Italy would get 734 Stinger Block 1 International missiles under a $110 million deal with the U.S., according to the Dept. of Defense. The proposed sale, which must be approved by Congress, will improve "the military capabilities of Italy while enhancing weapon systems standardization and interoperability," DOD said Wednesday. It said Italy, which already has Stingers, will use the new missiles to upgrade its air defense capability.
LOCKHEED MARTIN'S C-130J Hercules has begun a tour of Canada and countries in Europe, Scandinavia, the Middle East, South America and the Pacific Rim. The first leg goes through Portugal, Greece, Turkey, Egypt and the Middle East. The tour runs through early June. Orders for the C-130J and the longer C-130J-30 have been placed by the U.K.'s Royal Air Force, the Royal Australian Air Force, the Italian Air Force and the U.S. Air Force and Marine Corps.
The Boeing team competing to become lead system integrator (LSI) for the Pentagon's national missile defense (NMD) program has proposed an optional NMD site at a location other than Grand Forks, N.D., which is envisioned under the current plan.
FAIRCHILD DORNIER signed contracts for three 328JET aircraft with two different European customers. Tyrolean Jet Service, Innsbruck, will buy two 328JETs, with delivery set for 1999 and 2000. MTM Aviation, Munich, Germany, signed a letter of intent for a 328JET to be delivered in 1999.
GKN Westland Helicopters has won a $46.5 million contract from the U.K. Ministry of Defense to improve the defensive suite on EH101 Merlin HDC Mk3 helicopter. The program establishes an integrated defensive aid suite that includes the GEC-Marconi Sky Guardian 2000 radar warning receiver, the Hughes Danbury laser detection system, the Tracor ALE-47 countermeasures dispensing system, and an infrared countermeasures system with a passive missile warning system, GKN Westland. The helicopter is to be fielded in 2000.
The role of U.S. military personnel in the drug war could shrink as innovative technologies, like backscatter radar, become more readily available to federal law enforcement agencies, according to Gen. Barry McCaffrey (U.S. Army-ret.), director of National Drug Control Policy.
HEROUX INC.'S LANDING GEAR division, Montreal, won contracts from the U.S. Air Force, Boeing and Northrop Grumman totalling $7.6 million. Heroux will supply the USAF with main landing gear shipsets for the KC-135R. Northrop Grumman ordered S-3A axle beams. Boeing placed orders for 737 engine mounts. Deliveries begin in fiscal year 1999 and should be completed during 2000.
Russian space engineers have pinpointed the causes of costly space-launch failures last year that raised questions about the reliability of Russian hardware for commercial launch services, according to Yuri P. Semyonov, President of RSC Energia. Asked about the failures of a two-stage Zenit rocket last May and Energia's Block DM upper stage last December, Semyonov said the causes of both failures have been identified.
Manufacturing problems with subassemblies of the F-22 fighter are delaying delivery of some of the test aircraft up to five months, but so far the U.S. Air Force doesn't expect any major effect on the flight test program. The first F-22, Aircraft 4001, was delivered to Edwards AFB, Calif., last week.
Triumph Group Inc., Wayne, Pa., agreed to acquire Frisby Aerospace, which makes aircraft components and subsystems, for an undisclosed amount of cash, Triumph announced yesterday. Frisby is based in Freeport, N.Y., and Clemmons, N.C.
NASA last week successfully completed the critical design review of the Hyper-X testbed that now has been cleared to complete a revamped program, scaled back because existing funding was insufficient to execute the program as originally planned.
Raytheon Microelectronics said it plans to double the capacity of its semiconductor fabrication production line in Andover, Mass., to meet the demand from the wireless communications market for gallium arsenide Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits (MMICs). The MMIC technology is used in the production of the Main Mission Antenna transceiver in the Iridium and Globalstar satellite programs.
L-3 Communications, New York, will buy the assets of Ilex Systems, Milpitas, Calif., a provider of communications software support to military and government intelligence markets, for $53 million in cash and additional considerations based on performance, L-3 announced yesterday. Ilex, founded in 1982, had annual revenues of about $63 million in 1997.
BOMBARDIER AEROSPACE, Toronto, received a $97 million firm order for two de Havilland Dash 8Q Series 300s, a Dash 8Q Series 400B and two Canadair Regional Jet Series 200B LRs from Tyrolean Airways, Innsbruck, Austria. Bombardier also said that Royal Wings, the regional airline subsidiary of Royal Jordanian Airlines, and Rheintalflug, an Austrian-based regional airline, purchased Dash 8Q Series 300s.
Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee and its likely chairman next year, plans to submit an amendment to the NATO expansion resolution that would place a three-year moratorium on future expansions. It wouldn't apply to the present expansion clearing the way for Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic to join NATO in 1999. Expansion is expected to easily get more than the required two-thirds majority in the Senate. The vote is likely to come in early March.
The Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency plans to develop an active electronically scanned array that would cost about $25 million each and would be part of the space-based Starlite synthetic aperture radar constellation.
House Appropriations national security subcommittee chairman Rep. C.W. Young (R-Fla.) said yesterday that he will take over as Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee if, as expected, the present chairman, Rep. Robert Livingston (R-La.), announces his retirement.
Fairchild Corp., Washington, D.C., earned $20.4 million in its 1998 second quarter on sales of $236.7 million, the company said. The increase was due to a $30 million after-tax gain from disposition of preferred stock positions in Shared Technologies Fairchild Inc. In the same period a year ago, Fairchild suffered a $3 million loss on 48% lower sales of $159.9 million.
Airbus Industrie selected The MacNeal-Schwendler Corp., Los Angeles, as a strategic partner to define and implement competitive tools and processes, MSC announced. Objectives include improving the level of communication and responsiveness within new Airbus projects, including the A340-500, A340-600 and A3XX programs.
BOEING bought a second Total Airport&Airspace Modeller (TAAM) license from The Preston Group Pty Ltd., Melbourne, Australia, to simulate modeling projects by its operations research staff for commercial airline customers.
The Pentagon announced a possible sale of Perry and Knox class frigates and Harpoon missiles to Egypt in a deal estimated at $355 million. The sale, which requires the approval of Congress, includes two FFG-7 Perry class frigates; two currently leased FF 1052 Knox class frigates; 42 Harpoon missiles and containers; upgrade modification kits for 20 SM-1 missiles; sonobuoys and other related ammunition items; shipyard/port support services, and post transfer activities relating to turnover of the Perry class frigates.
The General Accounting Office has given its blessing to a U.S. Air Force choice last year of the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center in Georgia over private industry to perform maintenance on the C-5 airlifter. "Our review of the proposal cost evaluation and adjustments showed that the award resulted in the lowest cost to the government given Air Force assumptions and conditions at the time of award," the GAO wrote in "Public Private Competitions: Process Used for C-5 Aircraft Award Appear Reasonable" (NSIAD-98-72).
ISRAEL AIRCRAFT INDUSTRIES' Bedek Aviation Group won a multi-year contract from Triton Aviation Services Ltd. to convert 747-200s to freighters. The initial value for the first three aircraft will be $60 million - $65 million. The first, bought from Air India, has arrived in Israel, where conversion and maintenance work will take six months. Bedek will convert three aircraft per year on a nose-to-tail conversion line.
Gary Brown, vice president and Integrated Product Team (IPT) leader for C-17 and Military Programs at Northrop Grumman's Commercial Aircraft Division, has been named site manager of the Milledgeville, Ga., composites facility, the company announced. Brown, based at CAD headquarters in Dallas, has had senior oversight of the Milledgeville and Stuart, Fla., facilities since 1995.
