Systems Planning and Analysis, Inc., Alexandria, Va., is being awarded an $18,315,430 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to provide technical and engineering support services to the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command Warfare Analysis, Modelling and Simulation Program Office (PMW 131). This office of the Advanced Technology and Prototype Systems Program Directorate (PD 13) supports the Chief of Naval Operations Assessment Division (N81) in executing its assessment and modeling and simulation duties.
General Electric, Co., Cincinnati, Ohio, is being awarded a $7,225,000 face value increase to a firm-fixed-price contract to provide for 68 Combustion Cases applicable to the F101 engine on the B-1B aircraft. Contract is expected to be completed September 1999. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, Tinker AFB, Okla., is the contracting activity (F34601-97/G-0002, P0069- 02).
Yuri Koptiev, general director of the Russian Space Agency, conceded here Friday that funds are still in short supply for the critical Service Module for the International Space Station, but vowed Russia will keep its promises to deliver the hardware.
Israel's first two F-15I fighters arrived at Hatzerim air base Monday. Twenty-three more will follow. Formal acceptance by Israel of the first F-15I took place last November at Boeing Co.'s McDonnell Aircraft and Missile Systems plant in St. Louis. First flight was last September. Israel chose the jet in January 1994 after evaluating several candidates, and finalized its decision to buy 25 in November 1995.
Hughes Electronics, having spun off its defense business to Raytheon, will nevertheless continue to do significant communications business with the U.S. Dept. of Defense, according to Michael T. Smith, chairman and chief executive officer.
Alliant Techsystems, Hopkins, Minn., is being awarded a $6,595,677 modification to a firm-fixed-price contract for 2,600 HEAT-T M830A1 cartridges, 120 mm. This is production year five. Work will be performed in Hopkins, Minn., and is expected to be completed by May 30, 1999. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on Dec. 23, 1996. The contracting activity is the U.S. Army Tank-Automotive&Armaments Command, Picatinny Arsenal, N.J. (DAAE30-97-C-1008).
Lockheed Martin, Aero&Naval Systems, Baltimore, Md., is being awarded a $9,247,581 modification to previously awarded contract N00024-94-C-5316 for the procurement of technical/engineering services in support of the Mk. 41 Vertical Launching System (VLS) program. This contract combines the purchases for the U.S. Navy (96.59%) and the government of Japan (3.41%) under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) Program. Work will be performed in Baltimore, Md., and is expected to be completed in December 1999. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the fiscal year.
Raytheon Co., Goletta, Calif., is being awarded a $24,976,907 face value increase to a fixed-price-incentive contract to provide for the following components in support of the AN/ALE-50(V) countermeasures system on the F- 16 aircraft. 283 1*2 Controllers; 481 F-16 magazines; 283 F-16 Isolation Racks; associated warranty and tooling. Contract is expected to be completed January 2000. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
General Dynamics Land Systems Division, Muskegon, Mich., is being awarded $7,463,606, as part of an estimated $34,170,728 five year indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity firm-fixed-price contract for 3,929 diesel engine cylinder heads. Work will be performed in Muskegon, Mich., and is expected to be completed by Jan. 1, 2003. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There were two bids solicited on Sept. 15, 1997, and two bids were received. The contracting activity is the U.S. Army Tank Automotive&Armaments Command, Warren, Mich.
Fifty House Democrats are prodding the White House to reverse a decision allowing export of U.S. military equipment to Latin America, or at least to establish new policies governing such transfers. The lawmakers, in a Jan. 9 letter to President Clinton, said they "strongly advise" a reversal of the Aug. 1 decision to lift the arms embargo to Latin America.
Russia's FGB "space tug," soon to be on its way to the Baikonur Cosmodrome for launch as the first element of the International Space Station, could form the basis for a large automated Station resupply spacecraft in the future, possibly as a Russian/U.S. joint venture.
The Boeing Co., St. Louis, Mo., is being awarded an $11,598,240 face value increase to a firm-fixed-price contract to provide for integration of the Global Positioning System into 70 T-1A aircraft. The work will be performed by Boeing at Vance Air Force Base, Okla. (75%), and Randolph Air Force Base, Texas (25%). Contract is expected to be completed January 2000. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-89/C-0002, P00239).
Hughes Missile Systems Co., Tucson, Ariz. is being awarded a $21.838,189 firm-fixed-price contract for 55 dual mount STINGER (DMS) launchers, pubs, test set, and training. Work will be performed in Tucson, Ariz. (96%) and Farmington, N.M. (4%), and is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2000. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on Oct. 29, 1997. The contracting activity is the U.S. Army Aviation&Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala. (DAAH01-98-C-0074).
