Major advances in information technologies are spurring the U.S. Air Force to "mainstream" information warfare into its operations, starting by incorporating IW into its doctrine, according to Lt. Gen. Joseph Ralston, the AF deputy chief of staff for plans and operations. "The information age has forced us to reexamine the environment of conflict," Ralston said Tuesday at an Arlington, Va., seminar sponsored by the Air Force Association.
A former U.S. Air Force general tapped by Unisys Corp. to spearhead its charge into the C4I marketplace is hoping the AF's new Theater Battle Management Core System (TBMCS) will be his first big win. Lt. Gen. Thomas G. McInerney (USAF-ret.) joined Unisys in November as vice president of command and control for the company's Electronic Systems business unit-a new position-after retiring in July as assistant vice chief of staff of the Air Force.
The House Appropriations defense subcommittee will likely receive a larger allocation this year that will have to be paid for by the other appropriations subcommittees, the new chairman of the panel that funds NASA says. VA, HUD and independent agencies subcommittee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R- Calif.) said the non-defense appropriations committees have benefited in the past from reduced defense spending. But that will likely reverse this year, he said in a statement prepared for his panel's bipartisan organizational meeting Tuesday.
Two days after the loss of the Express satellite (DAILY, Jan. 18, page 79), the future of the program is unclear. On Monday, Dr. Nevil Byrne, the director of space infrastructure at the Australian Space Office said that due to budgetary pressures he wasn't "counting on any further missions in this particular series" and he described the mission's failure as "a disaster for the program."
Worldwide spacecraft launches in the fourth quarter of 1994 are listed in the following table. A total of 37 spacecraft were launched by 28 launch vehicles, of which one failed to orbit. Russia launched 24 spacecraft (in 17 launches); seven were launched by the U.S. (in six launches); four by Arianespace in three launches (including one failure), and one each by India and China.
Cosmonauts aboard the Mir space station will wait until May to move the first of two solar arrays from the Kristall to the Kvant module to ensure adequate power in the maneuver fails. Originally, the Mission Control Center-Moscow had scheduled the shift for March in an effort to boost the power available in the orbiting laboratory. With the Kristall array relocated to Kvant there will be less mutual shadowing by the various arrays, allowing them to generate more power.
SBIR CONSTELLATION Four geostationary (GEO) satellites, first delivery in 2002 Two highly elliptical orbit (HEO), first delivery in 2002 Low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, deployment decision in 2000, first delivery in 2006. THE LATEST TIMELINE Feb.14: RFP release June: Two 15-month "pre-EMD" awards not to exceed $80 million per contractor 1996: Down-select to single contractor, DSP-18 launched 1997: DSP-19 launched
The U.S. Air Force plans to issue a request for proposal on its Space Based Infrared (SBIR) early warning system on Feb. 14, and will pick two winners in June for initial 15-month contracts of as much as $80 million each.
While cautiously predicting better times this year than in 1994 for the commercial aircraft segment, McDonnell Douglas Chief Financial Officer Herb Lanese warns that the next six months are crucial to whether things will continue to go well in 1996-and whether the company's strategy for Douglas Aircraft will have to change.
Armed with the healthiest balance sheet it has ever had since merging to become McDonnell Douglas some 35 years ago, MDC is predicting it will see record earnings, strong cash flow, gains in the long-suffering commercial aircraft business and continued strength in military aircraft in 1995.
Poor performance by Russia's military in Chechnya will have a psychological effect on Russian leaders, leading them to "cling more to nuclear weapons to hold onto their superpower status," Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. James R. Clapper Jr. told Congress Tuesday. Clapper was responding to a question from ranking Democratic Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on worldwide threats.
The Republican majority on the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday urged Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) to write a fiscal 1996 budget resolution that would freeze defense budget authority and outlays at the FY 1995 levels, adjusted for inflation. They specifically proposed budget authority of $270 billion and spending of $273 billion-$13 billion more in BA and $10 billion more in spending than the Clinton Administration is planning for fiscal '96.
NASA managers yesterday set Feb. 2 as the launch date for the Space Shuttle Discovery on the first U.S. Shuttle mission to Russia's Mir space station, provided the changeout of a leaking attitude control thruster does not impinge on other launch preparations, the space agency reported.
