LOCKHEED MARTIN Federal Systems, Owego, N.Y., will integrate advanced avionics systems and support the Special Operations Forces Mission Planning System for the MH-47D and MH-60L helicopters under a sole-source, three- year contract from U.S. Special Operations Command, according to a June 6 Commerce Business Daily notice.
The Senate has approved an amendment to the fiscal year 1997 defense authorization bill placing a permanent $200,000 annual cap on how much companies can charge the government for the salaries and bonuses paid their defense executives. The amendment, sponsored by Sens. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) passed in a voice vote late Wednesday. "This is not an attempt to tell private companies how much they should pay their top executives," Grassley said.
BDM ENGINEERING SERVICES CO., Huntsville, Ala., will upgrade the Advanced HARM Workstation (AHWS) under a sole-source contract planned by U.S. Naval Air Systems Command. NavAir said in a June 17 Commerce Business Daily notice that BDM would provide engineering services to design, develop, and test software and hardware upgrades. It said "BDM is the designer, developer, and sole producer of the single existing AHWS currently owned by the U.S. Navy."
NAVAL COMMAND CONTROL and Ocean Surveillance Center, San Diego, is soliciting industry for services to support development of emerging navigation and air command, control and communication (C3) system technologies.
U.S. Special Operations Command crews will be able to move more freely and communicate more safely aboard aircraft with a new, wireless intercom system. It is planning for an initial batch of 138 and will ultimately need 357, a SOCOM official told The DAILY yesterday.
The Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday approved a $244.5 billion fiscal 1997 defense money bill tailored to overcome some Administration objections to the House measure, but received a veto threat from the Office of Management and Budget even before it reported the bill to the full Senate. OMB complained that the bill is more than $10 billion above the President Clinton's request. The funding total could be raised since it is below the budget conference report ceiling. The bill is likely to be taken up by the Senate next week.
NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia lifted off right on time for a potentially record-setting long duration mission yesterday after clouds over Kennedy Space Center, Fla., cleared at the last minute. With the 10:49 a.m. EDT liftoff, Columbia is scheduled to remain in orbit until July 7 if on-board consumables permit. The Life and Microgravity Sciences Spacelab (LMS) mission will perform some 60 experiments in the pressurized laboratory module riding in Columbia's cargo bay (DAILY, June 20).
Objections from two executive branch agencies have forced NASA to drop plans to create public/private "science institutes" at all but one of its field centers, leaving only the pilot space life sciences institute at Johnson Space Center. Administrator Daniel S. Goldin told top NASA managers earlier this month that the White House Office of Management and Budget had accepted objections from the Office of Government Ethics and the Office of Personnel Management to institute-enabling language in the agency's proposed fiscal 1997 authorization bill.
The U.S. Air Force plans to award a sole-source contract to Motorola Government and Space Technology for a joint U.S./U.K. program to develop and integrate an infrared target detection device, according to a June 18 Commerce Business Daily notice. The Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Motorola unit has done preliminary trade study work for the Programmable Integrated Ordnance Suite (PIOS) program under a recently completed effort called Programmable Ordnance Technology (PROTEC).
NASA should consider auctioning off as much as 15% of the resources aboard the International Space Station - pressurized volume, electrical power, communications and crew time - to private companies for engineering research and technology development (ERTD), a National Research Council panel has recommended in a study funded by the U.S. space agency.
The General Accounting Office says the Navy isn't buying enough of an improvement over current capabilities with the F/A-18E/F strike fighter and that the program should be reconsidered. The Defense Dept. disagrees, saying it's "convinced that the fundamental reasons for the decision to develop the [aircraft] remain valid."
NORTHROP GRUMMAN yesterday won a $73.7 million firm-fixed-price contract for advance procurement of Lot V of the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS), the Pentagon said. The money will be used for inspections and mandatory refurbishment of two government-furnished Boeing 707 aircraft that will be modified into the Joint STARS configuration. The contract, slated to be completed by November 2000, also includes long-lead money to buy radar systems components.
ALLIANT TECHSYSTEMS AND HUGHES AIRCRAFT has won the U.S. Navy's competition develop the Lightweight Hybrid Torpedo (LHT). The teammates received a $13.2 million contract from Naval Sea Systems Command to develop, test and produce LHT engineering development models between now and 2001, according to Alliant. The LHT integrates components from the Mk. 46 lightweight torpedo and technologies developed for the Mk. 48 heavyweight torpedo and the Mk. 50 lightweight torpedo with commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components, Alliant said.
