Chicago-based Northstar Aerospace Inc. will repair, overhaul, and provide spare parts for AH-64 Apache and CH-47 Chinook helicopters under two contracts worth $12 million awarded by the U.S. Army, the company said Jan. 17. The Apache contract is worth $8 million. Main transmissions will be overhauled and spare parts will be provided beginning this year, the company said. Most of the work will be done at Northstar's Chicago facility. The remaining work will be performed in Milton and Windsor, Ontario, Canada, and Phoenix.
NAVY Electric Boat Corp., Groton, Conn., is being awarded an $8,687,000 cost-plus-fixed-fee material order under previously awarded contract (N00024-04-C-2100) to procure long lead time material for Ships Service Turbine Generator (SSTG) sets for SSGN 727 and SSGN 729 in support of Ohio Class Ship Alterations. Work will take place in Groton, Conn., and is expected to be completed by May 2007. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C. is the contracting activity.
The U.S. Air Force's Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) program has successfully completed its first tests with live weapons, according to the Boeing Co., SDB's prime contractor. On Dec. 13 and Dec. 15, two SDBs launched from an F-15E at 15,000 feet achieved direct hits on two ground targets: a scoring board and a Russian rocket launcher. "This was a big milestone for our program," said Col. Jim McClendon, commander of the U.S. Air Force Miniature Munitions Group at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.
CHARGED: Boeing's decision to end 717 aircraft production in 2006 prompted equipment supplier Goodrich Corp. to announce that it plans to record a charge to net income in the fourth quarter of less than $10 million before taxes. Boeing announced last week that it will report a charge of $615 million for ending 717 production and because of an expected re-competition of the U.S. Air Force's tanker aircraft program (DAILY, Jan. 18).
AIR DEFENSE: Spain-based Indra has recently been awarded a two-year, 7.1 million euro ($9.25 million) contract to provide Botswana with a full air defense command and control system, the company said. The contract was awarded though Botswana's military. Indra will develop an operational control center made up of nine air traffic tracking and control posts, the company said. The posts will process the country's air space data from air surveillance radars, radio communication links with airships, and civil air traffic management systems.
The European Commission has granted clearance for Aeronautical Rotor Blades Inc. (RBI US) of the United States and Hawker Pacific Pty Ltd. (HP) of Hong Kong to have joint control of RBI Hawker Ltd., the EC said Jan. 17. RBI US, owned by Textron, provides rotor blade repairs and overhauls in the United States. HP is controlled by Saab AB and sells and maintains fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, mainly in Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines.
EADS North America has announced its new EADS CASA North America aircraft support center headquarters, which is being built adjacent to Alabama's Mobile Regional Airport. EADS CASA is making an initial investment of $1 million to build the new aircraft facility, which is to be completed in spring 2005. The 13,000 square-foot center initially will employ 30 people and will support the Coast Guard in transitioning the EADS CASA CN-235 maritime patrol aircraft into active service.
Microcosm Inc., which is developing its Scorpius family of low-cost launch vehicles, said Jan. 18 that it successfully completed a series of tests of an all-composite, liquid-oxygen (LOX) tank for use on such vehicles. "The availability of low-cost, composite tanks for cryogenic fluids is a major step in the development of a new generation of much lower-cost launch vehicles," company President James Wertz said in a statement. The tank is 42 inches in diameter and is intended to operate at 550 pounds per square inch, the company said.
The civil helicopter market will remain "relatively flat during the next 10 years," with Eurocopter continuing to dominate the turbine-powered segment, Forecast International said Jan. 18. Annual civil helicopter output, which totaled just under 1,250 shipments in 2004, will fall off gradually through 2011 before rising to about 1,000 deliveries in 2013, said senior aerospace analyst Bill Dane.
SPEEDING UP: Adm. Thomas H. Collins, commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, is pressing for an accelerated Deepwater modernization schedule, says Coast Guard Rear Adm. R. Dennis Sirois. The increased operations tempo after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks accelerated the Coast Guard fleet's deterioration by 30%. A recent report on Deepwater from the Homeland Security Department's inspector general agrees that the Coast Guard's aging assets are one of its major problems as it expands its mission in the wake of 9/11 (DAILY, Oct. 15, 2004).
