The Bell 412EP medium twin-engine helicopter has been selected by the U.K. Ministry of Defense as the advanced joint military training aircraft, Bell said yesterday. The program will include nine 412EPs, the first Bell products in U.K. military service since 1978. The 412EP is the crew training helicopter selected by the industry team FBS, made up of Flight Refueling, Bristol Helicopters Ltd. and Serco. FBS won the competitive contract to operate the Defense Helicopter Flying School, a joint training program for all U.K. military pilots.
LOCKHEED MARTIN'S Space&Missiles Sector announced the appointment of K. Michael Henshaw as president of Missiles&Space, Sunnyvale, Calif. Henshaw succeeds Sam Araki, who is retiring after 40 years.
United Technologies, Pratt&Whitney, Government Engine&Space Propulsion, West Palm Beach, Florida, is being awarded a $6,259,817 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the research and development of naval aviation propulsion system material and component technologies for the Integrated High Performance Turbine Engine Technology Initiative. Work will be performed in West Palm Beach, Florida, and is expected to be completed by September 1998. Contract funds would not have expired at the end of the current fiscal year.
The Defense Dept. is making changes to the mix of airborne reconnaissance assets supporting operations in Bosnia that will dictate which systems are in place when the current mandate for U.S. participation runs out in late December. Pentagon operations planners are evaluating "the need to reinsert Joint STARS," Maj. Gen. Kenneth Israel, director of the Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office, said in an interview.
Wyman-Gordon Co., North Grafton, Mass., announced a net profit of $7.8 million, or $.21 per share, on revenues of $134.2 million for its first fiscal 1997 quarter ended Aug. 31, 1996. In the first quarter of the 1996 fiscal year, the company reported net income of $5.1 million ($.14 per share) on revenues of $114.1 million.
A working group assembled to consider changes in NASA's Mars exploration strategy in light of meteorite evidence suggesting ancient life there will present a set of new mission options - with cost estimates - within a month, building on a science strategy completed last week.
NATO is more dominant in European defense now than at the height of the Cold War but the 16-member alliance faces some growing problems, according to Vice Adm. Norman Ray (USN-ret.), NATO assistant secretary general for Defense Support. Ray said in an address to the 33rd Annual Association of Old Crows Convention yesterday in Washington that NATO must recognize the growing European responsibility for its own defense and security, but that that responsibility must be developed "inside NATO, not out."
TESCO, a joint venture headquartered in Reston, Virginia, and comprised of DYN Corporation, Albuquerque, New Mexico; COMARCO, Anaheim, California; and Electronic Warfare Associates, Vienna, Virginia was awarded on September 16, 1996, an increment as part of a $600,000 modification to a $89,681,431.93 cost plus fixed fee contract to provide nonpersonal services in support of the operational and customer testing mission of the Operational Test and Evaluation Command, (TEXCOM), Fort Bliss, Texas.
A team of GEC Marconi and Rockwell International beat Lockheed Martin's Sanders unit for production of the F-15 Link 16 Fighter Data Link (FDL), a win that could lead to $122 million in business, the Pentagon said yesterday. GEC Marconi and Rockwell won a $3 million contract to provide qualification and test articles of the low-cost Multifunctional Information Distribution System derivative terminals. The Navy has the lead on MIDS development, and awarded the contract for the U.S. Air Force.
Tracor Inc. has completed its acquisition of Cordant Inc. Tracor, of Austin, Tex., said it purchased all outstanding shares of the Reston, Va.- based Cordant for the cash purchase price of $65 million. It said the deal is subject to contingent payments up to an additional $15 million, based on Cordant's performance in 1996 and the potential award of a large contract. The new company will be named Tracor Information Systems Company.
Expressing a clear preference for the Air Force's cheaper National Missile Defense plan, the fiscal 1997 defense appropriations conference report has directed the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization to earmark $23 million for development and test of the plan.
The Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office is looking for a near-term budget reprogramming to support the Pioneer unmanned aerial vehicle and accelerate the UAV-common Tactical Control System, according to DARO Director Maj. Gen. Kenneth Israel. DARO and the UAV Joint Project Office's acquisition management unit are looking for a "less than $200 million" budget boost between fiscal years 1998 and 2003 to support the two programs, Israel told The DAILY during an interview at the Pentagon. "We're looking at options to infuse additional funding," he said.
