NATO is examining whether to follow the U.S. Air Force's "Extend Sentry" effort to boost the mission-capable rate for Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft. "We are looking into a similar program" called "Sustain Magic," says German Air Force Maj. Gen. Friedrich Ehmann, NATO's AWACS force commander. "We have not decided whether we'll come to a real program," he told The DAILY in an interview last week. NATO is evaluating whether to opt for a less extensive "Extend Sentry" effort.
The U.S. Air Force is gearing up for the fourth running of its "Ft. Franklin" intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance testbed, with hopes that it will become a permanent capability for either Air Force or joint forces testing, says an official of the Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom AFB, Mass. "What would happen is we'd create a small corps team...and once or twice a year we'd stand it up to a full-blown facility," Capt. Shannon Sullivan, special projects officer for ESC's commander said in a telephone interview from Hanscom.
Rep. Bernard Sanders (Ind.-Vt.) appealed last week to President Clinton to support his House-approved amendment which would prohibit the use of funds in the fiscal 1996 defense appropriations bill from being used to pay for executive bonuses. Sanders said his amendment was aimed at preventing the Pentagon from using $31 million to pay part of the $92 million in executive bonuses for Lockheed Martin executives.
The Senate Appropriations Committee has approved $3.752 billion in fiscal 1996 foreign military financing, a level marginally below the House funding of $3.755 billion. The Clinton Administration had sought $4.027 billion. Of the total amount, the Senate committee Thursday funded $3.207 billion in grants, again slightly below the House's $3.211 billion. The request was for $3.262 billion. Of the Senate grants, some $1.8 billion was earmarked for Israel and $1.3 billion for Egypt.
With a successful reliability evaluation behind them, C-17 airlifter managers here are already looking beyond November's Pentagon decision on continuing the program to a whole range of derivatives, modifications and enhancements-including a stretch that could replace U.S. Air Force C-5 Galaxy transports.
Twenty-nine countries, including the U.S., are getting together to come up with an agreement for an export control regime, David Tarbell, director of the Defense Technology Security Administration, tells the Association of Old Crows during their annual symposium in Washington. Expectations are that "the regime will be put in place by the end of the year," Tarbell says. "It won't be like COCOM," which regulated the flow of technology to the former Eastern Bloc during the Cold War. The new system will "rely on transparency for information sharing."
The Senate Appropriations foreign operations subcommittee last week approved some $3.139 billion in fiscal 1996 security assistance, while linking assistance to Russia to that country's nuclear deal with Iran and placing restrictions on the nuclear reactor agreement with North Korea. The package was part of the $12.059 billion FY '96 foreign operations appropriations bill approved by the subcommittee. The Clinton Administration had requested $14.773 billion.
House Appropriations sources say they expect the fiscal 1996 House-Senate defense appropriations conference to begin tomorrow. They look for an agreement by next week, but some hurdles have to be cleared first. For instance, the budget allocation has to be settled since the House had a higher allocation, marking up to $244.1 billion, while the Senate passed a $242.7 bill. Also, the House bill was marked up in anticipation of a House leadership-imposed solution to the New Attack Submarine issue.
Rep. Norman Dicks (D-Wash.), ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, says he feels spending cuts over the last five years "have resulted in an intelligence system of about the right size and capability for the missions it confronts." The FY '96 authorization bill passed by the House won't enable significant expansion of capabilities, Dicks says, but it will insure that modernization activities-such as the consolidation and upgrade of the U.S. spy satellite constellation-can continue.
An engine to replace the aging TF33-PW-100As on AWACS aircraft in the U.S. and NATO has been considered for some time, but NATO countries may have found a new impetus to make the transition. Ehmann says because of environmental emissions and noise, he isn't sure "whether we can operate the [current] system under these conditions, or whether we have to do something." He noted, though, that "it's not in the decision process right now," largely because "it's a very costly, money-consuming program."
An unpaid 12 billion ruble light bill triggered a 15-minute blackout Friday at Russia's Plesetsk ICBM test site, with a top military official warning the local electric utility that the power cut hampered control over nuclear weapons stored there, according to press reports from Moscow.
