Testing of the MIRACL laser against the MSTI-3 satellite may get the go-ahead in the next few days. Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said that Defense Secretary William S. Cohen has now received the documentation he needed to decide whether to allow the U.S. Army Space and Strategic Defense Command to test the Mid- Infrared Advanced Chemical Laser.
Boeing plans to build a 2 million-square-foot factory in Decatur, Ala., to manufacture the common booster core for its Delta IV entry in the Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) competition. Construction of the facility is set to begin in November, Boeing said yesterday. Ultimately, the Decatur plant near the Tennessee River will employ between 2,000 and 3,000 workers building the booster, which will measure 125 feet in length by 15 feet in diameter.
General Electric, Lynn, Mass., is being awarded a $17,310,660 firm-fixed- price contract for T700C engines for Israel, to be used on Black Hawk aircraft. Work will be performed in Lynn, Mass., and is expected to be completed by March 31, 1998. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on June 20, 1997. The contracting activity is the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, St. Louis, Mo. (DAAJ09-97-D-0196).
McDonnell Douglas Corp., Long Beach, Calif., is being awarded an $11,350,000 firm-fixed-price contract to provide for the Period Four (February-July) Earned Award Fee of the production contract for the C-17 aircraft. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-93/C-0036, P00041).
Rolls-Royce PLC named James Guyette president and CEO of Rolls-Royce North America Inc. effective Wednesday, the company announced yesterday. Guyette will join the board on Jan. 1 following the retirement of John Sandford, and will also become a member of Allison Engine Co.'s board. Guyette was recently executive vice president, marketing and planning, for UAL Corp.'s United Airlines.
Lockheed Martin Tactical Defense Systems, St. Paul, Minn., is being awarded an $8,040,153 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity delivery order to incorporate one Advanced Imaging Multi-spectral Sensor into the Navy's P-3C Anti-Submarine Underwater Warfare Improvement Program's baseline aircraft. Work will be performed in Eagan, Minn. (45%); Toronto, Canada (45%); and Greenville, S.C. (10%), and is expected to be completed by June 1998. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
ORBITAL SCIENCES CORP., Dulles, Va., launched a suborbital rocket for the U.S. Army Space and Strategic Defense Command's Storm target program, Orbital announced yesterday. The Storm-2 Maneuvering Tactical Vehicle lifted off from White Sands Missile Range, N.M., on Sept. 24 to validate a new suborbital vehicle design and qualify it as a target for theater missile defense system. The new single-stage configuration consists a Minuteman II Stage 2 ballistic missile motor and a Pershing II re-entry vehicle.
The U.S. Army is setting aside $100 million a year through fiscal 2003 to jump-start programs it thinks will help bring its vision of the future to reality. The funding comes under the "Warfighter Rapid Acquisition Program" (WRAP), launched last year to accelerate certain technologies. Congress approved $50 million for FY '97 and $100 million for FY '98. Brig. Gen.
Lear Astronics Corp., Santa Monica, Calif., is being awarded an $11,202,000 indefinite-quantity contract for 300 to 400 replacements to the current H- 46 Attitude Heading Reference System which is the main navigational aid aboard the H-46 aircraft. Work will be performed in Santa Monica, Calif., and is expected to be completed by December 1998. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured with nine proposals solicited and three offers received.
The U.S. Army yesterday began development testing of the Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC-3) missile with a test at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. "Preliminary test data indicate the test was successful," the service said. Objectives of the test, the first of 18 development and operational firings, included verification of launch and flight functions. The Lockheed Martin Vought Systems missile performed several maneuvers based on guidance updates, according to the Army. In this test of the hit-to-kill missile, the Army did not attempt an intercept.
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Stratford, Conn., is being awarded a $33,700,000 modification to a firm-fixed-price contract for the conversion of eight UH- 60 Black Hawk aircraft into eight HH-60G Pave Hawk aircraft, 142+ configuration, and to add four aircraft configuration options to the basic aircraft. Work will be performed in Stratford, Conn., and is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 1998. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on Oct. 17, 1995. The contracting activity is the U.S.
Post-merger consolidation of International Space Station activities previously managed separately by Boeing, Rockwell and McDonnell Douglas will generate savings of $20 million to $25 million a year in the Station program, according to the head of Boeing's new Space Systems unit, who said Space Shuttle efficiencies may also be applied to Station. John A. McLuckey, president of the unit created Aug.
