BOMBARDIER INC., Montreal, will acquire the business jet aircraft completion division of Innotech Aviation Inc., Dorval, Quebec, for an undisclosed price, Bombardier said yesterday. Closing is expected to occur at the end of November. The unit will continue to operate at its location adjacent to Montreal International Airport.
Two scientific satellites, one the first of its kind built by Argentina, failed to separate from the third stage of an Orbital Sciences Corp. Pegasus XL launch vehicle after reaching orbit yesterday and were feared stranded in a configuration that will be only partially operable at best. The disappointing news came after an "extremely nominal" flyout from Wallops Flight Facility, Va., aboard the air-launched booster's converted L-1011 carrier plane and a successful drop and early flight, according to NASA officials.
TRW, Carson, California, was awarded on October 28, a $47,000,000 firm fixed price contract to provide for the acquisition and deployment of Tactical Automated Security System (TASS) equipment. The contract includes manufacture, deployment, training, and support of TASS equipment to meet Air Force protection requirements. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There was one firm solicited. Negotiations were completed October 1996. Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom AFB, Massachusetts, is the contracting activity (F19628-97/C-0013).
The U.S. Navy has sent Congress its plan for procuring and installing new radar equipment on existing submarines. In the early 1980s, several studies were conducted by the Navy to define requirements for the next generation of submarine radars which, like their predecessors, will give attack and missile subs a navigation and search capability when they are on the surface. The studies concluded that a replacement for the current AN/BPS-15 radar, designed by COMSAT/RSI, of Largo, Fla., would be necessary to meet fleet requirements beyond the year 2000.
Rolls-Royce agreed to supply the latest and largest version of its Trent series high-bypass turbofan - the Trent 900 - for both proposed variants of Airbus Industrie's high-capacity A3XX, the manufacturers reported yesterday. Rated at 80,000 lbst., the Trent 900 began development as an answer to the joint GP7000 series project launched earlier this year by rivals Pratt&Whitney and General Electric for Boeing's stretched 747 jetliner. With the Airbus agreement now in place, both competing engine teams have engines on offer for Airbus and Boeing.
A JOINT VENTURE of Sverdrup Technology Inc. and German firms Ferrostaal and Turbo Lufttechnik won a $150 million contract for design, construction and turnkey delivery of a transonic wind tunnel in Indonesia, Sverdrup announced.
Space Shuttle managers decided yesterday to delay launching the Space Shuttle Columbia another week to give engineers more time to study the cause of a problem with one of the Reusable Solid Rocket Motors (RSRMs) used on the last launch. Columbia will stay on the ground until at least Nov. 15 while NASA tries to gain a better understanding of how a deep trough came to be eroded in the nozzle insulation on one of the RSRMs.
On the eve of the election, some key members of the congressional space panels continued to run dead heat races with their challengers. An independent poll released Oct. 28 by Hein Research put Rep. Tim Johnson (R) ahead of Sen. Larry Pressler (R) in South Dakota 48% to 38%, with a 5% margin of error. In the last Congress, Pressler chaired the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and sat on its science, technology and space panel.
The Pentagon is trying to determine why, on two occasions in the last three days, U.S. F-16 fighters patrolling the southern no-fly zone over Iraq experienced cockpit warnings that led to the firing of HARM missiles, even though Iraq may not have been tracking the planes. The first incident took place Saturday morning and the second yesterday morning, the Pentagon said. In Saturday's incident, it said, "analysis did not support the initial indications of radar activity."
Northrop Grumman Corporation, Pico Rivera, California, is being awarded a $26,300,606 face value increase to a fixed price incentive firm target contract to provide for update of approximately 200 technical orders for the B-2 aircraft. Contract is expected to be completed December 1998. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, is the contracting activity (F33657-87/C-2000, P00756).
The U.K. has told the U.S. it can expect cooperation if the U.S. Navy and Air Force choose a variant of the British Advanced Short-Range Air-to- Air Missile (ASRAAM) to replace the AIM-9M Sidewinder. A decision on the AIM-9X program is slated for December or January. A spokesman for the British embassy in Washington said the U.K. government has informed the U.S. that if it picks an ASRAAM-based system as the next-generation dogfight missile, "we stand ready to discuss cooperation."
Hughes Space and Communications Company, El Segundo, Calif., is being awarded a $99,264,536 modification to previously awarded contract N00039- 88-C-0300 to exercise an option for Global Broadcast System (GBS) on the last three Ultra High Frequency Follow-on Satellites, F8, F9 and F10. Work will be performed in El Segundo, Calif., and is expected to be completed by December 1998. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, Arlington, Va., is the contracting activity.
