Rada Electronics Industries Ltd., Herzeliya Pituach, Israel, won a $1.5 million order from SABCA of Belgium to supply 20 Fatigue Analyzer&Autonomous Combat Evaluation (FACE) systems for the Belgian Air Force F-16 Mid Life Upgrade. Rada, announcing the award yesterday, said the FACE system is designed for installation in any fixed- or rotary-wing aircraft to reduce operation and maintenance cost and to enhance flight safety.
Senators who recently visited Russia have told the White House they are concerned about Russia's surplus plutonium and reports that Russian companies continue to supply equipment and materials for the design and manufacture of ballistic missiles. The surplus plutonium "represent a clear and present danger to the security of the United States and the world," Sens. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) and Rod Grams (R-Minn.) said in letters to their Senate colleagues and the White House.
SENATE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE will vote tomorrow on the nomination of Florida State Sen. Daryl L. Jones to be Secretary of the Air Force, a committee spokesman said yesterday. The vote is to come after an executive session this afternoon.
The U.S. Army last week successfully tested the HUMVEE mounted AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (HUMRAAM) air defense system, clearing the way for deliberations to formulate a joint-service acquisition strategy for the program. The Marine Corps and Air Force are also interested.
During the second quarter of 1998 a total of 20 space launches with 40 spacecraft were performed worldwide, all successfully. The U.S. had nine launches with 16 satellites, including one for Norway and one for Intelsat. Russia made eight launches, orbiting 19 satellites, including eight for U.S.-based companies. China launched two rockets, one with two U.S.-made Iridium satellites and another with a domestic satellite. Arianespace performed one launch, orbiting one satellite each for Egypt and Japan. All of the second-quarter launches are listed below.
Boeing Defense and Space Group, Seattle, Wash., is being awarded a $58,700,000 firm-fixed-price-contract to provide for the following components in support of four Boeing 767 airframe Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft: 16 Have Quick Radios (4 per aircraft), four Anti-Jam Global Positioning System (GPS) Antenna, four updated SF-6 load cell scales, three Integrated Drive Generators, improved Identification Friend or Foe routing boards, support equipment, and reliability improvements, twelve Solid State Floating Deck Pulsers (1 per aircraft, 8 spares), and
China launched a French-built telecommunications satellite Saturday aboard a Long March 3B rocket, apparently without incident. Sinosat-1, an Alcatel Spacebus 3000 platform equipped with 24 C-band channels and 14 Ku-band channels, was launched from Xichang en route to a geostationary orbit at 110.5 degrees East longitude. From there it will provide television, telephone and financial data transmission to China, the Indochinese peninsula, Indonesia and the Philippines.
The Senate on Friday in a voice vote approved final passage of the fiscal year 1999 VA, HUD and Independent Agencies bill, leaving unchanged the portion that provides $13.6 billion for NASA. Today, the House is expected to wrap up work on its version of the bill. During debate, Rep. Tim Roemer (D-Ind.) plans to offer an amendment to kill the International Space Station. The amendment is expected to fail.
Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space Company, King of Prussia, Pa., is being awarded a $10,000,000 face value increase to a firm-fixed-price-contract to provide for modification of retrofit upgrades to the Crosslink Transponder Data Unit on two Global Positioning System Block IIR spacecraft. Expected contract completion date is August, 1999. Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles, Calif., is the contracting activity (F04701-89-C-0073, P00163).
Camber Corp., Huntsville, Ala., ($99,995); INTELX Corp., Leesburg, Va. ($99,262); Lockheed Martin Corp., Orlando, Fla. ($99,966); Boeing Co., St. Louis, Mo. ($149,276); and Raytheon Training Inc., Irving, Tex. ($98,096) are being awarded a $486,000,000 (Total Program Maximum) indefinite-
The U.S. military services are still waiting for funds released Friday by the White House to the Defense Dept. and other agencies for programs that were line item vetoed last year by President Clinton. The funds were freed after the Supreme Court declared the line item veto unconstitutional on June 25. The highest profile defense projects hit by the veto were the Army's Kinetic Energy Anti-Satellite (KE-ASAT) program, the Air Force's military spaceplane and Clementine 2, and operations and maintenance funds for the SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft.
The Boeing Company, Long Beach, Calif., is being awarded a $25,337,843 face value increase to a fixed-price-incentive-firm-contract to definitize retrofit of 44 C-17 aircraft with the Automatic Communication Processor and Multiband Radio. Estimated contract completion date is May 31, 1999. Solicitation issue date was September 5, 1997. Negotiation completion date was July 17, 1998. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-97-C-2027, P00096).
