Japan Satellite Systems Inc. has selected Hughes to build its fifth communications satellites and Arianespace to launch it. The Tokyo-based telecommunications firm will buy a Hughes HS 601 body- stabilized satellite with two octagonal communications antennas and two wings of four solar panels each to meet customer demand for more multimedia and Internet access.
Rockwell International said it has delivered the first Digital Quartz Inertial Navigation Processor (DQI-NP) for the Outrider unmanned aerial vehicle to Alliant Techsystems, Hopkins, Minn. Rockwell said yesterday that it won a contract five weeks ago to support early integration and flight testing of the UAV.
McDonnell Douglas next month will choose between two competing imaging infrared seekers for its Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile program, according to James K. Gates, the company's vice president for JASSM. The competitors are a GEC-Marconi seeker that MDC used in its bid for the U.K. Conventionally-Armed Standoff Missile (CASOM) program and a Rockwell International seeker used on the AGM-130 standoff weapon.
A five-member team led by EG&G won a contract initially worth between $2 million and $3 million to prepare and implement plans to privatize and re-use Kelly AFB, Tex., with a new maintenance complex, a multimodal distribution and third-party logistics service center, and an industrial park, EG&G reported yesterday
President Clinton won't accept the $244.8 billion fiscal 1997 defense appropriations compromise bill and wants it cut by at least $3.5 billion, House Republican leadership sources said yesterday, while Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), chairman of the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee, said the projected Administration cuts range between $2.5 billion and $7 billion.
A Boeing-Lockheed Martin-TRW team has demonstrated a laser beam control system that could be used for the U.S. Air Force's Airborne Laser (ABL) program, according to Lockheed Martin, which built the beam control device. It said the Boeing team demonstrated precision guidance and control of a laser weapon in scaled airborne laser scenarios. Last month, TRW said the high energy laser it is developing for the team meets ABL performance requirements (DAILY, Aug. 20).
A Los Angeles federal court is expected this week to lay the groundwork for a new trial to assess damages in the six-year ring laser gyro patent dispute between Honeywell and Litton, after an appeals court last week refused Honeywell's request to reconsider its summer decision reversing Honeywell's win on appeal. "This is another positive step along the legal path to recover the damages caused by Honeywell's deliberate illegal acts," said Litton Chairman John M. Leonis in a prepared statement.
BOEING Defense&Space Group said James J. Morris has been named vice president and general manager of the Helicopters Div. in Philadelphia, succeeding Denton R. Hanford. Hanford has assumed responsibility for all transition activities following purchase by Boeing of Rockwell International's aerospace and defense units. Morris reports to Jerry King, Boeing Defense&Space Group president. He will supervise Boeing development and development programs.
J. F. Taylor Incorporated, Lexington Park, Maryland, is being awarded a $9,794,340 cost-plus-award-fee-term contract for technical and engineering support services in support of the manned flight simulator test and evaluation facility located at the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Patuxent River, Maryland. This contract contains options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of the contract to $49,990,103. Work will be performed in Lexington Park, Maryland, and is expected to be completed by August 1997.
One of the biggest advantages of the Conventional Air-Launched Cruise Missile is its rapid retargeting capability, according to U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ronald Fogleman. "We have the capability to dynamically retarget the missile virtually until we pickle," or launch, Fogleman said Friday at a Deep Strike Weapons Conference in Washington sponsored by the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution. He said "that's not a capability that exists in most cruise missiles today...there it takes hours."
Coleman Research Corporation, Orlando, Florida, is being awarded a $4,845,895 increment of a $9,877,369 modification to a $35,753,124 cost plus fixed fee/level of effort contract for additional direct productive person hours for Ground Based Element System Simulator development. Work will be performed in Huntsville, Alabama (74%), Arlington, Virginia (25%), and El Paso, Texas (1%), and is expected to be completed by June 11, 1997. Of the total contract funds, $184,238 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
A new U.S. Air Force study predicts use of a ground-based laser with a beam that could be projected by satellite mirrors to targets in space or the atmosphere, or on the Earth's surface. This "Global Area Strike System" is one of a host of systems that the service's Air University identifies in a study entitled "Air Force 2025." The 3,300-page study is part of a broader effort to define the Air Force of the future. It includes the New World Vistas study and the Long-Range Planning project.