A U.S. Air Force review has revealed three concerns with the fleet of EC-130E Commando Solo II special mission aircraft, according to an AF official. The review, conducted after the crash last year of another type of aging Hercules, an HC-130P, found that the plane's payload puts takeoff weight at about 175,000 pounds, well over the maximum takeoff weight of 155,000 pounds. In addition, it said, the EC-130Es are among the oldest C-130s flown by the USAF, having been built in 1963.
OSD TO THE RESCUE: The Office of the Secretary of Defense once again is coming to the aid of Sikorsky by increasing the U.S. Army's fiscal 1999 UH- 60 Black Hawk procurement plans. In prior fiscal years, OSD kept the Black Hawk line open by adding money to the Army's budget. This time, it has ordered the Army to buy an additional 10 Black Hawks per year for the next five years, an official tells The DAILY. All will go to the National Guard.
Fairchild Chairman Jeffrey Steiner is predicting that the fastener industry will experience the same kind of consolidation that has hit other segments of the aerospace industry. He said there are two big fastener companies, with Fairchild being the larger, and several smaller players. "We are already the leader in our market and we intend to be even larger in the months and years to come," he said at a press conference in Washington last week.
The U.S. Army is looking to begin an R&D program to put lightweight, transparent armor on its helicopters using technology developed primarily for tanks and other ground vehicles. Army Aviation and Troop Command said in a Jan. 20 Commerce Business Daily notice that the program would leverage advances in "transparent armor" to increase a helicopter's protection against rounds ranging from 7.62mm ball to 23mm HEI with reduced armor weight. A low-level, $650,000, 24-month research effort could begin as early as this year.
Following a six-month demonstration of vertical take-off and landing unmanned aerial vehicles early this year, the U.S. Navy this summer is expected to make a decision on whether to proceed with a VTOL UAV procurement program. After the VTOL fly-off has identified the best option, "then we in the Navy have to sit down and say, 'do we buy it?,'" Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Edward Hanlon, the Navy's director for expeditionary warfare said Friday during a brief interview in Arlington, Va. "We'll be at that point probably next August or September," he said.
BMW ROLLS-ROYCE hopes to generate operational profit "around the year 2000," according to its managing director, Klaus Nittinger. The joint venture, which was set up in 1990, has so far invested 1.8 billion deutsche marks. To date, it has won 500 firm orders for its BR700 engine series. It puts the value of its order book at 2.5 billion marks. The manufacturer is aiming at increasing its sales from 500 million marks in 1997 to about 1 billion marks in 1999.
USAF HUNTER: The U.S. Air Force's unmanned aerial vehicle battlelab at Eglin AFB, Fla., plans to conduct a demonstration at Cannon AFB, N.M., between Jan. 20 and Jan. 21 involving the Hunter UAV. Its mission will be to detect "enemy" air defenses and provide targeting information. The demonstration will use the Litton L-100 detection system to find and locate air defense sites, and the Improved Data Modem to pass information between the UAV and fighter aircraft.
The U.S. Navy may increase procurement of the Standoff Land Attack Missile-Expanded Response (SLAM-ER) air-to-ground weapon in fiscal 1998. The service was authorized by Congress to modify 22 SLAMs to the -ER configuration, but "We're negotiation right now for at least 22 if not 42" in the second lot of low rate production, Bob Krieger, Boeing's general manager for missiles said in an interview in Arlington, Va. "The Navy may reprogram some money internally" to increase FY '98 procurement, he said.
SUNGLINT: Skywatchers with sharp eyes could get a chance to see NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft this week as it swings by Earth on its way to the asteroid 433 Eros. On the night of Jan. 22-23, the spacecraft's arrays should reflect sunlight bright enough to produce a glint lasting several seconds as bright as Capella, the brightest star in the northwest sky. It will be the first interplanetary spacecraft ever visible to the naked eye. Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, which built NEAR, has posted viewing charts at http://sd-www.
SECOND WAVE: Satellite builders and launch service providers will enjoy a second wave of deployments beginning in 2004, as the proposed broadband satellite constellations begin coming on line and the first wave of mobile communications constellations now being launched start getting upgraded. Overall Marco Caceres of The Teal Group sees $121 billion worth of satellites launched through 2007, 70% of them commercial communications platforms worth a total of $58 billion.
OH-58 REMANUFACTURE: The U.S. Army expects to need a remanufacture program in the outyears for the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior to keep the helicopter flying until its replacement, the RAH-66 Comanche, is fielded in large numbers, according to a chart presented by Maj. Gen. Ron Adams, the Army's chief of operations and plans, to a session of the Association of the U.S. Army in Arlington, Va., last week. The remanufacture program would take place around 2010. Industry officials say the plan is still in the early conceptual phase.
