EER Systems, Inc., Seabrook, Md., and LAU Technologies, Littleton, Mass., are being awarded a $495,000,000 indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract to provide for various equipment for the Government Tactical Automated Security System (TASS). This equipment includes tactical and relocatable sensors, handheld monitors, laptop and desktop annunciators, data communication equipment, handheld and long range thermal imagers, software, interface equipment, and support items.
A planned Defense Dept. regulation to match progress payments to specific obligation levels in contracts was not implemented on Oct. 1 as planned and will be delayed until January, Deputy Defense Secretary John J. Hamre has notified the Senate Armed Services Committee. A copy of the Oct. 1 Hamre letter was provided to Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), a critic of Hamre's performance as the Pentagon's chief financial manager in his position as Comptroller.
President Clinton will sign the $247.7 billion fiscal 1998 defense appropriations compromise bill into law tomorrow but will exercise the line-item veto next week to knock out objectionable congressional add-ons, Senate Appropriations Chairman Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) said yesterday.
Raytheon Southeast Asia Systems Co., Tewksbury, Mass., is being awarded a $36,974,605 firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee and cost reimbursement contract for Patriot pre-system integration and check out. Work will be performed in Saudi Arabia, and is expected to be completed by April 30, 2002. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on April 3, 1997. The contracting activity is the U.S. Army Aviation&Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala. (DAAH01-97-C-0279).
Although the fiscal 1998 defense appropriations conference report did not provide any funding for the Common Support Aircraft and, in fact, took out $3.805 million in prior-year money, it doesn't necessarily mean the end of the program, congressional sources said Friday. The CSA is intended to be the Navy's support replacement aircraft for missions performed by the S-3, ES-3, E-2C and C-2, as well as the tanker mission.
McDonnell Douglas Aerospace, McDonnell Aircraft Co., St. Louis, Mo., is being awarded a $21,865,961 modification to previously awarded contract N00019-96-C-0065 for spare parts to support operational evaluation of the 12 Lot I low rate initial production F/A-18E/F aircraft. Work will be performed in St. Louis, Mo. (64%); and Hawthorne, Calif. (36%), and is expected to be completed by July 1999. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.
Boeing delivered 89 commercial jet transports during its third quarter, bringing deliveries for the first nine months of 1997 to 272, the company said yesterday. Third quarter deliveries consisted of 33 737s, eight 747s, 10 757s, 11 767s, 18 777s, three MD-80s, five MD-90s and an MD-11.
Lockheed Martin tactical aircraft system will develop a concept for a submarine launched uninhabited combat air vehicle as part of a low-level engineering and design analysis that is to develop three notional UCAV concepts for the U.S. Navy. The Naval Air Systems Command awarded Lockheed Martin $100,000 to kick off the Uninhabited Naval Strike Aircraft (UNSA) effort. Lockheed Martin will develop the three notional aircraft over the next six months.
Chromalloy Gas Turbine, Dallas, Texas is being awarded a $15,534,605 firm- fixed-price contract to provide for overhaul/repair of 613,360 (best estimated quantity) compressor vanes applicable to the TF39 engine on the C-5 aircraft. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There were three firms solicited and three proposals received. Solicitation began June 1997; negotiations were completed July 1997. San Antonio Air Logistics Center, Kelly AFB, Texas, is the contracting activity (F41608-97/D-0821).
The U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command, which will be the service's command component for space and national missile defense, was established Oct. 1, the Army said. The new command, which has been in the works for a year, also will be the material developer for various programs and the Army's integrator for theater missile defense.
Parts shortages are forcing Boeing Co. to temporarily halt production of the 747 airliner and final assembly of new generation 737s until suppliers can catch up with its rapid increase in deliveries, Ron Woodard, president, said Friday. The company also revealed it will have to make design changes in the horizontal stabilizer of the new 737 series, and said this will delay its certification date.
Coltec Industries' Fairbanks Morse Engine Div. received an order for engines for the U.S. Navy's LPD-17 ship program worth $12 million, with options valued at more than $138 million. The firm order is for four Colt-Pielstick PC2.5 diesel engines for the first ship. The engines will be built at the Fairbanks facility in Beloit, Wis., with delivery to Avondale Shipyards scheduled for 1999. Options include engines for 11 more ships that could be built through 2006 and two spares.
