As the Yugoslavia crisis continues, look for defense spending to become a major election issue, says Paul Nisbet, head of JSA Research. "There seems to be steam building for much greater defense spending," he says. "It will really come into being if we have a change in party in the next election .... "
KATHIE L. OLSEN, a senior staff associate in the National Science Foundation's Office of Integrative Activities, has been named chief scientist at NASA, effective Monday. In that role Olsen, who holds a PhD in psychobiology/neuroscience from the University of California at Irvine, will be senior science adviser to Administrator Daniel S. Goldin, and will monitor the agency's science programs for quality. NASA said she will place special emphasis on biology, including biomedicine, neuroscience and life sciences.
San Antonio, Tex.-based Southwest Research Institute won a $9 million FAA grant to refine a new software tool, demonstrated Tuesday to industry executives and government officials, to prevent uncontained disk failure from metal defects. Non-destructive inspection methods often don't catch such defects, and engineers expect to cut uncontained titanium disk failure due to melt-related defects by a factor of "at least three" using the new design tool.
SENSYS TECHNOLOGIES, Newington, Va., has received $3.2 million for additional electronic support measure and threat warning systems. It said the U.S. Navy's Space and Information Systems Command, Charleston, S.C., exercised an option under an earlier contract to provide additional Bobcat systems for Fast patrol and Coastal Boats of the Special Operations Command.
In the next two weeks, Boeing will deliver Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) to the U.S. Navy three months ahead of schedule, according to the Navy program manager. The GPS-guided munitions are designated for two squadrons of Boeing F/A-18C/D Hornets which left Beaufort, S.C., yesterday for Tazar, Hungary, where they will be based in support of Operation Allied Force.
Raytheon Co. signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with the U.S. Air Force Reserve Command for C-130H2/3 aero simulator data rights. The rights include math models and documentation for flight test data, aerodynamic models, aircraft system models and an Automatic Test Guide that automates the simulation certification process.
Specialists from the U.S. National Security Agency were able to hack into "mission-critical" NASA computer systems in a General Accounting Office test that found computer security at the space agency "vulnerable to unauthorized access." In a report requested by Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.), chair of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, GAO evaluators and their NSA consultants found it would have been possible in some cases to disrupt ongoing command and control operations and steal, modify or destroy software and data.
Taiwan's state-run Aerospace Industrial Development Corp. (AIDC), preparing for privatization, will increase its paid-in capital by NT$6 billion (US$180 million) to NT$15 billion before the end of the year. A company spokesman said plans call for raising the additional money from the private sector, creating 40% private ownership in the firm before the release of additional shares.
Northrop Grumman shareholders passed a pair of accountability proposals at the company's annual meeting Wednesday, a company spokesman confirmed yesterday.
The propulsion joint venture of Thiokol and Pratt&Whitney has conducted a second qualification test of the second stage motor for the Minuteman II, firing the solid-fuel motor at simulated altitude in a chamber at the Arnold Engineering Development Center in Tullahoma, Tenn.
Fokker Aerostructures, Papendrecht, the Netherlands, won a multi-million order to supply components for the Boeing C-17, Fokker Aerostructures reported. The order is for components for the loading ramp/door to the cargo hold, as well as plastic spoilers. The supply will be handled in cooperation with Fokker Special Products, and is scheduled to take place between 2000 and 2004.
Eaton Corp., Cleveland, will sell Vickers Electronics Systems (VES), an electronic system business unit picked up as part of the Aeroquip-Vickers acquisition in April, Eaton reported yesterday. VES makes electronic motion control systems, including controls software, motors and drives for manufacturing. The business also provides PC-based open architecture controllers and after market services for machine tool and plastics processing markets.
A "small bug" in artificial intelligence software controlling NASA's Deep Space 1 technology testbed has forced controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to halt the ground-breaking "Remote Agent" experiment in autonomous spacecraft operation.
GE Engine Services will maintain, overhaul and repair the Pratt&Whitney JT9D-7 engines powering PeaceAir's fleet of five four-engine Boeing 747-200s under a new ten-year, $35 million contract. The company's Nantgarw, Wales, facility will handle the work. GE has been working on PeaceAir's GE CF6-80C2 turbofans since last year.
General Dynamics entered into a pair of business ventures, one for work on a U.K./U.S. ground reconnaissance vehicle program and one to develop high-temperature superconductive technology.
President Clinton has ordered a top-level review of the string of space launch failures that has bedeviled the U.S. for the past nine months, citing the importance of space access "in accomplishing our national goals" in the coming century. In a memorandum to Defense Secretary William S. Cohen Wednesday, Clinton asked for a first report in 90 days and a final version in 180 days. He assigned his science adviser, Neal Lane, to work with Cohen, Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet and NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin on the review.
Precision casting specialist Howmet Corp. hopes to position its structural casting business for a new boom thanks to investments in new low cost, high-speed casting technologies. "The use of a single, complex, near-net shape casting in fracture-critical applications is part of a growing trend among aerospace designers to take fuller advantage of the lower costs and faster production which castings enable, compared to alternative methods," says Howmet's James Stanley, senior VP for North American operations and sales.
TITAN CORP., San Diego, has received a $3.1 million contract to suppiort development of submarine acoustic trainers. The effort will be performed under a subcontract from Systems Engineering Associates Corp., Middletown, R.I., which won a $21.6 million contract from the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Division Newport. The trainers are used in navy shore facilities and in submarines for operations and maintenance training on sonar and combat systems.
The Senate Armed Services Committee, in the report accompanying its fiscal year 2000 defense bill, leaves future buys of Joint Surveillance Targeting Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) aircraft up to the Pentagon leadership. The committee recommends an increase of $46 million, a total authorization of $362.2 million, to be used at the discretion of the defense secretary either for production line shutdown and last lot costs, or long lead funding for the 15 aircraft if DOD re-evaluates its need.
Lockheed Martin officials expect the Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC-3) missile to form the basis of the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS), for which the company won a $300 million contract on Wednesday to build in prototype.
The House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday marked up its fiscal year 2000 defense bill, adding $8.3 billion to the Pentagon request, making only minor changes and boosting a number of procurement programs. The HASC bill provides $55.6 billion for procurement programs, $2.6 billion more than President Clinton's request, marking the fifth year that congressional Republicans have increased the annual defense budget (DAILY, May 20).
Coltec's Chandler Evans Control Systems won the nod to supply main engine fuel pumps for AlliedSignal Aerospace's new AS907 and AS977 turbofans, Coltec reports. Connecticut-based Chandler Evans is slated next month to ship the first prototypes of the pump, which is a cartridge-style design consisting of a boost stage, gear stage and splined drive shaft.
Marconi Systems Technologies Inc., Rockville, Md., won a five-year contract worth a potential $63 million for engineering and technical services in support of the Special Communications Requirements Branch of the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Div. (NAWCAD), St. Inigoes, Md.
Executives with newly trim and reorganized AlliedSignal Aerospace hope to turn their $8 billion company into a $10 billion company in two years, and continued growth in the aftermarket service sector is a crucial pillar of their strategy. The same strong growth that propelled annual aircraft deliveries in the regional, business and general aviation segment from mid-200s in the early 1990s to some 500 today is seen leveling off at a healthy 500- to 600-aircraft per year clip for most of the decade ahead.