Allison Engine Co., Indianapolis, Ind., is being awarded a $15,500,000 modification to previously awarded contract N00019-95-C-0209 to provide additional funding to an advance acquisition contract to procure ten AE1107C engines for the V-22 aircraft. Work will be performed in Indianapolis, Ind., and is expected to be completed by June 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.
NASA'S LEWIS Earth-sensing satellite apparently reentered the atmosphere Sunday and was lost over the South Atlantic, U.S. Space Command reported. Space trackers said the satellite, launched last month in the first successful flight of the Lockheed Martin Launch Vehicle (DAILY, Aug. 26), was confirmed down when it did not appear in three subsequent orbital tracks.
Aerojet Electronic Systems Div., Azusa, Calif., is being awarded a $5,739,881 face value increase to a fixed-price-incentive contract to provide for costs associated with the cancellations of Sensors 24 and 25 of the defense Support Program. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The work is expected to be completed September 1997. Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles, Calif. is the contract activity (F04701-93/C-0002, P00026).
China Great Wall Industry Corp. has been picked to launch the Chinasat 8 telecommunications satellite built by Space Systems/Loral aboard a Long March 3B rocket, SS/L reported. Scheduled for launch in the fourth quarter of 1998, Chinasat 8 will provide video, data and digital voice communications throughout China. It will be operated by China's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications though its Chinasat operating unit. The satellite will have 16 Ku- and 36 C-band transponders, and total on-board power of 11 kilowatts.
NASA's Space Shuttle Atlantis may remain docked with Russia's Mir orbital station an extra day if problems crop up when a new main computer the Shuttle delivered to Mir is switched on, but in general the STS-86 mission launched last Thursday was proceeding smoothly yesterday. With Atlantis handling all the attitude control tasks for both spacecraft, the astronauts and cosmonauts aboard were able to concentrate on shifting water and other supplies from the double Spacehab module in the Shuttle cargo bay into Mir.
Plans to replace EA-6B Prowler electronic warfare aircraft may be slipping as the Pentagon focuses its modernization efforts on tactical aircraft. The Marine Corps and Navy have planned to address the EA-6B replacement issue in their fiscal 2000 program objective memorandum to be drafted next year, but funding for the effort "will not be something that comes out of POM '00," Brig. Gen. Bruce Byrum, the Marine's assistant deputy chief of staff for aviation predicts.
The U.K. Ministry of Defense and British Aerospace denied weekend press reports that development testing has turned up anomalies in the Eurofighter aircraft's electronic flight control system. The reports cited an internal MOD article on the Eurofighter. They said the article addressed handling difficulties that included misinterpretation of the pilot's inputs and would require software changes costing some $560 million. MOD procurement spokesman Andrew Willis dismissed the reports as "totally inaccurate" and without foundation.
India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) orbited an Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRSS) yesterday, using an Indian rocket to launch a fully operational satellite for the first time. After liftoff at 12:47 a.m. EDT from the launch center on Sriharikota Island near Madras, the 2,640-pound satellite reached its 507-mile orbit without incident. In the past India has used Russian-built launch vehicles to orbit its operational satellites.
Northrop Grumman Corp., Bethpage, N.Y., is being awarded an $8,500,000 modification to previously awarded contract N00019-96-C-0102 to upgrade one E-2C Group I aircraft to Group II configuration. Work will be performed in St. Augustine, Fla., (75%); Bethpage, N.Y. (24%); and Milledgeville, Ga. (1%), and is expected to be completed by May 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.
POWER SPECTRA INC., Sunnyvale, Calif., will collaborate with Lockheed Martin Tactical Defense Systems - Arizona on the application of ground- penetrating radar to locate and identify buried land mines, unexploded ordnance and other targets.
A Boeing Delta II rocket lifted five more Iridium communications satellites to low Earth orbit late Friday, bringing to 34 the number of the "Big LEO" platforms in orbit as Iridium builds toward its operational 66- satellite constellation. Liftoff from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., came at 9:23 p.m. EDT, hitting the five-second launch window needed to put the satellites into their proper orbital positions. The last satellite separated from the launch vehicle about 85 minutes after liftoff, Iridium said.
Boeing Defense and Space Group, Seattle, Wash., is being awarded a $1,920,900 increment of a $23,210,911 modification to a $181,320,359 cost- plus-fixed-fee/level-of-effort contract to exercise the option for continued operation of the Airborne Surveillance Testbed (AST) for FY98.
