General Dynamics Corporation, Advanced Technology Systems, Inc., Greensboro, N.C. is being awarded an $10,199,995 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for an Advanced Technology Demonstration (ATD) of Affordable Array Technology (AAT). Work will be performed in Greensboro, N.C. and is expected to be completed by March 2000. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was the result of a Broad Agency Announcement issued in the Commerce Business Daily on August 24, 1995. One hundred and eighty proposals were received as a result.
The U.S. Army has scrapped plans to buy additional Comanche helicopters for early operational capability (EOC) and instead will enhance the six already on the books to more them more effective in the corps-level Force XXI exercise set for 2004.
Bombardier Services acquired Specialist Aviation Services, which consists of Police Aviation Services (PAS) and Medical Aviation Services (MAS), Bombardier announced Friday. PAS and MAS together operate 23 contracts with a value of about $11.6 million in support of regional Police Authorities and Ambulance Services in the U.K. The company has about 130 employees, 50 based at the headquarters at Staverton Airport, Gloucestershire. Mark Trumble, who set up PAS in 1984, will remain as managing director.
Saab Aircraft is pulling out of the regional aircraft business to pursue subcontracting and focus on military aviation and aerospace. The decision, announced yesterday in Stockholm, follows several months of internal reviews (DAILY, Oct. 24), as well as losses of several billion Swedish kroner in each of the last several years.
The first two 767 Airborne Warning and Control Systems (AWACS) are in the final testing stages at Boeing Field in Seattle, in preparation for a March 11 turnover to Japan's Air Self-Defense Force, the U.S. Air Force reported. Two additional aircraft, part of that same foreign military sale (FMS), are in production and slated for delivery to Japan in early 1999, the AF added.
GenCorp Aerojet, Sacramento, Calif., is being awarded a $200,000 increment as part of a $15,098,717 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for research and development for five Active Protection Systems (APS) Warhead Programs.
A Standard Missile guided by a new navigation system hit a ground target in a U.S. Navy flight test on Nov. 21, Hughes Aircraft Company reported. The missile used in the test at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., was equipped with a Hughes-designed Global Positioning System-Aided Inertial Navigation System (GAINS), which acquired GPS satellite navigation signals within 20 seconds after launch and provided continuous navigation data throughout the flight, Hughes said.
The U.S. Navy and Boeing Co. have fixed the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet's wing drop problem, according to Michael M. Sears, president of Boeing Co.'s McDonnell Aircraft and Missile Systems Co.
Space Technology Development Corporation, Arlington, Va., is being awarded an "Other Transaction Award" of $55,413,647, with a total value not to exceed $128,900,994, for a Hyperspectral Satellite for dual use applications. Work will be performed in Arlington, Va. and Washington, D.C., and is expected to be completed in September 2000. Contract funds in the amount of $15,000,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This award was competitively procured under an Office of Naval Research Broad Agency Announcement for which two offers were received.
Raytheon Electronic Systems, Bedford, Mass., is being awarded $3,700,000 as part of a not-to-exceed $7,400,000 firm-fixed-price contract for long lead material, Patriot Remote Launch/Communications Enhancement Upgrade Kits (RLCEU). Work will be performed in Bedford**, Mass., and is expected to be completed by Aug. 31, 1999. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on Oct. 20, 1997. The contracting activity is the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala. (DAAH01-98-C-0073).
Universal Technology Corp., Dayton, Ohio was awarded on December 10, a $9,950,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to provide for Advanced Materials for Aerospace Systems Special Studies program. This program acquires aerospace materials, processes, and analyses in support of assessment of advanced materials and the conduct of technology transfer activities. Funds will be obligated as individual delivery orders are issued. There were 35 firms solicited and 3 proposals received.
An Aster 16 anti-missile missile and an Aster 30 medium-range surface- to-air missile intercepted targets in recent tests at the Landes Test Center in France, Aerospatiale reported. A naval Aster 16 intercepted a sea-skimming target in a very high electronic countermeasures environment on Nov. 13. Aster's impact point "was less than a meter from its target's center of gravity," the company said. The Aster 30 intercepted a C22 target flying at Mach .84 in its first validation test against a target on Dec. 11.
