Former House Rep. Dick Swett is steadily gaining on Senate Armed Services Committee member Robert Smith (R-N.H.), according to a poll conducted last week by the University of New Hampshire. The poll shows Swett, who served in the House from 1991 until 1995, leading Smith 44-39 percentage points. A September UNH poll showed Swett up by 3 percentage points. Both polls had a 5% margin of error.
Receiving a boost from the January 1996 acquisition of Loral, Lockheed Martin Corp. posted a 27% increase in sales and an 8% increase in net earnings for the third quarter, the company said yesterday. Sales climbed to $7.028 billion, up from $5.551 billion in 1995. That led to net earnings of $311 million in 1996, up from $287 million a year ago. The 1995 figures don't include sales from former Loral business.
A contract for a business jet derived from the Boeing 737 airliner was announced yesterday by Boeing Business Jets, a joint venture of Boeing Co. and General Electric Co. The new contract, from an unnamed customer, is the first outside of the joint venture. GE launched the program in July with orders for two of the planes. Aviation Methods of San Francisco is representing the customer "who, as is typical in this type of private business transaction, has asked to remain anonymous," Boeing Business Jets said.
Johnson Space Center Director George Abbey has designated today as a special safety day for the Houston facility and the human spaceflight programs it controls, with seminars, films and discussions on workplace safety and "total health" taking the place of most normal business activities. A JSC spokesman stressed that the event is not related to the shift of Space Shuttle operations to the private United Space Alliance (USA) joint venture, and said normal Shuttle processing will continue at Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
Space launches worldwide in the third quarter of 1996 Worldwide spacecraft launches in the third quarter of 1996 are listed in the following table. A total of 22 launches with 28 spacecraft were performed, all of which reached orbits. The U.S. made eight launches, orbiting eight spacecraft. Russia also performed eight launches, orbiting 11 satellites, including one each for the Czech Republic, Argentina, Mexico and Inmarsat.
Jay F. Honeycutt, a 30-year NASA veteran who has been director of Kennedy Space Center, Fla., since January 1995, will retire from the agency early next year, NASA announced yesterday. Administrator Daniel S. Goldin said Honeycutt "will be greatly missed," noting that KSC has received White House quality awards twice under his leadership. The U.S. space agency has mounted a search for Honeycutt's successor.
RUSSIAN REGULATORS approved a joint venture between AlliedSignal Aerospace, Torrance, Calif., and Rubin Aerospace Corp., Moscow, AlliedSignal said. The jointly owned Rubix will design aircraft wheels, brakes and brake-control systems for Russian certified aircraft. The company has already won contracts to supply wheels and carbon brakes for the Ilyushin Il-96T, Il- 96M and Tupolev Tu-204-120 commercial transport aircraft.
Lockheed Martin Tactical Defense Systems, Great Neck, New York, is being awarded a $45,597,000 cost-plus-fixed fee, level-of-effort contract to provide the FY97 U.S. and U.K. TRIDENT I (C4), and TRIDENT II (D5) navigation subsystem technical and engineering services requirements. This contract includes an option which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $94,193,237. Work will be performed in Great Neck, New York, and is expected to be completed by September 1997.
SPF Incorporated, Falls Church, Virginia, is being awarded a $9,439,379 modification to a firm fixed price contract for staff planning function on behalf of the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) for its Foreign Military Sales (FMS) Programs. The contract has now been modified to extend the period of performance through six (6) years.
Boeing Helicopters, Division of Boeing Company, Ridley Park, Pennsylvania, is being awarded a three-year requirements contract in the amount of $29,673,469 for 10 types of gears to be purchased in varying quantities in each of the next three years in support of H-46 helicopter transmissions.
TRACOR APPLIED SCIENCES INC., California, Md., will integrate and install combat and communication systems for the U.S. Navy's communications- electronics program in support of Naval Air Warfare Center, Aircraft Division, St. Inigoes, Md.
The U.S. Army last week fired an Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) to certify it for future use as a ballistic missile target. The ATACMS was launched early Thursday from Ft. Wingate, N.M., and impacted at the nearby White Sands Missile Range, Army Missile Command said. The Block 1A ATACMS carrying inert bomblets flew close to the limit of its range, about 180 miles, it said.
KELLSTROM INDUSTRIES' first full quarter of engine leasing activity helped the Sunrise, Fla., company record revenues of $6.46 million in the third quarter - a 96% increase over the same quarter in 1995.