NATO INFORMATION WARFARE: NATO is trying to get into the information warfare business, says German Army Gen. Klaus Naumman. "We are in the process [of developing] a doctrine for information warfare," he tells reporters. The required technology is largely available off the shelf, which is why NATO is focusing on the doctrine aspect, says Naumann, who is chairman of the alliance's military committee.
India's INSAT 2D communications platform was switched off indefinitely late Wednesday after it suffered a power failure, according to the Press Trust of India. Built entirely in India under the supervision of the Indian Space Research Organization, the spacecraft was launched last June on an Ariane 44L rocket to serve the Indian subcontinent from an equatorial position above the Maldive Islands (DAILY, June 5).
ARIANE 5 REFLIGHT: Managers at the European Space Agency and France's CNES have set Oct. 28 as the next target date for the reflight of the Ariane 5 booster, following a "detailed evaluation" with Aerospatiale. The flight was initially targeted for Sept. 30, but that date slipped when a problem with oil consumption in the engine actuators surfaced (DAILY, Sept. 23). Officials don't want a repeat of the failure that destroyed the first Ariane 5 shortly after liftoff some 14 months ago (DAILY, July 24, 1996).
The U.S. Marine Corps in the next few years wants to buy a forward looking infrared targeting system for its AV-8B Harriers to increase pilots' situational awareness and improve their ability to deliver ordnance. The service would like to buy up to 80 FLIR pods for day attack, night attack, and radar night attack AV-8Bs, a Marine Corps official told The DAILY. Funding for the program will be addressed as part of the fiscal 2000 program objective memorandum.
The U.S. Air Force is blaming the Sept. 14 crash of an F-117 Nighthawk at an air show in Maryland on "a significant defect in a support structure in the left wing." The AF announced its preliminary findings late Thursday, and said it has ended the safety standdown that had halted operations of the F-117 fleet (DAILY, Oct. 3).
CREWS ABOARD the Space Shuttle Atlantis and Russia's Mir said they spotted possible evidence of the elusive leak in Mir's Spektr module during a close flyaround after Atlantis undocked on Friday. When the Mir crew sent one- minute bursts of air into Spektr as Atlantis flew nearby, the crews saw small flakes of material moving away from the base of the Spektr solar array damaged in the June 25 collision with a runaway Progress capsule.
SENSORS FOR SALE: In light of the Pentagon's decision to cut back Joint STARS buys, defense contractors are briefing DOD on alternative surveillance and reconnaissance options. Officials at Hughes Aircraft, which provides the ASARS II sensor for the U-2, say they don't know what effect, if any, the Joint STARS decision will have on alternative sensors. But, they say, Hughes and several other contractors are giving DOD briefings on the capabilities of their current sensors.
France, Russia and Ukraine should cooperate in development of new military and commercial transport aircraft for Europe, according to French Defense Minister Alain Richard. He told Russia's Itar-Tass news agency at last week's meeting of NATO defense ministers in Maastricht, the Netherlands, that European countries have a high regard for the abilities of Ukraine's Antonov design bureau in the field of transport aircraft, and that cooperation on the projected Future Large Aircraft would be desirable.
CARGOLUX AIRLINES ordered five 747-400 freighters for delivery between October 1998 and October 2001, and took options on two more. The Luxembourg-based company will become an all 747-400 operator by mid-1999. Two of the new aircraft will replace 747-200s. In November, Cargolux is slated to take delivery of a previously unannounced 747-400 freighter, Boeing said.
The electronics portion of the U.S. defense budget will increase about 14% over the next 10 years, growing from $51.5 billion in fiscal year 1998 to $58.9 billion in FY 2007 (in constant FY 98 dollars), according to the Electronic Industries Association.
BUYING PAC-3: The Pentagon is expected to decide next March whether to begin low rate initial production of the Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC- 3) missile. The U.S. Army is in the midst of a series of 14 developmental and operational tests of the system. Included in the series, which won't conclude until early 1999, are 8 developmental tests, 2 tests answering both development and operational questions, and 4 dedicated to the operational side.
Boeing Co. said a more sophisticated flight data recorder would have enabled investigators to determine whether the September 1994 USAir 737 crash near Pittsburgh was caused by an aircraft or crew failure. In any event, said Mike Denton, 737 chief engineer, the rudder power control unit (PCU) did not contribute to the crash, as some have said. The Air Line Pilots Association is blaming a faulty PCU, absolving the flight crew, and US Airways also says the crew "acted properly."
