A modified Soviet-era SS-18 ICBM carried a British smallsat to low Earth orbit yesterday, the first of some 150 of the Cold War weapons that may be converted into space launch vehicles. Liftoff of the modified missile, designated the Dnepr-1, came at about 1 a.m. EDT from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. It carried the Uo-SAT 12, a 350-kilogram experimental communications and remote sensing platform built by Britain's Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (DAILY, March 30).
A SECOND SOVREMENNYY-CLASS destroyer built for China was launched at Russia's Northern Shipyard in Saint Petersburg on Friday. Russia signed a deal to sell two of the destroyers to China in 1997 (DAILY, Dec. 3, 1997). The two warships are scheduled to be completed and delivered by the end of 2000. The Sovremennyy is the most advanced Russian warship. For defense against surface and air attacks, it is equipped with eight launchers for "Moskit" (SS-N-22 Sunburn) supersonic anti-ship missiles and can carry as many as 24 of the missiles.
Information technology company Veridian, Washington, D.C., signed a Letter of Intent Monday to acquire Trident Data Systems of Los Angeles. Both companies are privately held, and terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Veridian, which develops technologies for information, space, aeronautics, transportation and life sciences markets, said the acquisition will make the company an end-to-end IT provider for government and commercial markets.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) urged Russian President Boris Yeltsin to stick with a plan to cooperate with the U.S. on establishment of a joint early-warning missile detection center despite differing views on the Kosovo situation. Several months ago, Russia and the U.S. agreed to establish and operate a joint early warning center that would be located at the U.S. Space Command in Colorado Springs, Colo.
ARNOLD LEWIS, 60, veteran aviation journalist, died unexpectedly at his home in Fredericksburg, Va., on April 20. Lewis, who for many years was editor of The Weekly of Business Aviation, a publication of The McGraw-Hill Companies' Aviation Week division, had served as contributing editor of McGraw-Hill's Business and Commercial Aviation Magazine and Aviation DAILY's Regional Supplement. Early in his career he was a reporter for the Wichita Eagle.
New Air, which plans to begin service in January as a low fare carrier based at Kennedy International Airport in New York, signed an agreement to purchase 25 Airbus A320-family aircraft plus 25 options and 25 purchase rights. If all options and purchase rights are exercised, the contract will be worth more than $4 billion based on list prices. The deal also includes seven leased A320s. The first purchased aircraft will be delivered next June.
Congressional lawmakers from both parties are viewing the White House's $6 billion supplemental request for operations in Yugoslavia as a golden opportunity to skirt the budget caps on defense spending and add dollars for everything from ammunition to military pay. Republicans, particularly in the House, have proposed boosting the request to as much as $15 billion. House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt (Mo.) blasted his colleagues attempts for moving to bust the defense caps.
Researchers from the European Space Agency have demonstrated they can use camera vision to control a robot arm in space, even without a system of targets in the field of view to guide them, ESA reported. Working from an ESA control station at Japan's Tsukuba Space Center, the ESA team used the on-board vision system and robot arm on the Engineering Test Satellite No. 7 (ETS-7) operated by the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) for their experiments.
Kamov's Ka-50-2 Alligator will continue participation in the second round of a competition tender to supply combat helicopters to Turkey, according to Sergei Mikheyev, general designer of the Kamov company. Mikheyev said April 19 that in order to meet additional requirements set by Turkey after the first round failed to narrow down a circle of vendors, Kamov has decided to team with what he would only describe as a "French company" to outfit the Ka-50-2 with weapons matching NATO standards.
PRESIDENT CLINTON has nominated the next commanders for the U.S. Army and Marine Corps, Secretary of Defense William Cohen said yesterday. Army Gen. Eric K. Skinseki has been nominated to be the next Army Chief of Staff. Once confirmed by Congress, he will succeed Gen. Dennis J. Reimer, who is slated to retire June 21. Skinseki now serves as the Army's vice chief of staff. Marine Lt. Gen. James J. Jones has been nominated to succeed Gen. Charles C. Krulak as commandant of the Marine Corps, who is set to retire on June 30.
Northrop Grumman turned in profits of $104 million in its 1999 first quarter before the cumulative effect of an accounting change, results that "were consistent with expectations," the company reported yesterday.
BOEING CO. yesterday won a $41.3 million U.S. Air Force contract to convert 95 AGM-86B Air Launched Cruise Missiles to Block 1 AGM-86C Conventional Air Launch Cruise Missiles by Nov. 30.
