Wyman-Gordon Co. said its sales and profits were hurt by a broken press during its 1998 fiscal year. The company earned $33.9 million on sales of $752.9 million in its 1998 fiscal year, down from earnings of $50 million on sales of $608.7 million in the previous year.
Russian space officials reportedly will decide this week on whether to continue operating the Mir orbital station in the face of a faltering economy that has kept the government from paying for its upkeep.
Raytheon Co., Marlborough, Mass., is being awarded a $23,552,430 face value increase to a cost-plus-award-fee-contract to provide for relocation of the Have Stare radar system from the test site at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., to its final operating location at Vardo, Norway. Estimated contract completion date is September 2000. Solicitation issue date was November 10, 1997. Negotiation completion date was May 29, 1998. Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., is the contracting activity (F19628-91-C-0057).
CHINA will buy 10 next-generation 737 airliners, Boeing said yesterday. Bai Zhi Jian, president of China Aviation Supplies Corp., said the aircraft will allow airlines of China to expand their short-range fleets. Boeing said the agreement is in addition to the 50 airplanes China committed to last October. The combined value of the aircraft is about $3.4 billion, Boeing said, adding that over the past three years, one in 10 of its airplanes has been delivered to China.
Honeywell Inc., Minneapolis, Minn., is being awarded a firm-fixed-price contract (appropriation number and dollar value will be issued with each delivery order) with an estimated not-to-exceed cumulative total of $19,558,973. The project is for the repair and retrofit of the receiver/transmitter components of the AN/APN-209 Radar Altimeter set, which provides both digital and analog outputs representing absolute radar altitudes from 0 to 1,500 feet. Work will be performed in Minneapolis, Minn. (95%) and Coon Rapids, Minn.
The tri-national upgrade of the U.S. High Speed Anti-Radiation Missile (HARM) should allow it to be used in other than a suppression of enemy air defense (SEAD) role. HARM is receiving a guidance package enhancement that adds an inertial measurement unit/Global Positioning System. This, said Capt. Robert W. Russell, Naval Air System Command's HARM program manager, will permit attack of any target given to the GPS coordinates. The GPS upgrade gives HARM an accuracy of about 13 meters.
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Stratford, Conn., is being awarded a $12,309,305 face value increase to a cost-plus-fixed-fee-contract to provide for development of an upgraded Communication Navigation/Integrated Electronic warfare System for the HH-60G helicopter. There was one firm solicited and one proposal received. Expected contract completion date is December 31, 1999. Negotiation completion date was May 15, 1998. Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, Robins AFB, Ga., is the contracting activity (F09603-96- C-0580-P00008).
Pratt&Whitney's Chemical Systems Division (CSD), San Jose, Calif., has won a propulsion subcontract from Boeing for the National Missile Defense (NMD) program, P&W announced yesterday. Boeing selected CSD's Orbus 1 motor for the Ground-Based Interceptor's second and third stages. A modified Minuteman missile also is being evaluated, and a decision on the final booster should by made by the U.S. government by the end of July, P&W said.
Lockheed Martin Missile and Space, Sunnyvale, Calif., is being awarded a $14,354,000 cost-plus-incentive-fee contract to provide long lead material required for the FY 99 follow-on production of the TRIDENT II (D5) missile system. Work will be performed in Sunnyvale, Calif., and is expected to be completed by September 2001. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. The Navy's Strategic Systems Programs, Arlington, Va., is the contracting activity (N00030-98-C-0100).
UNDER REVIEW: Lawyers from the White House's Office of Management and Budget are reviewing the effect of last week's Supreme Court ruling that the presidential line-item veto is unconstitutional (DAILY, June 26). One of the key issues is whether items vetoed in the fiscal 1998 budget would be put in place again. If it is ruled that those vetoes must be reversed, the SR-71 Blackbird would come back - again - and funding would be revived for the Clementine 2 and Military Spaceplane programs.
The U.S. Marine Corps is planning to buy several small aerostats to extend the range of the Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) data sharing network. The Marines recently demonstrated the utility of an aerostat in a Navy fleet battle experiment. The tethered balloon, flying at about 1,000 feet, extended CEC's range from about 30 miles to 70 miles, Maj. Rey Masinsin, the Marine's CEC project officer, said in an interview at the Pentagon.
NO TO TRIANA: Vice President Gore's idea to launch a spacecraft to the Lagrangian point to provide a full-face sunlit image of Earth for the Internet flies no further than the House Appropriations Committee, which nixes the idea in its fiscal 1999 NASA appropriations bill.
