U.S. military officials see North Korea's ability to strike beyond the Korean peninsula as one of the key considerations resulting from Pyongyang's successful test of the two-stage Taepo Dong 1 intermediate range ballistic missile on Monday. "Does the Taepo Dong bother me any more than the Scud or the No Dong? On the Korean peninsula it doesn't," a senior U.S. military official, who asked not to be named, told reporters yesterday. "...It certainly bothers me in that it has a longer reach."
Raytheon Co. said it has ratified a new, two-year labor agreement with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The pact covers 3,800 workers in Raytheon facilities in nine cities. Among the new contract's provisions are a 5% wage increase the first year of the contract and a 4% increase the second, and an increase in the amount employees pay for health benefits.
A Boeing Delta II has been cleared to launch five Iridium replenishment satellites from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., Friday, after company engineers determined the failure of the new Delta III last week apparently was unrelated to hardware the new rocket has in common with the old. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 2 at VAFB is scheduled for 5:35 p.m. EDT, with only a five-second launch window available to position the satellites properly in the Iridium constellation.
The U.S. Air Force's 14th Air Force, Vandenberg AFB, Calif., has established a Space Operations Center to support warfighters. The SOC belongs to the newly established 614th Space Operations Group which has responsibility for the 614th Space Operations Squadron, the 2nd Command and Control Squadron, and the 76th Space Operations Squadron. The support functions will include weather, communications, intelligence, and missile warning and space surveillance, the AF said.
The Administration intends to send an emergency supplemental bill for up to $3 billion for intelligence spending to boost security at overseas embassies, senators said yesterday. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told The DAILY the supplemental is expected to come to the Hill this week. It will contain funds to "harden" the embassies in immediate need and for other intelligence activities, which he declined to specify.
Europe's Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) completed validation of the MD Explorer helicopter in its 902 configuration and recommended that the JAA's 27 member nations issue Amended Type Certificates (ATC). Boeing, reporting the development Monday, said it is anticipated that JAA member nations will begin issuing ATCs within the next month.
A conference on Global Positioning System signal interference failed to convince at least some of those attending that the issue can be easily resolved. Sean Gilmore of MIT's Lincoln Laboratory told the Aug. 27 conference in Cambridge, Mass., that noise jammers will affect the civil C/A GPS code out to 85 kilometers, and that spoofers will work out to the horizon. Spoofers can transmit a fake GPS signal to the user.
Now that Denmark has picked Northrop Grumman's Reconnaissance Infrared Surveillance and Target Acquisition (RISTA) system for its F-16s, the company is eyeing several other potential buyers. "We've seen enough programs" to make RISTA a profitable business, Nicholas C. Ceradini, RISTA marketing manager for Northrop Grumman Electronic Sensors and Systems Div., said in an interview here.
British Aerospace is using initial orders for 58 upgraded Hawk 100s from Australia and Canada as the basis for an international sales campaign for lead-in fighter trainers (LIFTs), incorporating further options to meet specific customer requirements.
Using nuclear-powered aircraft carriers is about $8 billion more expensive over the 50-year life of the ships than using conventional carriers, the General Accounting Office said in a report released last week. The Pentagon agreed that CVNs cost more, but disagreed on the amount.
ITT Systems and Sciences Corp., Colorado Springs, Colo., was awarded on Aug. 21, 1998, a $43,646,615 face value increase to a cost-plus-award-fee-contract to provide for FY 1999 Mission Software Support Program for Cheyenne Mountain Air Station, Colorado. This effort includes communication, space surveillance, and space defense mission applications software support, systems engineering and integration, and other general support services. Expected contract completion date is Sept. 30, 1999.
Northrop Grumman Corp., Bethpage, N.Y., is being awarded a $7,600,000 ceiling priced order against a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for contractor engineering technical services to support the French E-2C program under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. Work will be performed in France (90%), and Bethpage, N.Y. (10%), and is expected to be completed by September 2001. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured.
