AlliedSignal Inc. agreed to acquire the Hardware Group and PacAero unit of Banner Aerospace for about $345 million in AlliedSignal common stock. "This acquisition broadens AlliedSignal's position as one of the industry's leading suppliers of aircraft parts and services," Joe Leonard, president of AlliedSignal's Aerospace Marketing, Sales and Service business, said in a prepared statement.
ARMY Boeing North American, Space Systems Division, Downey, Calif., is being awarded a $16,367,000 increment as part of a not-to-exceed $49,800,000 cost-plus-fixed-fee completion letter contract modification to a current contract for three additional Kill Vehicle (KV) flight hardware units which will mitigate schedule risk for potential increases in the Ground Based Interceptor (GBI) schedule. The development of an exoatmospheric interceptor was an essential element of the Strategic Defense Initiative strategy.
Boeing Defense and Space Group, Seattle, Wash., is being awarded a $6,043,587 face value increase to a time-and-materials contract to provide for contractor support through July 2000 for the Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) Radar System Improvement Program. This support will include cataloging, prioritization, investigation, and analysis of software relevant problems, and evaluation, coordination, implementation, and delivery of changes. The work will be performed at Boeing Defense and Space Group, Seattle, Wash.
An independent panel set up to advise NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin and the NASA Advisory Council on the safety of upcoming U.S. missions to Russia's Mir orbital station reports too late to be useful, and should be directed to get its reports and recommendations in earlier, NASA's inspector general office has found.
Northrop Grumman Corp., Baltimore, Md., was awarded on Dec. 4. 1997, a $28,994,637 firm-fixed-price contract to provide for establishment of a radar microwave automatic test equipment shop for test and repair of the APG-68 fire control radar applicable to the F-16 aircraft. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This effort supports foreign military sales to Korea. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright- Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-97/C-2030).
The U.S. Air Force has decided to open to competition the range- extension program for the Small Smart Bomb (SSB) rather than pursue a sole source effort using GEC-Marconi's "Diamond Back" system.
Iridium LLC used the third of its three planned rides to space yesterday when a Long March 2C/SC lifted two more of the company's communications satellites to low Earth orbit, adding China's launch vehicle to the U.S. Delta II and Russian Proton. After yesterday's launch, Iridium has 41 of the 66 satellites it has planned for its LEO constellation in orbit, all but two of them working. The company has another Delta II launch, which a payload of five satellites, planned before the end of the year.
Litton Industries Inc. signed a definitive agreement to buy TASC, a provider of information technology and services, from Primark Corp. for about $432 million in cash, Litton announced yesterday. TASC, based in Reading, Mass., expects revenues of $433 million this year and holds a firm backlog of $535 million. It has 2,600 employees in 29 locations.
Boeing Defense and Space Group, Seal Beach, Calif., is being awarded a $9,000,000 face value increase to a firm-fixed-price contract to provide for development of software modifications to the Global Positioning System (GPS) Operational Control Segment to permit it to communicate with the GPS Block IIF satellite. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles, Calif., is the contracting activity (F04701-96/C-0025, P00025). December 2, 1997
National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Jim Hall opened public hearings on TWA Flight 800 yesterday by emphasizing a point made many times over - the crash was not caused by a missile or a bomb. The FBI reached and announced the same conclusion earlier, but Hall launched a week of hearings in Baltimore with witness after witness who testified that none of the evidence pointed to a criminal act. The TWA 747 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean July 17, 1996, shortly after takeoff from New York Kennedy Airport.
Boeing Defense and Space Group, Seattle, Wash., is being awarded a $7,000,000 face value increase to a firm-fixed-price contract to provide for line replaceable units (LRU) and radio closures applicable to the Have Quick radio system necessary to permit test and certification of the two and four radio configuration in the Boeing 767 airframe Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom AFB, Mass., is the contracting activity (F19628-94/C-0004, P00048).
CROSSAIR ordered four RJ100s from Ai(R), with the first two to be delivered in 1998 and the last two in 1999. The order brings Crossair's RJ fleet to 20. Sabena regional carrier DAT has 23 RJs. This means the Swissair Group is the largest RJ operator.
