Comsat Corp. said yesterday it will invest a total of $147 million in the new Inmarsat-P hand-held satellite communications system, both in direct investment and through its ownership interest in the Inmarsat consortium.
An MX missile pulled at random from the silos at F.E. Warren AFB, Wyo., hit its target at the Kwajalein Missile Range in the Marshall Islands Thursday after a 30-minute, 4,200-mile test flight from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., the U.S. Air Force reported. Liftoff for the test and evaluation flight came at 3:01 a.m. EST. The test series is designed to obtain information about the accuracy and reliability of the MX force.
January 18, 1995 Loral Federal Systems Company, Incorporated, Owego, New York, is being awarded a $22,804,432 face value increase to a firm-fixed-price contract for nine CC-2E computers and various data and spares in support of the E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft. Contract is expected to be completed November 1997. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts, is the contracting activity (F19628-95-C-0012, P00001).
SYMETRICS, Newbury Park, Calif., a manufacturer of aerospace quick- disconnect valved couplings, has been acquired by Parker Hannifin Corp. in a stock-for-stock transaction. The company, which had sales of nearly $8 million last year, becomes part of Parker's Fluid Connectors Group. The sale was announced by The Geneva Companies of Irvine, Calif., specializing in mergers, acquisitions and divestitures of middle market businesses.
Twenty House Republicans-all members of the Conservative Opportunity Society-are urging the House Appropriations and Budget Committees to consider termination of funding for the SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft reactivation program. Perhaps significantly, the list of signers did not include the founder of the society, House Speaker Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.).
House National Security Chairman Floyd Spence (R-S.C.) said he plans to ask the House Budget Committee for between $90 billion and $130 billion more than the Clinton Administration will be seeking for defense funding in fiscal 1996 to 2000. He told The DAILY in a brief interview Friday that his aim is to seek an increase of "$90 billion to $130 billion more [than the Administration] over the five-year plan."
Interest payments on the U.S. national debt are on track to surpass defense spending as early as next year and will continue to eat up more and more discretionary spending unless a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution is adopted, House Republicans said yesterday. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde (R-Ill.), whose panel marked up legislation on the proposed amendment last week, told the House Rules Committee that interest on the national debt will reach $260 billion in fiscal 1996. The Pentagon's FY '95 budget is $253 billion.
PRATT&WHITNEY AND MTU has named two executives to head their new Mid Thrust Family Engine (MTFE) project. Tom Davenport of P&W will lead the initial organization of the program to design and build engines in the 15,000-24,000 pound thrust class for the 75-100 passenger aircraft market. Rainer Schwab of MTU will serve as deputy program manager.
The silo-based Topol-M variant of the road-mobile Topol ICBM is more accurate and less vulnerable to missile defenses than its predecessor, known to NATO as the SS-25, according to an unusually detailed description in a leading Russian daily newspaper.
Harnischfeger Industries Inc., Brookfield, Wis., sold its Syscon Corp. subsidiary to Logicon Inc., Los Angeles, in an agreement signed Friday. Terms of the deal, which transfers Syscon Corp. into a full subsidiary of Logicon, weren't disclosed. Syscon generated $130 million revenue in FY94. It has concentrated on systems engineering, development of software programs, and C3I systems.
January 18, 1995 Boeing Defense and Space Group, Product Support Division, Wichita, Kansas, is being awarded a $34,500,000 face value increase to a firm-fixed-price contract for re-engine kits to be installed on 6 KC-135 aircraft. Contract is expected to be completed October 1996. Contract funds of $28,939,526 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, is the contracting activity (F34601-95-C-0120).
Debt-watcher Standard&Poor's plans to meet with senior Lockheed and Martin Marietta managers to decide to what extent both companies' ratings might be raised once the companies merge, which should be in mid-March. S&P said yesterday after the financial markets closed that the two companies' ratings remain on CreditWatch, but hinted that the ratings could rise more than originally expected.
The Predator medium-altitude endurance drone (Tier II) completed a 40- hour, 17-minute flight on Saturday, setting a new UAV endurance record at Fort Huachuca, Ariz. Predators have completed 65 flights and logged 240 hours so far. Saturday's flight, which was restricted to Fort Huachuca's airspace, began at 11:45 a.m. on Thursday and lasted until 4.02 a.m. on Saturday. The 40- hour flight served crew training purposes, with nine pilots flying the Predator during the mission.
House Science Committee Chairman Robert Walker (R-Pa.) announced yesterday that Shana Dale has been appointed staff director of the panel's space and aeronautics subcommittee, which authorizes NASA spending. Dale, who previously served as Republican counsel to the subcommittee and Republican counsel to the full Science Committee, had been expected to be named to the post since late last week (DAILY, Jan. 23, page 102).
The House National Security Committee takes up its portion of the Republican "Contract With America" tomorrow when it opens hearings on the Contract's call for a national missile defense-with Chairman Floyd Spence (R-S.C.) viewing it in symbolic terms, and ranking Democrat Ronald Dellums (D-Calif.) casting it as the opening shot for reviving the Reagan Administration's Strategic Defense Initiative.
China, one of the world's biggest steady buyers of new jetliners, plans to buy another 22 aircraft this year, the official Xinhua news agency said yesterday, but it isn't clear if these are new aircraft or existing orders accelerated from future years. Aviation minister Chen Guangyi said the national airlines together saw traffic grow 19% last year compared with 1993, so flag carrier Air China and the other state airlines will need to add capacity to keep up.
NASA said yesterday it has chosen the Ralph M. Parsons Co., Washington, D.C., to negotiate a proposed $27 million contract to provide architectural, engineering and other support services to the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The five-year, cost-plus-award-fee contract runs from March through February 2000. Proposals for the work had also been submitted by AlliedSignal Technical Services Corp., Columbia, Md.; Daniel, Mann, Johnson and Mendenhall, Washington, D.C.; and E.L. Hamm and Associates, Norfolk, Va.
