Raytheon Company, Electronic Systems, Sudbury, Mass., is being awarded a not-to-exceed $113,000,000 firm-fixed-price letter contract for FY98 requirements of four shipsets of AEGIS Weapon System (AWS) OT-146/SPY-1D, OT-188/SPY-1D(V) transmitter groups, fire control system MK99 MOD 3 ancillary equipment, site support, data spares, provisioned item order, provisioning technical documentation, and technical manuals for the U.S. Navy requirements. Work will be performed in Andover, Mass. (50%), Waltham, Mass. (30%), Sudbury, Mass.
Raytheon TI Systems, Inc., McKinney, Texas, is being awarded a $10,973,483 cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, delivery order contract for labor, equipment, and materials needed to provide technological support for the Uncooled Focal Plan Array, under the Direct Attack Munition Affordable Seeker Image Guided Bomb project. Work will be performed in McKinney, Texas (80%), and China Lake, Calif. (20%), and is expected to be completed by April 2003. Contract funds in the amount of $39,120 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
The U.S. Air Force this month plans to release a request for proposals for 168 precision targeting pods for Air National Guard and Reserve F-16s. The procurement and delivery schedule for the pods has been in flux since last year. The AF said in an April 10 Commerce Business Daily notice that it has committed to buying the 168 systems over a five-year period. Initial operational capability of the system is slated for the second quarter of FY '00.
The U.S. Navy says its future Supersonic Sea-Skimming Target (SSST) must be capable of flying Mach 2 and 45 nautical miles, although it desires Mach 3 and 55 n.m. The vehicle, which would be surface- or air-launched, would cruise at no more than 66 feet off the water, and 15 feet or lower within 3 n.m. of the target, the Navy said in a draft requirements statement released to industry earlier this month. The Navy would like to see even greater performance, including Mach 3 cruise at 16 feet.
The planned first launch of the Space Based Infrared Sensor Low (SBIRS-Low) by 2004 hinges largely on the government's ability to define requirements in the near future and to maintain stable funding, officials say. The SBIRS-Low requirements are slated to go before the Pentagon's Joint Requirements Oversight Council later this year (DAILY, April 7).
Logicon Research and Development Associates, Los Angeles, Calif., is being awarded a $30,000,000 cost-plus-award-fee contract to provide for advisory and assistance services in support of the Airborne Laser Program. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The work is expected to be completed September 1998. There were 19 firms solicited and one proposal received. Solicitation began February 1998; negotiations were completed March 1998.
The two B-2A stealth bombers that recently returned to Whiteman AFB, Mo., from a 10-day test deployment to Guam experienced only a small number of low observable discrepancies during the operation. Each of the bombers, which are Block 30s, the newest version, experienced about 19 LO write-ups during the deployment, less than half the average number of LO writeups on earlier model B-2s, Brig. Gen. Thomas Goslin, commander of the 509th Bomb Wing, said in a telephone interview. Block 20 B-2s averaged about 40 per mission (DAILY, March 26).
The U.S. Air Force has ordered another six Delta II space launch vehicles from Boeing to complete the deployment of the Block IIR series of Global Positioning System satellites. The order brings to 21 the total Air Force purchase of Delta II launchers to complete the 21-satellite GPS IIR constellation. The IIR platforms will be launched through 2002 as needed to replace aging satellites in the original GPS fleet.
Cosmonauts aboard Russia's Mir orbital station removed a six-year-old attitude-control engine that had run out of fuel and threw it "over the side" on Saturday, clearing the way for installation of a new engine in spacewalks coming up later this month. Talgat Musabayev and Nikolai Budarin clambered to the end of a 46-foot beam to reach the engine, which ran out of fuel during their last extravehicular activity (EVA) and forced them back inside Mir to connect a backup (DAILY, April 7).
Israel Aircraft Industries reported that an advanced configuration of a MiG 21-2000 fighter exceeded expectations during a series of test flights from Ben Gurion International Airport. IAI said the new configuration, completed by its Lahav Div. in a period of three months, includes an IAI Elta Electronics Industries EL/M2032 advanced multi-mode fire control radar and Lahav's modernized avionics suite.
A team from TRW and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has produced video pictures from the world's first infrared imaging system to employ superconducting digital electronics, which could be used to develop more sophisticated future satellite imaging.
LAUNCH MARKET: United Technologies chief George David expects as many as 20 space launches a year powered by the new RD-180 rocket engine produced by Russia's NPO Energomash and UTC subsidiary Pratt&Whitney. David tells reporters in Moscow three quarters of that would be commercial launches, with the remainder U.S. government missions on the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle. Lockheed Martin already has a contract to buy 101 engines from the U.S./Russian venture for its expanding Atlas line (DAILY, April 9).