The FAA has accepted Lockheed Martin Corp.'s baseline software for the Common Automated Radar Terminal System (ARTS), a move the company said brings closer to implementation an air traffic control upgrade that will increase safety at U.S. airports. "Common ARTS consolidates a room full of computer and communication equipment into one rack for most of the 145 small-to-medium sized airports," Lockheed Martin said. It said that "for larger airports, the system is comprised of three triple redundant racks."
The U.S. Navy is considering boosting its buy of T-45 trainer aircraft to keep the plane in service about a decade longer than initially planned, from 2020 to about 2030. Capt. Tim Heely, the Navy's T-45 program manager, told reporters here after a ceremony accepting the first T-45C Goshawk trainer from Boeing Co. that the service is buying 187 T-45s but may add about 30 - 34 planes. This would cover about 2.4 losses per year, the number the Navy factors into its aircraft procurement plans.
United Defense LP, York, Pa., is being awarded a $17,131,982 modification to a firm-fixed-price contract for integration of Bradley Fire Support (BFIST) kits to obtain 22 BFIST M7 vehicles for low rate initial production. Work will be performed in York, Pa., and is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2000. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on Aug. 5, 1997. The contracting activity is the U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command, Warren, Mich. (DAAE07-96-C-X036).
U.S. Astronaut David Wolf will get an extra week on Russia's Mir orbital station next month, thanks to a heavy schedule on Mir before the Space Shuttle Endeavour arrives. The launch of Endeavour on STS- 89 originally was targeted for Jan. 15, but Russia asked for and received a five-day delay to give the Mir crew time to handle three more spacewalks, the docking of a Progress resupply capsule, and day-to-day maintenance and science operations.
FLUKE CORP., Everett, Wash., said Philip M. Condit has resigned from its board of directors effective Dec. 15 because of his expanded responsibilities at Boeing Co. Condit, chairman and chief executive of Boeing, has been a member of Fluke's board since 1987. Fluke makes electronic test tools.
Boeing Co. has completed upgrades on NATO's 17 E-3 AWACS aircraft, a program that involved four mission-system improvements. A contract for the program, known as Mod 1, was awarded in 1993. It was amended a year later to include upgrades to the Electronic Support Measures (ESM) system. The original upgrade involved addition of new color displays; Have Quick radios for secure, anti-jamming UHF communications, and the Link 16 data link to the Joint Tactical Information Distribution System.
U.S. NAVY is slated to hold an acceptance ceremony today for the Boeing T- 45C Goshawk trainer at NAS Meridian, Miss. The T-45C with its digital cockpit has been undergoing flight testing at NAS Patuxent River, Md.
Before the Sept. 14 crash of an F-117A Nighthawk near Martin State Airport, Md., the U.S. Air Force had evidence that components that caused the crash weren't properly installed, the accident investigation report reveals. The F-117 crashed after failure of a support assembly, known as a "Brooklyn Bridge," according to the report, which was released Friday. It said the failure caused the left outboard elevon to oscillate to the point that the left wing broke off about 2.5 feet in from the outboard elevon.
The U.S. Air Force on Friday plans to award a contract to support its fleet of Minuteman III ICBMs. Alliant Techsystems and TRW are competing for the program, which could be worth nearly $5 billion over 15 years. The contractor would begin managing the inventory of missiles on Feb. 1.
Design problems that surface in International Space Station elements when NASA begins integrated test and verification of the orbiting facility at Kennedy Space Center could push total program overruns beyond the $1 billion mark, unless the U.S. agency finds some $200 million more in Station funds for fiscal 1998, according to the top Station manager at NASA headquarters.
Lockheed Martin has delivered to the U.S. Navy the first Nite Hawk forward looking infrared sensor built in Ocala, Fla. The FLIR had been produced at Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif. The system was delivered Nov. 13 following an 11-month production line transfer.
The direction the U.S. Army takes with a Kinetic Energy Anti- Satellite (KE-ASAT) program will be largely driven by a Pentagon report to be delivered to the congressional defense committees in mid-February, says Lt. Gen. Edward Anderson, chief of the Army's Space and Missile Defense Command. "I won't prejudge what the outcome of that will be, but it certainly will shape the direction the Administration ultimately will take with regards to anti-satellites."
