U.S. Systems: Orbital Wins Liquid Propellant Booster Contract

Orbital Sciences Corporation won a $22 million contract from the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command for work on the liquid booster target system yesterday.  Orbital will complete the design and development of its liquid propellant booster concept, integrate and test the system and perform a static firing of the booster engine. 

The objective of the program is to develop a liquid booster system to serve as a target U.S. missile defense systems under development.

“The benefits of a liquid propulsion-based target vehicle [include] a more accurate representation of today’s potential hostile weapons systems and affordability and safety in production, handling and flight test operations,” said Michael Bender, senior manager of business development for Orbital’s launch systems groups (Orbital release, Oct. 4).

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Russia: New Warning Systems Planned

Russia plans to deploy new mobile missile attack warning systems that use less energy and smaller crews, said Colonel General Anatoly Perminov, head of the Russian space forces, on Wednesday.  As part of the new systems, higher quality defense satellites will be launched in 2002, Perminov said (Interfax, Oct. 3 in FBIS-SOV, Oct. 3).

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U.S. Plans: Senate Passes Defense Authorization Bill

The U.S. Senate unanimously passed its version of the fiscal 2002 Defense Authorization Bill yesterday, after several controversial provisions were withdrawn. The bill authorizes $345 billion in military spending for this fiscal year.  The bill includes increased spending on counterterrorism, new military base closings, increased pay and benefits for military personnel and a compromise on missile defense which adds money for the program but allows President George W. Bush to use some of it for counterterrorism. 

The Senate was able to pass the bill after Republicans agreed to drop amendments dealing with energy production, including a controversial provision allowing oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve.  A vote of 100-0 to halt such proposals came amidst warnings that a fight over energy could break the bipartisan unity that has arisen in the Capitol since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to the Washington Post.  “I’m worried that, in a few minutes, the Senate may undo all our good work in the past three weeks, bring an end to the bipartisan cooperation that has distinguished this institution and give the public a reason to be ashamed of us,” said Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) as the Senate prepared for the vote (Helen Dewar, Washington Post, Oct. 3).

The Senate last week defused another controversy surrounding the bill when it removed language that would require prior Congressional approval of spending for missile defense tests that violate the Antiballistic Missile Treaty (see GSN, Sept.25).  The provision was placed, instead, into a separate piece of legislation that could be considered later this year (Council for a Livable World release, Oct. 2).

The House passed its own version of the defense authorization bill last week (see GSN, Sept. 26).  The bill will go to a conference committee where differences will be worked out by negotiators from the House and Senate (Dewar, Washington Post).

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