Older, upgraded surface-to-air missile systems present a formidable threat to U.S. aircraft that shouldn't be ignored just because high-end SAMs like Russia's SA-10 and SA-12 attract a lot of attention, a U.S. Air Force electronic warfare officer said yesterday.
Russian Prime Minister Sergei Kirienko has approved participation of Russian companies in the international Sea Launch project and has cleared the relevant hardware for export.
Lockheed Martin Missiles&Space will team with British Aerospace Defense Systems Ltd. to study development of the next-generation space- based communications system, Skynet 5 National, for the U.K. Ministry of Defense, Lockheed Martin said yesterday. The U.S. company will serve as a subcontractor to BAe Defense Systems, which designed the ground management segments of the current Skynet 4.
JOHN W. DOUGLAS, the U.S. Navy's acquisition chief, will leave his post in August. The service said yesterday that Douglas is looking to move to the private sector following nearly three years as assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition.
Russia's Antey Concern has unveiled its newest air and theater missile defense system, nicknamed 'Antey-2500', and offered it for export. The system, developed by Antey, was earlier known as S-300VM. As presented on Tuesday, it is a modernization of the S-300V air and missile defense system known as SA-12 in the West.
Raytheon Systems Co., Los Angeles, Calif., is being awarded an $800,000 increment as part of a $73,687,517 cost-plus-incentive-fee contract for the engineering manufacturing development of three FIREFINDER AN/TPQ-37 Block II prototypes (production representative units). The system will detect in- flight projectiles and determine and communicate firing point location of mortars, artillery, rockets and missiles. The system will be deployable worldwide and capable of operations in varying terrain and climatic conditions.
The U.S. Army and Boeing Sikorsky have begun the planning for two future block upgrades to the RAH-66 Comanche helicopter. Work on the first upgrade would likely start around 2012, while effort on the second would begin around 2020, Brig. Gen. Joseph Bergantz, the Army's Comanche program director, told the American Helicopter Society in Washington last week.
BF Goodrich Company, Troy, Ohio, is being awarded a $19,233,600 firm-fixed- price-contract to provide for 1200 (best estimated quantity) heat stack assemblies applicable to the brake on the C-5 aircraft. There were two firms solicited and one proposal received. Expected contract completion date is 280 days after receipt of each individual delivery order. Solicitation completion date was January 1998. Negotiation completion date was May 15, 1998. Ogden Air Logistics Center, Hill AFB, Utah, is the contracting activity (F42630-98-D-0163)
Organizations that buy parts of the frequency spectrum may have to reimburse the Dept. of Defense or other U.S. agencies for the cost to free up the frequencies, if the Senate Armed Services Committee has its way. Although the Pentagon has resisted auctioning portions of the spectrum, especially under 3.1 GHz, 500 MHz have been sold over the past five years. The White House opted to proceed with the auctioning as part of the balanced budget agreement.
Tracor Aerospace Inc., Austin, Texas, is being awarded a $19,770,688 firm- fixed-price-contract to provide for production lots V-VII of the AN/ALE- 47(V) Countermeasures Dispenser System (CMDS). The estimated quantity for lots V-VII is approximately 952 shipsets. The AN/ALE-47 will be employed on the C-5, C-17, C-130, C-141, E-8C, F-16, and MH-53J aircraft for the Air Force; the MH-47D and MH-60L/K aircraft for the Army; and the F/A-18, HH- 60H, P-3, UH-3D, UH-60N, and V-22 aircraft for the Navy.
Top U.S. Air Force commanders have reaffirmed the service's desire for a gun on the Joint Strike Fighter, even though other services and the program office are showing some concern about cost and weight. "The Air Force position now is we support a gun in the aircraft," Harry Disbrow, deputy director of AF requirements, told the American Helicopter Society convention in Washington Thursday. The decision was made unanimously during a discussion by AF commanders chaired by AF Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Ryan, he noted.
Russia's experimental S-37 fighter has completed 15 flights and logged 10 hours since last Sept. 25 at the Zhukovsky test center near Moscow, according to the Itar-Tass news agency. Sergei Korotkov, the plane's chief designer, said main design characteristics of the forward-swept wing fighter have been confirmed, according to Itar-Tass.