The U.S. Navy system to allow ships to more efficiently engage hostile air targets completed tests for initial operational capability last week off Wallops Island, Va. The Aegis cruisers USS Anzio and USS Cape St. George cooperated Sept. 11 in two simulated hostile missile firings using BQM-74E drones, the Navy said.
Northrop Grumman Corporation, Pico Rivera, California, is being awarded a $30,873,390 face value increase to a fixed price incentive-firm target contract to provide for planning and hardware and software modifications in support of the transition of the B-2 Software Laboratories to a single facility at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma. Contract is expected to be completed March 2000. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
UNC Johnson Technology, Muskegon, Michigan, was awarded on September 6, a $55,362,338 firm fixed price contract to provide for 37,272 (best estimated quantity) nozzle segments applicable to the F110-100 engine on the F-16 aircraft. Contract is expected to be completed September 1999. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There were four firms solicited and three proposals received. Solicitation began April 1996; negotiations were completed May 1996.
Raytheon Service Company, Burlington, Massachusetts, is being awarded a $8,863,577 face value increase to a fixed price incentive firm target contract to provide for FY1997 maintenance of various Grounded Instructional Aircraft Trainers. The work will be performed at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas (88%) and various other locations. Contract is expected to be completed September 1997. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
Texas Instruments, Incorporated, Dallas, Texas, is being awarded a $11,235,501 face value increase to a firm fixed price contract to provide for 16 improved item replacement units for the Video Tracker/System Controller applicable to the F-117A aircraft. These units will introduce new components and replace obsolete parts. Contract is expected to be completed September 1997. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-94/C-2029, P00008).
Hughes Radar Systems, El Segundo, California, is being awarded a not-to- exceed $9,925,000 ceiling price order for weapons replaceable assemblies which includes three radar data processors, five radar receivers, three power supplies, two antennas, and five radar transmitters for the F/A-18 aircraft. This contract is a purchase for the government of Finland (100%) under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) Program. Work will be performed in El Segundo, California, and is expected to be completed by May 1998.
Frontier Technology, Incorporated, Beavercreek, Ohio, was awarded on September 11, a $15,000,000 indefinite quantity/indefinite delivery contract to provide non-personal advisory and assistance services for Specialized Short-Term Development Planning Support for campaign/theater, mission level, and concept design analysis by Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. Contract is expected to be completed September 2001. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There were 106 firms solicited and 13 proposals received.
Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services, Incorporated,, Littleton, Colorado, was awarded on September 6, an $87,600,000 face value increase to a firm fixed price contract to provide for one Atlas IIAS commercial space launch vehicle. The work will be performed at Lockheed Martin, Littleton, Colorado (55%), United Technologies Corporation, West Palm Beach, Florida (25%) and at various other locations. Contract is expected to be completed July 1999. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
A MCDONNELL DOUGLAS Delta II booster launched the third replacement Global Positioning System spacecraft for the U.S. Air Force early Thursday, keeping the 24-satellite GPS constellation at full strength. Liftoff from Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., came at 4:49 a.m. EDT, and the spacecraft reached its transfer orbit. To date 27 of the platforms have flown on Delta IIs, with replacement flights scheduled through 2002.
Litton has been chosen over GEC-Ferranti and Honeywell to supply navigation systems for German Tornado aircraft. The development contract, valued at about $4 million, covers 10 pre- production systems but has options for up to 700 production units if the U.K. and Italy also choose to upgrade their Tornados, Litton said. If all options are exercised, the value to Litton could be more than $50 million.
Northrop Grumman Aerospace Corporation, Melbourne, Florida, was awarded on September 11, a $5,945,453 face value increase to a firm fixed price contract to provide equitable adjustment for 22 configuration changes to the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) Low Rate Initial Production resulting from changes to the Follow-On Full Scale Development production baseline. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
A team headed by Raytheon Co. yesterday won the competition for the FAA's Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) program, which could eventually be worth nearly $1 billion. Raytheon was chosen over Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp.
The U.S. Navy has completed the foreign comparative test program on the British Aerospace Advanced Short Range Air-to-Air Missile. Company officials hope the data will support a bid for the Pentagon's AIM-9X Sidewinder program. "The FCT results are being passed to the senior review team," Simon Jewell, BAe vice president of air weapons, told reporters in Washington yesterday. Results aren't expected to be available at the Pentagon until October.
