Computer Sciences Raytheon, Patrick Air Force Base, Fla., is being awarded a $101,466,200 face value increase to a cost-plus-award-fee contract to provide for FY 1999 range technical services for operation and maintenance of the Eastern Range and the 45th Space Wing. Expected contract completion date is September 30, 1999. The 45th Contracting Squadron, Patrick Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity (F08650-94-C-0001, P00133).
Robertson Aviation Inc., Tempe, Ariz., is being awarded a $15,968,685 (base year total) firm-fixed-price contract, with a cumulative total of $27,979,456 if all options are exercised, for 209 CH-47D Chinook crashworthy extended range fuel system (CWERFS) "A" kits, 25 CWERFS "B" kits, and associated training and technical manuals. Work will be performed in Tempe, Ariz., and is expected to be completed by July 10, 2000. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on June 15, 1998.
Charles Kaman, 79, chief executive officer and president of Kaman Corp., suffered a mild stroke late last week following successful knee replacement surgery, the company reported yesterday. Kaman's physicians report that he is resting comfortably, and are hopeful for a full recovery, the company said. Until Kaman's return, Robert Garneau, executive vice president and chief financial officer, will coordinate ongoing business activities.
General Dynamics Land Systems Inc., Sterling Heights, Mich., is being awarded a $20,835,000 firm-fixed-price contract to rebuild 45 M1A1 Abrams Tank, Abrams Integrated Management XXI Program. Work will be performed in Lima, Ohio (77%); Scranton, Pa. (20%); and Muskegon, Mich. (3%), and is expected to be completed by July 31, 2000. Of the total contract funds, $19,771,335 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on July 23, 1998. The contracting activity is the U.S. Army Tank-automotive&Armaments Command, Warren, Mich.
Boeing and Lockheed Martin both have Joint Strike Fighter designs that are near the U.S. Air Force's $28 million unit cost goal, and neither has sacrificed requirements beyond what the AF can accept, a senior AF official said last week.
Boeing Commercial Airplane Group selected five mills to supply all its aluminum flat-rolled products and small and intermediate extrusions for the next 10 years. The agreements will have an estimated value of $4.3 billion when finalized and are part of Boeing's new "lean" procurement strategy, under which the company will buy directly from the mills then provide products through a single distributor to external suppliers and internal parts shops.
Congress would be likely to endorse a $510 million NASA plan to keep the International Space Station on track regardless of what happens as NASA's Russian partner faces a government crisis, but the Clinton White House must concede its past Station policy hasn't worked and ask for the help, the chairman of the House Science Committee has told a NASA audience.
Power Spectra Inc., Sunnyvale, Calif., laid off all employees due to lack of operating capital, pending the securing of additional financing. A spokesman said yesterday that the company basically can't meet its payroll. It has been searching for other sources of funding. Power Spectra designs and makes ground penetrating radar systems, laser rangefinders and high-output-power impulse generators for industrial and military applications which use the company's proprietary high-speed gallium arsenide (GaAs) switching devices.
Northrop Grumman Corp., Bethpage, N.Y., is being awarded a $20,497,380 firm-fixed-price contract for the fabrication and assembly of five EA-6B wing center sections. Work will be performed in St. Augustine, Fla. (43%), Bethpage, N.Y. (35%), and Melbourne, Fla. (22%), and is expected to be completed by June 2001. 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-0057).
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.
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.
