LITTON'S GUIDANCE AND CONTROL SYSTEMS' SPACE AND LAUNCH business, Goleta, Calif., won a $22 million contract from Lockheed Martin Missiles&Space Co., Sunnyvale, Calif., to develop and manufacture the gyro reference assembly for the Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS). Litton will deliver the assembly for the six "high" orbit spacecraft.
Newport News Shipbuilding, Newport News, Va., is being awarded a $71,932,340 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to provide planning yard and design support for all SNN 688 and SSN/SSBN Class operational submarines. Efforts will also include design and planning year services for SEAWOLF Class Submarines (with the exception of certain engine room reactor compartment systems). Work will be performed in Newport News, Va., and is expected to be completed by September 1997. Contract funds in the amount of $35,966,170 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
Ocean Marine Navigation Co., Annapolis, Md., is being awarded a $149,967,998 firm-fixed-price contract to procure, convert and operate a ship under Phase II and III of the Maritime Prepositioning Force (Enhanced) Program. Under Phase II, an existing Grenadian flagged contained ship will be converted to roll-on/roll-off vessel, reflagged in the U.S. and renamed USNS LCPL Roy M. Wheat. Phase III will be the operation and maintenance of that ship for the first five years following delivery to the Military Sealift Command, Washington, D.C.
Texas Instruments Inc., McKinney, Tex., is being awarded $9,383,775 of a $98,349,922 firm fixed price multi-year contract for Low Rate Initial Production of the NV-80 B-Kit 2nd Generation Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) and Commanders' Thermal Viewer (CITV), cables, options, and spares. Work will be performed in McKinney, Tex., and is expected to be completed by March 30, 2001. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole-source contract initiated on Dec. 17, 1996. The contracting activity is the U.S.
United Technologies Corp., West Palm Beach, Fla., is being awarded a $50,036,280 face value increase to a firm fixed price contract to provide for twelve 100-PW-229 engines applicable to F-15 aircraft. The work will be performed at Pratt&Whitney Manufacturing Division, East Hartford, Conn. Contract is expected to be completed December 1998. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-94/D-2001, P0048).
Texas Instruments, Inc., Lewisville, Tex., is being awarded a $10,211,761 modification to previously awarded contract N00019-93-C-0148 for 30 High Speed Anti-Radiation Missiles (HARM), 30 newly fabricated guidance sections and 30 improved warheads as part of the FY '97 Replacement-in-Kind Program. This contract combines purchases for the U.S. Navy (63%), and the government of Greece (37%), under the Foreign Military Sales program. Work will be performed in Lewisville, Tex., and is expected to be completed December 1998.
Boeing North American, Inc., Duluth Ga., is being awarded a $31,287,645 firm fixed price contract to provide for 72 AGM-130S built from government furnished components. Contract is expected to be completed June 1999. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There was one firm solicited and one proposal received. Solicitation began January 1997; negotiations were completed March 1997. Aeronautical Systems Center, Eglin AFB, Fla., is the contracting activity (F08626-97/C-0110).
Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), chairman of the House National Security research and development subcommittee, says none of the military services has made a case for any part of the $357 billion Tactical Fighter Modernization package since they can't figure out how to pay for their portions.
EDO CORP., College Point, N.Y., won a $5.5 million follow-on contract from Sparton Corp. for the production of active piezoelectric ceramic components for the U.S. Navy's AN/SSQ 62C Sonobouy program. The contract is expected to run through mid-1998.
Rolls-Royce has started building a new 12,000-square-meter spares distribution center near its Commercial Aero Engine unit headquarters in Derby, U.K., that should be completed by August. "Last year we delivered around 500 million pounds (US$810 million) worth of spares," says Rolls' Alan Jackson, materiel chief for Commercial Aero Engines, "and we anticipate the new warehouse to have a throughput of two million pounds (US$3.3 million) in spares every day." The Wilmore Road facility will house 90,000 spare parts, Rolls says.
Lockheed Martin Control Systems is stepping in to take over the controls work on BMW Rolls-Royce's BR715 turbofan program, committing to design, develop and build a full authority digital electronic control (FADEC) for the program in time to begin delivering hardware by late July. "It's a fairly compressed schedule," allows Hank McGlynn, engine control programs director at the Control Systems unit in Johnson City, N.Y. But "in truth, the name of the game with this one was protecting the [BR715 engine] program schedule."
