IBM Global Government Industry, Houston, Texas, is being awarded an estimated $250,000,000 firm-fixed-price indefinite-quantity contract for digital imaging network picture archiving and communications systems. Work is expected to be completed by November 1998. Funds will not expire at the end of the fiscal year. The Defense Personnel Support Center, Philadelphia, Pa., is the contracting activity (SPO200-98-D-8702).
THIOKOL CORP. has received an export license from the U.S. State Dept. to ship Solid Strap-on Boosters (SSBs) to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for use on the H-IIA launch vehicle. The SSB incorporates Thiokol's Castor IVA-XL solid rocket motor, which is an expanded version of the Castor IVA booster Lockheed Martin uses on its Atlas IIAS launchers. Production of the Japanese boosters will begin in September 1998 at Brigham City, Utah, with delivery at MHI's Aerospace Systems Works in Nagoya, Japan, scheduled for 2000 and 2001.
Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) said he would try next year to eliminate the cost caps on F-22 fighter development and production, but conceded they have some merit. Lieberman, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, opposed the cap in the fiscal 1998 defense authorization conference, which wound up imposing them. The caps would apply to prime contractor Lockheed Martin and engine contractor Pratt & Whitney - based in Lieberman's state. They were set at $18.7 billion for EMD and $43.4 billion for production.
Among possible results of the Labor government's defense review that are being speculated upon here is disbanding of the Royal Air Force's two Tornado maritime strike squadrons and creation of a new joint service organization that would combine attack helicopter units of the Army Air Corps, support helicopter units of the RAF, and rotary wing amphibious assault forces of the Royal Navy and Marines.
FOUR COMPANIES have joined Toshiba Corp. and Loral Space & Communications in the $3.5 billion SkyBridge limited partnership, which seeks to provide broadband Internet and multi-media services through 64 low-Earth orbit satellites under the leadership of Alcatel Alsthom. New investors in the partnership will be Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and Sharp Corp. of Japan; Canada's Spar Aerospace Limited, and Aerospatiale of France.
A test launch of an upgraded Russian SS-N-20 SLBM ended in spectacular failure Friday near Archangel as Defense Secretary Igor Sergeyev watched. Sergeyev was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying "The launch was unsuccessful. The missile blew up after launch." The reason for the failure wasn't immediately known. Sergeyev arrived at Severomorsk on Wednesday evening to check combat readiness of the Northern Fleet and observe the launch, according to the Itar-Tass news agency.
ELLIPSO satellite-mobile communications system under development by Mobile Communications Holdings Inc. has won a second U.S. patent for its orbital scheme, which is designed to keep its elliptical-orbit satellites in view over high-population areas during daylight hours. The new patent covers navigation, Earth observation and weather coverage, while a 1996 U.S. patent covered telecommunications services.
The aerospace industry will be the biggest contributor to growth in overal demand for fasteners, expanding nearly 9% per year during the next five years, according to a new study. The Freedonia Group Inc. of Cleveland, an industrial market research firm, said U.S. shipments of industrial fasteners overall are projected to grow 3.5% per year during the period, reaching $8.9 billion in the year 2001. Freedonia said shipments of aerospace grade fasteners fell 5.6% between 1992 and 1996, bottoming out at $1.1 billion.
Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory believe that an optical network of lasers and telescopes is one way to meet the growing demand for deep space tracking as NASA's "faster-better-cheaper" approach to spacecraft development scatters more and more probes around the solar system. The broadband communications afforded by a laser system will allow much faster transfer of data, stretching the capacity of a network to handle multiple spacecraft by reducing the connection time needed for individual probes.
What's Ahead in Aerospace REQUIREMENTS FLUX: The number of Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles (JASSMs) the Pentagon plans to buy has always been unclear because the Navy has never described its procurement plans. The service's decision to step back from the program, however, doesn't mean that the Air Force's 2,400 missile buy will be the final inventory objective. "I have heard some rumors that studies are suggesting significantly larger numbers," an Air Force official says.
HELP WANTED: Japan's National Space Development Agency is looking for two astronaut candidates to work in the Japanese Experiment Module once it is launched to the International Space Station early in the next century. Applicants must be English-speaking Japanese nationals with university degrees in science or medicine and at least three years of research experience. Pay starts at $44,360 a year.
