Raytheon Co., Electronic Systems Division, Bedford, Mass., is being awarded a $13,148,069 modification to a firm-fixed-price contract for PATRIOT SWEEP V Mod Kits and concurrent spares for the United States, The Netherlands, Kuwait, and Israel. Work will be performed in Tewksbury, Mass., and is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2004. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source letter contract initiated on May 16, 1997. The contracting activity is the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Boeing will join Daicel Chemical Industries, Japan's leading maker of aircraft ejection seats, in developing an ejection seat for new fighter aircraft. Under an agreement reached between the governments of Japan and the U.S. on Friday, the two nations will split the estimated $46 million cost of the program to develop a new ejection seat before 2001.
Vice President Al Gore yesterday announced agreement to provide a second civil frequency free of charge to the international aviation community. However, providers of the civil signals can be expected to pay. The Defense Dept. will not be expected to pick up the expense for civil users, sources said. The second frequency has been recommended by a number of expert safety panels, mostly recently the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security, which Gore chaired.
Plans to set up a "NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts" are moving forward, with a workshop scheduled in May to define the "grand challenges" for the coming half-century that the institute will try to meet with "revolutionary" aerospace concepts. Although the institute will be operated by the Washington-based Universities Space Research Assn. (USRA), private industry will be encouraged to participate alongside academic researchers who will use institute grants to explore advanced concepts that could help NASA carry out its space and aeronautics missions.
Noel Forgeard will take over April 1 as managing director of Airbus Industrie, replacing Jean Pierson, who will retire after 13 years in the post, an Airbus spokeswoman confirmed yesterday. Forgeard, 51, was formerly chief executive of Matra High Technology and Matra BAe Dynamics, its joint venture with British Aerospace. He becomes the first head of Airbus to come from the private sector. Aerospatiale had been the source of Airbus leaders. Forgeard also will manage the A3XX airliner and the 100-seater Asian Express to be built with China.
Japan's manufacturers recorded sales of $7.236 billion in aerospace products during 1997, an 8% increase over 1996 sales. The figure includes $5.889 billion from production and $1.345 billion from overhaul. Decreasing defense production and increasing civil production are reflected in the 1997 figures. Since the late 1950s, defense demand has accounted for about 75% of the total, but has now dropped to 62.7%, 8% less than 1996. Budget cuts and the end of the F-2 fighter and OH-1 helicopter development programs contributed to the decline.
The U.S. Army has grounded its fleet of 907 Bell UH-1 "Huey" helicopters because of excessive engine vibrations. It plans to identify the ones that aren't experiencing vibrations and can be returned to flight status. The vibration causes the failure of the N2 spur gear on the Allied Signal T53-L-13 engine. Last year, the Army said, the problem prompted a restriction of Huey operations. A team was formed in November 1997 to address the problem, and a safety of flight message was released.
The Boeing Company, Huntsville, Ala., is being awarded a $5,451,231 firm- fixed-price contract for modernizing the Avenger system by procuring a development effort to design and prove-out a Slew-To-Cue (STC) Modification Kit" for the AVENGER Fire Units. Development is followed by production options of up to approximately 1,100 kits for upgrading the existing fleet.
As the Pentagon's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization reevaluates all schedules and test plans, it will decide if there is any way to move first unit equipped (FUE) Theater High Altitude Area Defense systems into the field sooner, BMDO Director Lt. Gen. Lester Lyles tells lawmakers. "I hesitate to say we can accelerate," Lyles says. "We may find a way to move the program to the left a little." Lyles stresses that he is talking months, not years. Some Republicans have been pushing for THAAD FUE sooner than the planned date of 2006.
The Pentagon's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization has delayed an upcoming intercept test of the Boeing exoatmospheric kill vehicle (EKV) competing for employment in the national missile defense (NMD) program, Pentagon and industry sources report. Program officials have decided to slip the intercept test at least one month to allow for more ground testing and modeling and simulation of the EKV's components, a Pentagon source said. The Boeing EKV successfully demonstrated in a launch last June that it could identify a missile target.
