PanAmSat Corp., Greenwich, Conn., ordered three new satellites from Hughes Space and Communications Co. and selected Arianespace to provide two more launches, PanAmSat reported yesterday. The three new satellites will be launched over the next 15 months, and PanAmSat also arranged for up to three ground spares that could be completed as replacement or supplemental satellites.
The Royal Moroccan Air Force (RMAF) became the first customer to upgrade its Northrop Grumman AN/TPS-63 tactical radars with new solid-state transmitters and digital signal processors, Northrop Grumman reported. The company said the upgrade provides a 250% increase in detection range and significantly enhances reliability, maintainability and supportability.
British Aerospace and Germany's Daimler-Benz Aerospace yesterday confirmed ongoing talks about the possibility of a merger, but said it was too early to say where they might lead.
The U.S. Army, following a finding that Alliant Techsystems Outrider unmanned aerial vehicle failed to meet expectations of a two-year demonstration, has decided to run a competition to meet requirements for a Tactical UAV. The Pentagon's Joint Requirements Oversight Council has told the Army, Navy and Marine Corps that they can go their separate ways in the effort, and the Army's top acquisition officer, Lt. Gen. Paul Kern, told reporters yesterday in Washington that his service will run a competition.
LARRY CLARKSON, Boeing senior VP, intends to retire effective Feb. 1 to pursue "a variety of alternatives," including becoming a consultant specializing in international relations, strategic planning, government affairs and aerospace issues, Boeing said yesterday. Clarkson was president of Boeing Enterprises, which was absorbed into the new Customer Service Business Unit in last week's Boeing Commercial Airplanes reorganization (DAILY, Oct. 8).
The U.S. Army might have to increase its end strength if a large-scale force of U.S. soldiers was required to enforce a peace agreement in Yugoslavia's Kosovo province, Army Secretary Louis Caldera told reporters yesterday. Caldera said he has seen no sign that Army ground troops would be called upon, let alone in numbers similar to those of peak operations in Bosnia. But, he said, if a big deployment materializes, he would have to "take a very hard look at what the Army's end strength number would be."
Rolls-Royce plc and SIA Engineering Co., a subsidiary of Singapore Airlines, opened a $15.5 million aero engine component joint venture, International Engine Component Overhaul (IECO) Ltd. in Singapore's Loyang Industrial Park. The 50-50 venture will refurbish high-technology nozzle guide vanes and compressor stators for RB211 and Trent engines in the Asia Pacific region. Rolls-Royce said the market exists because seven of the region's airlines already have ordered more than 300 Trent engines. Eventually, refurbishment of the Adour engine will also be available.
PRIMEX TECHNOLOGIES INC., St. Petersburg, Fla., and Israel Military Industries Services USA Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Israel Military Industries Ltd. (IMI) have formed a joint venture company. The company, Global Ordnance LLC, will represent a more formal approach to an already existing business relationship, Primex said yesterday.
The Hotbird 5 television broadcast satellite was launched into geosynchronous transfer orbit Oct. 9 at 6:50 p.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., by an Atlas IIA rocket, according to Atlas builder Lockheed Martin Astronautics. The satellite, which will be operated by Eutelsat, was built by Matra Marconi Space, Lockheed Martin said. Its final orbit will be at 13 degrees East, where it will provide broadcasting services for TV, radio and multimedia services to Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
LORAL SKYNET'S Telstar 6 broadcast video and data communications satellite has been returned to the Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) facility in Palo Alto, Calif., so some components can be replaced. Launch has been rescheduled for the second quarter of 1999.
The U.S. Air Force's F-22 fighter on Saturday made its first supersonic flight, one of the last technical milestones to be achieved before production can begin later this year. The flight, using Raptor 4001, one of two Lockheed Martin F-22s at Edwards AFB, Calif., reached a top speed of Mach 1.1 in afterburner, the AF said yesterday. Supersonic speed was reached while flying at 29,000 feet over Edwards. The flight lasted nearly three hours.
U.S. House and Senate appropriators on Friday approved a NASA reprogramming request for the transfer of $60 million to Russia for work on the International Space Station. The House Science Committee and Senate Commerce Committee, which also reviewed the NASA request, are opposed to the transfer, but the appropriators' approval gives NASA the green light to make the transfer, Hill sources explained.
A modified Firebee drone could help blunt cruise missile attacks from countries like North Korea, according to a study for the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The study, by Toyon Research Corp. of Goleta, Calif., shows that a fleet of Firebees or other relatively inexpensive drones fitted with sensors and equipment already in the inventory would be an effective in-theater defense against massed strikes by cruise missiles, according to Michael Grace of Toyon.
An income squeeze at Boeing and the cost of an A3XX program at Airbus will shift the competitors' priorities from market share to profit and create "a truly duopolistic market ... with higher prices" in the second half of the coming decade, the consulting firm Avitas predicts in a soon-to-be-published study, "Global Outlook for Air Transportation."
SANDERS, a Lockheed Martin company, is working under a $12.9 million contract from the U.S. Navy to provide its AN/USQ-113 (V)2 Phase III communications jamming system for upgrade of the EA-6B Prowler aircraft. Sanders, of Nashua, N.H., said it will provide 33 systems and two improved operator panels.
