Gen. Anthony Zinni, commander of the U.S. Central Command, said he is asking for eight more F-16CJ fighters and additional tanker aircraft to beef up forces opposing Iraq. "I've made a request for additional F-16CJs, eight of them, and additional tankers which obviously gives us the ability to stay up longer and react," he told reporters at a Pentagon briefing Friday.
The U.S. Air Force is combining various intelligence broadcast systems into one service that should eliminate possible confusion arising from having different and conflicting sources of information. The Pentagon has operated several different intelligence broadcast systems that provide warfighters with tactical intelligence, such as the Tactical Related Applications Data Dissemination System (TRAPS), Tactical Information Broadcast Service (TIBS), and the National Security Agency's Near Real-Time Dissemination system.
NASA contractors on the agency's Space Transportation Architecture study will present interim reports over the next three weeks as the agency grapples with the question of long-term human access to space. Boeing, Kelly Space and Technology, Lockheed Martin, Orbital Sciences and Space Access all will give updates on their analysis of the various scenarios for human spaceflight, including an upgraded Space Shuttle and a next-generation replacement, before homing in on specific elements of the scenarios (DAILY, Sept. 8, 1998).
Boeing plans to use a Delta II this week to launch the Advanced Research and Global Observation Satellite (ARGOS) it built for the U.S. Air Force, but a glitch in a Hughes communications platform has forced a delay in its planned launch Wednesday on a Lockheed Martin Atlas. ARGOS, which carries nine experimental payloads for research into electric propulsion, high temperature superconducting and space dust and other topics, is set for launch from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., at 5:39 a.m. EST Thursday.
NASA has concluded it would be possible to upgrade the Space Shuttle fleet by replacing the solid-fuel boosters in use today with twin liquid-fueled winged boosters that would fly back to the launch site for reuse, and to use such boosters singly for the first stage on a notional two-stage-to-orbit (TSTO) vehicle as well.
LAUDA AIR ordered seven Boeing airliners - two 737-600s, four 737-700s and one 767-300ER - with a total book value of $519 million. The 737s will be delivered between 2000 and 2002; the 767 will be delivered next August.
International Space Station engineers at NASA's Johnson Space Center are working to apply some 473 lessons learned from the Shuttle/Mir phase of the program to the U.S./Russian Station assembly phase now getting underway, easing early concerns that the Station program was missing the benefit of NASA's three-year exchange project with the Russian Space Agency.
BOEING HAS ESTABLISHED firm delivery dates for 25 aircraft in 1999 and 2000 to support Delta Airlines' fleet modernization program and to provide for "modest" growth. The aircraft include 14 737-800s, eight 757-200s and three 767-300ERs. Boeing also confirmed 24 orders Delta had previously announced, including 16 737-800s, six 757s and two 777-200ERs. The new aircraft will replace aircraft being retired, including 727s. They will be replaced by 737-800s by 2005. The 767s will replace L-1011s.
The U.S. Air Force has been forced to delay by about a year the start of a development program for a major upgrade to the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft. The Air Force wanted to award the Multi-Sensor Reconnaissance System development contract this fiscal year, but now that won't happen until FY 2000 because of adjustments to the funding profile, Air Force officials say. The upgrade would provide the U-2 with a hyperspectral sensor, and more effectively integrate existing targeting sensors to provide more timely data.
The U.S. Air Force has developed a method to repair battle-damaged, low-observable aircraft quickly and allow them to continue strike operations with little increased risk of being detected by enemy radar. The Air Force Research Laboratory's Aircraft Battle Damage Repair program recently concluded a multi-year effort to find battle damage fixes for stealthy aircraft and those relying heavily on composites, Donald Voyls, the lab's program manager for Advanced Combat Maintenance Technology program, said in an interview.
Prudential is warning investors to closely watch the company's performance in its commercial satellite manufacturing business and the F-16 fighter deal with the United Arab Emirates. Satellite manufacturing, which has been delayed by problems with traveling wave tubes, faces tough competition from Hughes and Loral. The UAE deal has been delayed by the country's insistence on obtaining software source codes for the F-16's avionics, which Prudential says the U.S. probably will not allow.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), commenting on the start of the impeachment trial on Capitol Hill, predicted the current political situation will invite rogue nations to test the U.S. in coming weeks. When asked by The DAILY about reports that North Korea may now be deploying No Dong 1 ballistic missiles, Shelby said North Korea is a top concern for members of the Intelligence Committee, as is Iraq. He said he worries that such situations will intensify.
