Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Stratford, Conn., said it has signed a letter of intent to buy Helicopter Support Inc. (HSI). HSI is an independent helicopter logistical support company headquartered in Orange, Conn. HSI will continue to operate as a separate entity through its four complementary businesses: distribution, overhaul and repair, manufacturing and freight forwarding of helicopter parts and components. HSI has more than 800 customers in 55 countries.
Options exercised by the U.S. Navy with Bell Helicopter Textron and Bombardier for continued work on vertical take-off and landing unmanned aerial vehicles will provide Bell with $4.8 million and Bombardier with $4.5 million.
INTELSAT ASSEMBLY of Parties members voted yesterday to confirm Conny Kullman as the new director general and chief executive of the international satellite communications consortium. Kullman, a 15-year veteran of the Intelsat staff, was nominated by the consortium's Board of Governors last month (DAILY, June 16).
BVR Technologies Ltd., Tel Aviv, Israel, said it won a contract through its European strategic partner, BGT of Germany, to supply BVR's EHUD fourth generation rangeless Air Combat Maneuvering Instrumentation (ACMI) system to the Tactical Leadership Program facility at Florennes, Belgium. BGT will act as prime contractor with BVR as its main subcontractor. The contract will include airborne pods to be used with front-line combat aircraft. Ground debriefing station and systems delivery are expected within a year.
Raytheon Systems Co., Lexington, Mass., won a three-year, $107.5 million contract from the U.S. Army to make Thermal Weapon Sights and Driver's Vision Enhancers, the company announced yesterday. The contract, called the Thermal Omnibus, is a combined procurement designed to equip Army and Marine Corps forces with thermal imaging systems.
Raytheon Aircraft Co. is preparing for the first flight of its T-6A Texan II Joint Primary Aircraft Training System (JPATS) aircraft following completion of high speed taxi tests Monday in Wichita, Kan. The flight is expected to take place this week, possibly as early as today, a Raytheon spokesman said. The T-6A is based on the Pilatus PC-9 Mk. II.
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), in an interim report of the Senate's investigation of U.S. policy on satellite exports to China, charged yesterday that Administration export controls for satellites are "wholly inadequate," and that "sensitive technology related to satellite exports has been transferred to China."
SEN. TED STEVENS (R-Alaska), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, is having a tough time convincing his colleagues they need to lift the caps on the fiscal year 1999 defense appropriations bill to cover the costs of maintaining U.S. troop presence in Bosnia. If the cap is not lifted to include the funding, appropriators may have to cut funding for defense programs now in the bill, Stevens told reporters yesterday. Neither House nor Senate appropriators included the funding in the bill during their individual markup of the bill (DAILY, July 14).
RMI TITANIUM CO., Niles, Ohio, signed a letter of intent to acquire Sierra Alloys Co. Inc., Irwindale, Calif., for a combination of cash and stock. Sierra makes specialty metal products, including stainless and alloy steels, high temperature alloys and titanium. The company's 1997 sales were more than $50 million. Joseph Augustyn, Sierra's founder, will remain as CEO, and the company's capacity expansion plans, already underway, are expected to continue as planned.
The Defense Dept. would rather settle its dispute with Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman over the proposed merger than go to court, Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said yesterday. If the two companies submit a new proposal which is acceptable to DOD, he said, there would be no need for an anti-trust suit. He also said, however, that DOD remains willing to take the companies to court if they don't change their position.
ECC INTERNATIONAL CORP., Wayne, Pa., is moving its corporate headquarters, staff and Instructional Systems Development Group from Wayne to the company's principal Systems Design and Production Center in Orlando, Fla. The relocation is expected to be complete by Sept. 30.
Chromalloy Turbine Airfoils Division, Harrisburg, Pa., was awarded on July 7, a $26,366,175 firm-fixed-price contract to provide for 99,000 (estimated quantity) First Stage Vanes for the TF33 engines applicable to the B-52, C-141, E-3 and KC-135 aircraft. Funds will be obligated as individual delivery orders are issued. There were 12 firms solicited and one proposal received. Solicitation began January 1998; negotiations were completed May 1998. The work will be completed December 2002. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
The Aerospace Industries Association has chosen John W. Douglass as its new president and chief operating officer. AIA said Douglass, 57, who has been assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, will succeed Don Fuqua on Sept. 18. Fuqua has been president of AIA since January 1987 and will remain with the Washington-based trade association through November. Fuqua had served 12 terms as a U.S. Congressman from Florida.
