Congressional conferees working on the fiscal 1998 defense authorization bill should fully fund the U.S. Army's Enhanced Fiber-Optic Guided Missile (EFOGM) program and disregard action taken in the House to zero the budget line, according to the Dept. of Defense.
Lockheed Martin Corp., Marietta, Ga., is being awarded a $69,519,840 face value increase to a cost-plus-award-fee contract to provide for Phase One of Out of Production Parts management and redesign in support of Low Rate Initial Production of the F-22 aircraft. The work will be performed at Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems, Ft. Worth, Texas (33%), and Hughes Aircraft Co., El Segundo, Calif. (32%), and other locations. Contract is expected to be completed September 2002. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
Texas Instruments, Inc., McKinney, Texas, is being awarded an $11,405,047 face value increase to a firm-fixed-price contract to provide for Interim Contractor Support through June 1999, and associated spare line replaceable units, for the AN/AAQ-26 Gunship Infrared Detecting Sets applicable to the AC-130U and AC-130H aircraft. Contract is expected to be completed June 1999. 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 (F33657-95/C-0067, P00009).
System Technology Associates Inc., Colorado Springs, Colo., is being awarded $218,176 as part of a potential maximum $300,000,000 cost-plus- award-fee contract to provide the capability to integrate, engineer, furnish equipment and materials, install and test, provide limited allied support and interim maintenance for a wide range of command, control, communications, computer, information, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4I2SR) systems for North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), United States Space Command (US SPACE COM), and Air Force Space Co
General Electric Aircraft Engines President and Chief Executive Officer Eugene F. Murphy has been named vice chairman of the board and executive officer of General Electric Co. and elected to the GE board of directors. GE said he joins Chairman John F. Welch and Vice Chairmen Paolo Fresco and John D. Opie in GE's corporate executive office.
LOCKHEED MARTIN TELECOMMUNICATIONS shipped the third A2100 communications satellite sold to GE AMERICAN COMMUNICATIONS to Cape Canaveral for an Aug. 27 launch on a Lockheed Martin Atlas IIAS. the new satellite, designated GE-3, will provide cable and broadcast television service to the continental U.S. and Alaska from geostationary orbit at 87 degrees West longitude. Meanwhile PANAMSAT plans to launch two of its communications satellites this month - PAS-6 from Kourou, French Guiana, on a European Ariane 4 Aug.
McDonnell Douglas Corp., Long Beach, Calif., is being awarded a $39,424,353, firm-fixed-price contract to definitize incorporation of six engineering change proposals into production of the C-17 aircraft (air vehicles P-41 and subsequent). These changes involve the defensive systems, nacelle/engine affordability team changes, the ground Proximity Warning System, deletion of the Transponder Test Unit, and changes associated with the Block VIII and IX aircraft. At this time, $4,437,860 of the contract funds have been obligated.
A little-noticed amendment offered on the House floor last week would earmark $50 million in the fiscal 1998 House Appropriations foreign aid money bill to buy four Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters for narcotics control in Colombia. The Black Hawks would provide better range, speed, lift and endurance than the UH-1H Huey helicopters they would replace in the mission of eradicating opium poppies in the high Andes.
The Pentagon is asking congressional conferees on the fiscal 1998 military authorization bill to keep the Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office intact, arguing that it has eliminated duplicative funding in research, development, test and evaluation.
The U.S. Army is getting ready to award a development contract next year for future rotary wing vehicle structures that could have payoff on the RAH-66 Comanche or the future Joint Transport Rotorcraft (JTR). "We will initiate a major 6.3 advanced development phase where we wrap a lot of individual component things up into a larger subassembly to demonstrate the capability to reduce weight, reduce cost ... in a larger size subsection," Graydon Elliott, chief of the Air Vehicle Structures Div., said here in an interview.
STANDARD&POOR'S assigned a "BBB" rating to Raytheon Co.'s $2.5 billion shelf drawdown of senior debt securities, saying it reflects the debt- financed acquisition of Texas Instruments' defense units and the pending acquisition of the business units of Hughes, which will be partially debt financed. The additions will make Raytheon strong in defense electronics, but constrain flexibility for an extended period, S&P said. It also affirmed other "outstanding" ratings for Raytheon.