GENERAL ATOMICS AERONAUTICAL SYSTEMS said its Altus II remotely operated aircraft flew to 45,000 feet in a test flight over Edwards AFB, Calif. The flight, announced by the company Jan. 7, is a program milestone. GA-ASI, working with NASA, plans to fly the aircraft to 65,000 feet in early this year. If the flight it successful, it will mark the first time that a single-engine, propeller driven remotely operated aircraft has reached and maintained this altitude, according to the company.
A pre-European rationalization and merger agreement has been reached among French defense companies, the French Aerospace industry association (GIFAS) reported Friday. The agreement, between Aerospatiale, Alcatel, Lagardere and Thomson-CSF, at a meeting attended by France's Chief of Defense Procurement, set their respective responsibilities and areas of competence in avionics, missile systems and satellites.
Textron Inc., Providence, R.I., completed the sale of its Avco Financial Services unit to Associates First Capital Corp. for $3.9 billion in cash, and said it expects net after-tax proceeds to be about $2.9 billion.
LucasVarity plc said it was in "preliminary discussions" with a number of companies "in connection with a wide range of strategic alternatives." It said the discussions include "joint ventures, acquisitions, dispositions, alliances and mergers or other combinations." It said, however, that "There can be no certainty that any of these conversations will result in a definitive agreement."
Thiokol Propulsion, a division of Cordant Technologies Inc., has won a contract modification from the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) to provide supporting infrastructure facilities at the liquid fuel disposition site near Krasnoyarsk, Russia. Cordant said the modification call for the design and construction of operational facilities along with electrical supply lines, gas lines, product storage tanks and control systems. The project is expected to be completed late this year.
Regulus LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin, will extend its $1.3 billion offer to buy up to 49% of the outstanding shares of common stock of Comsat Corp. for a second time, with the new deadline set for midnight EST on Thursday, March 4, Lockheed Martin reported yesterday.
An article in The DAILY of Dec. 21 quoted Rick Stephens, Boeing's top Shuttle manager, as saying the company believes "prudent investments in upgrades and planned flight rate increases" can cut the cost of orbiting a pound of payload 70% by 2005 without the Liquid Fly Back Booster upgrade. Boeing stressed that the LFBB would be needed to reach the 70% reduction, although NASA planning doesn't see the LFBB in place until 2007 at the earliest.
Taiwan will become the 10th foreign customer of Lockheed Martin's LANTIRN night vision and attack system, Lockheed Martin reported yesterday. The contract, worth a potential $106.2 million, is under a U.S. Air Force Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. Lockheed Martin Missiles&Electronics, Orlando, Fla., will deliver 20 Sharpshooter target pods and 20 Pathfinder navigation pods for integration into Taiwan's fleet of F-16 fighters by October 2001.
Kistler Aerospace Corp. has stopped most outside work on its K-1 reusable launch vehicle because of a cash crunch and will have to slip its first flight - originally scheduled early this year - until the end of the year or later. Dan Brandenstein, Kistler executive vice president and K-1 program manager, told The DAILY that while work continues on detailed design and other engineering work in house, "a lot of the contractors are the ones who have tapered off quite a bit.
The U.S. Dept. of Defense has included $7 billion in its future years defense plan to support a possible decision to deploy a national missile defense (NMD) system, Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon said yesterday. During budget drills over the past few weeks, DOD budgeteers have examined the NMD program with the knowledge that about $7.8 billion would be needed to support deployment between 2000 and 2005 (DAILY, Dec. 17).
NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin yesterday terminated a year-old charter service between Texas and Russia for International Space Station employees after the U.S. space agency's inspector general determined it has flown with so few passengers than the average cost of a seat has ranged as high as $19,883.
Tig H. Krekel has been elected president and chief executive officer of Hughes Space and Communications Co., El Segundo, Calif. He succeeds Donald Cromer, who retired on Dec. 1, 1998. Krekel also was elected a senior vice president of the parent organization and named a member of the Hughes Electronics executive committee and management committee. Krekel, 45, previously was president and CEO of AlliedSignal Aerospace Equipment of Torrance, Calif.