TRW, Inc., Redondo Beach, Calif., is being awarded a $10,214,865 face value increase to a firm-fixed-price contract to provide for design and long lead materials for the Uncooled Resonator effort in support of the Space-Based Laser program. This effort seeks to demonstrate the feasibility of a resonator comprised of low-absorption materials. The resonator is a component that deflects the beam and directs it to the front of the laser. The work will be completed November 1998. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
Boeing Co. has won an initial $10 million contract from the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to develop two competing hypersonic missile approaches, one of which will be chosen in about 18 months.
LOCKHEED MARTIN on Friday received a $13 million contract from the U.S. Navy for six additional Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared For Night (LANTIRN) pod systems for use on F-14 fighters. The Navy has already bought 52 of the systems. Navy LANTIRN pods differ from the U.S. Air Force systems in that they feature a global positioning system/inertial navigation system. The pods are to be delivered by December 1999.
First fuel tank drop test in the Eurofighter program took place recently at an Italian air force base in Sardinia, the consortium said yesterday. It said Italy's DA7 Eurofighter successfully released the tank while flying at 350 knots and 5,000 feet. The jet carried the 1,000-liter tank on the right center wing station. The test was the third in a series of separation tests. The earlier tests involved an AIM-9 Sidewinder and AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air- to-Air Missile.
Raytheon Systems Co., Defense Systems, El Segundo, Calif., was awarded a $5,000,000 increment of a $10,000,000 "other transaction for prototypes" on July 1, 1998, for phase II of the Situation Awareness System to provide individual warfighters and small units the capability to communicate and operate as a coordinated team. Work will be performed in Fort Wayne, Ind. (28%); Plano, Texas (20%); Falls Church, Va. (21%); and El Segundo, Calif. (31%). The agreement estimated completion date is June 1999. Agreement funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
Lockheed Corp., Lockheed Martin Tactical Defense Systems, St. Paul, Minn., is being awarded a $58,440,439 cost-plus-incentive-fee, firm-fixed-price contract for the non-recurring engineering and production of three pre-production P-3C block modification upgrade kits. The upgrade will provide color displays at tactical crew stations and modern avionics to address obsolescence issues in the mission computer and acoustic signal processor system. Work will be performed in Eagan, Minn. (50%), Manassas, Va. (23%), Greenville, S.C. (9%), Anaheim, Calif. (7%), Santa Clara, Calif.
NASA has established business "incubators" at three more of its field centers to provide support for schools and start-up or small high- technology companies that apply NASA technology commercially. Goddard space Flight Center, Md.; Langley Research Center, Va., and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California will house the three new incubators. NASA's Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB, Calif., will work with JPL on its incubator effort.
ITT Aerospace/Communications Division, Fort Wayne, Ind., was awarded a $5,000,000 increment of a $10,000,000 "other transaction for prototypes" on July 1, 1998, for phase II of the Situation Awareness System to provide individual warfighters and small units the capability to communicate and operate as a coordinated team. Work will be performed in Menlo Park, Calif. (20%); Cedar Rapids, Iowa (15%); Fort Wayne, Ind. (25%); Clifton, N.J. (25%); and Cambridge, Mass. (15%). The agreement estimated completion date is June 1999.
TRW Inc., System Integration Group, Carson, Calif., was awarded on July 2, 1998, a $400,000 increment as part of an $11,300,000 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for development of the Air and Missile Defense Workstation (AMDWS). Work will be performed in Carson, Calif., and is expected to be completed by July 2, 2001. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on June 2, 1998. The contracting activity is the U.S. Army Aviation&Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala. (DAAH01-98-C-0219).
The U.S. has laid out a number of non-proliferation objectives for both India and Pakistan and the lifting of sanctions is not imminent, a State Dept. official testified yesterday. Karl F. Inderfurth, assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs, told the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on Near Eastern and South Asian affairs that "our discussion of these matters should not leave India and Pakistan with the impression that a lifting of sanctions is imminent."
