INTELSAT has opened two new monitoring stations in the Southern Hemisphere to keep watch over its satellite relay systems and the traffic moving through them. Each of the sites at Bosque Alegre, Argentina, and Pretoria, South Africa, has an 11-meter C-band antenna steerable from Intelsat headquarters in Washington. Later this year a steerable antenna for monitoring Ku-band transmissions will be added at Bosque Alegre, giving the international consortium the ability to monitor its Intelsat 705 and 706 satellites for the first time.
Talks between the Dutch government and South Korea's Samsung Aerospace Industries Co. about the sale of bankrupt Fokker began yesterday. Economics Minister Hans Wijers and other government officials spent the past few days reviewing Samsung's business plan. Talks are expected to take one to two weeks according to Richard Mattheusse, a spokesman for the economics minister.
The three U.S.-licensed "Big LEO" low-Earth orbit satellite communications operators have agreed to present a united front on the issue of spectrum allocation at an International Telecommunication Union policy conference in Geneva next week. Globalstar, Iridium and Odyssey said yesterday they have agreed to an international frequency-use plan that tracks the spectrum-sharing and segmentation plan adopted by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission in authorizing the three systems to operate in the U.S.
COMPUTER SCIENCES CORP. will operate the Central Satellite Data Processing Center for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) under an eight year contract potentially worth $35 million if all options are exercised. CSC will provide project management, system design and analysis, programming, applications and system software development and maintenance, hardware maintenance, software and system engineering support, product assurance and procurement services at the Suitland, Md., NOAA facility.
ORBITAL SCIENCES CORP. said it has received an upgraded corporate credit rating of BB-, up from B+, from Standard&Poor's. The Dulles, Va.-based company credited strong earnings in the first six months of the year that offset expected startup costs of its Orbcomm and Orbimage operations, for the upgrade. Orbital's backlog of firm contracts and options reached $1.9 billion on June 30, the company said.
WESTERN PACIFIC AIRLINES is buying six new 737-300 aircraft from Boeing Co., with deliveries slated between May and December of next year, the airline said yesterday. The planes will be powered by the CFM56-3C-1 engine. Ed Beauvais, chairman and chief executive officer of Western Pacific, said the agreement with Boeing also includes an option to buy six 737-700s in 1998 and later.
Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory, West Mifflin Borough, Pennsylvania, is being awarded a $312,500,000 modification to previously awarded contract N00024-89-C-4003 for Naval nuclear propulsion work. Work will be performed in West Mifflin Borough, Pennsylvania. Contract funds in the amount of $165,400,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity.
Hughes Training, Incorporated, Herndon, Virginia, is being awarded a $5,200,000 firm-fixed-price contract for the modification of two Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC) Full Mission Trainers, including replacement of image generators, databases, associated hardware, improvements to the simulated ocean and craft dynamic models, updates to the life-cycle support documentation, and associated integrated logistics support. Work will be performed in Herndon, Virginia, and is expected to be completed by October 1998.
GTE, Government Systems Corporation, Taunton, Massachusetts, was awarded on October 8, 1996, a $13,800,000 modification to a firm fixed price contract for asynchronous transfer mode- acquisition of all non-recurring engineering services for four modified node center switches, six modified small extension nodes, one modified circuit switch and sixteen modified shelters to improve the data throughput of the circuit switch networks and incorporate video teleconferencing capability.
The Lockheed Martin Employees Political Action Committee contributed $10,000, the maximum legal amount, to two congressional candidates - more than the PAC gave to any sitting member of the House or Senate, an examination of aerospace PAC records revealed. According to reports for 1996 filed with the Federal Election Commission through September, the LME PAC contributed $10,000 to the campaign of Jeff Sessions, the Republican Alabama attorney general. He is running for the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Howell Heflin (D-Ala.).
NASA researchers achieved "a significant amount of laminar flow" in a year-long series of supersonic tests with a delta-wing F-16 playing the role of a future high-speed civil transport (HSCT). The agency's F-16XL, one wing modified with a titanium "glove" perforated with more than 10 million tiny laser-drilled holes, flew some 40 flights over the past year in the Mach 2, 35,000-55,000-foot flight profile that will be used by a future HSCT.
The Clinton Administration in a second term will move toward "a more engaged foreign policy" that will take advantage of "the unique American role" of unchallenged military leadership, former Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke declared yesterday. Holbrooke, speaking at a Brookings Institution seminar on Foreign Policy and the Elections in Washington, forecast a more activist role for the U.S. in dealing with trouble spots such as Northern Iraq and in peacekeeping operations. He said Congress shouldn't resist this approach.