NASA is flight testing Thermal Protection System materials intended for the X-33 reusable launch vehicle on an F-15B fighter to determine the durability of the materials before the X-33 begins test flights next summer. The materials are mounted on the forward left side of the F-15B's Flight Test Fixture 2, which is carried underneath the aircraft, NASA said. The F-15B is a NASA test aircraft based at Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif.
Coleman Research Corp. of Orlando, Fla., signed an agreement with Israel Aircraft Industries to produce, integrate and launch a small expendable launch vehicle for the U.S. market using, in part, components and technology from IAI's Shavit launcher, which has orbited three IAI Ofeq satellites.
Lucent Technologies, Advanced Technology Systems, Inc., Greensboro, N.C., is being awarded a $10,558,759 modification to previously awarded contract N00024-92-C-5211 for four AN/UYS-2A(V) DEM E production units for the government of Spain (100%) under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) Program. The AN/UYS-2A(V) DEM E provides signal processing solutions which perform computational intensive processing of sensor signals for major air surface and subsurface acoustic systems. Work will be performed in Greensboro, N.C., and is expected to be completed in September 1998.
The U.S. Air Force this month completed a two-year development activity to upgrade Air Combat Maneuvering Instrumentation (ACMI) pod equipment with Global Positioning System receiver capability. By going to a GPS-based pod, the AF extended the operating area at its Tyndall AFB range, Lt. Col. John Jannazo, director for the Ranges and Instrumentation System Program Office, said yesterday in a telephone interview from Eglin AFB, Fla.
General Electric Co. plc extended its tender offer to buy all the outstanding shares of common stock of Tracor Inc. until June 17, GEC announced. About 7.3 million Tracor shares have been tendered and not withdrawn to date. The tender offer is subject to completion of a 30-day review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., which is expected on June 10. GEC said the waiting period under the Hart-Scott- Rodino Act has expired and conditions have been satisfied.
The German government should approve by late May or early June its 50% contribution to the "Cryoplane" project, a 100 million-mark ($57 million) German-Russian research effort to define and develop a hydrogen- fuel demonstrator aircraft by 2002, when a first test flight is planned. The project's industrial participants - Daimler-Benz Aerospace AG (DASA), 12 other German firms and Tupolev and Kuznetsov of Russia - will provide the balance of funding. German and Russian companies have been exploring the technology together since 1990.
The corporatization of Airbus Industrie, scheduled for Jan. 1, 1999, will be delayed, according to Daimler-Benz Aerospace (DASA) Chairman Manfred Bischoff. "We will not be able to solve all the questions by then," he said in an interview with French business daily La Tribune. "I am nevertheless confident that the corporation can be created before the end of 1999."
CMS Defense Systems, Inc., Titusville, Fla., is being awarded a $14,539,685 contract option for the production of shoulder-launched, multipurpose assault weapon, common practice encased all-up round for the U.S. Marine Corps. This weapon is designed to defeat bunkers and armored vehicles. Work will be performed in Camden, Ark. (90%) and Titusville, Fla. (10%), and is expected to be completed by September 2000. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
Modern Technologies Corp., Dayton, Ohio, is being awarded an increment of a $7,005,252 modification (ceiling for Option Year 3, estimated not-to- exceed) to a time and materials contract; to extend the term of the contract from June 7, 1998 to June 6, 1999. An appropriation number and dollar value will be issued with each delivery order. The contract is for Health Physics Support Services for the United States Army Communications&Electronics Command, Directorate of Safety Risk Management. Work will be performed at Fort Monmouth, N.J.
SEMCOR, Inc., Mount Laurel, N.J., is being awarded a $12,104,079 cost-plus- fixed-fee term contract for the systems engineering and technical services required to provide systems engineering analysis, development, and integration of warfare systems in various Navy platforms. Work will be performed in Mount Laurel, N.J. (95%), and Patuxent River, Md. (5%), and is expected to be completed in May 1999. Contract funds in the amount of $343,850 will expire at the end of the fiscal year.
The University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Calif., was awarded on May 18, 1998, a $12,798,491 cooperative-agreement contract. This research will develop and demonstrate chip-level and system-level hardware and software systems incorporating processor-in-memory (PIM) chips, where processor and memory are integrated onto a single chip, as intelligent memory coprocessors.
