The U.S. Air Force yesterday approved low rate initial production of the Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser and is getting ready to field an operational capability early next year, about five months ahead of schedule. Darleen Druyun, the AF's principal deputy assistant secretary for acquisition and management, gave WCMD the green light to enter production and declared its Global Positioning System guidance ready for initial operational test and evaluation, Col. William Wise, system program director for area attack weapons, said in an interview yesterday.
TEXTRON LYCOMING and Detroit Diesel Corp. have agreed to design, develop, certificate and manufacture turbocharged diesel engines of about 200 horsepower for general aviation aircraft. The companies said Friday that the appeal is strong for aero-diesels in remote areas, and where aviation gasoline is scarce.
NASA has issued its long-awaited research announcement for the first "Future-X" flight demonstrations of advanced Earth-to-orbit technologies, offering industry, academic, government and other researchers as much as $90 million to prove out new ways to cut the cost of access to space.
The U.S. Air Force last week completed the first aerial refueling of its F-22 fighter as part of the ongoing test program at Edwards AFB, Calif. The refueling involved aircraft 4001 and a KC-135, an Edwards spokesman said late Friday. The refueling took place Thursday about 1.5 hours into the F-22's flight. The F-22 and KC-135 were flying at about 20,000 feet and 300 knots.
Litton Industries, Inc., is selling its Solid State Div., in Santa Clara, Calif., to the U.K.-based Filtronic PLC for $43 million. Solid State designs and manufactures microwave and millimeter wave semiconductors, components and integrated assemblies. Litton said its customers include commercial wireless infrastructure manufacturers, automotive electronic suppliers, military system original equipment manufacturers, and manufacturers of high reliability space systems. Filtronic will retain the company's 260 full-time employees.
Digital Systems International Corporation of Arlington, Va. is being awarded a $13,721,129 cost-plus-award-fee contract for support services to the BMDO Contracts Directorate. Work will be performed at Arlington, Va. and is expected to be completed in July 2003. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Forty-five offerors were solicited and three proposals were received. The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization is the contracting activity (HQ0006-98-C-0011).
A little noticed amendment, added to the $252 billion fiscal 1999 defense appropriations bill before Senate passage Thursday night, would halve the threshold for matching Defense Dept. disbursements to obligations before payment is made to contractors, dropping it to $500,000 by next June. The proposal was offered by Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and was included in a package of amendments accepted by the Senate by voice vote.
FIRST ITALIAN-BUILT multi-purpose pressurized logistics module (MPLM) for the International Space Station arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., Saturday aboard an Airbus A-300-600ST cargo plane. One of three such modules being built by Alenia Aerospazio to provide pressurized transport for payloads headed both to and from the Station, the "Leonardo" module will be processed at KSC for launch on STS-100 in December 1999.
Boeing Co. and GKN Westland Helicopters Ltd. yesterday announced formal establishment of a joint venture company to supply aircrew and maintenance training services for the British Army's WAH-64 attack helicopter. The companies, which first announced the joint venture earlier this year (DAILY, Feb. 5), said the 30-year contract has a potential value of $1 billion.
Bell Helicopter Textron will build a $40 million plant for production of the V-22 Osprey and Bell 609 commercial tiltrotor at the Amarillo, Tex., airport. The company said yesterday that construction of the 450,000 square-
Lockheed Martin Vought Systems, Grand Prairie, Texas, is being awarded a $5,158,266 modification to a firm-fixed-price contract for 223 extended range rocket pods for Korea and Bahrain. Work will be performed in Camden, Ark. (90%), and Grand Prairie, Texas (10%), and is expected to be completed by Aug. 31, 1999. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on April 30, 1998. The contracting activity is the U.S. Army Aviation&Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala. (DAAH01-96-C-0304).
World Airways, Inc., Herndon, Va.; Evergreen International Airlines, McMinnville, Ore.; Emery Worldwide Airlines, Vandalia, Ohio; Miami Air International, Inc., Miami Springs, Fla.; Northwest Airlines, Inc., St. Paul, Minn.; Southern Air Transport, Inc., Columbus, Ohio; United Parcel Service Company, Louisville, Ky.; American Airlines, Inc., Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, Texas; Continental Airlines, Inc.