MARKET EXPANSION: Boeing's decision to use a Rockwell Collins digital cockpit for ICH could be an even larger boost to the avionics maker than it seems. In addition to the 300 Chinook cockpits Collins will upgrade, there's a promise of UH-60 Black Hawk upgrades. The Army wants to move to a common cockpit as it modernizes the Black Hawk in the UH-60X program, according to Col. Tom Harrison, the Army's utility fleet program manager. Still a competitor, however, is the UH-60Q medevac cockpit, which Sikorsky would like to see leveraged on the UH-60X.
Intercept tests of competing Boeing and Raytheon exoatmospheric kill vehicle (EKV) designs have been delayed by the Pentagon's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization. A Pentagon official told The DAILY that the test of the Boeing vehicle, which was to have conducted in mid-August, will now take place in mid-November. Raytheon's vehicle, whose intercept test had been slated for November, will now be tested next February or March.
Sixteen aircraft experienced a "total loss" of Global Positioning System signals during a 10-day period in late December and early January, according to a report circulated at the highest levels of the Coast Guard.
CHINESE EXPERTS are trying to locate the source of a mysterious signal that has disrupted service from the Apstar-1 telecommunications satellite, according to APT Satellite Holdings Ltd., which owns the platform. An APT spokesperson told reporters in Hong Kong that the interference affected only part of the bandwidth of one of the satellite's 24 transponders, disrupting earthquake monitoring and pager service in China. Frequency adjustments made it possible for customers to resume using the service, according to the spokesperson.
GenCorp, Fairlawn, Ohio, reported earnings of $12.8 million in its 1998 first quarter on sales of $365.5 million, up from earnings of $11.1 million on sales of $328 million in the same period a year ago. Sales at Aerojet, the company's aerospace and defense segment, grew 30% to $135.4 million, while operating profit increased 38% to $14.2 million. The company said higher sales on the Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS), an improving contract mix, and strong performance from Custom Chemicals were responsible for the improvement.
OPEN SEASON: The Senate Budget Committee says in its budget resolution that it does not assume that the spending firewalls between defense and non- defense discretionary spending will remain beyond their statutory requirement in fiscal 1999. This means that in consideration of the budget for FY 2000 and thereafter, money cut from defense could be used for non- defense domestic programs. At present and through FY '99, cuts in one area cannot go into another, and can only be used for deficit reduction.
JUST IN TIME: The CH-47 Improved Cargo Helicopter program the U.S. Army wants to launch this month is coming none too soon. The fleet is beginning to have readiness problems, says Maj. Gen. Emmitt Gibson, head of Aviation and Missile Command. The mission capable rate has begun dropping below 75%, he points out.
HAWKER PACIFIC AEROSPACE, Sun Valley, Calif., signed a five-year service agreement for British Midlands Airway's 737 fleet. Hawker will perform landing gear repair and overhaul services on 26 aircraft at a newly acquired facility in the U.K.
LSI CONTRACT: The National Missile Defense Joint Program Office plans to announce the winner of the NMD Lead System Integrator contract during the first week of May, says NMD JPO Director Brig. Gen. Joseph Cosumano. The JPO originally expected to make the selection by mid-March.
TOSHIBA TROUBLES: Japan's Science and Technology Agency is more than a little peeved at satellite-maker Toshiba for its work on the Engineering Test Satellite No. 7 (ETS-7) launched in December (DAILY, Dec. 2, 1997). When Toshiba built ETS-7 for the National Space Development Agency (NASDA), it attached a critical robot arm to the satellite at an angle 30 degrees off specification. NASDA controllers believe they can work around the mistake as they use the arm to test a number of robotic operations planned for the International Space Station (DAILY, Nov. 12, 1997).
DERCO AEROSPACE INC., Milwaukee, has been named by BFGoodrich Aircraft Sensors Div. as an authorized distributor of aftermarket military fixed wing aircraft products. Derco also was named to distribute military spares worldwide for Telair International, which makes electro-mechanical actuators.
The U.S. government is directed to cooperate with Russia on matters related to missile defense in a section of controversial House-passed authorization for the Dept. of State. Senate leaders have agreed to take up the authorization when Congress returns from its Easter recess on April 20. Senate Minority Leader Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) has said he expects the bill to pass the Senate, and then face a veto threat from President Clinton over its anti-abortion provisions.
