Saudi Arabia's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, Prince Sultan ibn Abdul-Aziz, denied that a contract to buy 30 F-16 fighters would be reached during his visit to Washington beginning Feb. 24, according to reports from Kuwait City. He is expected to hold talks with President Clinton and Defense Secretary William Cohen on security in the Middle East and economic issues. The prince is also expected to visit France and meet with President Jacques Chirac and Defense Minister Charles Millon.
The U.S. needs to develop a better set of guidelines for allied participation in Theater Missile Defense (TMD) programs, according to a report by the Washington-based Progressive Policy Institute. "One important part of such guidelines is clarifying the allocation of TMD responsibilities with each of our allies," says the report, titled "Missile Defense and American Security: A Sensible National Policy."
Lockheed Martin Corp. and Transfield Defense Systems (TDS) of Melbourne, formed a joint venture high technology company to provide systems engineering and integration and software development capabilities to Australia and Southeast Asia, the companies announced yesterday. The venture, based in Melbourne and called RLM Holdings PTY Ltd. (RLM), although a new name will be announced shortly, has already received a contract from Telstra to manage the $1 billion Jindalee Operational Radar Network (JORN) defense project.
FAIRCHILD CONTROLS CORP., Frederick, Md., won a $73 million contract from McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Systems to deliver vapor cycle environmental control systems for the Longbow Apache Helicopter Program. Fairchild said the five-year contract calls for the Improved Environmental Control System (IECS) in support of the Longbow program for the U.S. Army, the United Kingdom and The Netherlands.
The French government will again try to privatize Thomson-CSF, this time through a private placement, the government announced yesterday. The company is anxious to get the sale completed as soon as possible because aerospace and defense industry consolidation in the U.S. has forced European companies to become more aggressive in their own efforts, a Thomson spokesman told the DAILY. He said Thomson had five concerns about privatization that were answered by the government.
Boeing North American Inc., Seal Beach, Calif., won a $750,000 contract from the U.S. Air Force to study privatization of aircraft maintenance work at the Sacramento Air Logistics Center, McClellan AFB, Calif. A similar contract was won by AAI Corp., Hunt Valley, Md. (DAILY, Feb. 12). The study phase concludes in September, and the Air Force will pick one of the two for the maintenance contract.
Russia's first deputy prime minister assured Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) in Moscow yesterday that Russia will meet its obligations to fund the critical Service Module for the International Space Station, but the Russian factory chief who is building the module told reporters he needs at least $10 million by the end of February to meet an already delayed schedule.
The Outrider unmanned aerial vehicle, already three months behind schedule for a first flight, failed again last Sunday to achieve the milestone. Discovery of a problem with the pilot-controller interface forced prime contractor Alliant Techsystems to cancel the flight from Hondo, Tex., according to a company spokesman. Another attempt will be made this coming weekend.
Bombardier has 67 orders, options and memoranda of understanding from eight airlines for its new 70-seat Canadair Regional Jet(1) Series 700, the company said yesterday. Brit Air of Morlaix, France, is the lead customer with an order for four of the stretched version of the 50-seat CRJ Series 100 and 200 airliners.
Ballistic missile submarines will dominate Russia's strategic nuclear forces early in the coming century, according to a new U.S. Navy assessment. The unclassified 1997 edition of "Worldwide Submarine Challenges," compiled by the Office of Naval Intelligence, says that by around 2010, Russia's SSBN fleet may represent 62% of its total strategic forces. The other two arms of Moscow's nuclear triad, which dominate today - Strategic Rocket Forces, which control land-based ICBMs, and Long-Range Aviation - will slip to a combined 38% of the force.
Two U.S. Army Airborne Command and Control (A2C2) helicopters are ready to participate in next month's Advanced Warfighting Experiment (AWE) at the National Training Center, Ft. Irwin, Calif., a officer of the service's Training and Doctrine Command said yesterday.
STRUCTURAL DYNAMICS RESEARCH CORP., Milford, Ohio, won a three-year, $3.6 million contract from software and services from Lockheed Martin Missiles&Space, Structural Dynamics said yesterday. It said Lockheed Martin has the option to extend the contract two years at a value of $1 million per year.
