Lockheed Martin signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Mitsubishi Electric Corp. to explore joint business opportunities. "We believe the agreement will serve our mutual interest effectively over the next several years," Thomas Corcoran, president and chief operating officer of Lockheed Martin, said in a statement. "Accordingly, we are working together to pursue business interests in Japan, and we expect to add specifics to the agreement over the balance of 1998 and into 1999."
The U.S. Navy wants planned upgrades to the Joint Direct Attack Munition to be limited so that unit cost of the weapon doesn't exceed $50,000, a Navy official said. JDAM now costs about $14,000, but the Navy is considering upgrades that would boost the price of its GPS-aided guidance kit. The Navy plans to pay for the more capable JDAM by buying fewer units.
SOCIETE EUROPEENNE DES SATELLITES is preparing for a Saturday launch of its Astra 2A direct-to-home satellite aboard a Proton launcher at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Hughes-built satellite is scheduled to provide 32 active Ku-band transponders at 28.2 degrees East longitude for digital television, radio and multimedia services to the U.K. and Ireland. Liftoff is scheduled for 8:31 p.m. EDT Saturday, with a 10-minute launch window.
ORBITAL SCIENCES CORP. has shipped eight more Orbcomm "Little LEO" low Earth orbit communications satellites from its Germantown, Md., plant to Vandenberg AFB, Calif., for integration into a Pegasus air-launched booster. The eight small satellites, stacked like poker chips at the nose of the Pegasus, are scheduled to be launched next month. If the launch is successful, they will be the 21st through 28th satellites deployed for the Orbcomm constellation, making the system available "virtually full-time," Orbital reported.
The Asian financial crisis that has forced South Korea to reconsider its military modernization plans has delayed a decision on buying an Airborne Early Warning and Control system by a year. Korean government officials were planning to visit the competing AEW&C systems this year but funding for those visits was zeroed, according to an industry official. Under current plans, the test and evaluation trips will take place next year.
Tracor Systems Technologies Inc., Rockville, Md., won a five-year contract with a potential value of $25.9 million including options from the U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center San Diego (SSC San Diego), Marconi North America Inc., reported yesterday. Tracor, a subsidiary of Marconi, will design, install, integrate, test and provide life-cycle support of individual and joint service mobile tactical systems, and related special programs and projects.
The Pentagon's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) plans to conduct a major integrated test soon on a program aimed to prove out the latest in automated target recognition (ATR) technologies that could be integrated on future platforms for cruise missile defense (CMD) missions. BMDO is working with NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab on the Viewing Imager/Gimbaled Instrumentation Laboratory and Analog Neural Three-dimension processing Experiment (VIGILANTE).
Lockheed Martin Information Systems has built its first production- line Close Combat Tactical Trainer (CCTT) simulator system for the U.S. Army. An M1A1 Main Battle Tank simulator was the first of 54 units made under the $70 million, limited-rate, initial-production contracts, the company said. A follow-on production contract for 229 more CCTT units over the next four years is scheduled to be awarded in November.
Two veteran cosmonauts and a former aide to President Boris Yeltsin returned safely to Earth yesterday from the Mir orbital station, touching down on the Kazakh steppe after descending in the Soyuz TM-27 capsule. Commander Talgat Musabayev, flight engineer Nikolai Budarin and Yuri Baturin, who was Yeltsin's top defense advisor before entering training for his 12-day flight, all were reported in good health after the landing, which came at 1:23 a.m. EDT. They had undocked from Mir at 10:05 p.m. EDT Monday.
NASA may have paid as much as $16.4 million for environmental cleanup at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in Ventura County, Calif., and should try to recover the money from the Air Force, the U.S. space agency's inspector general has concluded after an audit.
CAPE CANAVERAL Air Station, Fla., downgraded its hurricane-watch status yesterday as Hurricane Bonnie moved to the north, clearing the way for tonight's planned launch of Boeing's first Delta III rocket. With the hurricane condition lowered to "HURCON IV," range assets were freed to support the launch, Boeing reported. A 65-minute launch window for the Galaxy X payload opens tonight at 8:48 p.m. EDT (DAILY, Aug. 25).