Thiokol and NASA engineers haven't found anything wrong so far with the nozzles on the solid rocket boosters that lifted the Space Shuttle Endeavour to orbit Sept. 7, clearing the way for a Sept. 28 launch of the Shuttle Columbia on a 16-day microgravity research mission. Although inspection of the recovered booster nozzles won't be finished at Thiokol's facility in Utah until today or tomorrow, it appears that reinsulating the primary o-rings in the nozzle joints was sufficient to prevent the hot gas charring that was noticed after two previous flights (DAILY, Aug.
The U.S. Air Force plans a communication upgrade to the MC-130H Combat Talon II aircraft. Requests for proposals are slated to release in December, contract award is planned for next May, and installations would begin in March 1998, the AF's Aeronautical Systems Center said in a Sept. 13 Commerce Business Daily notice.
The NATO air campaign against Bosnian Serb targets, halted on Thursday after the Serbs agreed to pull heavy weapons beyond a 12.5 mile radius from Sarajevo, was "remarkably accurate," a senior Pentagon official said Friday. He said NATO planes flew over 5,000 sorties, attacking 56 targets. The accuracy of their strikes, he said, was due mainly to the types of munitions used and the techniques employed in delivering ordnance.
Deutch says the air strikes in Bosnia show the significant improvements made since the Gulf War in getting accurate intelligence to military commanders in a timely manner. The Bosnia operation demonstrated "the ability to take out pockets without a lot of collateral damage," he says.
Orbital Sciences Corp. and Teleglobe Inc. of Canada have signed a $160 million financing agreement that will support construction of a 36- satellite constellation of Orbcomm data relay satellites, Orbital reported. Under the agreement, Orbital will invest $75 million and Teleglobe $85 million to complete the network, with each company to hold an equal interest in Orbcomm Global L.P., the ultimate owner and operator of the satellite system.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has signed an agreement with France and Canada that provides for continued operation of the SARSAT satellite-based search and rescue network through 2003, with automatic five-year extensions after that.
The Defense Dept. is asking the congressional defense appropriations conferees to change actions of the appropriations committees on at least 21 procurement and RDT&E programs in its fiscal year 1996 budget. The conferees meet next week. Among programs included in a Sept. 12 appeal to the conferees, portions of which were obtained by The DAILY, are: -- Tier II Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) program.
Defense Secretary William J. Perry, who earlier this week threatened a presidential veto over tactical aircraft add-ons and restrictions on U.S. forces under U.N. command, yesterday wasn't willing to fire the same warning if the final version of the fiscal 1996 defense authorization includes funding for renewed production of the B-2 stealth bomber. Instead of warning of a veto, Perry hedged.
HUNGARY would buy Jas 39 Gripen fighters from Sweden under a new memorandum of understanding, according to reports from Stockholm. The reports quoted the Swedish news agency TT as saying the deal was potentially for 30 aircraft with an option for 30 more.
Astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour recaptured the balky Wake Shield Facility yesterday, recovering four supposedly ultra-pure wafers of semiconductor material after using the free-flying 12-foot steel disk to measure how hard Shuttle maneuvering jets hit nearby structures in orbit.
DELTA II MISHAP that put a Korean communications satellite in the wrong orbit Aug. 5 was apparently caused by a failure in the launch vehicle's explosive lines, according to preliminary investigation results released yesterday by McDonnell Douglas. The explosive lines, devices that help jettison the solid rocket motors after their propellant is consumed, were damaged by exposure to excessive temperatures. As a result, one of the solid rocket motors failed to separate from the Delta II.
CFM INTERNATIONAL, Cincinnati, said Gerard Laviec formally assumes the position of president and chief executive officer of the company. Most recently, he served as the CFMI S.A. marketing and sales senior VP and as chairman of Shannon Engine Support.
The full House has approved an intelligence authorization bill that ends several straight years of funding cuts, but the legislation's restructuring of the National Reconnaissance Office's budget has generated friction among lawmakers. The bill, approved Wednesday by a vote of 262-162, adds 1.3% to President Clinton's fiscal year 1996 intelligence budget request and is 1.7% over this year's intelligence budget, nudging it up toward the $30 billion mark.
McDonnell Douglas hopes to persuade NASA to back its ideas for a blended wing body jetliner, which would carry some 800 passengers at a fraction of today's cost, with an X-plane research program that could start in 1998.
