First launch of a demonstration payload from the equator by the Sea Launch organization, previously March 14, will now be later in the month. Officials are working through challenges from the weather, marine systems and software.
U.S. special operations forces are expecting the CV-22 Osprey and Comanche helicopter to be the only new platforms in their air fleets before 2015, according to Army, Navy and Air Force officers. Representatives of the services' special forces discussed their current and future status last week at a conference in Arlington, Va., hosted by the National Defense Industrial Association.
Bell, Boeing and the U.S. Marine Corps - hoping to convince Congress to boost the rate of production of the V-22 Osprey - are emphasizing the aircraft's ability to work inside a nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) zone. The mission plays into growing concerns about the threat of weapons of mass destruction.
Paul Nisbet of JSA Research, Newport, R.I., tells investors that the market for new parts for commercial airlines should cross over the breakeven point in fiscal year 2000. A recent decline in new spare parts buys by world airlines has been driven by a desire to rationalize inventory levels due to changes in aircraft utilization rates in the Pacific Rim and Latin America, but as long as domestic utilization rates remain relatively stable, the change in airline buying patterns should only be a correction, Nisbet says.
MCDONNELL DOUGLAS HELICOPTER CO., an indirect subsidiary of Boeing, completed the sale of the Boeing MD 500, MD 600N and MD Explorer series of light commercial helicopters product lines to RDM Holding Inc. The sale price was not disclosed.
Despite skepticism that a General Dynamics-Newport News combination wouldn't make it past intense anti-trust scrutiny by the U.S. government, some analysts think such a deal, advanced last week by GD, may actually be approved.
The U.S. Navy/Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet program probably is losing its best friend on the House Armed Services Committee with the decision of Rep. James M. Talent (R-Mo.) not to run for re-election next year, but to seek the Republican nomination for governor of Missouri. Talent's suburban St. Louis congressional district was the headquarters of McDonnell Douglas before its merger with Boeing.
Following are key defense, space and intelligence committee assignments of the 106th Congress, finalized over the past few weeks. HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE Republicans: Democrats: Floyd D. Spence (S.C.), Chair Ike Skelton (Mo.), Ranking Democrat Bob Stump (Ariz.) Norman Sisisky (Va.) Duncan Hunter (Calif.) John M. Spratt, Jr., (S.C.) John R. Kasich (Ohio) Solomon P. Ortiz (Tex.)
A military exercise set for this week along the eastern seaboard of the U.S. will involve the jamming of Global Positioning System signals but "will not compromise safety," the U.S. Navy said Friday. The joint U.S.-NATO exercise, called a "navigation warfare demonstration," is being conducted by the U.S. Atlantic Command, said Navy Capt. Dave Barron. It is slated to last from Feb. 22 to Feb. 27 and will cover the area from Jacksonville, Fla., to Atlantic City, N.J. GPS signal jamming could occur up to 130 n.m. inland, and up to 200 n.m. seaward.
The U.S. Air Force awarded demonstration contracts for the Discoverer II space-based radar to Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Spectrum Astro and TRW's Space and Electronics Group. The contracts are worth about $10 million each, and an option is planned to complete the 18-month first phase effort.
Lockheed Martin continues talking to Airbus about working together once the European consortium completes its business reorganization, but Lockheed Martin is not interested in an "A3XX, single rifle-shot type program," Micky Blackwell, president and chief operating officer of the Aeronautics sector, tells McGraw-Hill Aviation Week editors. "We're interested in a relationship, and it would be fairly widespread if we have a relationship at all. I'm always interested in a deal, but it has to be a good deal on a one-off basis ...
Alliant Techsystems won a $397 million contract for 120mm training ammunition for the U.S. Army's M1A1/A2 Abrams main battle tank. The contract, from the U.S. Army Industrial Operations Command, Rock Island, Ill., calls for about 773,000 rounds over a five-year period, Alliant said. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in November 1999 and run through October 2004. Options could increase quantities by up to 7%.
The U.S. Army has awarded a five-year contract, worth up to $30 million, to Logicon, Herndon, Va., to provide operations and maintenance support at the High Energy Laser Systems Test Facility (HELSTF) at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. Under the contract, Logicon also will provide laser test support, including the definition of test requirements, physical setup of lasers and optics, target setup, instrumentation, data collection and site preparation.
