The Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile yesterday broke its string of six failures in a row, intercepting a target missile for the first time during a test at White Sands Missile Range N.M., and helping to validate the hit-to-kill idea that is the backbone of the Pentagon's ballistic missile defense programs. The test was a boost in another way for THAAD prime contractor Lockheed Martin, which the day before had reported lowered earnings expectations for 1999 and 2000.
NASA is analyzing eight proposals for "entrepreneurial" projects on the International Space Station and hopes to close some deals by the end of September, according to Administrator Daniel S. Goldin. Goldin told the Washington Space Business Roundtable Wednesday the U.S. space agency has retained KPMG Peat Marwick to study the market for Station-based business, and plans "an on-going activity" to search for companies willing and able to use the Station to make money.
The board of Crossair yesterday selected Embraer to supply it with up to 81 regional jets valued at up to $1.5 billion. Losing out was the Fairchild-Dornier regional jet family. Crossair had been long-time customer of Saab before that company retired from the civil aircraft market. The order is also one of the first for Embraer's new larger jets and includes the 37-seat ERJ-135, the 50-seat ERJ-145, 70-seat ERJ-170, the 108-seat ERJ-190. The latter will put Embraer in competition with Boeing and Airbus in the 100-seat market.
The U.S. Army's fiscal year 2001 budget will emphasize recapitalization of old equipment rather than replacement of old systems with new ones, according to Maj. Gen. Clair Gill, the service's budget director.
Restoring the old National Space Council at the White House would help make the U.S. commercial space launch industry more competitive in the international marketplace, the director of space policy at the Aerospace Industries Association told Congress yesterday. Testifying before the House Science space and aeronautics subcommittee, Bruce Malone said recreating the panel of Cabinet secretaries and agency heads that last existed in the Bush Administration would restore federal-government focus on the need to invest in aerospace research and development.
U.S. naval forces have expended more than 200 Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles (TLAMs) and provided up to 20% of the precision guided munitions used in the NATO air campaign over Yugoslavia, according to Vice Adm. Daniel J. Murphy, commander of participating U.S. and NATO naval forces. The TLAMs were the principal weapon used early in the campaign when poor weather hampered aircraft operations, said Murphy, who spoke Wednesday with reporters at the Pentagon via a teleconference link from his flagship, the USS Mount Whitney, in the Mediterranean Sea.
Four RQ-1A Predator unmanned aerial vehicles tasked with surveillance of Kosovo have been fitted with laser designators to mark targets for strike aircraft, an official in the U.S. Air Force's program office confirmed.
Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), perhaps the most enthusiastic congressional supporter of missile defense programs, yesterday interrupted House proceedings on the fiscal 2000 defense authorization to announce that the THAAD missile had achieved its first test intercept. To all those who said it couldn't be done, said Weldon, practically crowing, "today we hit a bullet with a bullet." Weldon is chairman of the House Armed Services research and development subcommittee.
NATO suspended air strikes in Yugoslavia yesterday after it was able to verify that Serb troops were withdrawing from Kosovo. After 78 days and 23,000 bombs and missiles, the air campaign came to halt Wednesday, leaving most of Serbia without television, radio or electrical power.
A Boeing Delta II rocket placed four more Globalstar communications satellites in low-Earth orbit yesterday, bringing the total constellation to 24 and setting the stage for commercial startup in September. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 17 at Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., came at 9:48 a.m. EDT, in the first of two three-minute windows Boeing picked yesterday to increase its chances of getting a launch off after two weather delays (DAILY, June 10).
BFGoodrich Co., hit by AlliedSignal Inc.'s antitrust suit of its planned buy of Coltec Industries Inc., may strike back by protesting AlliedSignal's planned buy of Honeywell Inc. BFGoodrich, however, wants to talk to Honeywell, which buys its avionics equipment, to see how an AlliedSignal-Honeywell deal would affect its business, a BFGoodrich spokesman said.
LOCKHEED MARTIN said its Joint Strike Fighter team has begun modifications to convert a Northrop Grumman-owned BAC 1-11 aircraft into a flying testbed for the JSF program. The testbed will fly prototype JSF avionics.
