The House Intelligence Committee has finalized the membership of its subcommittees. The subcommittee on human intelligence, analysis, and counterintelligence will be chaired by Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.), as was previously announced. Other Republicans on the panel will be Reps. C.W. (Bill) Young (R-Fla.), Porter Goss (R-Fla.), Bud Shuster (R-Pa.), Bill McCollum (R-Fla.) and Michael Castle (R-Del.)
Chrysler Technologies Airborne Systems Inc., Waco, Texas, is being awarded a $95,490,292 cost plus award fee contract to modify six E-6A TACAMO aircraft to the E-6B configuration. This modification will allow the Navy to meet its Joint Chiefs of Staff operational requirements by consolidating nuclear command and control into a single airborne platform. Work will be performed in Waco, Texas, and is expected to be completed by July 1998. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured.
NASA is in for a "profound" restructuring in an effort to absorb a $5 billion budget hit in the fiscal 1996 budget request ordered by the Clinton White House, with "significant" layoffs beyond the 2,500 civil service slot already targeted for elimination by the end of the century, top agency managers said yesterday.
The U.S. Air Force fired a reconfigured Minuteman III ICBM from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., to the Kwajalein Missile Range in the Marshall Islands Feb. 1 in the second test of its Rapid Execution and Combat Targeting System (REACT).
Martin Marietta Technologies Incorporated, Orlando, Florida, was awarded a $9,482,929 cost plus fixed fee contract. This contract provides for development of eight Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser Kits. These kits will correct the effects of wind on dispenser type munitions. Contract is expected to be completed July 1996. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Forty bids were solicited and eight proposals were received. The solicitation was issued October 1994 and negotiations were completed January 1995.
McDonnell Douglas Aerospace, St. Louis, Mo., is being awarded a $239,000,000 face value increase to a firm fixed price contract for the components, parts and materials needed to support production of 72 F-15S aircraft. Contract is expected to be completed in April 1995. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F333657-90-C-2254, P00048).
A new Dept. of Energy report recommends shifting Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's activities in nuclear materials development and production to Los Alamos National Laboratory as part of a way to downsize the national laboratory system and generate savings.
Allied Signal Aerospace, Allied Signal Engines, Phoenix, Arizona, is being awarded a $6,117,767 (Estimated) fixed price contract. This contract provides for various spare parts for gas turbine engines and secondary power systems in support of the F-15 aircraft. Contract is expected to be completed February 1999. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. One bid was solicited and one proposal was received. The solicitation was issued June 1994 and negotiations were completed January 1995.
TRW Data Technologies Division, Systems Integration Group, Carson, California, is being awarded a $5,776,923 face value increase to a fixed price incentive firm contract for action to restructure the Command Center Processing and Display System Replacement (CCPDSR) Block B Schedule to conform with the Cheyenne Mountain Upgrade Replan.
U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Ronald Fogleman said Thursday that he wants to cut the service's travel budget to put a stop to the excessive number of trips AF officials make to contractor facilities. Citing one unnamed aerospace plant that hosted 12,000 AF visitors last year, Fogleman said, "We're just somebody dropping in to see how things are going, like tourists. And we can't afford to run a tourist agency."
A U.S.-built atmospheric ozone-measuring instrument launched in 1991 aboard a Russian polar orbiting satellite has failed and apparently can't be revived despite the best efforts of Russian ground controllers, NASA reported.
Despite yesterday's seemingly good news for the procurement and R&D accounts on which the aerospace industry depends for its revenues and profits, aerospace stocks saw only minor gains in trading on the New York Stock Exchange, reflecting analysts' belief that this budget is only the beginning.
The House Intelligence Committee revision of the National Security Revitalization Act (NSRA), making intelligence sharing subject to CIA, Defense and State Dept. guidelines, will prevail over House National Security Committee language even though the latter follows the wording of the GOP Contract With America, Intelligence Chairman Rep. Larry Combest (R- Tex.) said Friday.
