Raytheon TI Systems Inc., Dallas, won a contract from the Communications Electronics Command (CECOM), Fort Monmouth, N.J., for thermal imaging systems for Bradley Fighting Vehicles (BFV) and Apache attack helicopters, the company announced last week. The first award of $6.7 million is for forward looking infrared (FLIR) technology for night-vision targeting acquisition and fire control capability. The contract could reach a total value of just over $31 million if it is renewed each year and all options are exercised.
Hughes Aircraft Co.'s Sensors and Communications Systems, El Segundo, Calif., said it has delivered two APG-73 radars to the Royal Australian Air Force. Value of the contract was not disclosed. The delivery, under a Foreign Military Sales contract, is the first step in the RAAF's upgrade of its F/A-18A and B models, Hughes said yesterday.
Honeywell Defense Avionics Systems, Albuquerque, N.M., will develop the color Radar Control Display Unit (RCDU) for the United Kingdom's seven E-3D Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft. Honeywell said the contract is from Northrop Grumman's Electronic Sensors and Systems Div., Baltimore, as part of Boeing's U.K. Radar Systems Improvement Program (RSIP). Defense Avionics Systems will deliver 22 RCDUs to Northrop Grumman, with the first two units scheduled for early 1998.
A Lockheed Martin Atlas IIAS booster launched Japan's Superbird-C communications satellite from Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., Sunday night after two earlier attempts over the weekend were scrubbed, once for ground equipment problems and once for weather.
PAR GOVERNMENT SYSTEMS CORP., New Hartford, N.Y., won a $5 million contract from the U.S. Air Force for software development. PGSC will be a sub- contractor to GDE Systems Inc., San Diego, on a five-year contract under the Image Product Library (IPL) program from the U.S. Air Force Material Command, Rome Laboratory, Rome, N.Y. IPL will provide imagery and imagery products archives in support of tactical users.
NASA managers have scheduled the next Space Shuttle mission for liftoff Aug. 7, when the Shuttle Discovery will carry a seven-person crew into a high-inclination orbit for almost 11 days of science and practice for the International Space Station. Liftoff of the STS-85 mission is scheduled for 10:41 a.m. EDT, with Discovery taking a cargo bay packed with instruments to a 160-nautical mile orbit inclined 57 degrees to the Equator, according to Bryan Austin, lead flight director for the mission.
Hughes Aircraft Co., Fullerton, Calif., is being awarded a $7,569,233 cost- plus-fixed-fee contract for the Japanese Auxiliary Ocean Surveillance System to perform a block upgrade of the ship and shore electronics including installations on the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force Hibiki- class ocean surveillance ships Hibiki and Harima, and installation of block upgrade capability and upgrade of shore-based spare shipboard equipment at the Anti-Submarine Warfare Center in Yokosuka, Japan.
The AGM-130 in a recent test demonstrated the munition's ability to achieve high impact angles at which it can deliver the BLU-109/B penetrating warhead, according to AGM-130 prime contractor Boeing Autonetics and Missile Div.
Hughes Aircraft Co., Sensors&Communications Systems, El Segundo, Calif., is being awarded a $360,000 increment as part of a $9,000,000 time and materials contract for services and supplies for the Enhanced Position Location System (EPLRS), depot level, and other logistics support of EPLRS and Situation Awareness Data Link (SADL) during development, testing, training, fielding and integration for 36 months. Work will be performed in El Segundo, Calif. (85%) and Long Beach, Calif. (15%), and is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 1999.
Sundstrand Corp.'s 1997 second quarter earnings grew 34% to $43 million, while sales rose 19% to $440 million, the company reported. It recorded sales of $371 million in the 1996 second quarter with profits of $34 million, which included a $2 million gain from restructuring. Aerospace segment sales reached $243 million in the 1997 quarter, up 33% from a year ago. Operating profits grew $15 million to $44 million.
An amendment that would no longer let contractors write off the costs of mergers in business they do with the Pentagon will probably not be allowed to be offered to the House Appropriations fiscal 1998 defense appropriations bill, which will be on the House floor today, backers of the legislation conceded yesterday.
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ronald R. Fogleman yesterday said he plans to retire no later than Sept. 1, 13 months before his term expires, to set the stage for an upcoming Pentagon report assessing blame for the deaths of 19 U.S. servicemen in last year's terrorist bombing of the Khobar Towers complex in Saudi Arabia.
