TRW WILL INSTALL a new Launch and Network Control Equipment (LANCE) system at Falcon AFB, Colo., under a $27.5 million Air Force launch support contract. Under the three-year cost-plus-award-fee contract TRW will develop and install the new launch support and telemetry processing system, which will replace a 20-year-old mainframe network with workstations. Boeing's Integrated Defense Systems Div. and Harris Government Communications Systems Div. will be subcontractors on the contract.
Lockheed-Martin Corp., C2 Integration Systems, Manassas, Va., was awarded on May 1, 1998, a $2,794,003 increment as part of a $16,874,889 cost-plus- fixed-fee contract for a joint logistics advanced concept technology demonstration, for the development of technologies to enhance the readiness of our military forces through a quantum improvement in military logistics. Work will be performed in Manassas, Va., and is expected to be completed by May 5, 2003. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
MRJ Inc., Fairfax, Va., is being awarded a $1,572,000 increment of a not- to-exceed $45,734,289 modification to a cost-plus-award-fee, cost-plus- fixed-fee, and cost contract.
The Boeing Company, Information, Space & Defense Systems, Seattle, Wash., is being awarded an $8,918,056 modification to previously awarded contract N00019-97-C-0037 for the design of a prognostic health management architecture and data collection and analysis process for the Joint Strike Fighter Concept Demonstration Program. Work will be performed in Minneapolis, Minn. (30.2%), St. Louis, Mo. (24.8%), Seattle, Wash. (21.3%), Torrance, Calif. (12%), and Rockford, Ill. (11.7%), and is expected to be completed in November 2000.
Lockheed Martin Tactical Defense Systems, St. Paul, Minn., is being awarded a $7,858,924 modification to previously awarded contract N00019-94-C-0156 to procure 8 advanced imaging multi-spectral sensors for the P-3C anti- surface warfare improvement program FY 98 production lot. Work will be performed in Eagan, Minn. (90%) and Clearwater, Fla. (10%), and is expected to be completed by December 1999. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.
The Senate Intelligence Committee, in marking up its fiscal year 1999 intelligence authorization bill, halved the Administration's request for integration and support of unmanned aerial vehicles and adjusted several individual UAV programs. The request included $17 million for Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Program integration and support, an increase of more than 100% over the FY '98 budget. A justification was development of plans to transfer UAV capabilities to the services, the committee said the report accompanying its bill.
Allison Engine Company, Indianapolis, Ind., is being awarded a $36,819,000 modification to previously awarded contract N00019-95-C-0209 to definitize an existing advance acquisition contract to fully fund the FY 97 procurement of 10 production AE1107C engines, to provide funding for the manufacture and delivery of 14 FY 98 AE1107C production engines and three FY 98 AE 1107C spare engines, including associated integrated logistic support management and technical/financial data. The AE1107C engine is used on the V-22A Osprey.
A Titan IVB/Centaur booster launched a classified payload Saturday from Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., Lockheed Martin said yesterday. It was the first Titan IV launch of 1998. Two more launches scheduled from Cape Canaveral this year.
NASA's GEORGE M. LOW AWARDS for 1998 went to ILD Dover Inc., Frederica, Del., for work on extravehicular activity spacesuits; Dyncorp., Johnson Support Div., Houston, for aircraft support in connection with astronaut training; BST Systems Inc., Plainfield, Conn., for the batteries used on the Mars Pathfinder mission; Allied Signal Technical Services Corp., Lanham, Md., for operational proficiency, and Advanced Technology Co., Pasadena, Calif., for imaging detectors used in spacecraft.
Airlines yesterday were reporting no major problems complying with a revised FAA order issued Sunday grounding older 737s until electrical wiring in the fuel pump is inspected. The order, one of the broadest of its kind since the DC-10 fleet was grounded in 1979, followed an order of last week that allowed carriers a week for the inspections.
FERNANDO L. FERNANDEZ yesterday was appointed director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Fernandez headed AETC Inc., an applied research organization he founded in California 1994.
Lockheed Martin said its Skunk Works unit will lead the prototype phase of company's effort on the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency's Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) program. The Tactical Aircraft Systems Div. will continue to have the overall lead for Lockheed Martin in UCAVs, the company said. It would be in charge of the DARPA effort if Lockheed Martin is selected for the follow-on concept demonstration phase.
Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory are working on common spacecraft systems that can handle three vastly different deep space missions - robotic probes that will study the deep cold realm at Pluto and beyond, the blazing heat near the sun, and the sizzling radiation in the vicinity of the Jovian moon Europa. The new approach is driven both by a desire to hold down development cost, and the new go-go pace of space exploration which gives engineers little time to develop completely new systems for each planned mission.