CIT GROUP ordered 25 A320 family aircraft and five A33-200s with options to require additional Airbus aircraft over a five-year period, said Albert Gamper, president of the New York-based finance organization. Gamper said CIT will take delivery over a five-year period starting in the fourth quarter of 2000. "We have been a lessor of aircraft for more than 30 years and this investment in new aircraft clearly reinforces our commitment into the next century," he said. Gamper said the deal is among the largest this year.
Eaton Corp., Cleveland, reported earnings of $84 million in its 1999 first quarter, down from profits of $105 million a year ago. Sales slipped from $1.69 billion in the 1998 first quarter to $1.66 billion in the most recent three months.
BFGoodrich, Richfield, Ohio, earned $65.8 million in its 1999 first quarter, excluding special items, up 21% from profits of $54.2 million a year ago, the company reported. Including a $16.5 million after-tax charge related to restructuring, earnings dropped to $49.3 million in the first three months of 1999. First quarter sales reached $1.04 billion, up from sales of $937.7 million a year ago.
NATO aircraft flew a record number of sorties Monday night in Operation Allied Force, with more than 600 completed over Yugoslavia in 24 hours, a Pentagon spokesman said yesterday. Maj. Gen. Charles F. Wald, vice director of strategic plans and programs for the Joint Staff, told reporters that the sortie rate has been increased despite continuing bad weather. He said NATO forces have more aircraft available for the additional missions. The U.S. share has increased from about 250 planes in the region three weeks ago to more than 600.
Lockheed Martin Vought Systems has won two contracts totaling $55 million to produce Extended Range Multiple Launch Rocket Systems for Norway and Denmark, and M270 MLRS launchers for Denmark. Lockheed Martin said the foreign military sales contracts represents first-time buy of ER MLRS rockets for the two countries, as well as additional launchers for Denmark. Deliveries are slated to begin in 2000. Norway and Denmark first purchased MLRS in 1996.
United Technologies Corp. earned $308 million in its 1999 first quarter, up 18% from earnings of $260 million a year ago, the company reported yesterday. Sales in the same period edged up 3% to $5.44 billion, with growth at Pratt&Whitney and Otis partially offset by lower sales in the Flight segment.
NASA has delayed launch of a research satellite that was scheduled Monday until Orbital Sciences Corp. (OSC) can fix and test an "out-of-family" flight control event on the last flight of its Pegasus XL booster. The Tomographic Experiment Using Radiative Ionospheric EUV Radio Sources (TERRIERS) satellite which was to have been launched from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., on a Pegasus XL probably won't fly until mid-May, according to Karen Poniatowski, director of expendable launch vehicle requirements at NASA's headquarters Office of Space Flight.
Two nonrecurring and unusual items left Lockheed Martin with an $87 million loss in its 1999 first quarter, the company reported yesterday. Lockheed Martin reported a $74 million after-tax gain from the sale of 4.5 million shares of stock in L-3 Communications in a secondary public offering, but profits were wiped out by a $355 million after-tax charge related to the cumulative effect of a previously announced change in the accounting standard related to costs for start-up activities which took affect Jan. 1 (DAILY, Nov. 18, 1998).
Controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory were expected to send commands to the Mars Global Surveyor today designed to help them learn more about a problem with its main antenna that has kept the spacecraft's science instruments shut down since last week. The hinge that allows the orbiting probe to image the surface of Mars and keep its high-gain antenna pointed at Earth to relay data at the same time stopped moving last Thursday, sending the spacecraft into a "contingency" mode with its instruments shut off, JPL said in a mission status report.
FAA last week dedicated its National Airport Pavement Test Facility at the agency's Technical Center in Atlantic City, N.J. The $21 million facility is the first of its kind and resulted from a cooperative effort between FAA and Boeing. FAA said the facility will accommodate full-scale loading tests, representing current and future transport aircraft landing gear loads and configurations. "The technical data generated from work conducted here will shape future airport pavement design standards," FAA stated.
House Armed Services Procurement Subcommittee Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) urged Congress to address the military's ammunition and equipment shortages at it considers the Administration's $6 billion emergency supplemental request for Kosovo operations. Hunter, at a press conference, reported a $28.7 billion funding shortage for ammunition and equipment, broken out as follows: $18 billion for the Air Force, $3.8 billion for the Navy, $3.7 billion for Army and $3.2 billion for Marine Corps.
STANLEY AVIATION CORP., Aurora, Colo., was formally recognized last week by Boeing Co. as an industry partner on Boeing's Joint Strike Fighter concept demonstration project. The JSF fuel system uses Stanley couplings. Flight Refueling Ltd. leads the development group for the JSF fuel system design to which Stanley's contributions are applied. Stanley Aviation and Flight Refueling are wholly owned subsidiaries of Cobham Inc.
