company's investments and position leave it ready to jump into the fray, Rolls Chief Executive John Rose says. P&W has already started engineering work on a new engine drawing heavily from the PW4000 pedigree to hit 115,000 lbst. "We can meet those requirements when the time comes," says Rose.
Northrop Grumman's Integrated Systems and Aerostructures Sector and Airbus Industrie agreed to jointly pursue an aircraft/system configuration to meet NATO's $2.4 billion Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) requirement, the two companies announced yesterday at the Paris Air Show. If the Northrop Grumman-Airbus team wins, it will include work for both companies as well as Airbus partners and companies throughout the NATO community, Northrop Grumman said.
Projected budget overruns for the Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC-3) missile program have soared from $60 million to $278 million for the current engineering and manufacturing phase, a development which prime contractor Lockheed Martin said it considers "very serious." The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization said the company underestimated the software development and missile integration effort. The $278 million overrun will be split between the government and Lockheed Martin, with the Dept. of Defense footing 70% of the bill.
Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) has introduced a bill requiring defense contractors to pick up the full tab of displaying their equipment at shows like the Paris Air Show, underway this week. Stark's "Restrictions on Foreign Air Shows Act" bans any further direct participation of defense personnel and equipment at air shows unless the defense industry pays for the advertising and use of Defense Dept. wares.
Joseph Rothenberg, associate NASA administrator for space flight, has named three NASA veterans to new management jobs within the human spaceflight organization at agency headquarters, the agency announced. William Readdy, a three-time Space Shuttle astronaut who has been director for Space Shuttle requirements, has been named deputy associate administrator for the Office of Space Flight, where he will be responsible for the day-to-day management of personnel and program activities.
