The Pentagon is seeking high tech firms to participate in a Dual Use Science and Technology (DU S&T) program this fall to develop new technologies that can be used by the commercial and military sectors. Project managers from the DU S&T program are scheduled to describe the goal of the program and military interests in the commercial sector at an Oct. 22 meeting in Arlington, Va., and at an Oct. 29 meeting in Los Angeles.
The board of directors of Primex Technologies Inc., St. Petersburg, Fla., approved a stock repurchase program of up to 250,000 shares, or about 5% of the company's common stock, Primex reported yesterday. The company said that from time to time and as conditions allow, it may buy back shares on the open market at prevailing market prices or in negotiated transactions off the market.
Tracor Systems Technologies Inc., a subsidiary of Marconi North America Inc., won a five-year contract with a potential value of $90.4 million, including options, to provide engineering services for the U.S. Navy's Physical, Electronic and Computer Sensor Systems (PECSS) program, Marconi reported Tuesday.
Deep Space 1, the first advanced space technology demonstrator built under NASA's New Millennium program, has entered processing at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., in preparation for an Oct. 15 launch aboard a Boeing Delta II. The 1,080-pound spacecraft, built by Spectrum Astro, will test 12 new space probe technologies as it heads toward a flyby of the near-Earth asteroid 1992-KD next July and possibly two dormant comets in 2001.
Overall, the latest financial quarter was fairly normal for the major U.S. aerospace and defense companies, analysts said. "I see pretty respectable gains," said Richard Aboulafia, an analyst with The Teal Group of Fairfax, Va. "In some ways it's a growth market and should be making money, and a lot of people are."
The Pentagon's Selected Acquisition Report (SAR) for the six months ending June 30 says the cost of more than 70 major programs was practically the same as it was six months before, at the end of December. The cost of 77 programs totaled $674.1 billion, only $5.1 million - or 0.001% - less. The reason, according to the report, which will be officially released today, is a $5.1 million correction in the cost of the Navy's Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC).
The U.S. Army and the Pentagon's Inspector General agree that the life-cycle costs of the RAH-66 Comanche helicopter may be understated. But they disagree to the tune of nearly $30 billion on how much.
Northrop Grumman has won a competition to supply more than 200 targeting pods to the U.S. Air National Guard and Reserve for use on F-16s starting in 2001. The Air Force last week awarded Northrop Grumman a $17.7 million contract for eight Litening Pod systems. The service plans to buy about 264 pods to equip F-16C/Ds in the Block 25/30/32 configuration (DAILY, Oct. 2, 1997). The eight pods are needed to achieve initial operational capability by the year 1999.
BOEING said the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has granted type certification to the next-generation 737-600 airliner. Deliveries to Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) are scheduled to begin next month, pending Joint Aviation Authorities type certification approval.
Northrop Grumman won a five-year, $16.5 million contract from the Naval Sea Systems Command to develop the Common Broadband Advanced Sonar System (CBASS), designed to enhance the effectiveness of the MK48 ADCAP torpedo, the company reported yesterday.
Russia is testing two new cruise missiles to upgrade the capabilities of its strategic weapons. One missile is intended for Tu-95MS (Bear-H) and Tu-160 (Blackjack) strategic bombers, while the other was developed for Tu-22M3 intermediate- range bombers.
Pentagon spending on service contracts for engineering, computers, management and construction has grown slightly over the past decade, even as the military spent less for equipment, according to a new General Accounting Office report on DOD spending trends.
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Stratford, Conn., is being awarded a ceiling amount $22,000,000 undefinitized delivery order against a basic ordering agreement to provide supplies and services to perform engineering investigations, preliminary design, logistics studies and support, and tool fabrication to develop a CH-60 vertical replenishment helicopter. Work will be performed in Stratford, Conn., and is expected to be completed by December 2000. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured.
