THE MARINE CORPS Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, Calif., is planning to install a local area network (LAN) and is soliciting industry for the necessary optical fiber. The procurement anticipates 2,900 feet of fiber. Solicitation packages are available upon a faxed request to (619) 830-5104.
The U.S. Air Force is about to award Lockheed Martin Skunk Works a contract to fix an F-117A Night Hawk grounded since last year when an engine fire damaged part of the fuselage. The F-117A caught fire in flight April 5 and the pilot escaped after landing. Investigation of the accident found the fire was "due to a material defect involving a broken fuel tube which sprayed 150 gallons of JP-8 fuel into the left engine bay, causing a fire which extensively damaged the aircraft," said a spokesman for Holloman AFB, N.M., where all F-117s are based.
The Defense Acquisition Board agreed last week to back a sweetened, accelerated C-17 multi-year procurement plan that would cut another 5% off discounts McDonnell Douglas put on the table over the summer (DAILY, Aug. 4, 1995) by boosting the peak annual production rate to 15.
THE U.S. AIR FORCE has successfully completed its first live drop of a Joint Direct Attack Munition. Although most testing is being done at Eglin AFB, this test was moved to Edwards AFB, Calif. where the B-1 used as a test platform is based. The Jan. 11 drop was a separation test and didn't evaluate JDAM's guidance kit, an Edwards spokesman said.
Germany finally made good on hints dropped late last year that it would boost its eventual buy of Eurofighters, moving last week to preserve enough workshare for the program to go ahead by agreeing to restore 40 of 110 aircraft dropped from procurement plans three years ago. Under an agreement worked out Thursday between James Arbuthnot, Britain's defense procurement chief, and German counterpart Joerg Schoenbohm, Germany will seek Bundestag approval for 40 follow-on EF2000s in addition to the initial batch of 140 planned by 2012.
NASA expects it will get enough funds to continue to operate its primary programs one way or another, and so is moving ahead with plans to launch the Space Shuttle Columbia early in March despite the looming funds shutoff. Space agency managers had feared they would have to start mothballing the Shuttle fleet this week (DAILY, Jan. 15), but have decided to use up all available funding to keep the program rolling until Congress releases more cash.
A researcher from Penn State with a strong background in computational dynamics will be the new director of NASA's Ames Research Center, where the U.S. space agency's information sciences effort is based. Administrator Daniel S. Goldin Friday named Henry McDonald to the post that Ken K. Munechika will vacate March 3 to become director of the adjacent "Moffett Federal Airfield" (DAILY, Jan. 19). McDonald has been assistant director, computational sciences, and professor of mechanical engineering in the Applied Research Laboratory at Penn State.
Lockheed Martin's choice of the RD-180 engines, offered by Russia's NPO Energomash NPO, to power its new Atlas booster has left another Russian enginemaker, NK Engines, high, dry and complaining about Russian government lobbying on behalf of its competition. Lockheed Martin Astronautics on Wednesday announced selection of the RD-180 to power its Atlas IIAR booster (DAILY, Jan. 18). But NK Engines had hoped to sell out its stockpile of NK33 engines built for the Russian moon program and use the proceeds to finance development of new aircraft engines.
Signs of recovery are appearing on balance sheets throughout the aerospace industry, and the first full-year 1995 results trickling in this week point to a business that's turned the corner. Companies large and small - many of which reported results yesterday - had better fourth quarters than they did a year ago, capping solid gains throughout the year.
Operational intelligence is permeating lower levels of the military forces operating in Bosnia as a result of new distribution systems established after Desert Storm, senior intelligence officials told a Pentagon news briefing yesterday.
DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION CONFEREES attempted to solve their veto problem late yesterday by stripping the top three items cited by President Clinton in his Dec. 28 veto message - language on National Missile Defense, contingency operations and United Nations command of U.S. troops - from a new bill they hope Clinton will sign, according to a conference source. The conference was expected to continue into the night.