The RAH-66 Comanche, which started out as a 7,500 pound helicopter, could still meet perform its mission at a weight of about 8,800 pounds, industry and U.S. Army officials said yesterday. The Boeing/Sikorsky industry team developing the helicopter isn't contractually bound to a weight specification, but Art Linden, director of the team, said that, according to current projections, the helicopter should be no heavier than 8,800 pounds to meet its performance criteria. The prototype now in flight testing weighs about 8,600 pounds, he said.
Germany intends to procure PAC-3 missiles soon after the U.S. military is equipped with the upgrade to the Patriot missile system, U.S. and German industry officials told reporters yesterday at the Association of the U.S. Army convention in Washington. Lockheed Martin Vought Systems is providing technical assistance to DASA and Siemens of Germany to facilitate the exchange of PAC-3 missile technology. The effort is under supervision of the U.S. Army and the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization.
Teradyne, Incorporated, Boston, Massachusetts, is being awarded a $7,975,416 firm fixed price contract to provide for maintenance of the Automatic Test System applicable to the B-2 aircraft. Contract is expected to be completed September 1997. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There was one firm solicited and one proposal received. Solicitation began May 1996; negotiations were completed September 1996. Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, is the contracting activity (F34601-96/D-0765).
The Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) radar system detected and tracked a target during an Oct. 9 test at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., Army Missile Command reported. The test was the first of two planned for the THAAD radar User Operational Evaluation System (UOES).
Electric Boat Corporation, Groton, Connecticut, is being awarded a $14,106,187 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for reactor plant planning yard services for nuclear powered submarines and guided missile cruisers. Work will be performed in Groton, Connecticut. Contract funds in the amount of $14,106,187 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N00024-97-C-4000).
Hazeltine Corporation, Greenlawn, New York, is being awarded a $10,229,141 not-to-exceed ceiling-priced order for 35 varying kinds of electronic spares for the OL-483/AP airborne interrogator system in support of the E- 2C aircraft. Work will be performed in Long Island, New York, and is expected to be completed by January 1999. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. The Naval Inventory Control Point, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the contracting activity (N00038-94-G-M117) (Order 5013).
The U.S. Army will be ready to rapidly implement funding adjustments as a result of lessons learned from next spring's Task Force XXI brigade- level exercise, and hopes to adjust its fiscal '98 through '03 program objective memorandum accordingly, a top officer said yesterday.
Bombardier's Global Express business jet made its first flight Oct. 13 from de Havilland's Downsview facility near Toronto. The aircraft, powered by BMW Rolls-Royce BR710 engines, reached an altitude of 11,000 feet and a speed of 210 knots during the two-hour, 46-minute flight. Pete Reynolds, vice president, flight test for Bombardier Aerospace, piloted the aircraft with assistance of engineering test pilot Ron Haughton. Reynolds said, "the aircraft behaved extremely well and, in fact, it was an uneventful flight."
The U.S. Army is asking for industry bids to develop an $850,000 image intelligence payload for the Alliant Techsystems Outrider unmanned aerial vehicle, also known as the Tactical UAV. The Army said in an Oct. 11 Commerce Business Daily notice that it wants an adverse-weather payload that can image a stationary target at a slant range of between three and seven kilometers with the vehicle flying about 12,000 feet. The sensor must operate in dust, smoke, clouds and rain.
ALLIANT TECHSYSTEMS won a $2.8 million research and development contract fromthe Naval Air Warfare Center, Aircraft Division, Indianapolis, to deliver miniaturized Global Positioning Systems (GPS) secure receiver hardware for integration and testing, Alliant said Monday. It will deliver up to 50 units of the Selective Availability Anti-Spoofing Module (SAASM).
Hughes Missile Systems Company (HMSC), Tucson, Arizona, is being awarded a $36,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract to procure 135 Guided Missile Round Packs (GMRPs) in support of the Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM). Work will be performed in Tucson, Arizona (50%), and Riemerling, Germany (50%), and is expected to be completed by September 1999. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N00024-96-C-5402).
Lockheed Martin Corporation, Ocean, Radar&Sensor Systems, Syracuse, New York, is being awarded a $26,200,000 not-to-exceed ceiling-priced order for the AN/APS-145 radar system used in the E-2C aircraft. Work will be performed in Syracuse, New York (74%), and Ocala, Florida (26%), and is expected to be completed by December 1998. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured.
Northrop Grumman Corporation, Pico Rivera, California, is being awarded a $5,268,500 face value increase to a cost contract to provide for environmental remediation and maintenance programs and capital type rehabilitation at Air Force Plant 42, Palmdale, California. Contract is expected to be completed January 1998. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright- Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-83/C-2037, P00046).