The Alliant Techsystems Outrider unmanned aerial vehicle has begun a two week flight test hiatus to incorporate design changes and upgrades in the prototype air vehicle, the UAV Joint Program Office said. The break began after the vehicle's sixth flight, which took place July 25 at Hondo, Tex., and lasted about 23 minutes. An autopilot will be added to the UAV, and some structural work will be done, among other things. Flight testing is slated to resume in mid-August.
SPECTRUM ASTRO INC. has shipped the first of NASA's New Millennium spacecraft bus to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory after a designing and building the advanced technology demonstrator in only 13 months. The Deep Space 1 probe will use xenon ion propulsion and fresnel-type solar concentrators on its advanced solar arrays to visit the asteroid McAuliffe, Mars, and the Comet West-Kohoutec-Ikemura.
MOTOROLA has established the first links between a commercial satellite in low Earth orbit and mobile receivers on the ground in a series of tests with the growing Iridium constellation last month. Engineers at the company's Chandler, Ariz., facility transmitted "hundreds" of alphanumeric messages from an Iridium satellite launched May 5 to Iridium pagers on July 3, and on July 7 they sent the ring channel bursts that Iridium telephones will seek whenever they are activated.
The Senate Banking Committee has approved legislation reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank through 2001. By an 18-0 vote, the committee reauthorized the bank, an independent agency which helps finance U.S. exports. The committee bill didn't specify a funding level, although the Administration requested $630 million in fiscal 1998. The House Banking Committee has approved a reauthorization of the bank, and the full House is expected to consider the legislation in September.
Bell Helicopter Textron Inc., Fort Worth, Texas, is being awarded a $40,301,243 firm-fixed-price contract for 30 commercial TH-67 training helicopters with training, spares and technical representatives for Taiwan. Work will be performed in Tarrant County, Texas, and is expected to be completed by June 30, 1999. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on Nov. 29, 1996. The contracting activity is the U.S. Army Aviation and Troop Command, St. Louis, Mo. (DAAJ09-97-C-0193).
ORBITAL SCIENCES CORP., Dulles Va., acquired the PathMaster product line, a Global Positioning System (GPS) for cars, from Rockwell International Corp., Orbital announced yesterday. The unit, which employees 30 people in Troy, Mich., will be renamed the Driver Information Systems unit of Orbital's Magellan Corp., and will be headed by Roger Stevens, vice president and general manager.
The U.S. Air Force is preparing to choose next year between Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. for continued development and production of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle, and will release a draft request for proposals in late October.
UNC Inc., Annapolis, Md., nearly doubled its income and increased sales 52% in the second quarter. It cited growth in the aviation industry and its acquisition of Garrett Aviation Services. UNC earned $2.5 million on sales of $275.9 million in the second quarter of 1997, compared to earnings of $1.3 million on revenues of $181.3 million in the 1996 second quarter.
The U.S. Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center has assumed the role of executive agent for the Pentagon's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization on Space Based Laser (SBL) technologies, and is seeking industry input.
JACQUES GANSLER on Friday was nominated to become the new Pentagon acquisition chief, replacing Paul Kaminski who left the post several weeks ago. Gansler served in the Pentagon prior to 1977 as deputy assistant secretary for material acquisition and as assistant director, defense research and engineering. He is currently executive vice president and director of TASC. Noel Longuemare is the acting Pentagon acquisition chief. A report in The DAILY of Aug. 1 (page 174) that Rudy de Leon is the new acquisition chief was in error.
HOMESTEADING: Semyonov's comment, if accurately reported, underscores just how cloudy the Mir title is. Semyonov first claimed Mir as "a property of the working collective of NPO Energia" in 1991, as the Soviet Union was falling apart. But four of Mir's six modules had been built by then, and arguably belong not just to Russia but to the other former Soviet republics as well. To further confuse theissue, the Russian state nominally finances Mir activities, largely with money earned by flying U.S.
Raytheon Co. said it will offer $2.5 billion of debt off its shelf registration statement this week. It said proceeds will be used to refinance its acquisition of Texas Instruments' defense systems and electronics business. Raytheon will begin marketing the issue today; pricing of the securities is slated for later in the week. The offering will be managed by Credit Suisse First Boston; Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Bear, Stearns&Co. Inc.
