BRITISH AEROSPACE signed an agreement with Japan's Sumitomo Precision Products (SPP) to form a joint venture company to make silicon motion sensing technology. The companies will each own 50% of the new Silicon Sensing Systems, which will development, make and market a range of gyroscopes and accelerometers, BAe reported yesterday. The company will be based in Plymouth, England, and will have subsidiaries in Japan responsible for the production and sales in Asia.
The two Boeing Sikorsky RAH-66 prototypes flew together in a 1.5 hour test flight April 23 at the Comanche Team's Development Flight Center in West Palm Beach, Fla. The dual flight was part of a test schedule involving two separate flights each for the prototypes, the team reported Tuesday. Prototype No. 1 has flown 130 times, logging about 145 hours, while No. 2 completed its fourth and fifth flights for a total of five flight hours since its first flight on March 30.
Rolls-Royce plc will create a joint venture with partners from Israel and the U.S. to make aero-engine compressor blades, Rolls reported yesterday. Techjet (Israel) Ltd., will be 50% owned by Rolls, with U.S.-based Blades Technology Ltd. holding 30% and Israel's Wertheimer Co. Ltd. holding the remaining 20%. Techjet will begin operating early next year and be based in Tefen in northern Israel, where it will forge and machine up to 450,000 compressor blades a year.
The Army grounded more than 1,000 Bell/Textron UH-1 Huey helicopters Friday in response to a May 1 Huey accident in which the tail boom vertical fin broke off. The standdown will give Army officials time to inspect the entire fleet. The four-hour inspection will include X-ray and re-assembly of the tail, said an Army spokesman. The grounding mostly affects the National Guard fleet, which flies more than 700 of the Vietnam-era helicopters.
Lt. Gen. John M. Keane, the next Army vice chief of staff, is an infantry officer with strong convictions about how to use attack helicopters, preferring them to tanks in battle and warning that the Army has cut itself out of the air war in the Balkans by failing to prepare for joint operations.
The Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) is operating at 98% reliability in action supporting NATO air strikes over Yugoslavia, according the officers in charge of JSTARS operations. Even so, the plane has not reached its full capacity to interoperate with ground and airborne systems, according to Army Col. James R. Young, who heads the ground side of the JSTARS team. The plane's systems can handle input and send information to a maximum of 25 receivers and is using just "some" of that capability.
Orbital Sciences Corp. has named PricewaterhouseCoopers as auditor of its consolidated financial statements for 1999, replacing KPMG. The Dulles, Va.-based company drew fire from NASA's chief procurement officer last week after it fired KPMG as its independent auditor in a disagreement over findings on the company's internal controls. NASA asked the Defense Contract Audit Agency to look into the matter, and advised its field centers to consult headquarters before entering or modifying contracts with Orbital.
Nine more Royal Air Force aircraft are being allocated to Operation Allied Force, supplementing the approximately 1,000 NATO aircraft involved in the Balkan operations. U.K. Defense Secretary George Robertson said that the four additional British Aerospace Harrier GR.7s from No. 1 Squadron in the U.K. and four Panavia Tornado GR.1s from RAF Brueggen in Germany, and a Lockheed TriStar tanker, will increase the number of British aircraft available to 47, including 35 combat types.
Members of the House California delegation have urged House Armed Services Committee leaders to approve the Navy's request for multi-year procurement (MYP) authorization for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. "The total development costs of the Super Hornet are budgeted below $5 billion, making the aircraft one of the most affordable ever produced," the members said in an April 23 letter to HASC Chairman Floyd Spence (R-S.C.) and ranking Democrat Ike Skelton (D-Mo.). "With a multi-year procurement contract, the Navy will save over $700 million."
Funding cuts made to the Intelligence Community budget over the past few years in no way contributed to the mistakes leading up to the accidental bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade on Friday, Defense Secretary William Cohen told senators yesterday. Intelligence officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told reporters at the Pentagon Monday that funding cuts have made it difficult for them to maintain the databases that they use to verify targeting data (DAILY, May 11).
The House Intelligence subcommittee on technical and tactical intelligence will investigate the recent series of U.S. rocket launch mishaps that have failed to put important communications and intelligence satellites into their proper orbits and have cost billions of dollars, subcommittee chairman Rep. Michael Castle (R-Del.) announced yesterday.
U.S. Air Force officials have postponed two space launches, one on each coast, as they struggle to come to terms with a disastrous string of launch failures over the past eight months. Meanwhile, Lockheed Martin has rounded out its panel of experts who will investigate the company's contribution to the failure streak.
AB Airlines is in "detailed discussion" with Boeing on using the new 717-200 as a replacement for its BAC-111s, according to the chairman of the Stansted-based carrier. Brian Deal said last week AB "next year could become one of the first operators in Europe of the 717," which he termed a "perfect replacement for our BAC-111s" with "no equivalent modern competition for ACMI" (aircraft, crew, maintenance, insurance) operations.
President Clinton has cleared Iridium to launch two more of its low-Earth orbit communications satellites on a Chinese launch vehicle, even as Congress calls for tighter controls on future U.S. launches there. Iridium will be allowed to launch to replenishment satellites for its "Big LEO" constellation June 7 after Clinton certified the launch "will not measurably improve the missile or space launch capabilities" of China. A Senate panel has recommended greater CIA involvement in future licenses for satellite launches in China (DAILY, May 11).
The U.S. Air Force may have to postpone implementation of its Expeditionary Aerospace Force (EAF) concept because of the NATO air campaign over Yugoslavia, Air Force leaders say. The EAF's first two Aerospace Expeditionary Forces (AEFs) and their complementary quick-response Aerospace Expeditionary Wing (AEW) were slated to begin workups in October for a possible deployment in January 2000. But if operations over Yugoslavia continue through the summer, the service may have to push back its schedule by six months or more.
Two Litton Industries units have won U.S. Navy contracts worth some $28 million for submarine and surface-ship navigation systems and a short-term air-defense study. Litton Marine Systems will receive more than $27 million from the Naval Sea Systems Command for AN/WSN-7 inertial navigation systems to be installed on new DDG 51 destroyers and SSN 774 attack subs, and backfitted on old DDG 51s, CG 47 cruisers, CVN aircraft carriers and SSN 688 attack subs.
The Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) should take on a greater role in monitoring satellite export licensing, the Senate Intelligence Committee has recommended.
The French Ministry of Finance will launch the privatization of a combined Aerospatiale and Matra, with the new company, Aerospatiale Matra, being listed on the Paris Bourse within the next weeks, the government reported on Thursday.
Triumph Group Inc., Wayne, Pa., signed an agreement to acquire Ralee Engineering Co. for cash and assumption of debt, Triumph reported Thursday. Ralee, based in City of Industry, Calif., makes long structural components such as stringers, cords, floor beams and spars for the airline industry.