Is looking to buy $75 million worth of U.S. ammunition and support to prepare three Perry-class frigates to be turned over to Turkey from the U.S. Navy, the Pentagon said Thursday. The three frigates are part of Turkey's overall naval modernization program and would replace older ships, the Pentagon said. The ships would supplement eight operational Knox-class frigates that were delivered to Turkey in 1993 and 1994. The deal would include 300 rounds of 40mm high explosives and 24,000 rounds of 20mm ammunition.
WISH LISTS: New Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre says it's okay for the service chiefs to provide Congress their views on modernization priorities. Defense Secretary William Cohen warned the chiefs earlier this year not to get out in front of the DOD leadership by presenting funding "wish lists" to Congress. The warning angered many lawmakers, who charged the DOD leader could not dictate what the Chiefs can and cannot tell Congress. Hamre's comments show somewhat of a shift in thinking.
GRADUATION DAY: U.S. Astronaut Wendy Lawrence and her two Russian crewmates on the Mir 24 mission are scheduled to be certified ready for flight this week, and the Russians have laid on a televised ceremony at Star City to mark the occasion. But the U.S. continues to reserve judgment on whether Lawrence will stay behind on Mir when the Space Shuttle Atlantis picks up Astronaut Mike Foale in September. Peggy Wilhide, chief spokesperson for NASA Administrator Daniel S.
The United Arab Emirates has asked to buy $117 million worth of Harpoon anti-ship missiles and Sea Sparrow ship self-defense missiles under two separate foreign military sale arrangements, the Pentagon said late Thursday. Both missiles are intended to equip two Kortenaer-class frigates the UAE is buying from the Netherlands, the Pentagon said. Harpoon-maker McDonnell Douglas will be the prime contractor for the $90 million Harpoon buy, which calls for the delivery of 24 missiles with containers, support hardware and technical assistance.
BAD OMEN: The Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle may experience another slip in its first flight, according to Air Force acquisition chief Arthur Money. Development problems have forced the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to delay first flight from late last year to this fall. Program officials say they still are targeting a fall flight, but Money isn't that optimistic. He told an Air Force Association convention that Global Hawk is expected to fly in December or January.
The Senate Thursday night approved the nomination of Pentagon Comptroller John Hamre to become the new Deputy Defense Secretary. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), who has repeatedly criticized Hamre over the past year, did not object to the nomination as some Hill aides and observers expected. Grassley has repeatedly criticized Hamre for not taking adequate steps to change DOD's policy on progress payments.
Shareholders of Boeing and McDonnell Douglas approved the companies' merger in separate meeting Friday, the two companies said. In Seattle, 99% of Boeing shareholders approved issuance of up to 278,796,294 new shares of common stock to accomplish the transaction. In St. Louis, 75.8% of McDonnell Douglas shareholders approved the deal. A two-thirds vote was required. A company spokesman said James S. McDonnell III kept his promise to vote against the merger for symbolic reasons (DAILY, May 24).
MODEST COST: From Osterthaler's perspective "the cost of enlargement, regardless of which cost study you choose to use, are by the standards of a quarter of a trillion dollar defense budget very modest." He notes that even cost projections that exceed the Administration's estimate keep the total cost at less than 1% of the Pentagon's annual funding level. For Osterthaler the issue isn't so much cost to the U.S., but one of "equitable burden sharing" between the U.S. and European allies. "It is important that the Europeans do their part," he says.
The U.S. Army hopes to resume the RAH-66 Comanche flight test program in early August, a few days later than first expected, after the program was interrupted for several months to allow a series of modifications. Program officials say they are in the process of putting the Comanche prototype back together after completing modifications. The flight test program will continue at Sikorsky's West Palm Beach, Fla., flight test facility.
WAITING IT OUT: Don't look for Astronaut Foale to come home on next month's scheduled Soyuz reentry flight instead of waiting for the Shuttle. Freshman Rep. Dave Weldon (R-Fla.), suggested that approach in a letter to NASA's Goldin last week since there is little for Foale to do until Mir power is restored, but officials say that won't happen unless the situation on Mir gets much worse. Even with most of his scientific gear lost in the depressurized Spektr module, NASA officials say, Foale is learning first- hand how to deal with on-orbit crises.
A study done for the U.S. Air Force comparing the life-cycle cost of various combat units says a B-2 wing costs about a third of what a Navy carrier battle group does and $79 billion less than the cost of an Army heavy division. According to charts prepared for the AF by Washington, D.C.-based Synergy Corp., the 35-year cost of a B-2 wing including procurement, operations and maintenance and personnel totals $31.3 billion.