INVESTIGATORS have found "no common hardware or software thread in six recent launch vehicle accidents," the head of the U.S. Air Force ICBM and Space Launch Div. stated yesterday. Nonetheless, Col. James Puhuek said in an Air Force news release that the broad-based launch failure reviews ordered by Air Force Secretary Whitten Peters and President Clinton (DAILY, May 7, 21) may turn up a generic flaw in the U.S. approach of using legacy systems from the early days of spaceflight to launch valuable payloads today.
AlliedSignal Aerospace will supply systems to control navigation and communications on 35 U-2S aircraft. The company said its Up-Front Control Display and integrated Control Panel will be installed in the Lockheed Martin reconnaissance aircraft over the next five years. Both items feature active matrix liquid crystal displays made by AlledSignal. Pilots enter data and flight commands using the Control Panel, which has large buttons for operation with high-altitude gloves.
Lockheed Martin said it will sell its Sanders Telecommunications Systems business to Transcept Inc. Terms were not disclosed. Transcept is an affiliate of Spencer Trask&Co. (ST&C), a New York technology investment firm. At closing, Transcept will be jointly owned by ST&C, Lockheed Martin and financial investors.
Lockheed Martin plans to begin deliveries of Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) Block II missiles in February 2001. The Army recently agreed to pay $138 million for 24 ATACMS Block II missiles (not 22, as reported in The DAILY of June 8, page 364). The missiles have a range of 80 miles and carry 13 Brilliant Anti-Armor Technology (BAT) submunitions made by Northrop Grumman. The missiles are launched from a Multiple Launch Rocket System built by Lockheed Martin Vought Systems.
NATO has agreed to a bombing pause after 77 days of air attacks against Serbian forces in Yugoslavia, but strikes were continuing yesterday. However, Walter Slocombe, U.S. under secretary of defense for policy, said the attacks could be halted within 24 hours. U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen said the Serbs have 11 days to live up to the agreement, or bombing could begin again. "The clock began ticking today when they signed the agreement," Cohen said.
BOEING'S ATTEMPT to launch another four Globalstar low-Earth orbit communications satellites was thwarted by inclement weather at Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., for the second day in a row yesterday. The company will try again today, tentatively setting two different launch windows - at 9:48 a.m. and 12:48 p.m. EDT - to increase the chances of getting off the ground. About 75 minutes before the first window opens, launch managers will decide which window to attempt based on the latest weather data. Weather forced a scrub on Tuesday as well (DAILY, June 9).
HEROUX INC., Montreal, has acquired Montreal-based Metro Machining Corp. and Les Industries C.A.T. Inc., both of which specialize in structural components for regional jets. Bombardier is the main client for both companies. "This will allow us to expand our product offering and reinforce our position with Bombardier in the rapidly expanding regional jet market," said Gilles Labbe, Heroux's chairman and chief executive officer. Metro and Les Industries C.A.T. recorded sales of $11.6 million in 1998 and will become two of Heroux's business units.
Computer Sciences Corp. has won a U.S. Navy contract valued at $27.8 million over five years to provide engineering support for the Mk. 41 Vertical Launching System (VLS) and future VLS evolutions at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Div., Va. The services will support VLS and its interaction with associated systems such as Tomahawk, Aegis, Seasparrow, Evolved Seasparrow, Standard missile and Anti-Submarine Warfare weapons systems.
NASA's first Earth Observing System (EOS) satellite, the AM-1 or "Terra," will be slipped at least a month to allow launch failure review teams to study why Centaur upper stages like the one set to carry the EOS platform didn't deliver a Milstar military communications satellite and the Orion 3 commercial communications satellite to their proper orbits.
A Lockheed Martin investigation team has narrowed the cause of the Athena II fairing separation anomaly believed to have knocked out the Ikonos 1 commercial remote sensing satellite shortly after launch last April, focusing on an open pyrotechnic circuits that may have been caused by an earlier pyrotechnic event.
Lockheed Martin said problems with the C-130J program, failures of launch vehicles and tardy deliveries of commercial satellites are among factors that could take a $730 million bite out of 1999 earnings, and $630 million more in 2000. Yesterday's revised estimate follows a financial review that is part of a continuing assessment of the $26 billion company's strategy, operations and organization. It also follows a first quarter loss of $87 million (DAILY, April 21).