Alliant Techsystems and Lockheed Martin are expected to submit average unit procurement prices of less than $15,000 for their Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser candidates when they turn in their final bids for the late January downselect for the $1.2 billion WCMD production phase, Air Force officials say.
The U.S. Navy is working with Germany and Italy to cooperatively develop a precision guidance kit for the Texas Instruments High-Speed Anti- Radiation Missile (HARM), Navy officials said. "The program, as we are structuring it now, is going to be an international co-development program," Capt. William Belden, the Navy's HARM program manager, told The DAILY in an interview in his Arlington, Va., office. "We're in the process of finalizing agreements with Germany and Italy," he said.
A 27% increase in sales in the Defense Systems Group, credited to higher volume from ammunition programs and initial sales of the Outrider unmanned aerial vehicle, helped Alliant Techsystems post increases in both sales and net income in the company's second quarter, Alliant said Wednesday. Sales in the Aerospace Systems and Marine Systems Groups declined slightly, but overall, sales rose to $272.5 million from $267.7 million in 1995, and net income grew 22% to $13.6 million.
Lockheed Martin Electro-Optical Systems, Pomona, Calif., won a $7.2 million contract from Saudi Arabia to produce Simulated Area Weapons Effects/Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement Systems (SAWE/MILES II) force- on-force training equipment, the company announced. Lockheed Martin will produce 1,000 units of various SAWE/MILES II equipment, including laser-based training equipment for vehicles, soldiers and test items, with delivery to be completed in the last quarter of 1997.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has picked Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical to develop and demonstrate the Miniature Air-Launched Decoy, intended for use by U.S. tactical aircraft to aid in the suppression of enemy air defenses. Teledyne Ryan, San Diego, won a $24.4 million contract for the Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration of MALD, the Pentagon announced Friday. It is believed to have been selected over Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and McDonnell Douglas.
There's no doubt that Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C) intends to keep his senior Republican seat on the Senate Armed Services Committee in the 105th Congress. Thurmond, who is also chairman of the committee, would be forced to give up that post if the Democrats take control of the Senate after tomorrow's election. Some have speculated that he might also relinquish the senior Republican slot to the next Republican in line, Sen. John Warner (R-Va.).
Confident of victory in tomorrow's election, the Clinton Administration has slipped its planned "Space Summit" with top congressional and Executive Branch leaders until early January. Alan Ladwig, associate administrator for policy at NASA headquarters, says the slip will give Congress time to pick the leadership for committees that authorize and fund NASA programs. The White House gathering to hammer out funding levels for civil space projects will be closed, but a pre-summit "Mars tutorial" Nov.
One thing most SASC aides agree on is that they will be seeing some new faces. A few members have eyed seats on other committees. Sheila Frahm's seat is already open because she lost her primary. Some SASC aides say it's likely a few new freshmen will come onto the committee in January. Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), a freshman following the last election, is one SASC member said to be eyeing another committee.
Boeing Co. sent all operators of the 737 airliner an alert service bulletin (SB) warning that the aircraft's rudder can jam. It was Boeing's first acknowledgement that the plane's rudder can malfunction, and that control of the aircraft can be affected, according to a National Transportation Safety Board source. Rudder problems are suspected in at least one 737 crash, but the NTSB said it's not known if tests that showed jamming is possible are related to such accidents.
LORAL SPACE&COMMUNICATIONS LTD. will sell $600 million of 6% convertible preferred equivalent obligations, up from a earlier plan to sell $400 million, the company announced Friday. It said the proceeds will be applied to general corporate purposes, which may include paying a portion of the price for its buy of AT&T's Skynet Satellite Services division and the acquisition of additional satellite telecommunications businesses.
LOCKHEED MARTIN SKUNK WORKS won two awards for sound environmental management. The California EPA honored the Skunk Works with the 1996 Governor's Environmental and Economic Leadership Award in the category of environmental management, Lockheed Martin said yesterday. In addition, it said Skunk Works was one of 17 companies worldwide honored by the U.S. EPA with the 1996 Stratospheric Ozone Protection Award.
A small group of animal rights activists disrupted NASA headquarters Thursday in protest of the agency's participation in the international Bion program, which involves sending instrumented rhesus monkeys into orbit in a Russian spacecraft. Seven protesters, all young women, stormed Administrator Daniel S. Goldin's suite, sat down in a corridor there, and began chanting "stop the Bion project; Goldin tortures monkeys." Four of the women linked themselves together with bicycle locks around their necks.
Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), co-author of the Nunn-Lugar strategic warhead reduction legislation, says $230 million in Nunn-Lugar funds have accelerated START I reductions in Russia by five years.