GROUND CONTROLLERS lost contract last week with the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), a joint NASA/European Space Agency spacecraft that has studied the makeup of the sun since it was launched in December 1995. NASA and ESA reported contact with SOHO was lost June 24 during maintenance operations directed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, when the spacecraft went into Emergency Sun Reacquisition mode. Contact was lost, and as of Friday had not been reestablished even with the "full...capabilities" of NASA's Deep Space Network.
JAPAN'S COSMONAUT: Washington's worries over Russia's ability to perform on the Space Station apparently haven't reached Tokyo, where space officials are negotiating a contract to train Space Shuttle veteran Mamoru Mori in Russian space systems and practices. In its scramble for money to pay for its Station commitments, Russia is selling space on its pressurized modules for foreign experiments, and Japan seems to be buying. Russian officials say they expect to make money on Mori's training too.
Northrop Grumman's Electronic Sensors and Systems Div. (ESSD) will close its Cleveland facility and consolidate the activities with work on other oceanic and naval systems at ESSD facilities in the Baltimore area due to a decline in its torpedo-related business, the company announced Friday.
The U.S. Air Force has picked Dayron of Orlando, Fla., to build the Joint Programmable Fuze, deciding the first of three competitions that became necessary when Motorola decided to abandon the fuze business last year. Dayron won an initial $7.6 million contract to build 1,644 of the in- flight reprogrammable fuzes that can be used with either blast fragmentation or penetration warheads.
Wescam Inc., Flamborough, Ontario, Canada, won a $15.6 million contract from the U.S. Coast Guard to upgrade the sensor systems on seven C-130s, the U.S. Dept. of Transportation said Friday. Wescam's two subcontractors will be Boeing North American, Shreveport, La., and Lockheed Martin, Egan, Minn. Boeing will do the aircraft structural modifications, while Lockheed Martin will modify the existing work station to incorporate the sensor package.
GOOD QUESTION: Louis Caldera, who has been approved by the Senate as Secretary of the U.S. Army, gives a surprising answer in written responses to advance questions released at his recent Senate Armed Services confirmation hearing. The former chief operating officer of the Corporation for National and Community Service, asked if he believes the Army is receiving adequate consideration in the Defense Dept.
CHRISTMAS PRESENT: The U.S. Air Force now says it expects to take delivery of its first C-130J-30 airlifter in December. That would put it more than 15 months behind schedule. The AF earlier this year was still expecting the receive the first C-130J in July, but Lockheed Martin has had to redesign and test the deicing mechanism to obtain the FAA certification that has eluded the aircraft so far.
FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH: Two of the U.S. Navy aviation programs that lost their funding late in the POM '00 process are now strong candidates for future funds. The engineering and manufacturing development funds were cut from the Joint Emitter Targeting System (JETS) and the Tactical Aircraft Directed Infrared Countermeasures (TADIRCM), according to Capt. Doug Henry, manager of tactical electronic warfare programs for Naval Air System Command. "They are sort of No. 1 and No. 2" in the POM '02 process, he says.
The U.S. Air Force's 509th Bomb Wing, which flies the B-2 bomber from Whiteman AFB, Mo., has won top grades in two inspections for nuclear readiness, according to Brig. Gen. Leroy Barnidge, commander of the unit. A joint service team conducted a Nuclear Surety Inspection (NSI), and a team under Air Combat Command's Inspector General office ran its own NSI as well as a Nuclear Operational Readiness Inspection (NORI) that examined how the wing would carry out its nuclear mission.
GKN Westland Helicopters and Eurocopter Deutschland won contracts worth more than $132 million to upgrade the German Navy's fleet of 17 Mk. 88 Sea Lynx helicopters to Super Lynx standard, GKN Westland said yesterday. GKN will be responsible for the upgrade of the first trial installation aircraft and will then supply kits to Eurocopter, the prime contractor for upgrading the remaining 16 helicopters. The conversion work, including the trial installation, will be done at Eurocopter's facility in Donauworth, Bavaria.
The U.S. Army may take the lead on the HUMRAAM air defense system because the Marine Corps has been unable to secure funds for it. The Marines have had the lead in the U.S. on the ground-based Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) program that mates five AMRAAMs with a Humvee vehicle. Norway already uses the system, calling it NASAMS, or Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System.
PANEL PLUS-UP: The House National Security Committee has two new members. They are Reps. Ellen O. Tauscher (D-Calif.) and Robert Brady (D-Pa.). Tauscher, elected in 1996, represents a San Francisco area district that is the home of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Brady, winner of a special election, replaces Thomas Foglietta in the House. Foglietta gave up the job for an ambassadorship. Brady's district includes the now closed Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.
