PURCHASE: Moog Inc. said Feb. 14 that it has agreed to buy California-based infusion pump maker Curlin Medical LLC and two affiliated firms for $75 million. The purchase is expected to close in the first quarter of 2006. Moog makes precision control components and systems for commercial and military aircraft, satellites and space vehicles.
DATALINK THROUGHPUT: L3 Communications has won a $7.1 million contract from the Air Force to increase the production throughput of datalink systems that support the Predator, Global Hawk, MP-CDL, and TARS platforms, the company said. L3 said the work will reduce testing bottlenecks and supplier material shortages that are common to the systems. The work is set to be finished by June 2008. The contract was awarded by the Headquarters Air Force Research Lab, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Utah.
Democrats on the House Science Committee are highly critical of the Bush administration's fiscal 2007 budget request for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in a report on federal research and development (R&D) spending released Feb. 14.
The U.S. Air Force has awarded Lockheed Martin Corp.'s Aeronautics unit a $136.4 million contract modification to convert the C-130J multiyear contract from a commercial-item deal to one that must meet regular military guidelines and scrutiny.
The U.S. Air Force has asked bidders for the Combat Search-and-Rescue (CSAR-X) aircraft program to amend their proposal documents to discuss how they would spend a proposed $849 million over five years, as well as improve the program's development and testing, an industry representative said. Answers are due March 27, three days before an expected review of the CSAR-X by top Pentagon acquisition officials as outlined Feb. 10 by Ken Krieg, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics (DAILY, Feb. 13).
LONDON -- The British Defense Ministry on Feb. 14 down-selected to three bidders for a key naval support-ship program. AMEC, KBR, and Raytheon have been chosen to compete for the next phase of the U.K.'s $3.5 billion Military Afloat Reach and Sustainability (MARS) program to provide a new-generation support vessel fleet for the Royal Navy. One of the three will be chosen as the "integrator" for the program. The three were chosen from nine bidders, which also included BAE Systems, General Dynamics, Thales, and the VT Group.
Undersecretary of the Air Force Ronald Sega is "hopeful" that the Defense Department's formal recommendation on the proposed United Launch Alliance (ULA) merger will be given to the Federal Trade Commission within a month. FTC then will make the final decision on ULA, which would merge production of Lockheed Martin's Atlas and Boeing's Delta rocket fleets while still maintaining two distinct families of vehicles. DOD's recommendation is expected to play a crucial role in FTC's ruling.
SEA SKIMMERS: Orbital Sciences Corp. said Feb. 13 that it was now under "firm" contract to build and deliver 39 GQM-163A "Coyote" Supersonic Sea-Skimming Target missiles through early 2008, of which four vehicles have already been delivered to the U.S. Navy. The Naval Air Systems Command recently awarded Orbital the program's first full-rate production contract following a two-year development and flight-test program. Six previously delivered vehicles were launched in the test program from 2003 to 2005.
The European Space Agency will provide data from Japan's new Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) to users in Europe and Africa under an agreement approved by the ESA Council in December and awaiting signature. Data from the spacecraft will be made available to commercial distributors and the scientific community, as well as to Europe's Global Monitoring for Environment and Security Network.
ARMY AM General L.L.C., South Bend, Ind., was awarded on Feb. 2, 2006, a $42,852,720 modification to a firm-fixed-price contract for the M1114 High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles. The work will be performed in South Bend and is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2007. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This was a sole source contract initiated on July 17, 2000. The U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (DAAE07-01-C-S001). AIR FORCE
ASSAULT SHIP: Northrop Grumman Ship Systems has been awarded a $93.8 million contract modification to perform engineering and detail design for the LHA(R) Flight 0 Amphibious Assault Ship and to buy more long lead time material for ship construction, the Defense Department said Feb. 13. The LHA(R) Flight 0 Ship will be a variant of the LHD 8 Amphibious Assault Ship now being built by NGSS and will have enhanced aviation capabilities. The work will be done in Pascagoula, Miss., and is expected to be completed by December 2006.
The House Science Committee is likely to hold a hearing on NASA's restructured aeronautics program, according to Chief of Staff David Goldston, amid concerns over the agency's shrinking aeronautics budget request. NASA's FY '07 request for aeronautics is $724 million, an 18 percent decrease from the FY '06 budget. The topline includes $447.2 million for fundamental aeronautics, $102.2 million for aviation safety, $120 million for airspace systems and $55 million to preserve the agency's wind tunnels.
Net earnings jumped 24 percent and net sales climbed 13 percent for Curtiss-Wright Corp. in the fourth quarter of 2005, the company said Feb. 9. Full-year net sales also grew 18 percent and net earnings increased 16 percent for the Roseland, N.J., based firm. Fourth-quarter '05 net earnings surged to $25.3 million, or $1.15 per share, compared to $20.4 million, or 94 cents per share, in the fourth quarter of '04. Net sales improved to $317.9 million, compared to $281.1 million in the same period of '04.
Bell Helicopter Textron is smoothing out the bumps in the Coast Guard's vertical takeoff-and-landing unmanned aerial vehicle (VUAV) program, the tiltrotor Eagle Eye, and the first production aircraft is expected next year, according to the aviation program manager for the service's Deepwater recapitalization program. "So far, so good," Capt. Matthew Sisson told the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International's unmanned systems program review in Washington. "We're finding out a few little bumps along the way that Bell's smoothing out for us."
Military units from three U.S. services and two allied nations are taking part in a simulated air war exercise over Nevada, the U.S. Air Force said. Exercise Red Flag 06-1, which runs from Feb. 6-18, involves more than 2,500 personnel and 130 aircraft in night and day missions over the Nellis Air Force Base Test and Training Range. U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps personnel are participating along with Australian and British forces.
Details of how and when the Defense Department will proceed with a U.S. Air Force tanker replacement program are still undecided, but "there is less urgency to acquiring a replacement aircraft than had previously been assumed," according to the White House. In turn, White House Office of Management and Budget officials are planning an $896 million cut due to program restructuring over the five-year defense plan, according to a new White House report, titled "Major Savings and Reforms in the President's 2007 Budget."
