McDonnell Douglas' YC-15 transport aircraft arrived in Long Beach last Wednesday to begin a new role as an advanced technology demonstrator. The YC-15, the company's entry in the advanced medium short take-off and landing transport (AMST) competition of the mid-1970s, had been in storage nearly 19 years before being refurbished. It made its first flight since 1978 earlier this month from Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona.
As pressure mounts on congressional budget committees to set the fiscal year 1998 federal budget topline spending levels, members of the Senate Armed Services Committee are pushing for a $4.3 billion increase in the White House's request for defense. SASC Chairman Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) asked for such a boost in March, and three Democrats and nine Republican colleagues have now joined him.
Raytheon Co. has picked FlightSafety Services to provide the $500 million ground-based training system for the U.S. Air Force/Navy Joint Primary Aircraft Training System. FlightSafety "won in every [source selection] category," David Riemer, Raytheon vice president for training systems, told reporters yesterday in Washington. Riemer added that FlightSafety "happened to have the lowest most probable life cycle cost." FlightSafety beat Hughes Training Systems Inc. following a seven- month prototyping phase.
The first phase of the $480 million-plus Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) won't meet minimum standards equivalent to existing Category 1 service, the FAA has acknowledged. It also said, however, that the current National Airspace System architecture addresses the issue. Steve Zaidman, FAA's director system architect and program evaluation, told DAILY affiliate ATC Market Report that "Initial WAAS will not give Cat 1 sole-means capability."
The U.S. Air Force has begun a study to determine whether unmanned aerial vehicle (UAVs) could perform the Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) mission, now assigned to F-16 fighters. A notional timeline calls for alternatives to be evaluated by 2000, and an Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration to begin as early as 2001, according to AF Lt. Col. Ken Spaar of the AF's requirements office.
Today the Air Force is modifying a $63,149,578 contract with Raytheon Aircraft Co., Wichita, Kan., fixed price incentive contract this action exercises Fiscal Year 97 lot IV, for 15 production aircraft of the Joint Primary Aircraft Training System (JPATS). This system's primary mission is to train entry-level Air Force and Navy student pilots in primary flying. Secondarily, the systems will be used to provide entry-level training to Air Force Student Navigators and Navy Student Naval Flight Officers. Contract is expected to be completed September 2001.
An article in the April 21 issue of the DAILY - "QDR will emphasize modernization, analyst says" - should have said that one implication of the Quadrennial Defense Review will be "Little desire to craft two separate, distinct kinds of ground forces...." The article left out the word "Little."
General Electric Aircraft Engines, Cincinnati, Ohio, is being awarded a $10,000,000 modification to previously awarded contract N00019-96-C-0176 for the Joint Strike Fighter Alternate Engine Program-Phase II. Work will be performed in Cincinnati, Ohio, and is expected to be completed by October 2000. The contract funds would not have expired at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Arlington, Va., is the contracting activity.
ALLIANT TECHSYSTEMS, Minneapolis, named Paul A. Ross group vice president, Space and Strategic Systems, the company announced yesterday. Ross worked for Rockwell International for 25 years and for Thiokol for six years before joining Hercules Aerospace in August 1994 as VP of operations. Since Alliant acquired Hercules in April 1995, Ross has served as VP and general manager, Space and Strategic Propulsion Div., Aerospace Systems Group.
Lockheed Martin Corp., Marietta, Ga., is being awarded a $47,138,683 face value increase to a cost-plus-award-fee contract to provide for an Earned Award Fee for the Engineering&Manufacturing Development Contract for F-22 production. Contract is expected to be completed September 2002. 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 (F33657-91/C-0006, P00295).
Greenwich Air Services, Miami, Fla., is being awarded a $9,464,694 face value increase to a firm fixed price contract to provide for conversion of six JT3D government-furnished engines to Air Force TF33-102B Joint Surveillance, Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) engine configuration. This effort includes repair, overhaul, and modification necessary to deliver fully-configured Joint STARS E-8C spare aircraft engines. Contract is expected to be completed August 1998. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
ITT Corp., Avionics Division, Clifton, N.J., is being awarded a $3,215,000 increment of a $9,124,527 modification to a $67,706,322 cost plus award fee/cost share contract for Engineering and Manufacturing Development (E&MD) of the Advanced Threat Radar Jammer (ATRJ). The ATRJ is a fully integrated radio frequency electronic countermeasures system for electronic protection against current and future radar directed weapon systems. Work will be performed in Clifton, N.J., and is expected to be completed by July 31, 1998.
