The U.S. Air Force is planning to equip its MC-130H Combat Talon IIs with an aerial refueling pod that would allow it to serve as a tanker for Special Operations Forces helicopters and V-22 tiltrotor aircraft, the AF said in a Feb. 23 Commerce Business Daily notice.
Standard Missile Company, McLean, Va., is being awarded a $50,950,888 cost plus-award-fee contract to provide research and development engineering services on a level of effort basis to support the Standard Missile Program as the Missile Round Design Agent. This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $99,996,864. Work will be performed in Tucson, Ariz. (42.1%), McLean, Va. (32.1%), and Tewksbury, Mass. (25.8%), and is expected to be completed by December 1999.
The U.S. Army has refined its plan to develop and field the Aerial Common Sensor by around 2008 or '09, according to Lt. Col. Bruce Jette, the service's the ACS program manager. Late last year, the Army tentatively wanted to start some ACS research and development in fiscal 1999, which would lead to fielding around 2006. However, Jette said, plans have changed slightly. R&D is now slated to begin in FY '00 with a system to be fielded eight to nine years later.
Europe's Joint Aviation Authority (JAA) recommended type validation of the Next-Generation 737-700, Boeing said. Actual type certificates will be awarded by the individual countries. The aircraft received FAA certification on Nov. 7, 1997.
Exigent International Inc.'s Software Technology Inc. (STI) subsidiary has signed an agreement with Motorola to supply command and control systems for the future Celestri satellite constellation. Celestri is planned as a hybrid constellation of 63 low earth orbit (LEO) and up to nine geostationary earth orbit (GEO) satellites for real- time multi-media, data, video and voice services.
NASA's Wallops Flight Facility has selected the Physical Science Laboratory (PSL) at New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, N.M., to provide support services for its scientific balloon program. Under the five-year contract, valued at $66.7 million, PSL will provide technical and operational services for balloon flights that support NASA's scientific programs. This includes operational flight support for launching, tracking and recovery of scientific balloons and their payloads.
Raytheon TI Systems Inc., McKinney, Texas, is being awarded a time and materials contract (appropriation number and dollar value will be issued with each delivery order), with an estimated cumulative total of $20,825,000, for engineering and technical services to support the Second Generation Horizontal Technology Integration (HTI) Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) Program. Work will be performed in McKinney, Texas, and is expected to be completed by Feb. 28, 2003. This is a sole source contract initiated on Nov. 20, 1997.
Boeing North American, Inc., Fort Walton Beach, Fla., is being awarded a $22,763,505 face value increase to a cost-plus-award-fee contract to provide for Interim Contractor Support from March 1998 through March 1999 for the AC-130U aircraft. The work will be performed at Hurlburt Field, Fla. (90%) and at various other locations. Contract is expected to be completed March 1999. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio is the contracting activity (F336547-94/D-0047).
NASA plans to follow the role pioneered by its predecessor National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) as it pursues new space transportation technology in the coming century, according to the head of the agency's advanced space transportation effort.
The U.S. government's appeal of the Court of Federal Claims ruling on the A-12 aircraft case is likely to take about three years, officials said yesterday. Judge Robert H. Hodges issued his final ruling on the case Friday, saying the government owes General Dynamics and Boeing $3.9 billion for having canceled the stealthy Navy attack plane program in January 1991. The Defense Dept. filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals that came even before the ruling was entered.
Allied Signal Engines, Phoenix, Ariz., is being awarded an $842,000 increment as part of a $39,154,602 cost-share reimbursement contract for research and development of the Tri-Service Program to further develop the Joint Turbine Advanced Gas Generator (JTAGG-III). Work will be performed in Phoenix, Ariz., and is expected to be completed by Jan. 19, 2004. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There were six bids solicited on April 2, 1997, and one bid was received. The contracting activity is the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, Ft.
The U.S. National Reconnaissance Office may bring international partners into a program to develop the next-generation of imagery satellites, according NRO Director Keith Hall. The NRO has said that the constellation of new satellites, which would replace existing constellations with a mix of smaller, more capable, less expensive satellites, will help it meet its goal of "information superiority" with technology conceived and developed in the U.S.
Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) said the U.S. and Russia "should consider" taking their nuclear weapons off alert and eliminating the ground-based leg of the strategic triad. Domenici, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee and head of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee which has jurisdiction over the non- weapons portion of the nuclear budget, made the suggestion in recent Senate floor remarks and in a statement on nuclear issues. The Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories are based in New Mexico.
VTOL DEMO: The Bell Helicopter Textron Eagle Eye unmanned aerial vehicle is slated to begin flying this week under the U.S. Navy-led Vertical Take Off and Landing UAV demonstration. Flights at the Army's Yuma proving ground are slated to begin Feb. 24. The Eagle Eye is competing against VTOL UAVs from Bombardier and SAIC.
MARKUP PLANS: The House National Security Committee plans to mark up its FY '99 defense authorization bill in late April, and move the bill onto the House floor by Memorial Day. However, this depends on when the House Budget Committee completes work on the FY '99 Budget Resolution, which will set the topline spending level government spending, including defense. HNSC Chairman Floyd Spence (R-S.C.) can be expected to push for an increase to the $257.3 billion DOD request, but the Budget Committee is unlikely to sign off on a high topline.
European rocket engineers have decided to add a second attitude control system to the Ariane 5 launch vehicle to counter a mysterious torque that apparently triggered an early shutdown in the big rocket after its first successful launch last year. According to the European Space Agency, the new system will double the rocket's ability to counteract a roll torque, raising the level of torque that can be handled to 2,000 Newton-meter (Nm). The system will be installed on the lower portion of the vehicle equipment bay.
COST CONSIDERATION: Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), a skeptic on NATO expansion, plans to offer a reservation to the proposed expansion amendment to the North Atlantic Treaty, insisting that admitting the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland as NATO members would not increase the cost to the U.S. The Senate is expected to vote on NATO expansion before the Easter recess, which begins April 4.
TWO HALT PHASES: The U.S. Air Force is trying to put some more meat on its concept of stopping an enemy during the initial phases of combat, before allied ground forces can be deployed to a theater. It is asking Washington- based Synergy Inc. to study the idea of conducting two halt phases in rapid succession. The scenarios, to be set in 2005 and 2012, match the Pentagon's advertised strategy of being able to fight and win two nearly simultaneous conflicts.
General Dynamics Land Systems has delivered the first M1A2 Abrams System Enhancement Package (SEP) tank prototype to the U.S. Army at a ceremony last Thursday in Sterling Heights, Mich. This M1A2 SEP tank is the first of three prototypes that will be delivered to the service for testing prior to the first production model in mid-1999. Three other prototypes currently are being used by General Dynamics for systems integrations testing, engineering design and logistics evaluation.
The U.S. Air Force this year expects to begin drafting a mission needs statement for an aircraft to replace the U-2 surveillance plane that would start entering the inventory around 2018. The concept being referred to as U-X has undergone a couple of years of analysis by Air Combat Command and is now being readied to slowly move forward. Air Force and intelligence community leaders were recently briefed on the idea.
'SPACE JUNK': EarthWatch Inc.'s EarlyBird 1 is "space junk," according to the Russian space official who launched it, but EarlyBird 2 may be orbited before the end of the year.
ASIAN IMPACT: Orbit/FR Inc. of Horsham, Pa., said it expects its sales to the Far East to drop in the first quarter of 1998. During the first nine months of 1997, sales to the area accounted for about 23% of the company's revenues, but the number is expected to drop during the fourth quarter, and in the first three months of this year, the company expects the contribution to fall to only 2%. Orbit/FR develops and supports automated microwave test and measurement systems for the wireless communication, satellite, automotive and aerospace/defense industries.
MOSCOW - Russia's government has approved cooperation by two Russian companies with the French Societe Europeenne de Propulsion (SEP) in developing a rocket engine for a proposed Ariane 5 upgrade.
