LOCKHEED MARTIN SANDERS won an 18-month, $982,000 contract from the U.S. Army's CECOM to perform integration work for the AN/ALQ-212 Advanced Threat Infrared Countermeasures (ATIRCM), which includes the AN/AAR-57 Common Missile Warning System, on the AH-64D Longbow Apache. Sanders will provide technical support to prime contract McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Systems and develop a 1553 Electronic Control unit emulator and optical coupler for use in integration.
An out-of-control robotic supply capsule severely damaged Russia's Mir orbital station yesterday, depressurizing the module where U.S. Astronaut Michael Foale lived and cutting on-board power by half. Mir's three-man crew was not hurt, but the future of Mir operations remains cloudy as the crew and ground-based engineers assess the long-term consequences of the accident. In Washington a powerful member of Congress called for an end to U.S. visits to Mir unless independent experts certify it is at least as safe as NASA's Space Shuttle.
Hughes Training Inc., Arlington, Tex., has won a $12.6 million sole- source contract from U.S. Naval Air Systems Command to upgrade the existing MV-22 Osprey operational flight trainer and cockpit operational procedures trainer to match the tiltrotor aircraft's latest cockpit design. The company said yesterday that the original trainers have been used to introduce U.S. Marine Corps pilots to fly the aircraft.
IFR SYSTEMS INC., Wichita, Kan., won a $6.4 million contract from the U.S. Army to supply the AN/GRM-122 test station and related software over the next 15 months under the SINCGARS Systems Improvement Program (SIP).
Calling the Defense Dept.'s planned 2006 deployment date for the Theater High Altitude Air Defense (THAAD) system "unacceptable," Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), chairman of the House National Security research and development subcommittee, said yesterday that he would push for deployment by 2004 in the House-Senate defense authorization conference.
The U.S. Army's Space and Strategic Defense Command plans to award a contract to TRW to move to the next phase of the Tactical High Energy Laser (THEL) demonstrator program. In the development, test and evaluation (DT&E) phase of the U.S./Israeli effort, a THEL demonstrator will be fired at the Army's High Energy Laser Systems Test Facility (HELSTF) at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., according to a June 26 Commerce Business Daily notice. The aim of the program is to develop a laser weapon to counter short-range ballistic missiles aimed at Israel.
APPLIED SIGNAL TECHNOLOGY, Sunnyvale, Calif., won a 13-month, $1.1 million subcontract from Harris Corp. for IF Transceivers for the U.S. Army's High Capacity Trunk Radio (HCTR) program. Harris is leading a team that will design and make six HCTRs for the Army's Communications and Electronics Command (CECOM).
The House has endorsed a U.S. Army plan put the Comanche helicopter's T800/801 engine in National Guard UH-1 helicopters. The proposal, offered by Rep. Terry Everett (R-Ala.), was part of an umbrella amendment added to the fiscal 1998 defense authorization bill on the House floor Monday night.
Seven African-American employees filed a class action suit against Sikorsky Aircraft for what they said were racially discriminatory employment policies and practices. The suit alleges that most African-American employees at Sikorsky hold positions that are clustered at the lower labor grade levels and that throughout the company's history, virtually no African-Americans have attained supervisory or managerial positions.
A proposed amendment to the Senate version of the 1997 defense authorization bill would prohibit the Pentagon from contracting out for any depot maintenance work at U.S. Air Force bases approved for shutdown by the Base Closure and Realignment Commission (BRAC) two years ago.
CODAR TECHNOLOGY INC., Longmont, Colo., received technical approval of its 20-inch LCD Codar Falcon FPR20MS true multi-sync flat panel for the U.S. Army Common Hardware/Software (CH-2) program.
Hughes Space and Communications International has sued Lockheed Martin, International Launch Services (ILS) and 15 unnamed affiliates claiming breach of contract related to Russian space launch services. The suit, filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court, seeks more than $550 million in damages and an injunction preventing ILS from using "false, deceptive and unfair practices in marketing launch services." It asks that Lockheed Martin be held liable for "intentional interference" with Hughes' contract.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN CORP. won a $16.2 million contract from the U.S. Army's Communications-Electronics Command to produce the Tactical Endurance Synthetic Aperture Radar (TESAR) system. The contract calls for nine TESAR payloads, two spares and a set of ground control station displays, which are in addition to 11 payloads and three sets of displays from the demonstration phase. Work will be done by the Electronics Sensors and Systems Div. (ESSD), Baltimore. Initial delivery is scheduled for May 1997, and production will continue through the first quarter of 1999.
Bell-Boeing reported orders for 29 civil tiltrotor aircraft from companies in scheduled airline service, corporate transport, offshore oil support and emergency medical service. "These are not just customers, these are visionaries," Bell Chairman Webb Joiner said in making the announcement last week at the Paris air show. He noted their commitment to a new aviation concept four years in advance of a delivery, and to a design that is only now being frozen.
Kaman Aerospace International signed a $185 million contract with the New Zealand Ministry of Defense to supply four SH-2G Super Seasprite helicopters to the Royal New Zealand Navy (DAILY, March 12), Kaman announced yesterday. The Seasprites are scheduled to begin entering service in 2000, when they will replace Wasp helicopters. The contract includes training, spares and missiles.
The U.S. Air Force's Electronic Systems Center is asking industry to help it identify upgrades that will allow bombers to be compatible with future civilian air navigation and communication systems. ESC is looking for "a notional avionics architecture" for B-1Bs, B-2s and B-52Hs, it says in a June 26 Commerce Business Daily notice. A contract for the four- to six-month effort would be awarded later this fiscal year. The program is unfunded at this time.
The Senate Appropriations Committee, marking up its fiscal year 1998 foreign operations bill on Tuesday, left unchanged a provision doing away with the annual earmark for U.S. economic and military assistance to Egypt. Instead of debating the provision, the committee agreed to a unanimous consent agreement proposed by Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) to defer debate until the bill moves to the floor. At that time, Stevens will try to restore the earmark.
The House Monday night narrowly endorsed the first step in producing more B-2 bombers, but supporters face a difficult and lengthy process if they are to realize their goal eventually building nine more of the planes to complement the 21 that are already approved.
EDO CORP., College Point, N.Y., won a $1.8 million contract from Denmark's Naval Materiel Command for Data Handling and Display Systems (DHDS) as part of the NATO Ship-Shore-Ship Buffer Program. DHDS will be made by the EDO Combat Systems business unit, Chesapeake, Va., with deliveries scheduled to be completed in 1998.
The Royal Australian Air Force confirmed its order of the British Aerospace Hawk 100 lead-in fighter trainer (LIFT) to replace the Aermacchi MB.326 (DAILY, Nov. 13, 1996). Australian Prime Minister John Howard, in a visit BAe's Military Aircraft Div. at Warton, confirmed an order for 33 Hawks. Bae said the order would be worth $700 million, and the contract will be signed in Canberra next week.
An effort by the U.S. Army and Lockheed Martin Vought Systems to develop a guided version of the Multiple Launch Rocket System would be more accurate and fly farther than the current Extended Range MLRS, according to a Lockheed Martin official. Although accuracy - via GPS and INS - is classified, the official said it is typical of a GPS weapon. Without a terminal seeker, such weapons generally are designed for accuracies of around 12 meters. The official noted that even if the GPS signal is jammed, the INS will provide greater accuracy than an ER-MLRS.
Cost estimates for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) vary by as much as $2 billion between the Air Force and the Office of Secretary of Defense, with some OSD projections giving the next-generation launch vehicle failing marks on reaching its 25% launch cost reduction goal, the General Accounting Office reported yesterday.