Ballistic Missile Defense Organization Director Lt. Gen. Lester Lyles won't make a decision on the fate of the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system until the results of the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) are made public next month, a BMDO official said. Though the special steering committee investigating the troubled program presented its preliminary recommendations to Lyles on Friday, a decision will not likely precede the QDR in mid-May, the official said.
The European Commission will reveal to Boeing and McDonnell Douglas by mid-May its concerns about their "very problematic" merger proposal, Karel Van Miert, commissioner responsible for competition, said Friday. Speaking at a European Institute lunch in Washington, Van Miert confirmed earlier statements by the EC that the body will decide by the end of July whether the remedies the companies propose are good enough to allow the deal to go forward (DAILY, March 24).
John B. Goodman, deputy under secretary of defense for industrial affairs and installations, testifies that Pentagon, assessing the ability of American industry to meet defense requirements, has found "very few cases" in which essential capabilities are endangered.
Tiny cracks discovered during x-ray testing of NASA's new aluminum- lithium super-lightweight Space Shuttle external tank would have made it difficult for the U.S. to meet its schedule to launch the first U.S. element for the International Space Station, even if Russian funding problems had not forced an 11-month delay in the start of Station assembly on orbit.
Harris Corp. won a contract from the Federal Aviation Administration to develop a backup system for communications and training at air traffic control centers. The three-year pact calls for development and installation of the Voice Switching Control System (VSCS) Training and Backup Switch (VTABS) in 21 Air Route Traffic Control Centers, the Technical Center and the Aeronautical Center. The first system will be installed this year.
The House Appropriations national security subcommittee, in recommending $1.8 billion in Pentagon program cuts to cover the costs of a $2 billion fiscal year 1997 supplemental request, has targeted a number of aircraft programs and $200 million in Air Force classified activities. The latter are believed to be run by the National Reconnaissance Office (DAILY, March 28).
The results of the Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) will lead to force reductions and an emphasis on modernization, according to one industry analyst. Secretary of Defense William Cohen is sticking to a plan to release the QDR on May 15, and Merrill Lynch aerospace analyst Byron Callan told investors he expects forces to be cut and several major programs reduced. With no real growth in the defense budget expected over the next five years, the QDR will likely have two implications, according to Callan:
The Shortstop system, designed to trick proximity-fuzed munitions into exploding early, could be deployed to protect troops in South Korea as early as this year, says Maj. Gen. David Gust, the U.S. Army program executive officer of intelligence, electronic warfare and sensors. Shortstop Electronic Protection Systems (SEPS) were deployed to Bosnia and are now en route to prime contractor Whittaker Corp. for refurbishment. Gust said he hopes the systems will be redeployed to Korea before the end of the year.
Aeroflot this month plans to sign a contract with Boeing for 10 737- 400s valued at $400 million, according to Valery Okulov, acting director- general of the Russian carrier. A Boeing spokesman said "we have been talking for several months about a 737 order." Okulov told a Moscow press conference that the contract will be Aeroflot's first without government backing, showing that the international financial community considers the company stable.
As the U.S. Navy considers how to replace its EA-6B Prowlers around 2015, it will have to take a close look at friendly systems to determine the best configuration for the follow-on, says Dan McCoy, director of EW in the Navy's research, development and acquisition office.
The U.S. Navy is considering putting terminals for the Advanced Tactical Airborne Reconnaissance System (ATARS) in pods under the wings of its F/A-18s rather than in the nose of the planes as the Marine Corps does, according to Maj. Gen. Kenneth Israel, director of the Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office. Although no final decision has been made, he says the Navy is eyeing the pod-mounted solution because the nose installation is too laborious. More than 600 screws have to be removed and replaced each time, he notes.
The Netherlands and Norway last week formally signed on to the Joint Strike Fighter program in an agreement with the U.S. government that will keep them involved in the JSF requirements process. "This Joint Strike Fighter MOA [Memorandum of Agreement] will build on the success of our F-16 program," Pentagon acquisition chief Paul Kaminski said Friday in a statement. The MOA was signed April 16.
