ERICSSON won a series of production orders from Sweden's Defense Material Administration and Norway's Army Material Command for the new Arthur Weapon Location System. The order, not counting options, is worth about $95 million. Delivery will begin in 1998 and should be completed by 2000.
LOCKHEED MARTIN CORP. received contracts Dec. 17 to build C-130H aircraft for Taiwan and Japan. It got $118.2 million for four of the planes for Taiwan, and $35.1 million for one for Japan. Both contracts were awarded by the U.S. Air Force's Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, and support Foreign Military Sales (FMS) programs.
GENERAL DYNAMICS, Falls Church, Va., completed its purchase of the assets of Lockheed Martin Defense Systems and Lockheed Martin Armament Systems, General Dynamics announced yesterday. General Dynamics acquired the two units for $450 million and assumed no debt in the transaction (DAILY, Nov. 8, 1996).
December 23, 1996 McDonnell Douglas Corporation McDonnell Douglas Corporation, Long Beach, Calif., was awarded on December 20, a $78,067,060 fixed price incentive contract to provide for CY 1997 field support for the C-17 aircraft. Contract is expected to be completed December 1997. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Solicitation began September 1996; negotiations were completed December 1996. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright- Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-95/C-2027, P00036).
RUSSIA'S STATE DUMA has ratified an agreement with the European Space Agency which will establish a permanent ESA office in Russia. Igor Ivanov, first deputy foreign minister, told reporters the agreement will facilitate joint space projects and create incentives for the sale of advanced Russian space technologies in Europe.
A Hughes Aircraft official said the company was able to offer the U.S. a substantial reduction in the cost of the AIM-9X missile development program because of a high degree of commonality between the proposed seeker and one being built for the U.K. Advanced Short-Range Air-to-Air Missile (ASRAAM). Bill West, Hughes AIM-9X business development manager, said the company will shave "at least a year" off the engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) phase of the program.
The Pentagon and the U.K. Ministry of Defense have signed a memorandum of understanding to co-develop the U.K. Combined Arms Tactical Trainer (CATT) and the U.S. Close Combat Tactical Trainer (CCTT). The effort is aimed at producing interoperable trainers and maximizing return on the investment for each country through reuse of software and sharing of development products, the U.S. Army said.
The Quadrennial Defense Review will be the overarching issue occupying the Pentagon this year, with every modernization and budgeting decision made prior to the QDR's scheduled Dec. 15 completion sure to be seen as related to it.
Because there won't be any big leaps in funding for weapons programs in the Pentagon's fiscal year 1998 budget, Congress will have to look for other ways to preserve the U.S. defense industrial base. While lawmakers tend to steer clear of dictating how industry should restructure, Congress is expected over the year to take some stabs at addressing corporate welfare issues and tax laws associated with defense company merger activities, say Capitol Hill aides and industry observers.
In space, the year ahead will mark the end of the Cold War "bigger- is-better" approach to space exploration and the beginning of the "faster- better-cheaper" approach adopted by NASA after the Berlin Wall fell, but milestones in commercial space could overshadow government-sponsored developments in the long run.
Russia orbited the long-delayed Bion-11 life sciences research satellite Dec. 24 with a "crew" of biological specimens headed by two macaque monkeys. The 14-day mission started at 8:50 a.m. EST Dec. 24, when one of Russia's two remaining Soyuz-U launch vehicles lifted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome. Bion-11 is an international mission with major participation by NASA's Ames Research Center and Russia's Institute of Biomedical Problems. Other participants in the project include France, Ukraine and Lithuania.
Saab has delivered to the Swedish air force the last of the initial batch of JAS-39 Gripen aircraft, formally concluding the development phase of the program. The first buy included five test aircraft and 30 production fighters. Sweden is buying another 96 single-seat Gripens and 14 two-seaters, and will buy a third batch to equip the final four of 123 planned Gripen squadrons. Saab has already delivered the first two of the 110 jets in the second batch.
Boeing sent 1996 off with a $13 billion bang, and the effects of its takeover of McDonnell Douglas could have lasting repercussions through 1997. Analysts doubt there will be any more "mega-mergers," but they expect jockeying among the smaller defense contractors to last for several more years.
Attention in the defense area early in 1997 will be focused on President Clinton to see how attentive he is to the Pentagon now that his last presidential election is history.
Alliant Techsystems agreed to sell its Marine Systems Group (MSG) to Hughes Electronics Corp. for $141 million, Alliant announced yesterday. The transaction, subject to government approval, is expected to be completed during the first quarter of 1997. MSG, Mukilteo, Wash., employees some 650 people in six states. Hughes will take over the Mukilteo facility along with leased facilities in California, Maryland, Hawaii, Rhode Island and Washington. Hughes said no changes are anticipated in the workforce.
Engineers in the U.S. and Russia are struggling to find a way to keep the International Space Station in orbit until the Russian Service Module arrives eight months late to do the job, but without cracking the $2.1 billion-a-year U.S. Station spending cap. Meanwhile, political consensus appears to be building in the Russian government to keep funding both the Mir orbital station and Russia's part of the International Station. That could ease the long-term prospects for Station assembly, but not without near-term problems.
NATO HAS ESTABLISHED a Research and Technology Board that comprises military and civilian research advisory groups, the Pentagon said yesterday. The new body replaces the Advisory Group on Aerospace Research and Development (AGARD) and the Defense Research Group (DRG). It reports to the Military Committee and the Conference of National Armaments Directors. The Research and Technology Board is headed by American Michael Yarymovych, former U.S. Air Force chief scientist. It comprises a permanent staff and the working groups of its two predecessor organizations.
Managers involved in day-to-day planning for the precursor Shuttle/Mir phase of the International Space Station program say the aging Russian spacecraft is getting more and more difficult to maintain, but they believe it should last until the International Station is started if not permanently inhabited.
