LITTON INDUSTRIES' Ingalls Shipbuilding Div. said the fourth Wasp- class amphibious assault ship for the U.S. Navy was commissioned USS Boxer (LHD-4) on Feb. 11 at Ingalls' production facility in Pascagoula, Miss. The first ship of the class, USS Wasp (LHD-1), was delivered in 1989 from the Ingalls yard. USS Essex (LHD-2) was delivered in 1992, and USS Kearsarge (LHD-3) was delivered in 1993. The Bataan (LHD-5) and Bon Homme Richard (LHD-6) are in production at Ingalls.
Following is the legislative status of various elements of the National Security Revitalization Act, the defense portion of the GOP's Contract With America: -- Restoring budget "firewalls" prohibiting the transfer of defense funds to social programs: House National Security Committee is conducting hearings.
Seven months after dropping hints that it could move MD-11 trijet fuselage production out of California, McDonnell Douglas won a $138 million package of sweeteners from unionized workers, local utilities and state and local governments to move the work up the highway from San Diego to Long Beach.
February 8, 1995 Lockheed Corporation, Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Company, Marietta, Georgia, is being awarded a $5,402,616 face value increase to a fixed- price-incentive contract for an upward adjustment from target to ceiling price for the replacement of centering sections on twenty three C-130 aircraft. Contract is expected to be completed May 1995. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Warner Robins Logistics, Center, Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, is the contracting activity (F09603-90-C-2282, P00013).
RAFAEL of Haifa, Israel, will produce an additional 36 AGM-142 missiles for the U.S. Air Force, according to an AF Aeronautical Systems Center notice in the Feb. 13 issue of Commerce Business Daily. It said the missiles will be produced over a 27-month period, and that deliveries will begin in fiscal 1996.
House action on NASA's fiscal 1996 budget authorization could move faster than a restructuring effort the agency plans to cover a $5 billion cut in its five-year budget, the new Republican chairman of the NASA authorizing subcommittee said yesterday. Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) told reporters after his panel's first hearing on the NASA budget that he felt blindsided by the White House-ordered cut, since President Clinton promised last year that there would be no more NASA cuts.
Northrop Grumman needs to eliminate some 1,100 jobs at its Hawthorne, Calif.-based Military Aircraft Div., following the Air Force's decision to kill the AGM-137 Tri-Service Stand-off Attack Missile (TSSAM) program. The company said late Friday in a prepared statement that it will begin issuing 60-day layoff notices to affected workers this week, but hopes to move some of the employees to other programs.
A B-2 bomber dropped its first live bombs during a Feb. 7 exercise, the U.S. Air Force said. The plane, from Whiteman AFB, Mo., released two live Mk. 84 bombs on the Nellis AFB, Nev., range during Red Flag 95-2. It was the B-2's fifth Red Flag mission, and its first night sortie. With the Feb. 7 flight, stealth bombers had completed six of eight Red Flag missions during which ten inert and live conventional bombs have been dropped, the AF said. Brig Gen. Ronald C. Marcotte, 509th Bomb Wing commander, said the bombers' success rate was "incredible."
February 7, 1995 Boeing Defense&Space Group, Helicopter Division, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is being awarded a $79,935,000 firm-fixed-price contract for the procurement of 95 dynamic component upgrade kits for the H-46 helicopter. Work will be performed din Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and is expected to be completed by August 1999. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. The Naval Air Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00019-94-C-0113).
Lockheed Fort Worth Co. is ramping up factory work on the F-22 Advanced Tactical Fighter, with 11 graphite-composite parts completed through layup and curing as of the end of last month, Lockheed said yesterday. "Ten of the parts completed to date are inlet duct skins with complex, contoured design geometry," the company said in a prepared statement.
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) is questioning Defense Dept. projections that savings from base closings will generate $4 billion a year by the end of the 1990s that can be used for modernization.
The Space Shuttle Discovery landed at Kennedy Space Center early Saturday after paving the way for the Space Station era with a less-than- picture-perfect Mir rendezvous that exercised the operating techniques NASA and the Russian Space Agency have developed.
The only flying prototype of Antonov's An-70 airlifter crashed last Friday during a test flight, killing all seven of its crew, apparently after a midair collision, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported yesterday.
A Turkish F-16 pilot forced to eject last Wednesday while being chased by Greek Mirage F1s near the Greek island of Rhodes ran out of fuel, Air Force sources told The DAILY. Although the circumstances surrounding the incident remained murky (DAILY, Feb. 9, page 209), both the Turkish and Greek governments issued statements saying the plane suffered "mechanical failure" and wasn't actually shot or forced down.
KEVLIN CORP., Wilmington, Mass., has acquired the rights to technical data and documentation for a number of Martin Marietta Ocean Radar and Sensor Systems Div.'s pre-1980 radar systems. An agreement allows Kevlin Corp., Wilmington, Mass., to perform world-wide operations and maintenance on Martin Marietta's HIPAR high power ground based radar system. Kevlin received inquiries for parts and support after Martin Marietta ceased providing system services, Arthur Williams, Kevlin CEO, said.
LOCKHEED FORT WORTH CO. said Gordon R. England, president, will retire effective May 1. England, 57, has headed the Fort Worth operation since 1991, before it was acquired by Lockheed from General Dynamics in March 1993. He is also a vice president of Lockheed Corp. Daniel M. Tellep, Lockheed's chairman and chief executive officer, said "We respect [England's] decision to retire and wish him well in his future endeavors." Tellep said a successor will be named shortly.
The U.S. Army on Friday released its plans for restructuring from 12 to 10 divisions by the end of fiscal 1996. The divisions and the locations of their headquarters and brigades are as follows: -- 1st Infantry Div. (Mechanized)-headquarters and two brigades in Germany; one brigade at Ft. Riley, Kan. -- 1st Armored Div.-headquarters and two brigades in Germany; one brigade at Ft. Riley, Kan. -- 1st Cavalry Div.-headquarters and three brigades at Ft. Hood, Tex.
It will likely be two or three weeks before the Senate Intelligence Committee holds a confirmation hearing on the nomination of Gen. Michael P.C. Carns (USAF-ret.) to be director of central intelligence (DCI). President Clinton announced the nomination of the former No. 2 Air Force official last Wednesday as expected (DAILY, Feb. 8, page 200B). But staffers said Carns will still need time to answer pre-hearing questions posed by senators. "We've got zero information on him," said one. "He's just been given the forms to fill out."
McDONNELL DOUGLAS is expected to announce today that it will move production of MD-11 trijet fuselages from General Dynamics' Convair Div. in San Diego back to MDC's own plant in Long Beach, Calif., hit hard by recent cutbacks. GD and MDC mutually agreed last summer to terminate the fuselage contract (DAILY, July 5, 1994, page 13), and MDC Chief Financial Officer Herb Lanese suggested at the time that the work-being phased out over an 18-month period-could be brought back "somewhere in Douglas" (DAILY, July 21, 1994, page 109).
