January 30, 1989

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HEADLINE NEWS

Tower Supports SDI, Citing Soviet Antimissile Advances

WASHINGTON Defense Secretary-designate John G. Tower broke no new ground on defense policy last week in his confirmation hearings before the Senate Armed Services Committee. But Tower appeared to express more support for the Strategic Defense Initiative than other Bush Administration officials, including National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, citing Soviet advances in antimissile defense.

HEADLINE NEWS

USAF Seeks Less Risk in ATF Avionics Suite Development

WASHINGTON The U. S. Air Force is seeking new design concepts to reduce the risk and shorten the development time of the Integrated Communication, Navigation and Identification program, a key element of the already delayed advanced tactical fighter.

By BRUCE D. NORDWALL

HEADLINE NEWS

GAO Criticizes LHX Program, Claiming R&D Work Insufficient

MESA, ARIZ. The General Accounting Office has criticized the Army LHX helicopter program for insufficient research and development. The GAO said the light attack/scout helicopter program may not give officials enough knowledge about technical risks and costs before they commit to full-scale development, in December, 1990.

By MICHAEL A. DORNHEIM

HEADLINE NEWS

Pentagon Pursues Additional Commitments From Airlines to Boost U. S. Airlift Capacity

WASHINGTON The Pentagon will seek additional commitments from commercial carriers to modify their transports for military cargo to expand its capacity beyond the current goal of 66 million ton-miles per day. Air Force Gen. Duane H. Cassidy, head of the U. S. Transportation Command and the Military Airlift Command, said the U. S. would meet its goal of a 66million-ton-miles-per-day capacity by the year 2000, when the new McDonnell Douglas C-17 transport should be fielded.

HEADLINE NEWS

Swedish Defense Planners Seek More Funds, Cost Cuts on Gripen

LONDON Swedish defense planners have called for additional government funds and a reduction in production expenses to overcome a $ 1.12-billion cost overrun for the second production batch of JAS-39 Gripen multirole combat aircraft.

By DAVID A. BROWN

HEADLINE NEWS

U. S. Air Force Accepts Delivery Of First F-16C With Block 40 Upgrades

DALLAS The first General Dynamics F-16C fighter with Block 40 upgrades was delivered to the U. S. Air Force last month. The new version incorporates provisions to accommodate the two Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night (Lantirn) system pods.

HEADLINE NEWS

Assembly of Second, Third EJ200 Test Engines Nears End

MUNICH The Eurojet consortium is completing assembly of the second and third EJ200 design verification engines for the European fighter aircraft and plans to begin testing next month. The first design verification engine began test runs last year and is meeting or exceeding early performance milestones in its test program, according to Wolfgang Schleifer, Eurojet marketing manager.

By KEITH F. MORDOFF

HEADLINE NEWS

Piaggio Selects AMR Services To Market P. 180 in North America

WASHINGTON Rinaldo Piaggio SpA. last week designated AMR Services Corp. to market the P. 180 Avanti business aircraft in North America. Under the agreement, AMR Services will provide sales and service support for Piaggio’s twin-turboprop aircraft in the U. S., Canada, the Caribbean and Mexico.

HEADLINE NEWS

Lack of Funding Forces OMAC To Delay Laser 300 Program

WASHINGTON OMAC, Inc., last week delayed development of its Laser 300 business aircraft indefinitely because of a lack of funding. The board of directors ordered management to halt work at the firm’s Albany, Ga., facility instead of continuing to operate under “an erratic source of funding,” according to an official.

HEADLINE NEWS

Arianespace Plans 1989 Launches To Clear Backlog of Payloads

PARIS Europe’s Arianespace is scheduled to launch 13 satellites on nine Ariane boosters in 1989 to eliminate its growing backlog of civil and military payloads. Seven new launch contracts were booked by Arianespace in 1988, and the multinational marketing and management organization’s provisional financial results for the year showed a net income after taxes of about 100 million francs ($16.6 million) on revenues of 3.67 billion francs ($612 million).

By JEFFREY M.LENOROVITZ

January 231989

February 61989

January 30, 1989

January 30, 1989

Tower Supports SDI, Citing Soviet Antimissile Advances