Russia started the new year by orbiting a new military navigation satellite from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the first launch of a Cosmos-3M launcher since a partial failure in October 1995. Officially named Cosmos 2327, the satellite was launched by Russian Space Forces from the launch pad 1 at Plesetsk's Site 132 at 10:46 a.m. EST Jan. 16. The booster inserted Cosmos 2327 into a nominal near-circular orbit with an apogee of 1,034 kilometers, a perigee of 975 kilometers, an inclination of 82.98 degrees and an orbital period of 104.88 minutes.
The U.S. Air Force is considering launching a new warhead initiative to get increased penetration capability and lethality that would be applied to the Joint Direct Attack Munition and the Pave Way III guidance kits.
An accounting change to recognize a sluggish MD-11 trijet market wiped out record performances by McDonnell Douglas' military aircraft segment in 1995, turning what would have been $707 million in net profits - an 18% gain - into a $436 million loss, the company reported yesterday.
The Air Force's Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC) at Vicenza, Italy, which is overseeing all air operations over Bosnia, has benefited from lessons learned in Desert Storm by achieving greater levels of data integration, to the point that commanders can view the real-time status of all operations on a single six-by-six-foot screen, the Air Force manager of the system told a Pentagon news briefing yesterday.
NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin has shifted Ken K. Munechika, director of Ames Research Center, to a newly created position as director of Moffett Field and plans to name a replacement to head the California field center soon.
NASA has selected a team headed by Sverdrup Technology to negotiate for a five-year science and engineering support services contract at Marshall Space Flight Center worth an estimated $73 million. Under the contract, which continues one Sverdrup currently holds, the team will provide services in systems analysis and integration, propulsion, materials and processes, structures and dynamics and space science, NASA said.
The Army's helicopter modernization plan focuses too much on combat aircraft and ignores its utility fleet, the Congressional Budget Office argued in a new study released yesterday. CBO outlined four alternative approaches that it said are "more balanced" but would reduce RAH-66 Comanche production.
Hughes Missile Systems will attempt to take high power microwave (HPM) source technology to the brassboard stage within the next three years as a possible non-lethal alternative to the Air Force's current approach to Suppression of Enemy Air Defense (SEAD).
Seeking a partner willing to increase Aerospatiale's capital is "a task on which decisive progress must be made this year," according to Louis Gallois, president of the French Aerospace Group. The company's 1995 financial results make it look somewhat attractive, but business prospects remain gloomy, DAILY affiliate Aviation Europe reported. Orders, which increased from 29.6 billion French francs in 1994 to 39 billion last year, still remain significantly below current turnover.
The U.S. Air Force will establish a new program executive office for Joint Logistics Systems when its acquisition branch adopts a new structure as early as Friday. The reorganization will take effect Friday or Monday depending on when the necessary notifications can be completed, according to Col. William Kraus, military assistant to the Air Force's acquisition chief.
Orbital Science Corp., Germantown, Md., will provide a Mission Support Systems (MSS) package to the Egyptian Air Force under a $7.5 million sole source contract awarded Tuesday by the Air Force Electronic Systems Center. The package consists of 16 MSS II-plus mission planning workstations, an MSS II-plus database, 100 satellite imagery scenes of Egypt, training, installation and checkout. The contract is scheduled to be completed within two years.
Profits in the first fiscal quarter rose 25% at Rockwell International, propelled by strong showings in the Semiconductor and Avionics segments, the company reported. Rockwell earned $193 million on $3.1 billion in sales in its first FY '96 quarter, compared with $155 million on $2.5 billion in the like quarter a year ago.
Assistant Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said yesterday that the slimmed down House-Senate conference on a second fiscal 1996 defense authorization compromise bill probably will deal with just three issues in an effort to have the bill ready for congressional approval either next week or the week of Feb. 20.
Rep. Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.) said yesterday that none of the $31 million planned to be paid to Lockheed Martin executives as a result of the March 1995 merger should be paid from Pentagon funds. Saunders, author of an amendment to the fiscal 1996 defense appropriations bill banning use of DOD funds to pay employee bonuses in connection with a merger, rejected Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) findings that some of the disputed funds should be reimbursable. The payout must still be approved by DOD Inspector General Eleanor Hill (DAILY, Jan. 17).