STRONG COMPETITOR: Lockheed Martin Corp. officials expect Naval Sea Systems Command will issue a request for proposals by the end of the year to be the Navy's mission module integrator. NAVSEA hosted an industry day last November on the topic. "We're considering the opportunity out there, we think we're very experienced in integration," says Brad Hines, Lockheed Martin mission package integrator capability manager. Lockheed Martin says its experience as a systems integrator on nearly 100 surface combatants globally makes it a strong competitor.
Jan. 24 - 26 -- The ION National Technical Meeting, The Catamaran Resort Hotel, San Diego, Calif. For more information go to www.ion.org. Jan. 25 - 26 -- JPEO-CBD Advanced Planning Briefing for Industry, The DC Convention Center, Washington, D.C. For more information go to www.ndia.org. Jan. 25 - 27 -- Network Centric Warfare 2005, Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, Washington, D.C. For more information call 1-800-882-8684, email [email protected] or go to www.ncw2005.com.
The U.S. Defense Department is close to deciding how to distribute a $5 billion cut in missile defense that it approved in December as part of a broader, six-year reduction in defense spending, according to sources. DOD is expected to finalize the missile defense details this week, leaving enough time for the Bush Administration to finish its fiscal 2006 budget and submit it to Congress on Feb. 7.
ACQUIRING: SI International Inc., an information technology and networking company based in Reston, Va., has agreed to acquire Shenandoah Electronic Intelligence Inc. (SEI) to boost its work with the Department of Homeland Security, SI said Jan. 12. Harrisonburg, Va.-based SEI handles records management, analytical support services and other work for the DHS. SI will buy SEI for $75 million in cash, and said the transaction is expected to close within 60 days.
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe said he is not overly concerned by the estimated $450 million in congressional earmarks contained in the agency's fiscal year 2005 budget, which would redirect funding away from the Bush Administration's space priorities toward other projects. "I don't think that's going to crowd out a lot of things," O'Keefe said during a press conference at Kennedy Space Center in Florida Jan. 14.
ACTIVE PROTECTION: The U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems is soliciting information on Active Protection System technologies and supporting components, the Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) says. "FCS is developing a fully integrated hit avoidance suite to provide protection to the manned ground vehicles and current force vehicles," says a Jan. 14 TACOM FedBizOpps notice.
STRYKER DELIVERY: The U.S. Army and General Dynamics Land Systems recognized the delivery of the 1,000th Stryker armored vehicle during a Jan. 12 ceremony at the Anniston Army Depot in Anniston, Ala., the company said. During the eight-wheeled vehicle's 12 months of deployment in Iraq with the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, Strykers were driven more than 3.1 million miles and encountered more than 200 hostile incidents. They maintained an operational readiness rate of more than 96%, the company said.
IMPACT OK: NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft is out of safe mode and "healthy," according to NASA, as it speeds on its way to an encounter with comet Tempel 1 on July 4, 2005. Launched on Jan. 12, Deep Impact entered safe mode shortly after separation from its Delta II rocket as a result of higher-than-expected temperatures in its propulsion system following a thruster burn. In safe mode, all but the essential systems are turned off and the spacecraft awaits further commands from mission control.
TRIDENT WORK: Lockheed Martin Space Systems was awarded a $676 million modification for fiscal 2005 funding of the Trident II Missile Production and Deployed System Support contract, the Defense Department said Jan. 13. The work is expected to be completed by September 2008.
EADS' 2004 financial performance will exceed estimated targets released in November, EADS CEO Philippe Camus said at a Jan. 6 press conference in Paris. EADS plans to announce its 2004 results on March 9. "Preliminary estimates show that the company has exceeded financial targets for the fifth closing in a row," EADS CEOs Camus and Rainer Hertrich said in a Jan. 13 statement.
British infantry troops equipped with a variety of modern high-tech equipment have successfully completed an experimental trial designed to improve their combat effectiveness, the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence said Jan. 14.
GMD DEPLOYMENT: The U.S. Defense Department might not make a public announcement when the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system becomes operational, according to Pentagon spokesman Larry Di Rita. "I don't think that the goal was ever that we would declare it was operational," Di Rita tells reporters. "I think the goal was that there would be an operational capability by the end of 2004," a timeframe that was later changed to January 2005.