The membership of a bipartisan commission that will review the mission of U.S. intelligence was rounded out last week when President Clinton made his long-awaited appointments.
Crew members of the Space Shuttle Discovery and Russia's Mir space station waved to each other from a distance of 44 feet as their two spacecraft orbited in formation yesterday, but only after their ground controllers overcame differences about the danger from a leaky Shuttle thruster that is not expected to be a factor in upcoming docking missions.
President Clinton's fiscal 1996 defense budget continues a scaled-back version of national missile defense (NMD) efforts, putting the Administration on a collision course with congressional Republicans calling for rapid deployment of both a national and theater missile defense (TMD). The budget, which goes to Capitol Hill today, proposes $2.91 billion for the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) in FY '96, most of which is oriented toward development of a theater defense against ballistic missiles.
The Japanese government's 1995 space budget proposal calls for a 5.1% increase for departments involved in space development. The $2.285 billion space budget request still requires parliamentary approval. Recent failures in Japan's space program have dampened parliamentary enthusiasm for space developments. The Diet is expected to vote on the budget in March or April.
The Pentagon today will reveal a no-surprises $246 billion fiscal 1996 spending proposal that emphasizes quality of life and readiness, cries out for supplemental funding to cover FY '95 contingencies, and echoes the modernization changes that Deputy Defense Secretary John Deutch announced in December.
DOD budget authority by title. Dept. of Defense budget authority numbers by title are listed in the following table, released by DOD. Dollars are in billions. FY 96 FY 97 FY 98 FY 99 FY00 FY 01 Military Personnel 68.7 67.5 68.2 69.6 70.9 72.3 Operation&Maintenance 91.9 90.6 89.9 92.7 94.8 98.1 Procurement 39.4 43.5 51.4 54.2 62.3 67.3
Defense program acquisition costs by weapon system. Fiscal year 1996 program acquisition costs by weapon system are detailed in the following table, released by the Dept. of Defense. Dollar figures are in millions. AIRCRAFT FY 1995 FY 1996 FY 1997 Army OH-58D Kiowa Warrior 223.3 78.0 12.3 RAH-66 Comanche 488.6 199.1 298.6
The U.S. Air Force's $72.6 billion spending request for fiscal 1996 cuts Non-Development Airlift Aircraft funding to $183.8 million-enough to cover continued strategic airlift studies, engineering assessments and maybe some advanced procurement, according to senior defense officials. "We can't say what we'll buy with the $184 million," one official told reporters during a background briefing Friday. He added that some commercial airliners being studied by the Air Force don't have strong enough floors to carry military cargo and some need extra doors.
National defense topline budget figures National defense topline budget numbers are detailed in the following table, released by the Dept. of Defense. The numbers are in billions. 1995 1996 1997 1998 BUDGET AUTHORITY DoD military - 051 252.6 246.0 242.8 249.7 DoE&other 10.9 11.8 10.6 9.9 Total national defense 263.5 257.8 253.4 266.3
Product improvement in lieu of new procurement is the watchword in the U.S. Army's $59.5 billion fiscal 1996 budget request, which relies on upgrades and force multipliers like battlefield digitization to meet requirements instead of new weapons like the RAH-66 Comanche. Army budget figures released this morning show funding for only two Comanche prototypes, plus monies for the T800 engine, air vehicle and Missile Equipment Package. The service will buy another 60 Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk utility helicopters in FY '96, but that's it.
NASA and the other federal agencies funded by the House Appropriations VA, HUD and independent agencies subcommittees will face "zero-based budgeting" this year, and should not assume the continued support of Congress for their programs, subcommittee chairman Rep. Jerry Lewis (R- Calif.) said.
Discovery on way to Mir rendezvous; leaking thruster monitored The Space Shuttle Discovery is scheduled to rendezvous with Russia's Mir space station today, but flight controllers Friday were working a thruster jet problem that could limit how close the Shuttle approaches the fragile orbiting laboratory.