Raytheon Technical Services Co., Vienna, Va., is being awarded a $13,827,556 increment as part of a $16,350,734 cost-plus-award-fee contract. The cumulative total will be $81,035,134, if all options are exercised. The statement of work specifies tasks required to support the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) Logistics Program to assist in the transportation, storage, dismantlement, safeguarding, and/or destruction of weapons of mass destruction.
Simulations planned for the first phase of the Advanced Tactical Targeting Technology (AT3) program are expected to tell whether it will be feasible to develop an innovative technique for the Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) mission, according to Lt. Col. Beth M. Kaspar, manager of the program for the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Lockheed-Martin Integrated Systems, Syracuse, N.Y., is being awarded a $77,001,432 modification to previously awarded contract N00024-96-C-6300 to exercise options for two AN/SQQ-89(V) Undersea Warfare Combat Systems including the redesign of those systems from a (V)14 configuration to a (V)15 configuration. This mod has a firm-fixed-price pricing arrangement for the production of the AN/SQQ-89 system and related components, and the completion of the design of the (V)15 configuration. Work will be performed in Syracuse, N.Y. (50%), Americus, Ga. (45%), and Norfolk, Va.
Harris Corp., Melbourne, Fla., is being awarded a $6,238,162 competitive indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the Navy AN/WSC-8(V) SHF Terminal Program. This contract is for the production of single and dual satellite terminals designed to transmit official voice and data at rates up to 1.544 megabits per second. The terminals will provide survivable, wartime command and control communications for designated commanders and their assigned forces and will communicate with/through Intelsat satellite transponders with global coverage.
Harris Corp., Melbourne, Fla., is being awarded a $49,000,000 indefinite delivery-indefinite-quantity-contract to provide for the development of modifications to the AN/MST-T1(V) Mini-Mutes electronic warfare training system. The Mini-Mutes system is a ground-based system of emitters, control equipment, and data recorders which allows aircraft to fly electronic warfare training missions and to evaluate performance.
Air Force Research Laboratory engineers plan the first drop test of the X-40A Space Maneuver Vehicle (SMV) early next month at Holloman AFB, N.M., the lab reported yesterday. The 90%-scale vehicle will be carried to 9,000 feet by an Army Black Hawk helicopter and released in a test of its navigation and control system's ability to guide it back to a runway landing.
Raytheon Systems Co., Naval and Maritime Systems - Mukilteo Operations, Mukilteo, Wash., is being awarded a $9,371,732 firm-fixed-priced contract for AN/SLQ-48 (V) Mine Neutralization System Mission Package Two (MP-2) and Three (MP-3). Work will be performed in Mukilteo, Wash., and is expected to be completed by August 2000. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the internet and three offers received.
The Pentagon warned Congress that if defense authorization conferees accept a Senate recommended cut of $97 million to the Airborne Laser (ABL) program, the result will be a year's slip and a $200 million cost increase. Adoption of the Senate cut to the $292.2 million request will force a restructure of the program, DOD said in the second increment of an appeals package sent to Capitol Hill.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN'S Electronic Sensors and System Div., Annapolis, Md., won a contract from Ingalls Shipbuilding to equip two Venezuelan Mariscal Sucre class frigates with the 21 HS-7 hull-mounted sonar. Ingalls is under contract with the government of Venezuela to overhaul and modernize the two ships.
Air Algerie has ordered seven 737-800s and three 737-600s for delivery between 2000-2002, Boeing said last week. They will replace 727 and 737-200 aircraft. Seddik Belyamani, Boeing vice president for the region, said all three North African carriers - Air Algerie, Royal Air Maroc and Tunis Air - now have committed to next-generation 737s.
GORDON NAGLER, a U.S. Navy vice admiral who retired from the service in 1984, died July 11 at his home in Alexandria, Va., following a sudden heart failure. Nagler, whose last Navy assignment was director, command and control, was Harris Corp. VP Washington operations for 11 years, retiring in 1995.
One of the most eager customers for anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles is the Kosovo Liberation Army. U.S. intelligence officials say the insurgents have been trying to bolster their firepower, but so far haven't been able to get their hands on the missiles to do so. The KLA has been relying on weapons from Albania and Western Europe, the officials say.
