Dayton, Ohio-based MTC Technologies Inc. has won a five-year, $5 million contract to provide composite materials for C-17 aircraft and other Department of Defense weapon systems worldwide, the company said Dec 14. The contract was awarded by the Ogden Air Logistics Center (ALC), Material Management Division, Hill Air Force Base, Utah.
The U.S. Air Force chief of staff confirmed Dec. 14 that the service intends to cut its planned buy of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters. While declining to discuss specific numbers, Gen. John Jumper told the Defense Writers Group that "I think that we will see an overall decrease in the Joint Strike Fighter total requirement." The Lockheed Martin F-35 will be more capable than the F-16 and A-10 it is designed to succeed, so a "one-for-one replacement" will not be needed, he said.
Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) plans to sell its DynCorp International and DynMarine units and selected DynCorp Technical Services contracts to Veritas Capital, CSC said Dec. 12. The total acquisition comes to $850 million, with $775 million cash payable at closing plus $75 million of Senior Preferred Stock. The companies expect the transaction to be completed during CSC's fiscal quarter ending April 1, 2005. As a result of the sale, CSC anticipates a nonrecurring gain of more than $400 million.
General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products will produce more Gatling gun-based Goalkeeper ship defense systems under a $15 million contract from partner Thales Nederland, the company said Dec. 14. Goalkeeper, designed to defend ships from attack by missiles and aircraft, combines a General Dynamics turret mount and seven-barrel Gatling gun with Thales radars and electronics. The system has been in production since the 1980s.
NASA has chosen eight proposals to provide instrumentation for its Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover, scheduled for launch in 2009. MSL is to be a mobile laboratory, spending two years exploring Mars as a potential habitat for past or present life. The selected investigations and the organizations who proposed them are: * "Mars Science Laboratory Mast Camera," Malin Space Science Systems of San Diego, Calif. * "ChemCam: Laser Induced Remote Sensing for Chemistry and Micro-Imaging," Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, N.M.
TACTICAL VEHICLES: The Oshkosh Truck Corp. of Oshkosh, Wis., has been awarded a $51.8 million contract by the U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command, Warren, Mich., to provide 237 heavy tactical vehicles, the Defense Department said Dec. 13. The work will be done in Oshkosh and is expected to be finished by Feb. 28, 2006.
RADAR UNITS: Raytheon Co. has been awarded a $102.9 million contract to produce up to 32 AN/APS-137D(V)5 Radar Units for the P-3 Anti-Surface Warfare (ASUW) Improvement Program (AIP), the Defense Department said Dec. 13. The contract also provides for the modification of control indicators for incorporation into the radar, and engineering to replace obsolete radar components. The contract was awarded by the Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md. The work is expected to be finished in December 2006.
The Northrop Grumman Corp. has been awarded a $215.3 million contract modification from the U.S. Navy to prepare for the overhaul and refueling of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, the company said Dec. 14. The work includes advance planning, design, documentation, engineering, material procurement, shipboard inspections, fabrication and preliminary shipyard support facility work.
The Defense Department has no plans to seek a second supplier for the Small Diameter Bomb, despite calls for such a step in a recent Pentagon report, according to a DOD official. There are "no specific things that we're doing" along those lines because production levels are expected to be adequate with one supplier, acting Pentagon acquisition chief Michael Wynne said last week at a Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) conference on the defense industrial base.
MORE TYPHOONS: Defense officials will sign a contract on Dec. 17 for the delivery of 89 Eurofighter Typhoon fighters for the United Kingdom Royal Air Force. A daylong event will include speeches by defense and industry officials and tours of Typhoon facilities.
TRAINING AIRFRAMES: Boeing has been awarded a $209.4 million contract modification by the Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., to provide 10 fiscal 2005 T-45 training aircraft system airframes and engineering work, the Defense Department said Dec. 13. Fifty-two percent of the work will be performed in St. Louis and 48% in Warton, Brough, England. The work is expected to be finished in September 2007.
United Kingdom-based defense companies will be more successful than other European firms in acquiring U.S. defense companies, Hector Cuellar, president of RSM EquiCo, told The DAILY. Costa Mesa, Calif.-based RSM EquiCo, an investment firm owned by H&R Block that concentrates on smaller companies, is trying to expand its international merger and acquisition activities and is concentrating on U.K. buyers for this reason, Cueller said.
The Raytheon Co.-built unitary penetration variant of the Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW-C) has received the U.S. Navy's highest rating of "suitable and effective" following successful operational testing earlier this year, the company said Dec. 14. The Commander Operational Test and Evaluation Force (COMOPTEVFOR) said the JSOW-C is operationally effective and operationally suitable for fleet use, the company said.
The U.S. Army is setting up a task force to explore options for continuing the acceleration of armor deliveries for U.S. military vehicles in Iraq, an Army source confirmed. "I think the secretary of the Army has set up a task force to see what else might be done to continue the acceleration of capability in this area," Defense Department spokesman Lawrence Di Rita said Dec. 14 at a Pentagon news briefing.
L-3 Communications Integrated Systems (L-3 IS) will complete mission system modernization work and service life extensions for eight Korean navy P-3 aircraft the country is buying from the U.S. Navy, L-3 said Dec. 13. The work will give Korea's newest Lockheed Martin-built P-3s a suite of modern sensors and electronics, and will provide ground support systems to augment another eight P-3s that already are in the Korean navy fleet.
The Cassini spacecraft completed a successful rendezvous with Saturn's moon Titan on Dec. 13 and is scheduled to fly by the icy moon Dione on Dec. 15, according to NASA. Cassini came within 750 miles (1,200 kilometers) of Titan's surface. As with the last Titan flyby in October (DAILY, Oct. 29), a major goal of this flyby was to measure the thickness of Titan's atmosphere. The information gathered will help determine whether Cassini can get closer to Titan on later flybys.
DIVIDEND INCREASE: The Boeing Co.'s board of directors has approved a 25% increase to the quarterly dividend, the second such increase announced this year, the company said Dec. 13. The quarterly dividend is now 25 cents per share, and the annual dividend $1 a share, payable March 4, 2005.
The European Commission has authorized ThyssenKrupp Werften GmbH (TKW) to buy Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG (HDW), saying the merger of the shipbuilders won't harm competition. TKW controls the German shipyards Blohm & Voss and Nordseewerke Emden, which build civilian ships and military vessels and submarines. HDW operates two major shipyards in Germany and the Swedish Kockums yard and Hellenic Shipyard in Greece.
C-130H CONTRACT: Lockheed Martin Corp. has won a $30.6 million contract to provide three C-130H aircraft and related spares to the Egyptian air force, the company said Dec. 10. The contracting activity is Headquarters Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, Robins Air Force Base, Ga.
A flight-test of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system has been delayed several days by bad weather and a broken piece of test-range equipment. Integrated Flight Test 13C (IFT-13C), originally planned for Dec. 8, was postponed because of heavy clouds at Kodiak Island, Alaska, the target missile's launch site (DAILY, Dec. 10). Attempts to make up the test on Dec. 9 and Dec. 11 were stymied by rainstorms at the Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific, where the interceptor is to be fired.
Space Communication Corp. (SCC) of Japan and Boeing are investigating a fuel tank problem onboard SSC's Superbird-6 satellite that has "significantly shortened" its mission life, according to the company. SCC discovered the problem Nov. 28 when Superbird-6 experienced an attitude error that has been blamed on insufficient pressure in one of its fuel tanks.