Defense industry consolidation is beginning to slow but will continue, according to the Electronic Industries Association, and reductions in the number of prime contractors within the next five years could eventually lead to vertical integration, in which a company does it all - designs, develops, produces, sells and supports a product. EIA, in its annual ten-year forecast, said the next phase will involve focus, as big companies begin to sell off the least suitable pieces acquired during the growth phase.
Lockheed Martin Corporation, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, is being awarded a $5,317,543 modification to previously awarded contract N00030-96-C-0060 to definitize the letter contract which provides for the shutdown of the MK6 Guidance System Production Line. Work will be performed in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and is expected to be completed by August 1997. Contract funds would not have expired at the end of the current fiscal year. The Navy's Strategic Systems Program, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity.
Hughes Aircraft Company, El Segundo, Calif., is being awarded a $5,452,128 modification to previously awarded contract N00030-95-C-0029 to exercise an option for additional MK6 Electronic Assemblies (EA's) and Inertial Measurement Unit Electronics (IMUE) for the TRIDENT II (D5) Missile Guidance System. Work will be performed in El Segundo, Calif., and is expected to be completed by March 1999. Contract funds would not have expired at the end of the current fiscal year. The Navy's Strategic Systems Program, Arlington, Va., is the contracting activity.
Striking workers at Alliant Techsystems' Defense Systems Group approved a new three-year contract Sunday, ending a 14-day strike, and returned to work yesterday, Alliant announced. Workers rejected a contract offer on Oct. 6, unhappy with language on outsourcing of work (DAILY, Oct. 9). "Talks last week clarified the concerns of both parties and resulted in a refinement of the [outsourcing] procedures," Alliant spokesman Rod Bitz said in a telephone interview.
Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, Stratford, Conn., is being awarded a $13,251,346 firm-fixed-price contract for the FY-97 special progressive aircraft rework and related integrated logistics support for two VH-3D and one VH-60N aircraft. Work will be performed in Stratford, Conn., and is expected to be completed by July 1998. Contract funds in the amount of $13,251,346 would have expired at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. The Naval Air Systems Command, Arlington, Va., is the contracting activity (N00019-96-C-0189).
Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, Stratford, Connecticut, is being awarded a five-year firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract in the estimated amount of $8,738,631 for the production of an estimated 40 tail rotor blades for the SH60B aircraft per year. Work will be performed in Stratford, Connecticut, and is expected to be completed by September 2001. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured.
With a handful of exceptions, third-quarter financials posted last week show profit growth accelerating in an aerospace and defense industry well into its recovery from several stagnant years. Wall Streeters who only a few quarters ago were happy to see earnings on the plus side now expect robust gains, and so far aerospace and defense companies have been able to deliver. McDonnell Douglas (DAILY, Oct. 18), Northrop Grumman, BDM, Ball and others saw strong profit gains in the third quarter.
Applied Research Laboratory, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, is being awarded an option under a cost-plus-fixed-fee, level-of- effort, task order contract for $47,172,474 for a maximum level of effort of 4,031 staff months to provide research, development, and engineering to provide mission oriented solutions to Naval Warfare and Department of Defense problems in acoustics, electromagnetic, and other related essential capabilities. Work will be performed in Austin, Texas, and is expected to be completed by May 2001.
Republican lawmakers want the White House to hold off on a sale of nine F-16 fighters to Indonesia until an independent investigation is conducted on the propriety of campaign contributions from an affluent Indonesian family to Democratic election campaigns.
AM General Corporation, South Bend, Ind., is being awarded a $7,681,843 modification to a firm fixed price contract to exercise a 5th year option for 167 High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles A1 (HMMWV A1) for Thailand. Work will be performed in Mishawaka, Ind., and is expected to be completed by October 31, 1996. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There were 30 bids solicited on February 17, 1989, and one bid was received. The contracting activity is the U.S. Army Tank- Automotive&Armaments Command, Warren, Mich.
EDO Corp. won a major contract to provide sonar equipment to an international naval customer, the company said yesterday. The customer didn't want to be identified, and terms of the contract weren't disclosed. EDO's Defense and Space Systems Div., Chesapeake, Va., will make and deliver the new system to upgrade the previously installed EDO sonar systems of an entire class of the customer's naval fleet.
The U.S. defense budget will fall from $254 billion in fiscal year 1997 to $232 billion by FY 2006, according to a new study by the Electronic Industries Association. But, the study said, while the overall budget falls, the electronics segment is expected to increase from $50.4 billion (20% of overall budget) in 1997 to $55.5 billion (24%) by 2006. All the EIA forecasts are in constant FY 1997 dollars.