Federal Express Corp., Greenbelt, Md., is being awarded a $7,926,553 firm-fixed-price-contract to provide for FY 1999 international express small package service. There were 18 firms solicited and 4 proposals received. Expected contract completion date is September 30, 1999. Solicitation issue date was April 8, 1998. Negotiation completion date was July 2, 1998. Headquarters Air Mobility Command, Scott AFB, Ill., is the contracting activity (Contract number not applicable).
Federal Express Charter Programs, Memphis, Tenn.; American Trans Air, Inc., Indianapolis, Ind.; Air Transport International, Little Rock, Ark.; BAX Global, Swanton, Ohio; Tower Air, Inc., Jamaica, N.Y.; and Polar Air Cargo, Inc., Long Beach, Calif., were awarded on July 24, a $225,072,396 firm-fixed-price-contract to provide for FY 1999 international airlift services. Federal Express will perform approximately 25%, and American Trans Air approximately 31%, with the remaining effort to be performed by the other participating contractors.
CFM INTERNATIONAL won a contract valued at $300 million to supply CFM56 engines for 30 firm next-generation 737s ordered by Boullioun Aviation Services. Boullioun also placed 30 options.
Nichols Research Corp., Huntsville, Ala., is being awarded a $14,045,442 face value increase to a cost-plus-award-fee-contract to provide for FY 1999-2000 engineering, analysis, and design effort in support of national and theater missile defense programs, battle management/command, control and communication systems, and sea, air, ground and space-based sensor systems. Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles AFB, Calif., is the contracting activity (F04701-93-C-0010, P00124).
Bell Helicopter Textron Inc., Ft. Worth, Texas, is being awarded a $41,250,000 firm-fixed-price letter contract with a not-to-exceed cumulative total of $82,500,000, for 13 Kiowa Warrior aircraft, to include spares and logistics support. Work will be performed in Hurst, Texas, and is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2001. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract. The contracting activity is the U.S. Army Aviation&Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala. (DAAH23-98-C-0109).
Astronaut Dafydd "Dave" Rhys Williams of the Canadian Space Agency has been named director of the Space and Life Science Directorate at NASA's Johnson Space Center. Williams, an experienced astronaut and specialist in emergency medicine, has a master's degree in physiology and a doctorate in medicine from McGill University in Montreal. He was selected as an astronaut by the Canadian Space Agency in June 1992 and held a variety of position there before being named to NASA's astronaut class of 1995.
Predictions of increased solar activity in the year 2000 and heightened meteorite activity during the next three years have U.S. Space Command worried about the safety of its assets, but Gen. Howell Estes, the command's chief, says there is little that can be done.
ITT Corp., Aerospace/Communication Division, Fort Wayne, Ind., is being awarded a firm-fixed-price, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract (appropriation number and dollar value will be issued with each delivery order), with an estimated not-to-exceed cumulative total of $40,878,620, for Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System spares, including 196 different spare parts. Work will be performed in Fort Wayne, Ind., and is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2000. This is a sole source contract initiated on July 2, 1997.
Allied Signal Inc., Phoenix, Ariz., is being awarded a $34,378,400 modification to a firm-fixed-price contract for 70 Conversion Kits, Low Rate Initial Production II, and 70 Engine Fielding Kits, Low Rate Initial Production II. Work will be performed in Phoenix, Ariz., and is expected to be completed by Nov. 30, 1999. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on March 3, 1997. The contracting activity is the U.S. Army Aviation&Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala. (DAAH23-98-C-0028).
The U.S. Navy is considering sponsoring a demonstration of a Joint Direct Attack Munition with a range-extension wing to determine whether it wants to pursue such an enhancement for some of the JDAMs it plans to buy.
A cost-cutting drill by the U.S. Navy has been able to bring the price of the AGM-154C unitary variant of the Joint Standoff Weapon below the service's goal of $200,000, according to Navy Capt. Bert Johnston, the JSOW program manager. "We're expecting a weapon with a $175,000 average unit procurement price," Johnston said in a telephone interview Friday.
RAYTHEON CO. has won a $100 million contract from the FAA for new Air Traffic Control Beacon Interrogators to replace ATCBI Models 4 and 5. The new systems, ATCBI-6, are intended to be more reliable and will replace beacons located primarily at en route sites that provide secondary surveillance information. The systems will be manufactured by Cossor Electronics Ltd., a U.K. subsidiary of Raytheon. FAA said it expects the first two test systems to be delivered in mid-1999. The first field systems will be delivered in 2001.
