With the U.S. Navy slated to take over all stand-off jamming with its EA-6B Prowlers in fiscal 1998 when the Air Force retires its remaining EF-111 Ravens, Air Force Secretary Sheila Widnall decided to take a closer look at the Prowler. Earlier this month Widnall flew an EA-6B mission that included Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps operators.
The Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program office will learn late this week or early next week whether it is cleared for its pre-engineering and manufacturing development phase. The Defense Acquisition Board of senior Pentagon acquisition officials is slated to meet late on Dec. 6 to rule on the program. Pentagon acquisition chief Paul Kaminski, who chairs the DAB, is the final decision authority. Look for the Air Force to award two contracts mid-month if the DAB approves the program.
China's Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (COSTIND) has attempted to steal U.S. military technology, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports. COSTIND, a high-level People's Liberation Army organization, plays a role in China's weapons programs, sales of civilian goods, acquisition of military technology, arms sales and export controls, CRS explained. COSTIND was founded in July 1982 through the consolidation of multiple organizations concerned with weapons programs.
The Pentagon has put behind it several of the major contract announcements slated to take place this year, including the Joint Strike Fighter, Airborne Laser, Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile, and Space- Based Infrared Sensor. But contracting officials have several busy weeks ahead of them before the end of the year. Look for the Air Force to announce the two winners of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle competition and the Navy to pick the winner of the AIM-9X evolved Sidewinder bidding and the LPD-17 manufacturer.
DERLAN INC., Santa Ana, Calif., won a contract from SINO SWEARINGEN AIRCRAFT CO. to produce landing gear systems for the SJ30-2 business jet. The value of the program, the first received by Derlan in the general aviation landing gear market, is approximately $16 million in Canadian dollars.
Space Systems/Loral has joined competitor Hughes in ordering launches for its satellites aboard Japan's planned H-IIA booster. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company said yesterday it had signed an agreement for 10 firm H-IIA launches from 2000-2005 with Japan's Rocket System Corp. (RSC), which was set up to market a commercial version of Japan's powerful H-II booster.
THE AEROSPACE SYSTEMS GROUP of Alliant Techsystems Inc., Minneapolis, won a $2 million contract from Raytheon to qualify the Laser Canopy Fracturing Initiation System for use in the Beech/Pilatus PC-9 MkII(TM) for the Joint Primary Aircraft Training System (JPATS) program, Alliant reported.
A third of the way into an 18-month program slip to fix problems encountered earlier this year on the Navy's newest radar warning receiver, the Hughes ALR-67(V)3, the Naval Air Systems Command sees first signs the problems are coming under control.
It appears House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) will have to go down a long line of GOP members on the House Intelligence Committee to find a new chair to replace Rep. Larry Combest (R-Tex.), who has decided not to head the committee in the 105th Congress. Next in line would be Rep. C.W. (Bill) Young (R-Fla.), but he intends to chair the Appropriations panel on national security. Following Young would be Rep. James V. Hansen (R-Utah), but he wants to head the House Resources panel on national parks, forests and lands. Rep.
DOWTY AEROSPACE AVIATION SERVICES, Sterling, Va., and ATLANTIC AVIATION, Wilmington, Del., have teamed for Gulfstream G-1 propeller repair and overhaul work. Atlantic will perform removal and installation, either at the Wilmington facility or the customer's site. Dowty will handle repair and overhaul.
Congressional sources say the Clinton Administration is seeking a fast start on the congressional budget process and plans to send the fiscal 1998 budget to Congress on Feb. 7. This would be about a month earlier than last year.
Turkey has canceled an order for 10 Cobra helicopter gunships after the U.S. State Dept. held up the deal for two years, sources said Wednesday. News reports out of Turkey said the Turkish general staff ordered the deal canceled because of the delay. The Bell helicopters would have been used against Kurdish guerrillas in Southeast Turkey, according to the reports.
The Pentagon wants to increase the shipbuilding community's involvement in developing advancing submarine technologies and has a host of new technology programs it hopes to pursue in fiscal year 1997, according to report sent to the congressional defense committees by DOD acquisition chief Paul Kaminski.
RAYTHEON has joined a 12-firm Japanese consortium proposing to build an offshore U.S. air base in waters near Okinawa, the Lexington, Mass.-based company said yesterday. The consortium, Quick Installation Platform (QIP), has proposed to the Japan Defense Agency shifting the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Base facilities to a large, fixed platform. Raytheon is the only U.S. firm involved with QIP, which is headed by Nippon Steel.
LOGICON INC., Los Angeles, won a contract from FLIGHTSAFETY SERVICES CORP. to assist in the requirements analysis and proof of concept prototyping phase for the design of the Joint Primary Aircraft Training System (JPATS) Ground Based Training System (GBTS). Logicon will define requirements and preliminary design concepts, including prototyping for the Training Information Management Systems (TIMS).
The U.S. Army wants its millimeter-wave guided Longbow Hellfire missiles to undergo an improvement program that could benefit future buys of the laser-guided Hellfire II missile, although the Army has no plans to buy more of the laser-guided Hellfire variants, an Army officials says.
Niche-player Trinova revealed a five-year strategy to double the size of its aerospace business by the year 2000. The plan calls for sales to grow from $339 million in 1995 to more than $600 million in the next five years.
Astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia recovered the Wake Shield Facility Monday night after it spent three days in free flight in the most trouble-free test to date of its ability to produce ultra-pure semiconductor material in an enhanced space vacuum.
LOCKHEED MARTIN AERONAUTICAL SYSTEMS, Marietta, Ga., completed FAA-required tests for flutter and indirect effects of lightning in the C-130J test program. Four C-130Js, two for the U.S. Air Force and two for the Royal Air Force, are involved in the program.
Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.) plans to give up his Senate Armed Services strategic subcommittee chair to become head of the seapower subcommittee, Senate sources confirmed yesterday. Warner's move clears the way for Sen. Robert Smith (R-N.H.) to chair the strategic subcommittee. Smith's press spokeswoman said he would not decide before next week's Senate leadership meetings starting Tuesday, but conceded it was "safe to say that he was leaning" in the direction of taking the strategic chairmanship.
SINGAPORE - The Indonesian Air Force wants to acquire warning and control aircraft, according to Air Force Chief of Staff Vice Marshall Sutria Tubagus. The air force has included such aircraft in its long-range plan, but hasn't indicated which types it is considering. The decision to go for aircraft rather than continue to depend almost entirely on ground-based radar is based mainly on economy, Tubagus said. "We can do the job at smaller cost with" aircraft, he said.
THE EVOLVED EXPENDABLE LAUNCH VEHICLE program is slated for a Defense Acquisition Board review in the next few weeks. Monday afternoon top Pentagon and service acquisition officials met in a DAB readiness meeting and decided to convene the full DAB before EELV gets its milestone approval to enter into the pre-engineering and manufacturing development phase, a DOD spokeswoman said yesterday. In recent months, full DABs are convened only rarely because most issues are settled in the readiness meeting.
Rockwell International Corp. and the U.S. Navy have entered an $8.2 million contract for a 36-month, advanced technology demonstration for the low-cost missile system known as Fast Hawk. On Friday the Pentagon named Rockwell's Autonetics and Missile Systems Div. in Duluth, Ga., but Rockwell said the contract wouldn't be signed until yesterday. A total of 241 offers were received. Rockwell is the incumbent on the program.