A PENTAGON WORKING GROUP is examining the potential threat of asteroid collision and how it could cooperate with NASA to deal with such an event, Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said Tuesday. He said the panel, set up several weeks ago by Pentagon acquisition chief Paul Kaminski, is slated to report in October.
TAIWAN is buying 54 McDonnell Douglas Harpoon missiles with containers and support equipment through the U.S. foreign military sales process. The $95 million program is slated to support Harpoons for anti-surface warfare from the Knox-class ships it has leased from the U.S. Navy, the Pentagon said yesterday.
MALAYSIAN MiG-29 fighters are participating in joint Malaysia-Singapore exercises which began yesterday, according to reports from Singapore. These are the first exercises for the Malaysian MiGs. Russia completed delivery of 19 of the fighters last year. The Singaporean Defense Ministry said the exercises are designed to drill cooperative action in the defense of the airspace of the two countries against a general potential air attack. They are being held under a defense agreement that also includes Australia, Britain and New Zealand.
Gulf Aircraft Maintenance Co. (GAMCO), United Arab Emirates, won a $46 million contract from Britain's Royal Air Force to maintain nine auxiliary aircraft, the official Emirates news agency reported yesterday. GAMCO will service the Lockheed L-1011 TriStars, which the RAF uses for air-to-air refueling and transport, for five years. GAMCO won the contract over competitors from Britain, Germany and the U.S., including Lockheed Aeromod Centers Inc., Delta Air Lines and Marshall Aerospace.
NASA's Space Shuttle Discovery lifted the Hubble Space Telescope about eight and a half statute miles yesterday in a life-stretching maneuver that crowned a weekend of spacewalks to service the orbiting laboratory, including an unplanned extravehicular activity (EVA) called to mend frayed insulation.
Sverdrup Facilities Inc., St. Louis, Mo., is being awarded a $10,660,000 firm fixed price contract to design/build a Mission Support Facility. Work will be performed at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado, and is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 1998. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There were 122 bids solicited on Sept. 25, 1996, and seven bids were received. The contracting activity is the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha, Neb. (DACA45-97-C-0021).
U.S. diplomats are encountering questions from allies as they attempt to explain the Clinton Administration's new policy making the Defense Dept.'s Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite navigation signals available in undegraded form worldwide for commercial and civil use, according to the top U.S. State Dept. official involved in the "consultations."
JOINT STANDOFF WEAPON low-rate initial production began last week with the U.S. Navy-led program office awarding system prime contractor Texas Instruments a $65.9 million contract. TI said yesterday that 111 AGM-154As with the BLU-97B Combined Effects Munition bomblet will be built in LRIP. Operational evaluation is continuing. The AGM-154B JSOW, intended for the anti-armor mission, and the AGM-154C, which features a unitary warhead, are still in development.
Rockwell International Corp., Collins Avionics and Communications Div., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is being awarded a $9,686,157 modification to previously awarded contract N00019-94-C-0219 to exercise an option for the procurement of 485 control display navigation units for the U.S. Navy (476) and the U.S. Air Force (9). Work will be performed in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and is expected to be completed by February 1999. 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.
The U.S. Navy wants the winner of a competition for three new intra- theater airlifters to accept as trade-ins the three C-9s they will replace. The money the government gets when a military service trades in old aircraft usually goes straight to the Treasury, but in this case the Navy wants to use it to cut the cost of replacements, said Capt. Tom Yee.
Lockheed Martin Corporation, Marietta, Ga., is being awarded an $8,078,480 face value increase to a cost plus award fee contract to incorporate the subcontractor portion of the Joint Direct Attack Munition integration effort into the Engineering and Manufacturing Development contract for the F-22 aircraft. Contract is expected to be completed by September 2002. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-91/C-0006, P00284).
The government of Norway will choose between the Lockheed Martin F- 16C/D and the Eurofighter 2000 for its next fighter aircraft, Lockheed Martin said yesterday. The final decision is expected in 1999. Norway eliminated the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 and the Dassault Rafale. The Royal Norwegian Air Force has been flying versions of the F-16 since the 1980s. Its existing F-16 fleet is being modernized as part of a five-nation update program with participation by European industry.