Raytheon E-Systems, Waco, Texas, was awarded on May 1, 1998, a $6,728,308 face value increase to a firm-fixed-price contract to provide for 53 Class IVB Modification Kits to upgrade the All Weather Landing System and Autopilot system on the C-130 and C-141 aircraft. These kits will install a digital Automatic Flight Control System, a Control Display System, and a Ground Collision Avoidance System. Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, Robins AFB, Ga., is the contracting activity (F09603-93-C-0322-P00055)
Republican leaders said yesterday they would work with the White House to determine the facts behind the assertions that two U.S. companies improperly gave China information that significantly improved its missile capabilities - but warned that if they are obstructed, they "will use every power we have to procure all of this information..."
PRINCE ALWALEED of Saudi Arabia has invested $200 million in the Teledesic broadband satellite constellation established by cellular telephone pioneer Craig McCaw and Bill Gates of Microsoft. McCaw cited Alwaleed's "stature and relationships in both the Middle East and around the world" as aiding the proposed "Internet in the sky" system, which will incorporate a network of 288 satellites in low-Earth orbit. Boeing, which has a $100 million equity interest in the system, has been named prime contractor for the network (DAILY, April 30, 1997).
United Technologies Corp., West Palm Beach, Fla., is being awarded a $5,355,188 face value increase to a cost-plus-award-fee contract to provide for the Period 14 (October 1997-March 1998) Earned award Fee for engineering and manufacturing development of the F119 engine in support of the F-22 aircraft. Estimated contract completion date is September 2003. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-91-C-0007, P00162).
TOSHIBA, FUJITSU AND TOYOTA organizations have teamed to provide S-band satellite broadcasting services to mobile users in Japan. Using a yet-to- be-described satellite, the Nihon Mobile Broadcasting Co. joint venture will provide between 30 and 80 subscription audio, video and multimedia channels, with basic service expected to cost about $6 a month. Plans call for the service to offer drivers CD-quality audio and video services based on 256 kilobit per second channels.
TRW Inc., TRW Electronics and Defense, Redondo Beach, Calif., is being awarded an increment of $329,000 (first task order), as part of a $42,052,944 cost-plus-fixed-fee, level-of-effort contract for a research and development contract entitled "Hydrogen Fluoride Deuterium Fluoride (HF/DF) Chemical Laser/Gain Generator Technology Development." The scope of this effort will include laser analysis, fabrication and experimental characterization of HF and DF lasers.
SPACEDEV INC., a Steamboat Springs, Colo., company that is developing a commercial asteroid "prospector" that could one day lead to asteroid mining (DAILY, Sept. 10, 1997), has received seven proposals from potential NASA researchers for piggyback rides on the "Near Earth Asteroid Prospector (NEAP)." Each proposal that NASA funds would mean $10 million - $12 million in revenue for SpaceDev, which intends to launch its spacecraft late in 2000.
FIXING FMS: Louis Giuliano, president and CEO of ITT Defense&Electronics, says one area of the U.S. defense establishment that could really benefit from acquisition reform is Foreign Military Sales, where the process can last as long as 15 months "if all goes well." He says that "If this is an important process, there's got to be a way to do it better."
VISION UPDATE: With the Pentagon's Joint Vision 2010 now two years old, the first signs are emerging that an update will be drafted in the near future. Army Maj. Gen. George F. Close, the Joint Staff's director of operational plans and interoperability, says that Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Henry Shelton will likely work on a new vision "in a year or so." JV 2010 was authored by Shelton's predecessor, Gen. John Shalikashvili.
STATION REDESIGN? Is there a future in comedy for Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and NASA Administrator Dan Goldin? When House Science Committee Republicans complained that Russia was slighting its International Space Station funding while paying to finish the nuclear-powered heavy cruiser Peter the Great, panel Chairman Sensenbrenner noted that the warship included a special cabin for Russian President Boris Yeltsin. "Any chance for another Station redesign," Sensenbrenner asked. "Absolutely not," replied Goldin.
Hughes engineers sent a stranded communications satellite on a trailblazing voyage around the moon last week, kicking the HGS-1 platform into a translunar trajectory with an engine burn that lasted almost two minutes. Originally designated Asiasat-3, the satellite fell short of its geostationary transfer orbit when a Russian upper stage failed during its Proton launch on Dec. 25, 1997 (DAILY, Jan. 5). Hughes devised the lunar excursion as a way to pull the satellite into a useful orbit around Earth (DAILY, April 30).