LOCKHEED MARTIN Government Electronic Systems, Moorestown, N.J., received a $131.2 million contract for production and integration testing of two fiscal year 1996 Aegis weapon systems, Mk. 7 Mod 11, and the associated engineering and logistics support for DDG 83 and DDG 84 ships. The Dept. of Defense announced the contract June 18. It was awarded by Naval Sea Systems Command.
NASA managers yesterday cleared the Space Shuttle Columbia for what may be its longest flight ever, a busy Spacelab life and microgravity sciences mission that could last almost 17 days if on-board consumables hold out. Liftoff from Kennedy Space Center, Fla., is targeted for 10:49 a.m. EDT today, with weather the principal threat during the two-and-a-half-hour launch window. Forecasters yesterday saw a 60% chance weather constraints would be violated during the window, blocking a launch.
GENERAL DYNAMICS' Electric Boat unit, Groton, Conn., will carry out design studies related to the Seawolf submarine design and engineering program under a $27.5 million contract awarded June 18 as a modification to a previous Naval Sea Systems Command contract.
AN F/A-18C HORNET leased back by McDonnell Douglas from the U.S. Navy crashed yesterday in Illinois near the company's St. Louis, Mo., facility. A Navy spokesman said a company pilot was flying when the accident occurred. Word on the condition of the pilot or persons on the ground wasn't immediately available. Eyewitnesses contended the aircraft was performing aerobatic manuevers just before the crash.
The Senate yesterday thwarted an attempt by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) to cut $300 million for national missile defense (NMD) from the fiscal 1997 defense authorization bill, with senators voting 44-53 against the action. The Clinton administration requested $508 million for research and development of an NMD system.
The Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee yesterday approved a $244.6 billion fiscal 1997 Pentagon money bill that included language shifting funds for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and reconnaissance programs from the Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office (DARO) back to the services. The panel's report raises questions about the survivability of DARO, which was a congressional initiative. Asked what would happen to DARO, a subcommittee staffer said "I guess you wouldn't need it anymore."
U.S. AIR FORCE Command, Control, Communications and Computer Agency at Scott AFB, Ill., was redesignated as the Air Force Communications Agency during a June 18 ceremony June 18 at the facility. The AF said the move is part of a plan to integrate the Information Management functional area with the Command, Control, Communications and Computers functional area. It said AFCA retains its current structure of four directorates and an operating location. It listed the directorates as Interoperability and Technology, Systems and Procedures, Plans and Analysis, and Resources.
LOCKHEED MARTIN Communications Systems Div., Camden, N.J., will supply four AN/STC-2(V) Integrated Voice Communication Systems for DDG 79, 80, 81, and 82 ships to meet fiscal year 1995 program requirements of the Arleigh Burke DDG 51 Class Aegis shipbuilding program. The Dept. of Defense said the sole-source contract, from Naval Sea Systems Command, is for $14.9 million.
DIAGNOSTIC/RETRIEVAL SYSTEMS, Parsippany, N.J., won additional award totaling about $11.2 million from Lockheed Martin Tactical Defense Systems for engineering and manufacturing services for the U.S. Navy's next- generation, Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS)-based AN/UYQ-70 Advanced Display System tactical workstation. DRS said the awards resulted from the exercise of options on an multiple-year contract it received in July 1994 valued at about $46 million. So far, it said, about $26.5 million has been released on the program, including these latest awards.
MCDONNELL DOUGLAS opened a commercial aircraft marketing office yesterday in Sydney, Australia, in what it described as an attempt to "compete head- to-head with other aircraft manufacturers as airlines in the South Pacific expand or replace their fleets." Thomas Epperson, with McDonnell Douglas for more than 30 years, heads the office as VP of commercial marketing, South Pacific operations.
The Pentagon won't have to participate in an Office of Management and Budget drill that calls for executive agencies to look at cutting projected fiscal year 1998 budgets.
LOCKHEED MARTIN Federal Systems, Manassas, Va., received a $10.7 million modification to an earlier U.S. Navy contract for accelerated introduction of integrated towed array, hull array, sphere array, and other ship sensor processing improvements for SSN 688, SSN 688I and SSBN 726 class submarines via Acoustic Rapid Commercial-Off-The-Shelf Insertion (ARCI) hardware and software, according to the Dept. of Defense. It announced the award on June 14.