THE SENATE on Thursday approved an amendment to the defense-disaster fiscal 1998 supplemental that would appropriate $272.5 million only for procurement of eight F/A-18C/D aircraft for the Marine Corps with the funds designated as an emergency request, meaning that they do not have to be offset by cuts elsewhere in FY '98 appropriations. Senate Appropriations sources said the funds were to buy the eight F/A-18C/D fighters that Thailand ordered but could no longer afford because of the Asian economic crisis (DAILY, March 16).
NASA's Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is about two months behind schedule because of interface problems between the German-built eight-foot telescope and the U.S.-provided flying observatory, but program managers believe the delay can be made up later.
The U.S. Air Force wants to conduct two more major B-2 bomber deployments before an Operational Readiness Inspection next year to clear the plane for non-nuclear missions. A nuclear ORI is planned this year (DAILY, March 27). Like the on-going "Island Spirit" deployment here, the future exercises are intended to allow the Air Force to improve the way it uses the B-2. Brig. Gen. Tom Goslin, commander of the 509th Bomb Wing, said the deployments will be more extensive than the current exercise, which involves two B-2s.
The U.S. Air Force wants to involve the B-2 stealth bomber in overseas exercises with allies. That's a priority for Air Combat Command, says Brig. Gen. Tom Goslin, commander of the 509th Bomb Wing, which operates the B-2. The AF must sort out how the still highly classified program can interact with the armed forces of other countries.
Statements by the leader of a team conducting an independent assessment of International Space Station costs draw fire from key congressional Republicans, who strenuously note it wasn't Congress that capped annual Station spending at $2.1 billion. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) term remarks by former TRW executive Jay Chabrow blaming Congress for raising the final Station cost by imposing the cap "unconscionable," and vow to take a sharp pencil to Chabrow's Station-cost estimates when they are finalized.
Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Science Committee and a longtime skeptic when it comes to Russia's role in the International Space Station, is off to Moscow late this week to see for himself just what's going on with the critical Service Module and other Station components. Sensenbrenner is scheduled to be in the Russian capital April 5-7, but thanks to the surprise government shakeup there (DAILY, March 24), as of late last week he wasn't sure who, if anyone, he would be meeting.
Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), who has introduced with Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) legislation on missile defense policy, plans to reintroduce it with more sponsors, especially Democrats, to give it a bipartisan cast. The bill says the threat is increasing; the ability of the U.S. to defend against future threats "is questionable"; the failure "to prepare adequately" could have severe national security and foreign policy consequences; the U.S. must be prepared for rogue nations acquiring long- range missiles; the U.S.
V-22 OSPREY PILOTS used night vision goggles for the first time in the Bell Boeing tiltrotor with a two-hour flight from NAS Patuxent River, Md., March 3, Bell Boeing reported. Marine Corps pilots used fourth-generation NVGs for the night flight, which reached speeds as high as 250 knots and covered the aircraft's entire operating envelope.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., San Diego, Calif., has won a $71.5 million contract from U.S. Naval Systems Command for Predator unmanned aerial vehicles. Under the contract, General Atomics will provide 18 Predators, two ground control stations, two lots of spares and two lots of ground support equipment. The company said the deal brings the total number of Predators purchased by the U.S. government to 53.
The U.S. Army has taken steps delay procurement of additional Intelligence and Electronic Warfare Common Sensor (IEWCS) systems following a report from the General Accounting Office that discussed "serious hardware and software problems" in developmental testing. According to the Dept. of Defense, the Army procured two systems during fiscal 1997, but has revised plans for low rate initial production of five more in FY98 and adjusted the schedule to ensure that no further procurement will be made without supporting operational test results.
U.S. Navy testing of the F/A-18E/F fighter has "dramatically narrowed the problem" of buffeting caused by the porous wing fairing solution for the plane's wing-drop phenomenon, Congress has been told.
The four partners of Airbus Industrie presented their long- awaited report on the restructuring of the European aerospace and defense industries to their respective governments Friday, following calls earlier last week from senior French and German officials for Europe to take a leading technological role to compete with the U.S. aerospace giants.
U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen said Friday that the Pentagon will help Israel obtain a third battery of Arrow missiles to defend against a ballistic missile threat from Iran that is expected to materialize within the year. "The U.S. will stand by Israel and [recognizes] the need for Israel to acquire a third Arrow battery ... we will cooperate with Israel to see that that occurs," Cohen said at a joint Pentagon press conference with Israeli Minister of Defense Yitzhak Mordechai.