A day of reckoning looms for McDonnell Douglas' missile plant in Titusville, Fla., thanks to rival Hughes' win of the Tomahawk missile buyout, and prospects for keeping it open look grim, says MDC's top financial executive, Herb Lanese. "It's heartbreaking, looking at the prospects to shut this facility down," Lanese told reporters yesterday during a conference call detailing 1994's financial results. "It's just a super facility, with a great workforce and a low-cost location."
The Denver area may get a boost from the merger of Lockheed and Martin Marietta if some moves being considered by the two companies are approved. Lockheed and Martin are currently looking at consolidating all their launch operations at Martin's under-used complex in Denver after the pending merger is completed, a Lockheed spokeswoman confirmed.
Requirements developers for Joint Advanced Strike Technology (JAST) aircraft will be looking to fill a range of characteristics from Marine Corps close air support and Air Force and Navy first-day-of-the-war strike. "The difference between an A-10 and a [F]-117-that's the range of characteristics we're looking for," JAST program manager Brig. Gen. George Muellner told The DAILY.
THE EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY'S technology research arm, ESTEC, has awarded a feasibility contract to Sira Ltd., of Kent, England, to design a low-cost fiber-optic spacecraft monitoring system.
TRW Inc. said it has received a $299 million Unified Local Area Network Architecture II (ULANA II) contract from the U.S. Air Force to provide government customers with computer networking products and services. GTE Government Systems Corp. will team up with TRW on the work. ULANA II networks will support a wide range of users in areas such as command and control, office automation, finance, inventory, engineering, and training.
Raytheon merged its three government divisions into a single $4 billion entity to be called Raytheon Electronic Systems Div., in a move the company said yesterday was designed to "significantly strengthen" its ability to cut costs. The new division pulls together the Bedford, Mass.-based Missile Systems Div., the Equipment Div. in Marlborough, Mass., and the Electromagnetic Systems Div. in Goleta, Calif., and its creation is part of an overall restructuring unveiled nearly a year ago.
As companies begin reporting the latest quarterly financial results this week, acquisitions and downsizing will get much of the credit for gains-and some financial analysts are starting to wonder when industry will run out of one-time measures for boosting profits. "For now, it all looks good," one investment banker who advises aerospace industry clients said yesterday. "But at some point, someone has to start making some money the real way."
MCDONNELL DOUGLAS said the first squadron of 12 C-17 transports was declared operational yesterday at Charleston AFB, S.C. The Globemaster III's prime contractor said the C-17 is now part of the Air Force's operational inventory, and that 12 aircraft and 48 flight crews from the first unit-the 17th Squadron of the 437th Airlift Wing-are ready for military or humanitarian missions. The 12th C-17 was delivered to the AF on Dec. 22.
PANAMSAT announced $1.3 billion in agreements with customers that will use its PAS-1, PAS-2, PAS-3 and PAS-4 satellites. The first two are on orbit. PAS-4 is slated to be launched this summer, and a replacement for PAS-3, which was lost during a Dec. 1 Ariane launch failure, is scheduled to be orbited before the end of the year.
A story on NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin's testimony before the House Science Committee (DAILY, Jan. 9, page 31) slightly misquoted Goldin. The quote should have read: "We don't need 1,000 people or 500 people out at JPL [Jet Propulsion Laboratory] watching a spacecraft that goes between Earth and the planet Saturn."
Silicon Graphics, Incorporated, Silver Spring, Maryland, is being awarded a $6,387,942 increment as part of a $9,953,849 firm fixed price contract for Distributed Virtual Memory Development, a research effort designed to enhance utilization of existing computer capacity. Work will be performed in Mountain View, California (95%) and Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland (5%), and is expected to be completed by January 9, 1997. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This was a broad agency announcement on June 30, 1993, and one bid was received.
The Defense Dept. has decided to merge the Air Force/Navy Advanced Missile Warning System (AMWS) program with the Army's Advanced Threat Infrared Countermeasure (ATIRCM) program. The ATIRCM is an airborne self protection system designed to detect missile threats to helicopters, and to defeat them with directed infrared countermeasures and dispensed expendables. The AMWS is a common missile warning system for existing Air Force and Navy tactical aircraft.
