The French-Italian ATR aircraft consortium hopes a new de-icing system, which would roughly double the amount of protected wing area, will be enough for U.S. regulators to lift a ban on flying 156 ATR-42 and -72 twin-turboprops in known or forecast icing conditions. An ATR-72 recently passed icing tests four times as severe as FAA requires for certification (DAILY, Dec. 22, page 401), but an ATR official told The DAILY yesterday that the consortium proposed new de-ice boots, made by French firm Aerazure, anyway just to be "prudent."
Budget "firewalls" protecting defense spending will be in the budget resolution incoming Senate Budget Committee Chairman Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) expects to bring to the Senate floor by mid-March. Domenici told The DAILY yesterday that the Budget Committee is "just going to put a defense number in a (fiscal 1996) budget resolution and put the walls back."
Deputy Defense Secretary John Deutch yesterday defended the Pentagon's six-year budget, saying the Defense Dept. is spending enough to buy what it needs to maintain readiness and keep up quality-of-life standards. To meet these goals, the department doesn't need to rebuild the weapon system inventory that it now has, Deutch said during a National Defense University speech at Ft. McNair in Washington. Instead, the military services will upgrade systems to be "much more effective and rely much more efficiently on battlefield awareness," he said.
The time is right for a "major push" to improve the effectiveness of data systems to support the Defense Dept. because the Pentagon relies more and more on information systems that are "highly vulnerable" to information warfare (IW), according to a recent report by the Defense Science Board Task Force on Information Architecture for the Battlefield.
HERCULES AEROSPACE CO. President Richard Schwartz will leave his position Friday to become president and chief executive officer of Alliant Techsystems, the company that is buying the Hercules aerospace operation. In a confirmation of plans announced last month (DAILY, Nov. 10, page 221), the two companies said that Schwartz will resign his post and his membership on the Hercules Inc. board of directors effective Jan. 6 and begin his new position at Alliant on Jan. 9. He will also join Alliant's board of directors.
The defense agenda of the Republican-dominated 104th Congress, which convenes today, won't veer sharply-if at all-from that of the Democratic- led 103rd Congress, Deputy Defense Secretary John Deutch predicted yesterday. "It won't be a completely new agenda," Deutch told a National Defense University audience in Washington.
DEFENSE SECRETARY WILLIAM PERRY will leave Washington Friday to visit Egypt, Israel, Pakistan and India through Jan. 14. Perry will meet with senior officials in each country during the trip, whose purpose is to "enhance U.S. military relationships," the Pentagon said.
-- Rep. Floyd Spence (R-S.C.), incoming chairman of the House National Security Committee, wants President Clinton "to go way beyond" the six- year, $25 billion increase he has proposed for defense for fiscal 1996-2001 (DAILY, Dec. 7, page 331).
Tomorrow, when the 104th Congress convenes, Republicans will take charge of the defense committees as well as all the others in the House and Senate, but it would be a mistake to believe the turnover will mean a return to the defense buildup of the early 1980s. In 1981, President Reagan rode into office promising a defense buildup to a nation angered over the Iran hostage crisis and concerned over the Soviet threat to Europe. He had a majority in the Senate and a working majority in the House.
DEUTSCHE AEROSPACE AG formally changed its name to Daimler-Benz Aerospace on Jan. 1. The company's abbreviated name continues to be DASA. Deutsche Aerospace Airbus GmbH, the German partner in the European Airbus consortium, also now operates under the name Daimler-Benz Aerospace.
In a year-end push the Russian Space Forces performed a snap- shot series of launches to upgrade all operational constellations of military communications satellites. After launching the semisynchronous Molniya-1T and heavy low-Earth orbit (LEO) Cosmos 2298 satellites on Dec 14 and Dec 20, the Space Forces conducted two more launches on Dec. 26 and Dec. 28 to upgrade "little LEO" and geostationary military communications constellations.
The Air Force on Friday launched a 34-year-old Atlas E rocket carrying a weather satellite into polar orbit, Vandenberg AFB, Calif., reported. Weather and mechanical malfunctions repeatedly delayed previous attempts to launch the rocket, a former intercontinental ballistic missile.
A new fuel line valve that failed and left Japan's sixth Engineering Test Satellite (ETS-6) stranded in the wrong orbit had not been sufficiently tested because of a lack of funding, a Japanese investigation has concluded. An 18-member accident investigation panel for Japan's Space Activities Commission said insufficient ground testing led to the failure of the fuel valve in the apogee motor on ETS-6 (DAILY, Aug. 31, page 344). The failure left the $415 million Toshiba-built satellite stranded in transfer orbit.
Unisys Corp. will eliminate 4,000 jobs in 1995 and take a one-time pretax charge of $175-$225 million against fourth quarter earnings in an effort to reduce costs in its commercial computer hardware businesses. The moves are a response to a slowing in Unisys' traditional hardware sales and maintenance business and profit pressures in its European operations that led to "disappointing financial performance in 1994," the company said. Unisys estimates that its actions will save $200 million by the end of 1995.
Following is the text of Deputy Defense Secretary John Deutch's letter to the Federal Trade Commission's Janet D. Steiger on the Lockheed-Martin Marietta merger plan (DAILY, Dec. 30, page 435). Dear Madam Chairman:
FLIGHTSAFETY INTERNATIONAL, La Guardia Airport, N.Y., said that Babcock&Wilcox has acquired its interest in PowerSafety International Inc., which provides training programs and equipment to the power and utility industry. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. FlightSafety said it made the move to focus on its core businesses.
For the first time, the U.S., Thailand and Singapore will participate together in an annual aerial combat exercise, known this year as Exercise Cope Tiger 95. The U.S. traditionally participates with Thailand and Singapore on a rotating basis.
The U.S. Army is planning a Battlefield Information Transport System (BITS) that it says will support data transmission requirements of the digitized battlefield. The service's Communications and Electronics Command said in a Dec. 29 Commerce Business Daily notice that information from proposals submitted in response to broad agency announcement called "Future Digital Radio Technology" will help "create the acquisition strategy and performance specification for" BITS.
BTG Inc., Vienna, Va., has won a $9.8 million contract from the Air Force Information Warfare Center to perform system prototyping, software development and training, hardware procurement and inspection, and exercise support.
The Defense Mapping Agency (DMA) has made enormous strides in standardizing digital mapping, charting and geodesy data, information that has become vitally important to the Defense Dept. because of its operational efficiencies, a recent report by the DOD Inspector General (DODIG) concludes.
