Israel is planning to buy the Joint Direct Attack Munition, which would make it the first of what is expected to be a larger number of international customers for the precision bomb. Israel has issued a request for information for a precision bomb and is likely to buy JDAM next year, Oscar Soler, the U.S. Air Force's JDAM program director said, in an interview here Friday.
British Aerospace Defence Systems has won a $41.9 million contract to enhance the Ptarmigan integrated communications network and build air- portable versions that could be transported in C-130 cargo planes. Ptarmigan has been used by the British Army since the mid-1980s and was used during the Gulf War and in Bosnia. The mobile part of the system, which will be two separate vehicles, also can be transported by a twin-rotor Chinook helicopter, BAe noted.
Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Naval Systems Division, Cleveland, Ohio, is being awarded a $7,864,330 firm-fixed-price contract option for an additional 78 MK48 ADCAP Mods Torpedoes. Work will be performed in Cleveland, Ohio, and is expected to be completed by July 1999. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Arlington, Va., is the contracting activity (N00024-95-C- 6190).
Boeing Defense and Space Group, Helicopter Division, Philadelphia, Pa., is being awarded a $5,529,835 firm-fixed-price delivery order under a basic ordering agreement for the procurement and installation of 375 hydraulic pump retrofit kits for the H-46 series aircraft. Work will be performed in Philadelphia, Pa. (63%), and Jackson, Miss. (37%), and is expected to be completed by March 1999. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured.
Lockheed Martin has signed a lease with Australia's federal government research organization, the Commonwealth Scientific&Industrial Research Organization, on a site for the company's new commercial communications satellite tracking station. The new Telemetry, Tracking and Control station, operated by Lockheed Martin Telecommunications to serve the Pacific region, will occupy 20 acres in Armidale, located in the Uralla region of New South Wales, Lockheed Martin said.
Lockheed Martin Tactical Defense Systems, St. Paul, Minn., is being awarded a $13,823,628 modification to previously awarded contract N00019-94-C-0156 to procure 13 advanced imaging multi-spectral sensors for the P-3C anti- surface warfare improvement program FY 97 production lot. Work will be performed in Eagan, Minn. (90%), and Clearwater, Fla. (10%), and is expected to be completed in December 1999. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.
Comsat yesterday applauded Friday's Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deregulate its0 Comsat World Systems, saying it would allow the company to compete on a more equal footing with other international telecommunications and satellite companies. The FCC decision deregulates services which account for about 85-90% of the revenues in the major markets of Comsat's largest business unit.
General Electric Aircraft Engines, General Electric Company, Lynn, Mass., is being awarded a $16,000,000 modification to previously awarded contract N00019-97-C-0114 to provide additional funding for the advance acquisition contract for the low-rate initial production (LRIP) III of F414-GE-400 engines for the F/A-18E/F aircraft, including related modules, devices, and engineering services. Work will be performed in Lynn, Mass. (58%), Evendale, Ohio (25%), Rutland, Vt. (4%), Albuquerque, N.M. (4%), Madisonville, Ky. (4%), Hooksett, N.H. (3%), and Wilmington, N.C.
Lockheed Martin, Government Electronic Systems., Moorestown, N.J., is being awarded a $5,001,418 cost-plus-award-fee modification to previously awarded contract N00178-96-C-2025 to add Computer Aided Submode Training (CAST) development, tactical LAN administration, and increase the maintenance services for tactical operations and support for Roving Sands exercises. The contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $36,880,619. Work will be performed in Dahlgren, Va. (55%), Moorestown, N.J. (25%), Cherry Hill, N.J.
British Aerospace Defense Ltd. has delivered the S-Band Transportable SATCOM Ground Terminal (TSGT) to NATO, BAe announced Friday. The unit will initially be co-located with the fixed NATO terminal at Oakhanger, U.K. It will replace temporary facilities located in the U.K and at the NATO C3 Agency's laboratories at The Hague. BAe acquired the contract when it completed its takeover of Siemens Plessey (DAILY, April 17), which won the award in September 1996.
British Aerospace and ATR have decided to break up their regional aircraft consortium AI(R), the companies announced yesterday in Toulouse, France. AI(R) was set up in 1996 to market aircraft made by BAe and ATR, an alliance of France's Aerospatiale and Italy's Alenia. AI(R) also intended to develop a new range of regional jets - the Airjet - whose three versions would have had a capacity of 58, 70 and 84 seats respectively. The $1.2 billion program was meant to compete with Canadair's CRJs.
