The value of Lockheed Martin's contract on the U.K.'s Merlin helicopter program is $440 million. The DAILY incorrectly reported in the issue of Oct. 23 (page 125) that this was the value of an award that Computer Sciences Corp. had won from Lockheed Martin for support of the program.
THAT'S TAKEN, TOO: Kelly Space&Technology may find it harder than expected to buy a rocket engine to power its proposed Eclipse air-launched booster. First the Russian NK-33 baselined on the company's website turns out to be unavailable because Kistler Aerospace has dibs on it (DAILY, Oct. 21). Now comes Pratt&Whitney, U.S. marketer of Russia's RD-180 rocket engine, to note that Lockheed Martin has already lined up the RD-180 for its Atlas IIAR upgrade (DAILY, Jan. 18).
ECHOSTAR COMMUNICATIONS CORP. will offer its Digital Sky Highway (DISH) Network programming services to Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Service (MMDS) and small cable operators for retransmission under a new policy announced this week. The shift would in effect make the Englewood, Colo.-based direct-to-home service provider a wholesaler for wireless cable service operators by using the Echostar satellites to relay programming to independent cable operators. EchoStar II, launched aboard an Ariane booster Sept.
SEND MONEY: As soon as the 105th Congress begins, the Administration will send it a supplemental budget request to cover the cost of keeping 5,000 troops in Bosnia beyond the planned Dec. 20 withdrawal date, Hill sources say. "They'll have to have a minimum of between $500 million and $700 million to keep those troops there," says one Senate aide. But the money won't come free. The Administration will have to supply a list of programs from which to cut.
PANAMSAT said it will appeal a dismissal of its antitrust lawsuit charging Comsat with anticompetitive conduct. A U.S. district judge rejected the private international telecommunications satellite service provider's suit on grounds that Comsat is immune from U.S. antitrust law because it's part of the multi-national Intelsat consortium. PanAmSat said it will ask the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review its evidence of alleged Comsat anticompetitive activity.
STANDARDIZATION: Software of USAF F-16s will be standardized with release of new operational flight protocols for Block 40/42 and Block 50/52 aircraft, says Maj. Jay Pearsall, an F-16 requirements officer at ACC. The OFP will include code for the new multi-mission computer being fitted into both blocks.
Orbital Sciences Corp. is preparing to launch two science payloads for NASA next week with a Pegasus XL air-launched booster flying from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on the Virginia coast. Argentina's Satelite de Aplicaciones Cientificas (SAC-B) and the High Energy Transient Experiment (HETE), a gamma ray detector organized by MIT, are scheduled for launch Tuesday on the three-stage solid-fuel booster in a 51-minute window that opens at 11:58 a.m. EST, with the launch targeted for 12:20 p.m. EST.
EASTMAN KODAK'S FEDERAL SYSTEMS DIV. has completed assembly of the high resolution mirrors for the U.S. Space Agency's Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF). The last of four pairs of mirrors was finished last month at the company's Rochester, N.Y., facility, paving the way for testing and calibration at Marshall Space Flight Center beginning in mid-November.
DIAGNOSTIC/RETRIEVAL SYSTEMS INC., Parsippany, N.J., acquired, through a subsidiary, certain assets of Nortronics Co. Inc., DRS said. Nortronics, Minneapolis, earned revenues of more than $4 million for its fiscal year ended Sept. 30.
RUNNING SHORT: Rep. James B. Longley Jr. (R-Maine), a member of the House National Security Committee, is one of four incumbent Republicans in the House who appear to be trailing their Democratic challengers, although many more GOP seats are in jeopardy. A number of incumbents are considered to be in trouble because their lead in polls is below 50%, a level that is always interpreted as a sign of weakness because the challenger historically gets most of the undecided vote. Longley has been running steadily behind in polls, and by substantial amounts in some of them.
The U.S. Navy is gearing up to conduct a theater missile intercept with the Standard Missile II Block IV-A in a test at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., that could take place as early as next month, a Ballistic Missile Defense Organization spokesman said. Rear Adm. Rodney Rempt, the Navy's program executive officer for theater air defense, told a recent Surface Navy Association symposium in Arlington, Va., that he thought an intercept with the Standard Missile II Block IV-A could be achieved, but that it might be months away (DAILY, Oct. 18).