Germany's Dornier tapped AlliedSignal Engines veteran Michael L. Meshay to run day-to-day operations at Dornier Luftfahrt, which is developing the 32-passenger 328JET for the regional airline market. Meshay, who had been general manager of the former Textron Lycoming turbine engine plant in Stratford, Conn., is expected to win formal approval from the company's supervisory board later this month.
The Tactical Systems business area of Alliant Techsystems' Defense Systems Group signed a teaming agreement with CTA International to market the Cased Telescoped Weapon System (CTWS) in the U.S., Alliant announced. Alliant will be the prime contractor for making the system in the U.S. and will lead a joint effort with CTA to market CTWS to U.S. land combat vehicles. Alliant described CTWS as a weapon system consisting of a medium- caliber gun, cased telescope ammunition, and ammunition feed system. It is applicable to land combat vehicles.
VITRO SERVICES CORP., Fort Walton Beach, Fla., won a $126 million, three- year contract from the U.S. Air Force Development Test Center, Eglin AFB, Fla., to provide operation and maintenance of the test range and technical facilities, Tracor announced. If all options are exercised, the contract could reach $342 million.
Double-digit first-quarter profit gains at GE Aircraft Engines helped propel net earnings up 10.5% at parent General Electric to a record $1.68 billion, GE reports. Aircraft Engines was among the six GE units to turn in double-digit increases, and ten of GE's 12 businesses saw operating profits rise during the quarter.
The U.S. Navy in fiscal 1999 will take a look at the structural condition of its P-3 fleet to determine what needs to be done to keep the patrol planes flying until at least 2015 when they will begin to be retired, U.S. Navy officials said yesterday. As part of the service life sustainment analysis, the Navy will break apart one of its Lockheed Martin P-3 Orions to determine critical fatigue areas that will need to be fixed, Cdr. Brendan Gray, the Navy's P-3 requirements officer told The DAILY.
The U.S. Navy will decide next year how to meet its future requirement for supersonic sea-skimming targets (SSSTs), needed to test and train shipboard air-defense systems. The Navy is happy with the performance of its Vandal Extended-Extended Range (EER) targets, but it is running of the Talos airframes that are converted into Vandals, Navy program manager William McLanless said in an interview in his Arlington, Va., office. The stock of Vandal EERs will be depleted around 2000-01, he said.
Engine-related teething problems on Boeing's new 777 widebody twin are "under control," the company's new 777 chief tells AP. Troubles involving the interface between GE Aircraft Engines' GE90 and a Boeing-built Variable Speed/Constant Frequency (VSCF) drive (AP, March 14) are being handled through "asset management," says 777 VP and General Manager Ron Ostrowski, minimizing operational disruption.
House National Security Committee Chairman Floyd Spence (R-S.C.) released a report warning that serious readiness problems are beginning to appear in all the military services, and that this presages a return to the "hollow" force of the 1970s. The report - "Military Readiness 1997: Rhetoric and Reality" - said the problems are being caused by a combination of declining defense resources, smaller force structure and increasing emphasis on peacekeeping and humanitarian operations.
U.S. airworthiness officials issued two airworthiness directives (ADs) on the CFM International CFM56 engine series requiring rework of the air turbine starter and repetitive inspections of the stage one disk bore in the high-pressure compressor. FAA says three reports of air turbine starter failures prompted the first AD, citing the potential for serious damage to the engine electrical harnesses.
Boeing Co.'s Defense&Space Group, as prime contractor on the International Space Station, will "do whatever it takes" to get on with the program in the face of problems being encountered by Russia, according to Alan R. Mulally, president of the unit. Russia has run into trouble in providing the Station's Service Module. NASA leaders on Wednesday told Congress they have drafted a $200 million- $300 million plan to build the Station without the Russians, and will decide how to proceed by mid-May (DAILY, April 10).
U.S. Space Shuttle managers have decided to refly the STS-83 microgravity science mission in July or August to complete the experiments cut short this week by a faulty fuel cell, but microgravity scientists say they need still more time in space to prepare for the full-time facilities of the delayed International Space Station.
QUADRENNIAL DEFENSE REVIEW will be delivered to Congress on time and in full, according to Defense Secretary William Cohen. He made the pledge to reporters April 7 during a trip to Asia. Cohen spoke out after reports that the QDR, scheduled for delivery to Congress by May 15, would not be all- inclusive, and that some portions would have to be sent to Capitol Hill later.