The U.S. Navy has exercised an option with Lockheed Martin Electronics&Missiles, Orlando, Fla., to buy 25 Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night (LANTIRN) pods to complement the 27 already procured by the service. The option could be worth $43 million, Lockheed Martin said yesterday. Lockheed Martin began working on the pods Dec. 1, and will deliver the first of them next fiscal year.
ARMY Lockheed Martin Vought Systems, Dallas, Texas, is being awarded $12,750,000 as part of a $25,500,000 cost-plus-incentive-fee contract for initial production facilities/purchase of special equipment and tooling for the PATRIOT Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3). Work will be performed in Duluth, Ga. (57%); and Dallas, Texas (43%), and is expected to be completed by March 31, 1999. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on June 13, 1997. The contracting activity is the U.S.
NAVY Northrop Grumman Corporation, Military Aircraft Systems Division, El Segundo, Calif., is being awarded a $28,819,797 modification to a previously awarded contract N00019-96-C-0132 for the procurement of 119 subsonic subscale aerial targets (BQM-74E), 54 mission essential launch kits and associated technical data. Work will be performed in El Segundo, Calif. (50%), and Hawthorne, Calif. (50%), and is expected to be completed by April 2000. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
The U.S. Defense Dept. has completed an analysis of alternatives to the Joint Precision Approach Landing System (JPALS) for fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, and plans are being crafted to enter the program definition and risk reduction phase. The system is to be fielded within the next five years (DAILY, July 1996).
Israel Aircraft Industries' board of directors agreed Sunday to a deal with Israel's Defense Ministry, Finance Ministry and the Government Companies Authority that includes a $100 million financing arrangement that should solve the company's cash flow problems, IAI said yesterday.
Boeing North American, Inc., Anaheim, Calif., is being awarded a $41,000,000 face value increase to a cost-plus-award-fee contract to provide for an equitable adjustment to the engineering and manufacturing development contract of the Guidance Replacement Program for the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile system. This action will extend the first article delivery date by eight months due to changed requirements. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
VIRTUAL PROTOTYPES INC., Montreal, won a contract from Siemens Nederland N.V., The Hague, Netherlands, for VPI's Scenario Toolkit and Generation Environment (STAGE) as a development backbone of a standardized Computer- Generated-Forces (CGF) environment.
Canadair completed the first flight of its CL-327 Guardian unmanned aerial vehicle on Nov. 30, just days before Bell Helicopter Textron flew its competing Eagle Eye UAV for the second time. The flights come just as the U.S. Navy is getting ready to award multiple contracts for a six-month demonstration of vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) UAVs.
Raytheon Co., Bedford, Mass., was awarded on Nov. 28, 1997, a $13,460,578 modification (to definitize letter contract dated Dec. 24, 1996) to a firm- fixed-price contract for Patriot classification, discrimination and identification Phase III Kits, installation, and concurrent spares. Work will be performed in Andover, Mass., and is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 1999. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on Dec. 24, 1996. The contracting activity is the U.S.
Hughes Training, Inc., Binghamton, N.Y., is being awarded a $71,050,340 face value increase to a firm-fixed-price contract to provide for FY 1998 operation, maintenance, and services in support of the Aircrew Training System for the C-130 aircraft. The work will be performed at Hughes Training facilities in Little Rock, Ark. (55%) and at various other locations. Ogden Air Logistics Center, Hill AFB, Utah, is the contracting activity (F33657-86/C-0103, P00199).
Airbus Industrie yesterday announced industrial launch of the A340- 500 and -600 airliner program, having received commitments for orders and options for some 100 of the planes.
The U.S. Air Force's Air Combat Command won't be able to fund both the Low Cost Autonomous Attack System and the Small Bomb System through their production phases, and has asked AF weapons developers to consider the possibility of marrying the two capabilities. "ACC doesn't have the money to afford both" LOCAAS and SBS, Ken Edwards, the Air Force's LOCAAS program director, said in a telephone interview from Eglin AFB, Fla. He said ACC has asked whether the capabilities of the two systems can be combined into a "one size fits all" system.