Raytheon Electronic Systems, Portsmouth, R.I., is being awarded an $11,194,813 modification to previously awarded contract N00024-96-C-6215 to exercise an option for the procurement of Block 1C common display consoles, tactical weapon simulators, precabling kits and maintenance assistance modules for the MK2. This option brings the total cumulative value of the contract to $52,884,841. Work will be performed in Portsmouth, R.I. (95%), and Waltham, Mass. (5%), and is expected to be completed by May 2000.
Extending the range of the Joint Direct Attack Munition smart bomb and adding and hardening the guidance kit against jamming of the Global Positioning System signal are supplanting a terminal seeker as the U.S. Air Force's top priorities for JDAM upgrades.
British Aerospace refused comment yesterday on weekend press reports that it will bid an estimated 400 million pounds ($670 million) to acquire up to a 40% share in Sweden's Saab.
The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Cambridge, Mass. is being awarded a $132,385,143 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for operation and management support for the ongoing Bosnia Command and Control Augmentation (BC2A) effort and for integration and fielding of Information Dissemination Management (IDM) services in support of the Global Broadcast System (GBS) phase 2 deployment. Contract is a sole source award.
McDonnell Douglas Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Boeing Company, St. Louis, Mo., is being awarded a $169,800,000 modification to previously awarded contract N00019-97-C-0136 to definitize the advanced acquisition contract for the FY 98 Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP II) of eight F/A-18E and 12 F/A-18F aircraft and associated hardware to a fixed price incentive fee contract. This effort will also fully fund the contract to the target price. Work will be performed in St. Louis, Mo. (60%) and Hawthorne, Calif.
The second set of four satellites for the Globalstar low Earth orbit communications network was launched Friday by a Boeing Delta II from Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., Boeing and Loral announced. The launch was originally scheduled for Thursday but was postponed due to unfavorable upper-level winds. Globalstar plans to launch 44 satellites by the end of the year. To complete the constellation of 48 satellites and eight in-orbit spares, the remaining 12 satellites will be launched in early 1999.
F-22 DECISION: The U.S. Air Force is expected to decide in coming months where to base its force of F-22 fighters. It will "need to make that decision within the next year," says Brig. Gen. William Peck, Air Combat Command's requirements chief. The decision will have to be made soon to start infrastructure investments, he says. A base with F-22s is seen by some as insurance against being closed.
AEF BASES: In an attempt to become more expeditionary, Ryan says Air Expeditionary Forces will be permanently based in several locations. One will be in Europe, another will be in the Pacific, and four or five others will be in the U.S., he says. Active and reserve forces will be tied to the AEFs.
PLUGGING HOLES: The Air Force plans to move pilots from headquarters slots into cockpits to handle its retention problem. Ryan said the service expects to be 800 pilots short this year. By moving pilots out of headquarters into squadrons, it hopes to avoid any shortfall in combat capability. The headquarters slots will be filled by non-pilot officers.
LSI BOOSTER: Boeing has proposed a new booster built from off-the-shelf solid rocket motors as its non-Minuteman option for the National Missile Defense Ground Based Interceptor. The winner of BMDO's Lead System Integrator competition is scheduled to be announced late this week, and John Peller, Boeing's LSI program manager, is careful to note that his company will be perfectly happy using the Minuteman as a GBI booster as well. "The government makes that decision within 90 days after go-ahead," Peller says. "Both options work very well; both options perform similarly.
Yuzhny Machine-Building Plant of Dniepropetrovsk, Ukraine, has delivered the first Zenit launch vehicle to the Sea Launch company. The rocket will be transported to St. Petersburg, where it will be loaded on Sea Launch's Assembly and Command Ship. The third stage of the Zenit-3SL launcher, made by Energia Rocket and Space Corp. at Korolyov, was accepted April 21 and is being shipped to St. Petersburg separately. The second Zenit-3SL rocket is scheduled for delivery to St. Petersburg in late May.
IRIDIUM OPERATING LLC said it will file a registration statement this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the offering of $350 million Series D Senior Notes due in 2005.
Boeing is using large composite structures, including a payload fairing 13.5 feet in diameter and a 12-foot-diameter interstage, to hold down costs on its new Delta III booster. Although the Delta III will have roughly twice the performance of the workhorse Delta II, the main contribution from composites will be reduced part counts and correspondingly lower labor charges than would be possible with aluminum structures.
SMALL FIGHT: The U.S. Air Force's decision to delay development of the Small Bomb System has at least one top-level critic. "There's at least one commander-in-chief who wants to address this with the Chief [of Staff of the Air Force]," says one AF official.
