An initial decision on Wilcox's protest of FAA's award to Hughes Aircraft Co. of a contract for the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) is due Sept. 30, according to a schedule document obtained by DAILY affiliate ATC Market Report. Martha DeGraaf, the General Services Administration judge named special master in the case, confirmed the schedule. It says the parties began trading documents last week, and will continue to do so through Aug. 30.
August 22, 1996 Northrop Grumman Corporation Northrop Grumman Corporation, Pico Rivera, California, is being awarded a $12,963,460 face value increase to a firm fixed price contract to provide for 78 technical orders in support of the B-2 aircraft. Contract is expected to be completed December 1999. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, is the contracting activity (F33657-87/C- 2000, P00734).
The Defense Dept. is getting ready to implement a series of upgrades for the Pioneer unmanned aerial vehicle that would make it lighter and more reliable. One of the goals being pursued by the UAV Joint Program Office is to bring the Pioneer's readiness rate from around 70% today to 85%, Barry Dillon, the director of the UAV Joint Program Office, told The DAILY in an interview.
Aftermarket specialist Chromalloy Gas Turbine Corp. is accusing enginemaker Pratt&Whitney of using its clout as an original equipment maker, or OEM, to squeeze out third-party operators in the repair and spare parts market, and asked a Texas court yesterday to award Chromalloy at least $400 million in damages.
GOP presidential contender Bob Dole, on the campaign trail in Illinois Sunday, vowed to beef up anti-drug activities of the Pentagon and the intelligence community. "As president of the United States within my first 45 days in the White House, I will work with my secretary of defense and the joint chiefs of staff to seek further ways to use our military power, particularly technical capabilities, to fight the war on drugs," Dole said at Palos Park, Ill.
BOMBARDIER is offering a 70-seat regional jet aircraft to the commercial market, and hopes to be in a position to launch the program by the end of the year, a spokesman said yesterday. Bombardier will approach customers at the Farnborough air show about the stretched version of its 50-seat Canadair RJ.
A U.S. Army effort to reduce the vibration of its CH-47D Chinooks under the Improved Cargo Helicopter (ICH) program could also cut more than 500 pounds from the helicopter's weight, one Army official said yesterday. The ICH flight test program is slated to begin at Ft. Rucker, Ala., in November during which a series of configuration will be tested, said James P. Winkeler, the Army's program manager. The optimum situation would be "maximum [vibration] suppression with the least amount of weight," he told The DAILY.
When he visits Europe in October and the Pacific in November, U.S. Strategic Command's Gen. Eugene Habiger says he will stress to regional commanders-in-chief that STRATCOM's capabilities are there to support them. The CINCS held STRATCOM at arm's length when it was first established because they thought it wanted "to play in their sandbox," Habiger tells reporters. He says he's in a "full-court press" to kill the perception, and make it clear that STRATCOM's nuclear expertise and intelligence capabilities are available to them.
Russia and Alcatel Espace are going ahead with plans to build a communications satellite to serve Siberia and the Far East, with Russia's NPO PM set to build the bus and Alcatel the transponders and antennas. Eutelsat ordered the platform more than a year ago, giving NPO PM a shot at becoming the first Russian firm to act as prime contractor on a Western European spacecraft, but it took until this summer to nail down guarantees from the European Reconstruction Bank and the Russian government to back the $140 million deal.
Pentagon officials are conducting a review to determine if acquisition of some communications and intelligence systems should be speeded up, Deputy Assistance Secretary of Defense for C4I Barry Horton told reporters here yesterday.
Cost growth on the International Space Station already has NASA scrambling for savings in fiscal years 1997 and 1998, but the out- year picture could be even worse. A previously undisclosed independent assessment of potential Station cost growth NASA ran in January found that the final price tag could be more than $4 billion - 30% - higher than the $17.4 billion congressional cap on the program. Andrew M.
China wants to start a human spaceflight program, and it wants Russia to help. Sheng Zhun-Zung, deputy chairman of China's defense and science committee, headed a delegation of about 50 experts who visited Russian space enterprises last week, telling reporters during a visit to the Khrunichev space production plant that China plans to buy Russian space hardware as part of a long-term program of space cooperation. But Yuri Semyonov, head of RSC Energia, wants to see some action to match the words.
NASA scientists aren't going to be pushovers as they fight to keep flying while Station engineers look for more development funds. Already down to only two non-Station Space Shuttle flights during Station assembly through FY '99 (DAILY, July 22), the scientists have set "minimum requirements for a defensible research program" if Station utilization is restructured to ease pressure on reserves in FY '97-98.
National missile defense cleared a major hurdle late last week when the Joint Requirements Oversight Council approved a plan outlining the requirements for a U.S. NMD system, congressional and industry sources said. The critical requirements document was formulated by the Army in cooperation with the Joint Staff, sources told The DAILY. The sources familiar with the classified document say it calls for an NMD system capable of defending against a ballistic missile threat of "much less" than 200 reentry vehicles.
Confirmation of United's long-awaited fleet order late Thursday for 27 mostly widebody Boeing jetliners and 24 Airbus A319 single-aisle twins left the two big airframers roughly neck-and-neck in net orders this year. Despite Boeing's relief at winning a sizable widebody order, and Airbus' elation at what it says is a market-share victory in 100-seat class aircraft, the airframers actually come out of the deal with year-to-date order totals net of cancellations separated by only one aircraft. The score: Airbus 200, Boeing 201.
The General Accounting Office has managed to meet AF approval with at least one of two recent reports critical of Pentagon acquisition issues. When asked about a recent GAO report that criticized the performance of precision guided weapons and stealth aircraft during the Gulf War, Maj. Gen. Charles Link, the AF assistant deputy chief of staff for plans, says he just wonders "how could the GAO be so right on the 'Super Hornet'," and be so wrong on precision strike.
A pre-contract award protest filed with the General Accounting Office last week has delayed the U.S. Air Force's program to install Global Positioning Systems on some of its transport aircraft. Tulsa, Okla.-based Lowrence Electronics Inc. filed the protest with the GAO last Wednesday, the day the Air Force planned to award its contract. Secretary of Defense William Perry ordered the GPS upgrades following the April crash in Croatia of a CT-43 transport that killed more than 30 people, including Commerce Secretary Ron Brown.
The U.S. Air Force and Special Operations Command are working hand-in-hand to increase their electronic countermeasures capability. One AF official says the B-52 will leverage SOCOM's development work on the ITT ALQ-172 jammer to add erasable, reprogammable memory to its systems. SOCOM, in turn, will leverage Air Force development of new on- board displays for the jammer, he adds. The AF hasn't determined so far if the new screens will be color or monochrome.
There's no need now for the U.S. to build a national missile defense system, says the head of U.S. Strategic Command, arguing that nuclear deterrence, which worked against the Soviet Union, continues to work today. Gen. Eugene Habiger said the U.S. has twice threatened to use nuclear weapons since the end of the Cold War - in 1990 against Iraq and more recently against North Korea - with the desired results achieved in both cases.