MARS CRITERIA: Goldin tells the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace that four criteria must be met before humans leave Earth orbit for Mars. Medical research on the Space Station and elsewhere must establish that it is possible for humans to live in reduced gravity long enough to get to Mars, explore and return safely. Station research must also prove out regenerative life support systems based on biology rather than chemistry. A mission must be designed with an (Cont. p.
Russia's Strategic Rocket Forces orbited the Resurs F1M commercial remote sensing satellite from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome. The three-stage Soyuz-U rocket carrying the new satellite lifted off at 14:15 Moscow Time (6:15 EST) Nov. 18 and inserted the satellite into near-polar low Earth orbit. It was the 23rd Russian launch this year and the eighth launch of a Soyuz-U rocket. Resurs F1M is a modified version of the Resurs F1 photographic satellite, used for remote sensing purposes from 1979 till 1994.
NEXT IN LINE: With Rep. Ike Skelton (Mo.) moving up to fill the position of ranking Democrat on the House National Security Committee in February following the retirement of Rep. Ronald Dellums (Calif.), the same position on the procurement subcommittee opens up. Next in line is Rep. Norman Sisisky (D-Va.). With Sisisky in the Pacific visiting the Seventh Fleet, his staffers were reluctant to say what his intentions were.
NIMA SURVEY: The National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) plans a survey to determine if industry can come up with better ways to collect, disseminate and store high resolution terrain following information for geospatial and intelligence needs. It's also developing a geospatial technology roadmap. It plans to use its new geospatial prototype facility in Bethesda, Md., to test commercial technologies that could meet future geospatial information requirements.
ECC International Corp., Wayne, Pa., lost $993,000 on sales of $12.2 million in its 1998 first quarter, down from profits of $214,000 on sales of $22.4 million in the same period a year ago. ECC's domestic simulation business received $47.4 million in new orders during the quarter, but significant work on the orders did not begin until the second quarter. Management said it expects sales to increase in future quarters and the domestic training operation will show a profit in the second half of FY '98. ECC Simulation Ltd., the company's U.K.
The Pentagon on Friday identified most of the Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration programs for fiscal year 1998, nine, and plans to name the others in coming days. Congress provided $81.1 million for ACTDs in FY '98, about $40 million less than the request. As a result, the Pentagon went from 75 programs to 17, which were then prioritized by the Joint Requirements Oversight Council. How the funding will be divided among the ACTDs hasn't been finalized. The decision will wait until all the program are identified.
CHRISTMAS PRESENT: The competitors for the National Missile Defense Lead System Integrator (LSI) job will be busy in coming weeks. The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization's NMD Joint Program Office has scheduled the intense question-and-answer phase of the contest to begin on Dec. 22. The contestants - Boeing and United Missile Defense Corp. - submitted their proposals earlier this month. The JPO has a rigid schedule leading to a downselect next March 18.
NOT OUR PROBLEM: The Joint Standoff Weapon could forego the soil-clearing charge on the Broach warhead because it wouldn't be used against the same type of hardened targets as the Tomahawk cruise missile and Conventionally- Armed Air-Launched Cruise Missile, says U.S. Navy Capt. Bert Johnston, JSOW program manager. The charge is intended to clear soil on top of a target that could degrade effectiveness of the penetrator slug. But the Navy plans to use JSOW against bridge pylons and aircraft shelters, which can't be disguised with dirt, Johnston says.
Comair and Atlantic Coast Airlines (ACA) exercised options for 12 Canadair Regional Jets each, according to Bombardier Regional Aircraft. Comair, based in Cincinnati, ordered 12 CRJ Series 100LRs worth about $250 million, with deliveries scheduled between October 1998 and May 1999. The orders were included in an order for 30 CRJ aircraft announced on May 30. The agreement includes options for an additional 45 aircraft. If all are converted, Comair's fleet of CRJs would grow to 125.
STATION UTILIZATION: NASA is in discussions with its partners on the International Space Station about how to use the orbiting facility, and will have a document on Station utilization ready soon. Administrator Daniel S. Goldin says he discussed the issue on a visit to Europe this week, and other officials are talking to the Russians about how to coordinate use of on-board equipment and protect commercial secrets.
High-tech industries such as aerospace and information technology will continue to drive strong growth in the U.S. economy in what is turning out to be the longest economic expansion in post-war history, according to the annual U.S. Industry and Trade Outlook '98, released by the U.S. Dept. of Commerce and The McGraw-Hill Companies Friday. U.S. economic growth is expected to continue at 2%-2.5% for the next five years, and the ITO predicts expansion for 80% of the 350 business sectors studied.
