Honeywell Technology Center, Minneapolis, Minn., is being awarded a $9,684,772 cost-share-contract ($8,148,000, Government Share; $1,537,772, Contractor Share) to provide for research, data and hardware for the Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser-Based Interconnects in Very Large Scale Integration Photonics Architectures for Computational Enhancement Program. This program will develop and demonstrate an optically interconnected, general purpose computer architecture. This was a DARPA Broad Agency Announcement, there were 11 proposals received.
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.
The U.S. Air Force is participating in the U.S. Navy process to look for possible improvements to the Joint Direct Attack Munition, but doesn't appear to have quite the same interest. "Right now JDAM answers [our] need," says Brig. Gen. Bruce Carlson, the AF's chief of requirements. Therefore, "we don't right now need to [product improve the] current JDAM." A range extension is under consideration, but Carlson points out that the AF has the Joint Standoff Weapon and Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile for longer-range missions.
The Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the U.S. Navy are reaching out to industry for a wide-ranging, 18-month multidisciplinary study to enhance the effectiveness of submarines. DARPA and the Navy recently signed an agreement to work on future fast-attack submarine design concepts that will look at advanced payloads and sensor systems. The two organizations want to work with industry teams with a cross-section of technical capabilities.
The next time the U.S. Air Force puts together a bomber roadmap it could lead away from using aircraft for long-range, strategic strike missions to using space-based weapons, said Lt. Gen. Marvin R. Esmond, the Air Force's deputy chief of staff for aerospace operations. "The B-2 provides capability for years to come that will be unmatched for next 20 years," Esmond said. "Beyond that it may be interesting to look at space," he told The DAILY in an interview.
The AF wants a better definition of the requirement fordefeating enemy air defenses. "What we're really looking at instead of a follow-on [to the HARM Targeting System] is some better definition of the requirement," Carlson says. He notes that HTS was assembled quickly under cost constraints. Now the AF wants to look at ways to make the system more reliable and easier to maintain.
Aerospace analysts see a mixed bag for U.S. aerospace companies doing business in Russia as the Russian economy staggers, with satellite launch services in fairly good shape while the International Space Station and commercial aviation could face some big changes. Given the flux in the situation, some U.S. companies trying to break into the Russian market were reserving judgment last week, or at best trying to maintain a positive outlook.
The U.S. has offered Taiwan $350 million worth of missiles and torpedoes and associated equipment under three separate foreign military sales agreements, the Pentagon said yesterday. A letter of offer for 61 dual-mount Stinger air defense missile systems would be valued at $180 million. It would include 728 Stinger RMP missiles and 132 Single Channel Ground/Air Radio System radios. A $101 million deal would provide 58 Harpoon missiles for F-16s. Taiwan already has surface-launched Harpoon missiles.
A Russian naval exercise in the Barents Sea presents less than meets the eye. On Aug. 21 President Boris Yeltsin was among the witnesses as the Northern Fleet demonstrated its prowess with a total of 66 vessels, including 12 "combat ships of the first rank" and 33 aircraft.
WYMAN-GORDON CO., North Grafton, Mass., said it has been authorized by its board of directors to repurchase up to two million shares of its own common stock.
NASA's Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) was back on line Thursday after a ground-based software glitch sent controllers at Goddard Space Flight Center, Md., scrambling to restore the spacecraft's attitude control. The problem arose Aug. 21 after controllers switched the CGRO attitude control from two star trackers to a star tracker and a fine sun sensor, according to a Goddard spokesman. After about 10 minutes the spacecraft started drifting away from nominal attitude.
After a career of flying fighters, U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Ryan will give rotary wing aircraft a try. Ryan is due to fly the V-22 Osprey this week at NAS Patuxent River, Md. The AF is buying 50 of the tiltrotor aircraft for its special operations troops. The Special Operations Command will equip the planes with systems like terrain following/terrain avoidance radar that aren't on the basic MV-22 the Marines will fly.
Controllers at Japan's National Space Development Agency (NASDA) managed to reconnect the two halves of the seventh Engineering Test Satellite (ETS-7) last week, after flight control anomalies had kept the chaser and target satellites apart for almost three weeks.
Rolls-Royce posted a before-tax profit of 135 million pounds ($221.1 million) on sales of 2.1 billion pounds ($3.4 billion) in the first half of 1998. Earnings improved 16% over profits before taxes of 116 million pounds ($190 million) in the first half of 1997, while sales showed a 7% increase over 1997's 2 billion pounds ($3.3 billion).
The BMW Rolls-Royce BR715 engine received the official recommendation for certification on schedule from the European Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) at a thrust rating of 18,500-21,000 pounds, BMW Rolls-Royce reported Friday. "This is an extremely important milestone in BMW Rolls-Royce's eight year history and a major achievement for the new engine program," Dr. Klaus Nittinger, chairman, said in a statement.
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) will try again next week when the Senate returns from August recess to close debate on the American Missile Protection Act of 1998. The bill would make it U.S. policy to deploy a national missile defense system as soon as technologically possible. The House will have similar legislation pending for action before adjournment in the fall. The Senate is expected to have a more difficult time passing the bill because Democrats blocked cloture earlier this year. The House version also is more simplistic, saying only that it is U.S.