The U.S. Air Force has decided to assign its C-130 and C-21 transports based in the continental U.S. to Air Mobility Command. Responsibility for C-130s, numbering about 470, had been with Air Combat Command. The 51 C-21s were assigned to various commands. Air National Guard and Reserve aircraft are included in the move. The AF said theater mobility assets, including KC-135 tankers, theater airlift C-130s and operational support airlift fleets, will remain with Pacific Air Forces and U.S. Air Forces in Europe.
Litton Industries has been selected by the U.S. Navy to replace the navigation systems of P-3 and C-130 aircraft. Litton's Guidance and Control Systems Div., Woodland Hills, Calif., will replace systems it provided in the late 1970s with more modern equipment, the RINU(G), the company said yesterday. The total contract, including options, will be for up to 784 systems for more than $50 million.
RAYTHEON E-SYSTEMS won a contract from Sacramento Air Logistics Center, McClellan AFB, Calif., to provide the U.S. government with Command and Control Switching Systems (CCSS) depot support. The company said the $228 million contract runs through Sept. 30, 2001, and calls for E-Systems to supply and service 36 sites that support the President, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State, the Joint Chiefs and other key command centers. The contract is a sole source follow-on to a four-year, $106 million award that ended Sept. 30.
A successful growth-through-acquisition program and an increase to the price of a U.S. government contract for work performed before 1996 helped Tracor Inc. record a 47% increase in net income in the third quarter of this year, the company said.
Two of the three current competitors involved in the Joint Strike Fighter program will be chosen to proceed to the next phase of the effort on Nov. 18, a spokeswoman for the JSF program office said. Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and a team of McDonnell Douglas, Northrop Grumman and British Aerospace are competing to develop the fighter, which will be used by the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, and the U.K. Royal Navy.
NASA's Johnson Space Center is polling industry for "innovative, creative business strategies and mechanisms" on how to build at least four and as many as 12 human-rated orbital vehicles that could serve as both lifeboats for the International Space Station and as space transports for Station and other "orbital destinations."
Bombardier Inc. subsidiary Short Brothers plc, Belfast, Ireland, will create up to 120 new production jobs at aircraft parts plants in Newtownabbey and Dunmurry. The increases are the result of higher demand from its major customers, Short Brothers said.
Clinton Administration officials negotiating with the Russians on theater missile defense systems have informed Congress that they may be able to report an agreement on the second phase of demarcation talks, clearing the way for development of higher velocity missile systems like the Navy Upper Tier, and the Air Force's Airborne Laser, congressional sources said. But the same sources were doubtful about the ability of U.S.
Negotiations between Samsung Aerospace Industries Co. and the Dutch government over the sale of bankrupt Fokker continue normally, despite published reports in a Dutch newspaper yesterday. A story said the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs rejected a letter of intent from Samsung, wanting stronger job guarantees and more details on production plans from the South Korean conglomerate.
Boeing Defense&Space Group is basing its entry in the Pentagon's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) sweepstakes on the performance offered by the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME), cutting costs by recovering the $50 million engines after each use, using their power to boost a single core vehicle for all missions, and adopting Russian ground- processing techniques.
Lockheed Martin Canada and Lockheed Martin Electronic Systems Canada will be combined into a single unit effective Jan. 1, 1997. The new Lockheed Martin Canada, headquartered in Montreal, will be part of Lockheed Martin's C3I&Systems Integration sector, the company said. "Each of the two heritage units brings unique capabilities and skills to the new company in the fields of systems integration, electronic warfare and commercial applications," Frank C. Lanza, president and CEO of C3I&Systems Integration, said in a prepared statement.
A 28% increase in sales and higher interest income resulted in a 13% rise in earnings in the third quarter for Boeing when compared to the same quarter last year, the company said yesterday. Earnings were partially offset by research and development expenses mainly associated with the derivatives of the 737 airliner and a higher tax rate. Third quarter sales finished at $5.6 billion, up from $4.4 billion in 1995, while net earnings increased to $254 million from $225 million.