Bulova Technologies LLC, Lancaster, Pa., is being awarded a $9,315,023 cost-plus-incentive-fee contract for material change and production of the M762/M767 Electronic Time Artillery Fuze. Work will be performed in Lancaster, Pa., and is expected to be completed by Jan. 31, 2001. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There was an announcement on the World Wide Web on Dec. 17, 1997, and two bids were received. The contracting activity is the U.S. Army Tank-automotive & Armaments Command, Picatinny Arsenal, N.J. (DAAE30-98-C-1086).
Royal Navy plans for two future aircraft carriers and their 100-120 new planes will comprise one of the largest current British military procurement programs, after the Eurofighter and the Trident submarine force. According to Sir Robert Walmsley, chief of U.K. defense procurement, the estimated purchase costs of the carriers and aircraft will total around 9.2 billion pounds ($15 billion), or about the same as the U.K.'s entire current annual military equipment expenditure.
AlliedSignal Inc., Torrance, Calif., acquired The Canaan Group Ltd., an aerospace management consulting firm. Terms were not disclosed, and Canaan will maintain its operational independence. Canaan, founded in 1986 and based in Park City, Utah, provides strategy development, market analysis and operations management for airlines, aerospace original equipment makers and service providers.
GTE Government Systems Corp., Needham Heights, Mass., is being awarded a $11,703,003 face value increase to a firm-fixed-price-contract to provide for procurement and installation of the Defense Improved Emergency Message Automated Transmission System (IEMATS) Replacement Command and Control Terminal (DIRECT) at seven operational sites and a Direct Software Support Facility. The terminal is used to compose Emergency Action Messages for transmission through the Defense Message System and the Higher Authority Communication Systems.
COLEMAN RESEARCH CORP., Orlando, Fla., has won a $20 million contract under the U.S. Army's Consolidated Theater Targets (CTTS) program. The award, CRC's first under CTTS, calls for the corporation's Coleman Aerospace Co. to provide three threat-representative ballistic missiles for use as targets for developmental testing of U.S. Navy Area Theater Ballistic Missile Defense systems. Under the indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract, Coleman Aerospace Co. competes with two other contractors.
Fairchild Dornier is expected to double the number of its employees - to a total of 3,600 people - within the next two years to match growing orders for its new 728Jet aircraft family, a top executive of the regional aircraft manufacturer said last week in Oberpfaffenhofen.
Sikorsky Support Services, Stratford, Conn., is being awarded a $147,702,818 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity requirements contract to procure intermediate and organizational level maintenance for 100 T-2C, 53 TA-4J, 2 HH-1N, and 3 UH-3H aircraft under the Chief of Naval Air Training flight training program. Work will be performed in Meridian, Miss. (70%), Pensacola, Fla. (23%), and Corpus Christi, Texas (7%), and is expected to be completed by August 2003. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
DOT Inspector General Kenneth Mead told FAA last week it needs to come up with a "more realistic schedule" for the Wide Area Augmentation System and "should formally acknowledge that its current schedule for the operation of the final phase of WAAS, December 2001, will not be met."
Boeing Co. has begun using a test variant of the E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft for evaluation of technologies to be show-cased next month in the U.S. Air Force's Expeditionary Force Experiment, or EFX '98. Boeing, using the TS-3 aircraft, is testing a phased array antenna, a broadcast intelligence terminal, the step-one Radar System Improvement Program (RSIP) architecture, and multi-source integration capability. Flight tests will assess how the systems work against live targets.
HELLFIRE Systems LLC, Orlando, Fla., is being awarded $6,205,000 as part of a not-to-exceed $12,400,000 firm-fixed-price letter contract for HELLFIRE II Blast Fragmentation Warhead Missiles and HELLFIRE II Training Guided Missiles. Work will be performed in Orlando, Fla., and is expected to be completed by May 31, 2000. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on July 10, 1998. The contracting activity is the U.S. Army Aviation&Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala. (DAAH01-98-C-0197).
Preparatory work has started on creation of a holding company which will concentrate on development and production of Mil helicopters. The holding company, called "Mi Helicopters" should include Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant (MVZ), serial-production plants in Kazan, Rostov-on-Don and Ulan-Ude, and the Moscow-based Vpered plant.