GENERAL DYNAMICS made an unsolicited offer to buy all Newport News Shipbuilding's outstanding shares for $38.50 per share, or about $1.48 billion. Newport News closed yesterday at $28.44, up $0.62. GD closed at $60. 06, up $1.94. Newport News announced a proposed merger with Avondale Industries on Jan. 19 that is under regulatory review.
Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen ordered additional aircraft to Europe in support of air strikes against the Serbs, if action is ordered by NATO. The deployed aircraft include 12 F117 Nighthawk stealth fighters, 10 EA-6B Prowlers and 29 refuelers consisting of four KC-10 extenders and 25 KC-135 Strato-tankers. The planes come from several bases across the continental U.S. from Whidbey Island, Wash., to Cherry Point, N.C.
Strategic Technology Systems, Inc., Trenton, N.J., received a modification to its second batch production contract from Daimler-Chrysler Aerospace to provide an additional 140 MIL-STD-1760 Class II compatible Tornado aircraft pylon decoder units. The pylon decoder unit 90 (PDU-90), with other devices on the Tornado, provides MIL-STD-1760 Class II compatible interfaces for modern aircraft stores.
KAISER MARQUARDT, Van Nuys, Calif., won a contract from Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries for the R-4D (490N) Apogee Insertion Engine. The engine will be used on the ETS-VIII satellite, scheduled for launch from NASDA's Tanegashima Space Center in 2002. The satellite is aimed at developing satellite common base technologies and also will conduct experiments on the Large-Scale Deployable Reflector, which is applicable to large-scale space structures.
Comptek Research Inc., Buffalo, N.Y., received a $1.8 million contract to supply the U.S. Air Force with 170 steroscopic PC-based systems to provide geographic imagery. The systems use "Rain Drop," a PC-based stereo image exploitation tool designed for rapid location and precise measurement of terrain feature images acquired by aerial photography.
BFGoodrich Co. yesterday posted 1998 earnings of $226.5 million on sales of $3.95 billion, with the Aerospace segment showing a 48% increase in operating income for the year. In 1997, the company earned $178.2 million on sales of $3.37 billion. The Aerospace segment reported operating income of $386.4 million on sales of $2.76 billion in 1998, up from operating income of $260.3 million on sales of $2.47 billion in 1997.
The U.S. Air Force is working toward the Pentagon's goal of a paper-free acquisition process by Jan. 1, 2000, by using Open Text Corp.'s Livelink to manage its Business Solutions Exchange (BSX), Open Text reported yesterday. Replacing a variety of client-server based systems with Livelink has allowed the Air Force to shorten the time spent identifying point of need to completing a performance requirement document (PRD) from seven months to about eight weeks, said Open Text, which is based in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION issued an emergency directive requiring inspections of certain lap joints on Boeing 727 aircraft to detect fatigue cracking of the lower skin panel which, it said, could result in rapid decompression.
Northrop Grumman won a $4.1 million contract from Tenix Defense Systems, Melbourne, Australia, to equip 16 Royal Australian Navy S-70B Seahawk helicopters with the AN/AAR-54 passive missile approach warning system (PMAWS), the company reported.
U.S. ARMY and Ballistic Missile Defense Organization yesterday delayed a flight test of the Patriot PAC-3 missile due to high winds at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. Army officials would not speculate on when the test could be conducted again, saying only that high winds are a problem at White Sands at this time of the year. In the last test, failure of a Hera target in the boost phase forced the Army and BMDO to cancel the PAC-3 launch (DAILY, Dec. 15, 1998). The upcoming test will be the first of PAC-3 with a seeker.
A multi-national exercise calling for the jamming of Global Positioning System signals all along the U.S. East Coast is scheduled for next week, sources said yesterday. Signals from GPS satellites could be jammed for periods of up to six hours and the exercise, possibly part of the Pentagon's NavWar program under which the military is developing counter-jamming techniques, could last for several days, sources said. They said the exercise is slated for "nighttime" hours and will range from Jacksonville, Fla., to Newark, N.J.
