A European Space Agency plan to cut the cost to its members of Europe remaining in the International Space Station program was accepted by the ESA Council last week, dropping the proposed Crew Return Vehicle (CRV) but retaining the other major European elements of the Station effort. In a letter faxed to NASA Administrator Daniel S.
MCDONNELL DOUGLAS HELICOPTER CO., Mesa, Ariz., received a $7.3 million modification to an earlier contract for technical support of the Longbow helicopter program. The contract, awarded March 17, was for engineering development and field demonstration of the SINCGARS Improved Packet Switching (IPS) system. The Dept.
Having passed a "paper" Defense Acquisition Board with flying colors, RAH-66 Comanche program managers plan to meet as soon as possible with joint staff officers to look at broadening the reconnaissance helicopter's role in joint operations, an Army official told The DAILY yesterday. The desire to broaden Comanche's role stems from a desire to "have more than the Army looking at" the helicopter, the source said. Vice Chief Adm. William Owens has taken particular interest in Comanche, visiting contracting team Boeing-Sikorsky earlier this year.
Space Systems/Loral has picked the Delta II booster to launch the first four of its Globalstar low-Earth orbit communications satellites, citing the reliability of the McDonnell Douglas rocket as the basis for its selection. The Loral Corp. subsidiary said last week it had also optioned at least five more Delta launches for its network of 48 Globalstar satellites, which will also include eight in-orbit spares.
GENERAL DYNAMICS Land Systems, Tallahassee, Fla., was awarded two contracts for more work on the Single Channel Ground and Airborne System (SINCGARS) program. On March 14, it got $10.4 million for 20 pre-pilot receiver/transmitters, 50 Generation 1 receiver/transmitters, and 50 Generation 2 receiver/transmitters for System Improvement Program (SIP) pilot production radios, part of SINCGARS. On March 17, it got $5.9 million for 3,393 radio receiver/transmitters. Both contracts were from U.S. Army Communications and Electronics Command.
Failure of Congress to restore $77 million cut from the AH-64D Apache Longbow program by the Senate Appropriations Committee could ultimately result in a cost of "several hundred million" dollars, a U.S. Army officer said Friday. Brig. Gen. Peter C. Franklin, assistant deputy for systems management in the office of the assistant secretary of the Army for research, development and acquisition, hoped that a congressional conference committee on the fiscal year 1995 supplemental and rescission bill would restore the money.
A gliding vehicle capable of delivering munitions or equipment from C- 130 aircraft or helicopters is the subject of a market survey being conducted by the U.S. Army Soldier Systems Command, Natick, Mass. Under consideration is "a technology based developmental effort to demonstrate an aerial delivery capability for payloads of 5,000 lbs minimum (with a goal of 10,000 lbs) and a lift-to-drag ratio of 6:1 or greater," the command said in a March 24 Commerce Business Daily notice.
March 20, 1995 Martin Marietta Technologies, Incorporated, Littleton, Colorado, is being awarded a face value increase to a $26,600,000 fixed-price-incentive contract for replacement of 3 Delco Guidance Units applicable to the Titan IV launch vehicle. The work will be performed at Littleton, Colorado (10%), and Goleta, California (90%). Contract is expected to be completed March 1998. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the fiscal year.
ITT CORP. Aerospace/Communications Div., Fort Wayne, Indiana, on March 17 got $15 million more for its effort on the Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio Systems (SINCGARS) enhanced packet engineering development and field demonstration. The original sole-source contract, from U.S. Army Communications and Electronics Command, was awarded Aug. 2, 1994.
March 24, 1995 Ceridian Corporation, Bloomington, Minnesota, is being awarded a $12,619,683 fixed-price delivery order under an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity requirements contract for 129 kits for the upgrade of AN/AYK-14(V) airborne mission computers for the F/A-18 aircraft. Work will be performed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and is expected to be completed by October 1996. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured.
House Republican leaders haven't arrived at a budget authority ceiling for fiscal 1996, and Speaker Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) wants key negotiators to meet again on the issue, Rep. C.W. (Bill) Young, who chairs the House Appropriations national security subcommittee, said Friday. Young and Rep. Floyd Spence (R-S.C.) argued for increased spending above the Administration's request in a meeting with Gingrich, which was attended by House Budget Chairman John R. Kasich (R-Ohio).
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) is appealing to Republican "frugal hawks" to oppose any increase in the defense budget. Instead, he said in comments scheduled for release Friday, "we should press hard for better management, accurate information and accountability." Otherwise, he added, "we are all doomed to repeat the mistakes of the 1980s." Grassley made the remarks in one of a series of speeches on defense he gave last week.
