HONEYWELL said its "WorldNav" avionics were selected by a consortium of Latin American carriers for up to 195 Airbus A319 and A320 aircraft. The equipment includes the Pegasus Flight Management System, integrated Air Data/Inertial Reference System, and TCAS 2000 collision avoidance system.
ITT INDUSTRIES said the mobile version of the GCA-2000 Precision Approach and Landing System, the AN/MPN-25, has completed system acceptance testing and has been delivered to the U.S. Air Force. The acceptance testing included flight tests to verify performance accuracy, road tests for mobility, and load testing on a C-130. The first system, delivered under a larger contract, will be assigned to Dover AFB, Del., where it will serve the Air Mobility Command.
The U.S. Army has decided to drastically alter the airborne Advanced Quickfix (AQF) system and the Ground-Based Common Sensor Light (GBCS-L) system, which work together to support the division with signals intelligence and electronic warfare capabilities, and launch a three-year effort to develop an enhanced system in about three years.
Early indications that Republicans will pick up added seats in today's elections could bode well for moves expected in the new Congress to lift defense budget caps and support big ticket acquisition programs.
AAR Cooper Aviation, a division of AAR Corp., formed a strategic alliance with Norcross Air Inc. and Puroflow Inc. to provide a range of filtration products to the regional business and general aviation aftermarket, Puroflow reported yesterday.
October 29, 1998 Raytheon TI Systems, Inc., McKinney, Texas, is being awarded a $24,356,155 modification to previously awarded contract N00019-95-C-0198 to exercise an option for 11 AN/APS-137B(V)5 radars for the P-3C aircraft. Work will be performed in McKinney, Texas, and is expected to be completed in September 2000. Contract funds in the amount of $25,618 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.
Ukraine's NPO Yuzhnoye has blamed the Sept. 10 failure of a Zenit booster carrying 12 U.S. Globalstar low Earth orbit communications satellites on a "random" computer error and not a design flaw. According to news reports from Kiev, a Ukrainian-Russian review board determined that the failure was not caused by a design flaw in the big rocket, which is also the basis of the Boeing-led Sea Launch venture. Russia's RSC Energia builds the Block DM upper stage for the Zenit launch vehicle.
The Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle on Thursday completed its sixth flight test with a nine-and-a-half-hour mission at Edwards AFB, Calif. The aircraft took off at 6:30 a.m. PST. It reached an altitude of 60,000 feet.
The new Pemco World Air Services operation at Southern California International Airport at Victorville, Calif. - the former George AFB - has logged World Airways, Inc., of Herndon, Va., as its first commercial customer. World contracted with Pemco for light maintenance of three Douglas MD-11 trijets. Two others will be serviced at Pemco's Dothan, Ala., operation.
BOEING has developed a new "sandwich gasket" for airplanes that it said eliminates the need for sealants and toxic materials and prevents corrosion. Mickey Williamson, a customer technology specialist for the company, said the gasket can be used for antennas and similar equipment. It consists of a double aluminum mesh with a fluorosilicone compound between the two screens. When pressure is applied, a waterproof seal is formed. Using the new gasket, the time to replace an antenna can be reduced from up to four hours to only half an hour, he said.
Raytheon Co. agreed to sell its sonobuoy business for $21.6 million in cash to Ultra Electronics (Holdings) PLC, a U.K.-based aerospace and defense company with operations in the U.K. and Canada. Raytheon's sonobuoy business, which has produced over 4.8 million of the submarine-detecting devices since the mid-1950s, is part of Raytheon Systems Co.'s Communications Systems Div., Fort Wayne, Ind.
An enhanced version of the 737-700 airliner, the platform for the Boeing Business Jet, received Federal Aviation Administration and Joint Aviation Authorities approval on Oct. 29, according to Boeing Business Jets. The approval came several days earlier than expected. "This is another important milestone in the BBJ program," Borge Boeskov, president, BBJ, said in a statement. The order book stands at 46, Boeing said, with nine committed to the Boeing NetJets fractional-ownership program.
The U.S. National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) plans to buy imagery and related products worth up to $100 million from Orbital Imaging Corp. As part of the contract, Orbimage will upgrade its ground infrastructure to meet NIMA demands for timely satellite tasking and imagery processing and dissemination, the Dulles, Va.-based affiliate of Orbital Science Corp. said Friday. Under the contract, NIMA can order up to $100 million in imagery, and there is a guaranteed minimum pre-launch amount of the product.
The Pentagon in about two weeks is expected to announce the sites of environmental impact studies for possible location of a future national missile defense system. Sources expect Alaska and North Dakota to be on the list, regardless of ABM Treaty restrictions. The treaty only allows for an NMD site at Grand Forks, N.D., but DOD is leaning toward considering a "threat compliant site" in Alaska, a Pentagon official says.
PARAVANT COMPUTER SYSTEMS INC., Melbourne, Fla., said it is concluding a $208,000 development contract with Boeing Co. under which Paravant modified one of its products to function, with Boeing software, as the operational level tester for the Advanced Tactical Air Reconnaissance System (ATARS). The tester will be used to trouble-shoot and test the ATARS, according to Richard P. McNeight, president and chief operating officer of Paravant. The contract covers only development of the prototype unit, to be delivered to Boeing at the end of 1998.
U.S. AIR FORCE has decided to do away with its Information Warfare Support Teams within two years. Instead, the Air Intelligence Agency will have 20 to 30 experts at each major AF organization to support IW needs. To help detect attacks on its information systems, the service has developed a passive system to detect intrusions and attempt to characterize and profile the attack, according to an AF official.
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), chairman of the House National Security procurement subcommittee, received political action committee contributions from the defense industry through mid October amounting to $96,800 - more than received by the campaigns of HNSC Chairman Rep. Floyd Spence (R-S.C.) and Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) the research and development chairman, combined.
DRS TECHNOLOGIES, Parsippany, N.J., has won a $3.7 million contract from Lockheed Martin Federal Systems, Manassas, Va., to design and manufacture Acoustic Data Recorder systems for the U.S. Navy's P-3C aircraft. With options, DRS said, the value of the contract could increase to more than $20 million. Work on the contract will be carried out at the company's Precision Echo Inc. unit in Santa Clara, Calif.
The White House's decision to generate revenue by auctioning part of the frequency spectrum to commercial telecommunications providers has had an increasingly costly side effect for the Pentagon. Several systems will be affected by the use of frequencies in which military equipment is supposed to work. Among the most critical are devices to detect low observable cruise missiles. "We need more bandwidth, not less" for that mission, says Arthur Money, the Pentagon's chief information officer. A military officer says at least one classified system is already affected.
The F/A-18E/F flight test program has completed engineering and manufacturing development flutter testing, Boeing said. It said the tests, conducted with no external stores and with 15 different stores configurations, showed that the Super Hornet meets safety margins and that there are no aeroelastic limitations on external stores carriage speeds.
While the electronics portion of U.S. defense budgets is projected to grow 7% over the next 10 years, the decline in the overall budget means the Pentagon won't have enough money to buy everything it needs, leaving it with some tough choices, according to the Government Electronic and Information Technology Alliance (GEIA).
