FINANCING PACKAGE: Loral Space & Communications has requested that a $300 million equity financing package proposed by MHR Fund Management be scaled back or abandoned because of interest among certain shareholders in participating in refinancing plans. The MHR placement, announced last month, is intended to fund growth.
AIR FORCE L3 Communications Vertex Aerospace, Madison, Miss., is being awarded a $12,262,168 firm-fixed-price contract modification. This action is exercising option VII (FY07), Oct. 1, 2006 through Sept. 30, 2007, in support of C-12 contractor logistic support. At this time, total funds have been obligated. This work will be complete by September 2007. Headquarters Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., is the contracting activity (F34601-00-C-0111/P00299).
Doug Greenlaw has been appointed director of Raytheon Virtual Technology Corp. Michael P. Morgan will lead the multi-intelligence strategy for the Intelligence and Information Systems (IIS) business. Garnett Stowe has been named vice president, National Intelligence Programs, in the Business Development organization.
With interest in airborne electronic warfare (EW) growing, Boeing says it has the capacity to produce more than the 86 EA-18G Growlers being sought by the U.S. Navy, which has been bearing the brunt of the aerial EW work for the U.S. military. U.S. Air Force leaders have said the Navy has too few Growlers to handle all of the military's needs. Navy officials have said the Air Force EW plans fall short as well.
The Sea Fighter, the catamaran-hulled experimental craft serving as a concept test bed for the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) and other futuristic Navy ideas, will become an operationally deployable asset - but first the U.S. Navy apparently has to repair some major damage, according to the fiscal 2007 defense authorization act.
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., part of United Technologies Corp., announced Nov. 3 that it has signed an agreement to provide Turkey with 17 new S-70B Seahawk helicopters. First deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2009. The contract is for Lot 2, which adds to seven S-70Bs already in the Turkish navy.
AIR FORCE Symetrics Industries, Melbourne, Fla., is being awarded a $67,352,765 firm-fixed-price contract. This action provides for production of ALE-47 countermeasures dispensing system Line Replacement Units (LRUs) and shop replaceable units managed by Combat Electronic Systems Directorate at Robins Air Force Base, Ga. At this time, no funds have been obligated. Headquarters Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, Robins Air Force Base, Ga., is the contracting activity (FA8540-06-D-0002).
As it prepares to resume night launches next month, NASA is confident that it still will be able to gather useful imagery of the space shuttle during ascent, according to Program Manager Wayne Hale. "At this point, we're as confident as we're likely to get that it's safe to return" to night operations, Hale said during a news conference at Johnson Space Center in Houston Nov. 6.
AIR FORCE Lockheed Martin Corp., Simulation Training and Support, Orlando, Fla., is being awarded a $25,583,326 firm-fixed-price, cost-reimbursable no fee and cost-plus-fixed fee contract modification. This action will exercise/fund option for FY 2007 in support of the C-130 Aircrew Training Systems. At this time, total funds have been obligated. The work will be completed by September 2007. Headquarters Ogden Air Logistics Center, Hill Air Force Base, Utah, is the contracting activity (F42630-99-C-0195/P00188). ARMY
Vice Adm. Terry Cross (USN Ret.) has been named director of homeland security programs. David J. Schramm has been appointed president and chief executive officer of EADS North America Defense Test and Services.
MODELING & SIMULATION: Modeling and simulation (M&S) software and analytical techniques played a large role in the recent Joint Futures Lab urban operations experiment at U.S. Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Va. Officials there believe M&S shows "great potential" to shorten decision-making time in complex city environments. "The biggest surprise was the power of some of the anticipatory analysis tools," said Dave Ozolek, the lab's executive director.
GLOBAL WARMING PROBE: Inspectors general overseeing NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will probe whether the Bush White House suppressed government-funded research linking greenhouse gases to global warming, and global warming to more intense hurricanes. The issue has simmered since James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, charged he was being censored on the issue by political appointees in NASA's public affairs apparatus.