Dynetics, Incorporated, Huntsville, Alabama, is being awarded a $3,400,000 increment as part of a $35,013,093 cost plus award fee/level of effort contract for systems engineering and technical assistance (SETA) for the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD). Work will be performed in Huntsville, Alabama, and is expected to be completed by September 23, 2001. There were 39 bids solicited on March 29, 1996, and three bids were received. The contracting activity is the U.S. Army Strategic Defense Command, Huntsville, Alabama (DASG60-96-C-0193).
Bell Helicopter Textron, Incorporated, Fort Worth, Texas, is being awarded a $1,000,000 increment as part of a $12,492,213 cost plus fixed fee contract for the Advanced Rotorcraft Transmission II (ART II) Program. The objectives of this program are to validate, through design, fabrication and demonstration testing, significant advances in rotorcraft drive system technology on a subsystem level. Potential subsystems include: lube system/accessory drives, input module tail rotor drive system, or main gearbox.
Denmark and Spain are buying upgrades to the Northrop Grumman ALQ-162 jammers that will add countermeasures capability against pulse doppler threats to the continuous wave protection the system already provides, Northrop Grumman said yesterday.
The Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) user operational evaluation system (UOES) and fully operational system will be ABM Treaty compliant under the recent demarcation agreement reached with Russia, a senior DOD official said Friday. The agreement, slated to be signed by the U.S. and Russia by the end of October, permits development of all TMD systems with velocities of up to 3 km/sec. as long as they are not tested against target missiles with velocities above 5 km/sec. or ranges greater than 3,500 kilometers. (DAILY, Sept. 27).
The signing of the Joint STARS acquisition decision memorandum didn't occur until last Wednesday because operational test results had to be provided to Congress. The DAILY mistakenly reported Sept. 27 (page 482) that the delay was caused by the controversy surrounding test results.
GenCorp's Aerojet unit received a $264.7 million U.S. Air Force contract to consolidate separate contracts related to the Defense Support Program and to expand work for which it was already contracted. An Aerojet spokeswoman said that $190 million of the total is for new business such as systems engineering support for four years, launch integration, and sensor support. Aerojet was already on contract with the AF Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles AFB, Calif., for the remaining $74 million under several separate contracts, she said.
UNITED TECHNOLOGIES announced a two-for-one stock split yesterday. The new shares will be distributed, and the common stock dividend paid, on Dec. 10 to shareholders of record at the close of business on Nov. 22.
NASA and United Space Alliance have negotiated a six-year, $7 billion contract that would see the joint venture of Rockwell and Lockheed Martin take over about 35% of day-to-day Space Shuttle operations in the first step toward privatizing the aging space plane.
GE ENGINE SERVICES INC. has acquired majority control of CELMA, a jet engine overhaul and repair operation based in Petropolis, Brazil. GE, which had previously owned 9.7% of the company, now owns about 74%. CELMA employs about 1,400 people and services small and large commercial and military jet engines. About half of CELMA's revenues are derived from overhauling Pratt&Whitney JT8 engines for major airline customers. Other engines serviced at CELMA include GE's J85 and CJ610, CFM International's CFM56, P&W's PT6 and Roll-Royce's Spey.
Russia launched the second Express communications satellite last week after a 24-hour delay caused by a malfunction in its Proton launch vehicle during pre-launch procedures. The Proton-K lifted off the pad at Baikonur Cosmodrome's Site 200 on Sept. 26 at 2:51 p.m. EDT (18:51 GMT). Six and a half hours later, following insertion into a low parking orbit and dual orbit-raising burns of the Block DM2-1 kick stage, Express was released at its preliminary near-synchronous orbit with an inclination of 0.25 degrees and a period of 1,436 minutes, 44 seconds.
Lockheed Martin's Information&Services Sector created a new Lockheed Martin Services Group last week combining its $2 billion service businesses under a single administrative umbrella. The seven businesses in the new group, together boasting a nearly 19,000-strong workforce, span the breadth of Lockheed Martin's military, space and environmental services operations.
Short Brothers of Belfast, Ireland, said it has won a $15.5 million contract to supply parts for the Westland WAH-64 Apache, the U.K. variant of the McDonnell Douglas AH-64D Longbow Apache.
The Defense Dept. has been directed by the compromise fiscal 1997 defense appropriations conference report to submit a report on the F/A- 18E/F Super Hornet program that would estimate and analyze the cost of the program at production rates of from 18 to 48 a year. The directive, written into the $243.9 billion Pentagon funding measure, also calls for a comparison of the costs and benefits of the F/A- 18E/F with those of the F/A-18C/D and the operational combat effectiveness of each.