LOCKHEED FORT WORTH CO. said Friday that Robert T. Elrod has been named vice president of F-16 programs, and that the appointment became effective March 15. Elrod, who joined the company in 1978, has been vice president and deputy program director for F-16 programs since 1992. He succeeds Dain M. Hancock, who was appointed president of Lockheed Fort Worth Co. as of March 15.
ASAP panelists think NASA should buy enough Simplified Aids for EVA Rescue (SAFERs) to go on all U.S. Space Shuttles, the International Space Station and Russia's Mir station, instead of only buying five of the self-rescue units for spacewalking astronauts.
Virtual astronauts will explore the universe by remote control long before their counterparts in spacesuits set foot on alien worlds, Jack Gibbons, President Clinton's science advisor, tells a Washington audience. Spacecraft "no bigger than your fist" based on microelectromechanical devices under development at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory will give humans "the ability to put our minds where our feet can never go," Gibbons says.
Among key issues the U.S. Army must resolve in its move to digitize the battlefield are interaction with allies and how to proceed when digitized systems fail, officials said yesterday at a conference in Arlington, Va. The Army Digitization Office (ADO) is talking to France, Germany and a number of other European allies to ensure connectivity and commonality, Maj. Gen. Larry R. Jordan, chief of the Army Armor Center, told industry representatives at a digitzation conference hosted by the Technical Marketing Society of America.
British enginemaker Rolls-Royce bought Indianapolis-based Allison Engine Co. in the early hours of Friday morning for $525 million, giving it a way into the regional turboprop market just in time for its expected boom, and for a fraction of the cost of a full-scale development program for any single engine. The company won all the necessary government approvals both in the U.S. and the U.K., thanks in part to a plan to wall-off the portion of Allison involved in deeply classified U.S. high-performance engine work and create a new unit called Allison Advanced.
Members of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) disagree on the use of Russia's Tu-144 supersonic transport for sonic boom and other tests in NASA's High Speed Research program (DAILY, Aug. 29, 1994, page 325). Outgoing ASAP Chairman Norman R. Parmet says he and some panel members can't see why NASA doesn't use the European Concorde or the U.S. SR-71 for the tests, given the poor safety record of the Russian SST. But panel member Norris J.
Pratt & Whitney wrapped up nearly four months of tests on a more durable version of its F100-PW-229 turbofan in early March, P&W reported Friday, paving the way either for U.S. Air Force buys of the new engine, the -229A, or retrofits of its new fan. The upgraded engine, which benefits from work still underway in the government's long-running Integrated High Performance Turbine Engine Technology (IHPTET) initiative, completed more than 110 hours of testing at simulated flight conditions ranging from Mach 2.3 at 36,000 feet to Mach 1.15 at sea level.
Four military helicopter contractors and three commercial ones are "adequate for anything we need," says U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Peter C. Franklin, assistant deputy for systems management in the office of the assistant Army secretary for research, development and acquisition. Stating the obvious, he tells the House Appropriations national security subcommittee that the concern is whether there will be enough work for all the companies.
U.S. Army witnesses tell the House Appropriations national security subcommittee it has shortages of ammunition across the board, especially for artillery and missile systems. It's also short of trucks and small arms. The testimony Friday came in response to a question from subcommittee chairman Rep. C.W. (Bill) Young (R-Fla.), who has been asking the services about shortages to bolster his efforts to get more money for them.
Operational tests of the atmospheric probe on NASA's Galileo spacecraft have demonstrated that the Hughes-built probe is ready for its high-impact plunge 400 miles into the clouds of Jupiter Dec. 7, the space agency reported. Following their first engineering interrogation of the probe in 27 months, Galileo managers said Wednesday the capsule's three lithium battery modules and both accelerometers in the atmosphere structure experiment were functioning normally.
The Defense Dept. is not considering a transition to a single mode of rocket lift, U.S. Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Thomas Moorman assures House Appropriations national security panel Chairman C.W. (Bill) Young (R-Fla.). He says the White House space policy includes both reusable and expendable launchers. "The Shuttle experience was a sobering experience for all of us, and we want the flexibility of that dual track," Moorman says.
A final decision on the SBIRS LEO component will be made around the end of century, with a first demonstration spacecraft being launched in 1999. Ultimately, the LEO component will consist of 16 or more spacecraft. They will be joined by four geostationary satellites and two in highly- elliptical orbit, according to Kaminsky.
Kaminski says he wants to preserve the option to add Titan IVs beyond the six in the follow-on buy as a "prudent hedge against the EELV schedule." He says, however, that his intent "is not to ever have to execute that option."
