John B. (Bat) LaPlante, retired vice admiral of the U.S. Navy, joined the company as director, Mobile Offshore Base (MOB) Program Development at the Washington Operations office in Arlington, Va.
Geoffrey H. Vincent, former deputy head of NASA public affairs, has joined the University's Washington, D.C., office as senior adviser for Public Affairs. Joe B. Wyatt has been named chairman of the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable, a forum of over two dozen leaders of the American science and technology enterprise. He succeeds former Ohio Gov. Richard Celeste who was appointed U.S. Ambassador to India.
The Pentagon has recalled B-52 bombers recently deployed to the U.K. - from which they were to have been prepared for possible strikes against the Yugoslav province of Kosovo - for possible use in other operations, such as a strike against Iraq. To handle a Kosovo contingency, Defense Secretary William Cohen has put B-52s at Barksdale AFB, La., on alert.
The following appointments were announced: Robert Amadio, vice president, finance Joan Kelley, vice president, human resources Roger Mancuso, chief technical officer Charles Manor, vice president, communications Gerald Mussara, vice president, government and regulatory affairs Stephen Piper, general counsel and vice president Jack Roepers, vice president, plans and analysis Karl Savatiel, vice president, business development
Gregory S. Churchill has been appointed vice president, Integrated Applications&Navigation Systems. R.K. (Kelly) Ortberg has been appointed vice president, Communications Systems.
U.S. Supreme Court justices yesterday refused to hear an appeal by workers at a secret government base in Nevada who claimed they were exposed to hazardous materials by unlawful toxic waste burning. The high court rejected without comment an appeal filed by the widows of two men who worked at the base north of Las Vegas known as Area 51, and by five unidentified former or current workers at the facility. The plaintiffs were appealing dismissal of their lawsuit by a federal district court, later upheld by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The U.S. Air Force has entered an agreement with Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Orbital Science Corp. spelling out the rules and requirements for use of launch facilities at Patrick AFB, Fla., and Vandenberg AFB, Calif. The agreement, signed last week by commander-in-chief U.S. Space Command Gen. Richard B. Meyers, and top executives of the three companies details the support the companies can expect to get from the government, and what they have to do in return.
Triumph Group Inc., Wayne, Pa., will acquire DV Industries Inc., Lynwood, Calif., a provider of metal finishing services to the aerospace and defense industries, Triumph said. DV is projected to provide about $17.5 million in sales to Triumph, an aircraft component company. "DV Industries complements and expands our structural parts capabilities and gives Triumph significant new capacity to serve our original equipment manufacturer customers," said Richard Ill, Triumph's president and CEO.
The U.S. Navy's decision to retire its fleet of carrier-based ES-3 signals intelligence (sigint) aircraft to avoid upgrade costs may have been based on incomplete analysis, according to a fleet commander.
October 30, 1998 Raytheon Missile Systems Company, Tucson, Ariz., is being awarded a $6,827,103 face value increase to a cost-plus-fixed-price contract to provide for development, integration, and test of the Tape 7C guidance and targeting software in support of the Block Six Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM). Expected contract completion date is Dec. 31, 1999. Aeronautical Systems Center, Eglin AFB, Fla., is the contracting activity (F08626-93-C-0044-P00041).
A Russian state commission is set to meet Thursday to review whether the first element of the International Space Station is ready for launch, clearing the way for it to be fueled over the weekend. Workers at the Baikonur Cosmodrome yesterday put the finishing touches on the "Zarya" propulsion module, known as the FGB from its Russian acronym, which is scheduled for launch Nov. 20. Russia's Itar-Tass news agency reported a fairing was installed to protect the module during ascent on is Proton launch vehicle.
An article in The DAILY of Oct. 29 incorrectly listed the number of test flights planned for the X-33 reusable launch vehicle prototype. NASA plans a total of 15 flights for the suborbital testbed. The article also stated that Lockheed Martin has spent about 50% more on the X-33 program than originally planned. Gene Austin, NASA's X-33 program manager, stressed later that the additional Lockheed Martin investment was placed into program reserves, and has not been spent.
Curtiss-Wright Flight Systems Inc., Lyndhurst, N.J., agreed to acquire 100% of the shares of SIG Drive Technology Ltd. (SDT), a unit of SIG Swiss Industrial Co. Group (SIG). The transaction is expected to close on or about Dec. 31. SDT, Neuhausen am Rheinfall, Switzerland, makes drive technology products for commercial marine propulsion, train and military vehicle markets. Overall sales are expected to exceed $20 million in 1999, with a current backlog of more than $40 million.
The U.S. Army wants to launch an Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration on the fusing of information from a variety of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) systems. The U.S. Central Command has agreed to sponsor the program, an Army official said. He said the Joint ISR (JISR) ACTD will try to give forces below division level access to the various ISR assets.
October 26, 1998 FLIR Systems, Inc., Portland, Oregon, is being awarded an $8,437,500 firm-fixed-price contract to procure 25 navigation systems and related support equipment for the UH-1N helicopter. Work will be performed in Portland, Oregon, and is expected to be completed in September 1999. Contract funds in the amount of $6,772,500 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The contract was not competitively procured. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity (N00019-98-F-0020).
The U.S. Air Force plans to use the 366th Composite Wing at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, as a permanent fixture of its Expeditionary Aerospace Force plans. When the AF first unveiled the EAF concept, it said it would likely establish 10 Air Expeditionary Forces, each pulled from different bases. The thinking has changed slightly in recent weeks. Now the AF is looking to have nine AEFs from distributed locations, and use the 366th Wing as its tenth AEF, Maj. Gen. Daniel M. Dick, vice commander of Air Combat Command's 12th Air Force, said last week.
U.S. Vice President Al Gore made the inaugural telephone call using the Iridium "Big LEO" satellite system on Sunday, using a handset in the White House Rose Garden to call National Geographic Society Chairman Gilbert M. Grosvenor, great-grandson of Alexander Graham Bell. Gore's call kicked off commercial service for the low Earth orbit satellite communications system, routing his voice through the 66-satellite constellation overhead and back to Earth through a gateway station in Phoenix, Ariz., one of 12 such stations worldwide.