Northrop Grumman Corp., Linthicum Heights, Md., is being awarded a $5,584,145 firm-fixed-price-contract to provide for 1,549 radar circuit card assemblies applicable to the F-16 aircraft. There were 31 firms solicited and one proposal received. Expected contract completion date is December 2000. Solicitation issue date was May 8, 1998. Negotiation completion date was Aug. 6, 1998. Ogden Air Logistics Center, Hill AFB, Utah, is the contracting activity (F09603-95-G-0020-QP29).
Comptek Federal Systems, Inc., Buffalo, N.Y., is being awarded a $28,698,246 cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to provide technical engineering support services for electronic combat systems and warfare systems necessary to perform electronic warfare missions. Work will be performed in Point Mugu, Calif. (81%), and Camarillo, Calif. (19%), and the expected completion date is August 2000. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
Northrop Grumman Field Support Services, Inc., Baltimore, Md., is being awarded an $8,500,000 firm-fixed-price contract for the incorporation of engineering change proposal 287 (9,000 hour time compliance requirements) into the F-14B/D aircraft. Work will be performed in Baltimore, Md., and is expected to be completed by April 1999. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity (N00019-98-C-0168).
North Korea early yesterday conducted the first test of its two-stage Taepo Dong I ballistic missile at a range of 1,500 kilometers, firing across Japan and into the Pacific Ocean, Pentagon officials said yesterday. The U.S. intelligence community has been saying for about a year that the test of the Taepo Dong I, North Korea's first multi-stage ballistic missile, could take place at any time. Pentagon officials said yesterday they were expecting the test and had several assets in place to observe it.
TASC, Inc., Chantilly, Va., is being awarded a $6,075,885 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to provide for development of software to improve capabilities for worldwide, near real-time, multimedia (e.g., voice, data, video, imagery) information exchange. Expected contract completion date is thirty-six months from contract award date. Solicitation issue date was February 26, 1998. Negotiation completion date was August 20, 1998. Air Force Research Laboratory, Rome, N.Y., is the contracting activity (F30602-98-C-0252).
The German Aerospace Center, DLR, plans to demonstrate in-flight telemedecine as part of a larger demonstration of high-date-rate communications with aircraft. During a two-week demonstration in Rome that is part of a wider European research project, DLR will supply a Do-228 to show off in-flight multimedia capability, DLR said in a statement last week. The demonstration is scheduled to begin today.
An "internal wrangle within the U.K." concerning initial maintenance support for the Eurofighter EF 2000, now officially named the "Typhoon," could delay a contract signature for the first production batch of 148 aircraft, according to weekend press reports in London.
A Russian Proton rocket successfully orbited the Astra-2A communications satellite for the Societe Europeenne des Satellites (SES) Sunday. Astra-2A is the eighth satellite in orbit for the Luxembourg-based company and the first to be permanently located at its new orbital position of 28.2 degrees East longitude. From that slot it will provide digital television, radio and multi-media services to the U.K. and Ireland. The Astra 2A platform was built by Hughes Space and Communications, builder of six of the SES platforms in orbit.
Veridian Veda Operations, Camarillo, Calif., is being awarded a 26,669,267 cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to provide technical engineering support services for electronic combat systems and warfare systems necessary to perform electronic warfare missions. Work will be performed in Point Mugu, Calif. (81%), and Camarillo, Calif. (19%), and the expected completion date is August 2000. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
The Senate Republican leadership is considering having the Senate vote next week on a bill making it the policy of the U.S. to deploy "as soon as technologically feasible" a national missile defense (NMD) to protect against a limited threat, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said yesterday.
The Pentagon's National Missile Defense Joint Program Office last week released a list of the subcontractors working with NMD Lead System Integrator Boeing Co. Boeing in April was selected as LSI to develop an NMD system that could be deployed as early as 2003 if the Administration deems this necessary based on threat assessments (DAILY, May 1). Last month, the Pentagon decided to move forward with a commercial-off-the-shelf option for the system's interceptor, rather than modifying Minuteman III ICBMs (DAILY, July 27).