Shutdown of the Russian early warning radar in Skrunda, Latvia, leaves a sector of the Atlantic Ocean extending from Great Britain to Greenland invisible to the radar network intended to detect a potential missile attack from U.S. or British submarines. The Skrunda radar will be phased out on Sept. 1, and in accordance with the agreement between Russia and Latvia the radar should be dismantled within 18 months. After the breakup of the Soviet Union the Skrunda radar operated under a leasing agreement under which Russia paid Latvia $5 millions per year.
COMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY RESEARCHERS INC., a market research and consulting firm based in Charlottesville, Va., sees broadband wireless and satellite services as a gap-filler to wired services that requires "careful targeting of market niches." In a new report, "Broadband Unwired; New Opportunities in LMDS, High-Speed Fixed Wireless and Broadband Satellites," the firm predicts more than 10 million wireless customers worldwide by 2005, with the biggest opportunities in "rural Internet access, telemedicine, distance learning, 'desert start' industrial and commercial developme
Thermal insulation sheets for the Hubble Space Telescope were covered with soot but otherwise undamaged Thursday night when fire broke out in a laboratory at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. A Goddard spokesman said the "rigid blankets" of insulation for the orbiting telescope can be cleaned, and will not need to be replaced. The insulation is scheduled to be installed on the telescope during the STS-104 servicing mission in May 2000.
Parker-Hannifin Corp., Aerospace Group, Irvine, Calif., is being awarded a not-to-exceed base price amount of $11,584,454, as part of a $25,125,938 (if all options are exercised) firm-fixed-price undefinitive contractual action contract for 203 AH-64 Apache helicopter servocylinders, with an option for additional quantities of 144 each, plus an extension for an additional four years-priced. Work will be performed in Irvine, Calif., and is expected to be completed by Aug. 21, 2002. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
After selecting a modified Standard Missile SM-2 to become its near-term land attack missile, the U.S. Navy is looking to conduct an in-depth analysis of alternatives (AOA) starting next fiscal year to decide what the long-term land attack missile should be.
Many of the technologies emerging from the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization's Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program are making their way into key acquisition programs but more could be done, according to the head of the program. "Pushing technologies into an acquisition program is very difficult," Jeff Bond, BMDO's SBIR program manager, said in an interview at the Pentagon.
U.S. AIR FORCE said it has completed a six-month study of navigational aids and landing systems for the Republic of Bulgaria. The final report was formally accepted by Bulgaria in ceremonies held recently in Washington, D.C. The study, run by the Electronic Systems Center under the direction of the Dept. of Defense, focused on enroute and terminal area navigation and landing systems.
Coltec Industries Inc., Charlotte, N.C., acquired the remaining 20% of Garlock Bearings that it did not previously own from Federal-Mogul Corp. Coltec, announcing the move, said it has owned 80% of Garlock since 1976. Garlock, Thorofare, N.J., makes self-lubricating bearings and has sales of about $50 million. "This transaction was an excellent opportunity to become the sole owner of Garlock Bearings under very favorable terms for Coltec's shareholders," said Michael Burdulis, senior vice president, group operations, for Coltec.
The first flight of the unpowered X-40A Space Maneuvering Vehicle prototype is being characterized as successful by U.S. Air Force officials who say that only minor changes will be needed before the next flight test, slated for September.
The U.S. Defense Logistics Agency awarded Lockheed Martin Aircraft&Logistics Centers, Greenville, S.C., a $3.5 million contract to study a new, leaner approach for acquiring and managing aircraft parts inventories. The concept is intended to save the government money through more cost-effective processes and lower inventories, according to Lockheed Martin. The contract is based on a company concept paper that outlines a plan for the Supplier Utilization through Responsive Grouped Enterprise program (SURGE).
Boeing Precision Inc., Chicago, Ill., is being awarded an $843,396 delivery order amount, as part of a $7,857,393 firm-fixed-price, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract for the overhaul/repair of the AH-64 Apache Helicopter main transmission. Work will be performed in Chicago, Ill., and is expected to be completed by Aug. 21, 2006. There were 12 bids solicited on March 19, 1997, and four bids were received. The contracting activity is the U.S. Army Aviation&Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala. (DAAH23-98-D-0101).
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Stratford, Conn., is being awarded a $25,800,000 ceiling priced modification to previously awarded contract N00019-93-C-0053 for the procurement of one CH-53E helicopter for the Marine Corps Reserves. Work will be performed in Stratford, Conn., and is expected to be completed in September 1999. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.
