August 8, 1988

View Full Issue Table of Contents

HEADLINE NEWS

Reagan Vetoes Defense Budget Bill, Inviting Election Battle With Congress

WASHINGTON President Reagan last week vetoed the Fiscal 1989 defense authorization bill, in hopes of strengthening Vice President George Bush’s hand in exploiting defense policy as an election issue. Reagan justified the veto on grounds that congressional Democrats had played partisan politics with the authorization bill by “gutting” the Strategic Defense Initiative’s antimissile research and incorporating arms control provisions that would tie the President’s hands in negotiating with the Soviet Union. In particular, Reagan objected to a $1-billion cut from his SDI request and a congressional shift in the program’s emphasis from spacebased to ground-based weapons (AW&ST July 25, p. 21).

By PAUL MANN

HEADLINE NEWS

Laser 300 Completes Initial Handling Checks

WASHINGTON Omac Laser 300 makes its first flight at Albany, Ga.. During the 30-min. flight on July 29, test pilots Edward Chaplin and Hans Betz successfully completed all planned stability and handling checks. The eight-place aircraft is powered by a Pratt & Whitney PT6A-135A turboprop engine flat-rated to 750 shp. It has a predicted cruise speed of 291 mph. and a maximum range of 2,400 mi. Maximum gross takeoff weight is 7,800 lb., with an increase to 8,350 lb. planned.

HEADLINE NEWS

Bush Backs SDI Deployment, Space Station Development

Vice President George Bush said last week that he now is “committed to deployment” of the Strategic Defense Initiative, which takes him one step further than his earlier support for SDI as a research program. Bush’s comments, made in a speech to the Mid-America Committee in Chicago, were part of a major foreign policy address two weeks before the Republican Party nominates him for president.

By MICHAEL MECHAM

HEADLINE NEWS

Congress Cuts Seek Spinner Drone Funding in Favor of Tacit Rainbow

WASHINGTON Congress has directed the Air Force to curtail work on the Boeing Seek Spinner ground-launched antiradiation drone and focus instead on the air-launched Tacit Rainbow missile, despite continuing problems that have delayed the latter program.

HEADLINE NEWS

British Aerospace Selected as Prime Contractor For Advanced Short-Range Air-to-Air Missile

WASHINGTON British Aerospace has been selected as the prime contractor for the multinational advanced short-range air-to-air missile (ASRAAM), which continues to have development problems. ASRAAM is being jointly developed by the United Kingdom, West Germany and Norway to replace the AIM-9 Sidewinder.

HEADLINE NEWS

Navy Maintains A-6 Options With Short-Term Funding

CALVERTON, N.Y. Navy contracts awarded to Grumman Corp. last week have introduced yet another set of options into the continuing debate on the future of the A-6 attack aircraft. The Navy has funded A-6F development, at least through September, to preserve its options on the development of an A-6 digital avionics suite.

By STANLEY W. KANDEBO

HEADLINE NEWS

Army Granted New Test Schedule For Air Defense/Antitank System

WASHINGTON The Defense Acquisition Board last week approved a revised Army schedule for air defense-antitank system (ADATS) testing and authorized the service to proceed with full-scale development of a non-line of sight system.

By BRENDAN M. GREELEY

HEADLINE NEWS

Navy Selects Hughes HS 601 As Its UHF Follow-On Satellite

LOS ANGELES The U. S. Navy has chosen Hughes’ new HS 601 satellite bus for its ultrahigh frequency follow-on satellite, just six weeks after Australia chose the HS 601 for its next generation of communications spacecraft (AW&ST June 27, p. 33).

By MICHAEL A. DORNHEIM

HEADLINE NEWS

Sluggish Fuel Bleed Valve Delays Shuttle Main Engine Test

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER NASA’S attempt to conduct a critical flight readiness firing (FRF) test of space shuttle orbiter Discovery’s main engines was scrubbed Aug. 4, 7 sec. before simulated liftoff because of a sluggish fuel bleed valve.

By EDWARD H. KOLCUM

HEADLINE NEWS

Dornier Restarts DO. 328 Program With Funding From Daimler-Benz

BONN agreed to restart the recently halted DO. 328 program after Daimler-Benz backed the regional transport development effort with 300 million deutsche marks ($162 million). The shareholders of Dornier GmbH. Daimler-Benz AG, the majority Dornier shareholder, resolved its dispute with the Dornier family minority shareholders.

By KEITH F. MORDOFF

August 11988

August 151988

August 8, 1988

August 8, 1988