DRS ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS INC., Gaithersburg, Md., won a $14.2 million contract from the U.S. Navy to provide AN/SPS-67 radar systems, engineering support and associated installation kits for the new DDG-51 Aegis class ships. DRS said it expects awards for future systems for new aircraft carriers and amphibious operation ship platforms.
L-3 COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS-EAST, Camden, N.J., won two contract options worth a combined $3.4 million from the U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command to provide 14 more shipsets and engineering services for the Submarine Baseband Circuit Switch (SBCS) program. The new awards increase the total value of the contract, initially awarded in August 1996, to $7.3 million. The U.S. Navy plans to install the first SBCS system during the first quarter of 1998.
Boeing Co. won a $64.8 million contract from the U.S. Air Force for re-engine kits for KC-135 and RC-135 aircraft. The contract is with the Oklahoma City Logistics Center at Tinker AFB. Boeing said it will fabricate and assemble the kits for four KC-135 tankers and four RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft. Two of the KC-135 kits are in support of a foreign military sale to Singapore. The contract includes efforts associated with fabrication of new engine struts and nacelles, structural fittings, wiring harnesses and hardware.
Hamilton Standard will develop and supply 187 all-composite propellers to the U.S. Navy for use on E-2C and C-2A aircraft. It said the contract, not to exceed a value of $44.5 million, includes options for 54 more propellers. The eight-bladed NP2000 will be a military derivative of the commercial six-bladed 568F, which was introduced in 1995 and flies on the ATR 42-500 and 72-210, among other aircraft. It also has been selected for the new CASA C-295 and the Ayres Loadmaster LM200.
Weight of the U.S. Air Force's F-22 fighter is expected to increase a bit as the development program proceeds, but performance of the aircraft is such that the growth can be absorbed, a Lockheed Martin official said yesterday. "Weight will likely rise slightly," said Paul Schlein, the company's deputy air vehicle product manager. The Air Force never set a weight limit on the F-22 - its precise weight is classified, but is around 60,000 pounds - but weight has direct bearing on performance, Schlein told reporters during a briefing in Washington.
TRACOR SYSTEMS ENGINEERING GROUP, California, Md., won a five-year contract worth a potential $27.2 million from the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Div. (NAWCAD), Patuxent River, Md., to provide design, integration, test, evaluation and maintenance services for the U.S. Navy's Air Traffic Control & Landing Systems (ATC&LS). These systems include Precision Approach Radar, Instrument Landing Systems and Approach Control Radar used aboard aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships. Work will be performed at NAWCAD facilities at St.
Engineers at Lockheed Martin Astronautics are adapting target- recognition technology originally developed for Army weapons applications to guide future sample-return probes to precise spots on the surface of Mars, according to the executive responsible for developing Mars exploration spacecraft systems for the company. Noel W.
NASA's Deep Space Network is getting crowded as the agency's "faster- better-cheaper" approach to spacecraft development kicks in, but funding to upgrade the international array of tracking antennas is growing scarce, officials say. Originally established in 1958 as the U.S. space program began with Explorer I, the DSN presently supports about 25 spacecraft and interacts at least sporadically with three times that number. By 2005 the number of spacecraft that will use DSN antennas as their primary link with the ground is expected to grow to 35.
AIRBUS INDUSTRIE, as part of an agreement to supply 17 A320-200s to Guangzhou-based China Southern Airlines, will provide the carrier with technical assistance in operating the aircraft.
The U.S. Army's RAH-66 Comanche helicopter program has passed a test to validate its ability to operate in areas contaminated by chemical and biological weapons. The Boeing/Sikorsky team building the Comanche said tests of a "Pressure Swing Absorber" filter fitted to the helicopter exceeded requirements under humid conditions, which are considered more challenging. Among contaminants it defeated were nerve gases and blood agents. The system is slated to be installed in the year 2000.
Proposals submitted yesterday by competitors for the lead system integrator job on the National Missile Defense program - potentially a multi-billion dollar effort - include options of using both commercial and Minuteman III first stage boosters, the Pentagon's program manager said. The NMD Joint Program Office originally asked the competitors for their "best solution" to the problem of defending against a limited missile attack on the U.S., but that was changed so they would propose evaluations of both kinds of boosters, said Brig. Gen. Joseph M.
Japan's National Space Development Agency (NASDA) is offering a free ride to a payload weighing as much as 50 kilograms (110 pounds) when it launches the ADEOS-2 Earth-observation satellite in the summer of 1999. NASDA expects to receive proposals from Japanese research institutes and other organizations for the flight, which will take the payload into an 800-kilometer (496-mile) orbit from the Tanegashima launch facility. The passenger organization must design, build and deliver its spacecraft, while NASDA will inspect and launch it free of charge.
Carl Vogt, former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board and a senior partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Fulbright & Jaworski, has been named chair-elect to succeed current chair, Kenneth P. Quinn in August 1998. Elected to the Governing committee were: Nancy E. McFadden, general counsel of the Department of Transportation; Arthur Berg, chief of the Opinions and Appeals Division of the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey; Peter B. Kenney, associate general counsel of Northwest Airlines, Inc. and Jennifer A.
Michael Sander has been named director of Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Technology and Applications Program in Pasadena, Calif. He replaces acting TAP director, R. Rhoads Stephenson.
S.T. RESEARCH CORP., Newington, Va., and Daedalus Enterprises Inc., Ann Arbor, Mich., agreed in principle to merge. Under the plan, S.T. Research, which supplies communications and radar intercept equipment to the U.S. government, will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Daedalus, a supplier of airborne remote sensing systems. S.T. Research shareholders will receive Daedalus stock. Further details will be announced pending negotiation and execution of a definitive merger agreement. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 1998.
Thomas L. Lankford has been appointed vice president at this Washington, D.C.-based government relations firm. Lankford will specialize in defense, aerospace, science and technology issues.
The U.S. Army is beginning to look for potential growth areas for the Sense and Destroy Armor Munition (SADARM), and has plans to launch a technology demonstration several years from now. The Army's Operational Requirements Document for the Aerojet-built SADARM says future improvements to the system are needed, an Army official told The DAILY. The changes would be "more substantial" than the enhancement being developed under the SADARM product improvement (PI) program that began last fiscal year, he said.
Kurt Riessler has been named corporate vice president, human resources. Each employee will have responsibility for overseeing their respective operations at facility in Nashville, and at Contour Aerospace operations in Brea, Calif, and Seattle.
Portugal may upgrade its F-16A/B fighters with mid-life updates through a $185 million foreign military sales agreement with the U.S., the Pentagon said. Under the proposed deal, Portugal would buy 20 MLU kits as well as installation and some support. The country's entire F-16 fleet would be involved. The program would build on the MLU program that has involved the U.S., Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway.
A Congressional Budget Office projection of annual U.S. defense budgets of $300 billion or more for the 2004-2115 period, compared to about $250 billion of recent years, represents the requirement to execute the Pentagon's plan but it's not clear whether such a number can be attained, congressional sources said. If so, it would include $77 billion a year for procurement, well over the current level. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), chairman of the House National Security procurement subcommittee, noted in a hearing last week on Defense Dept.
