SBS TECHNOLOGIES, Albuquerque, N.M., said it has signed an agreement with Thomson Training&Simulation that will allow Thomson to use SBS software on its Infantry Weapons Training Simulator (IWTS). SBS said Friday it will provide Thomson with software from its ICAT police training system for integration into the IWTS system. It said the development will increase the scope of IWTS to cover close contact weapons training, both civil and military, for urban environments.
The U.S. Marine Corps is deploying a squadron of Pioneer unmanned aerial vehicles to Bosnia-Herzegovina to support NATO efforts there. It is the first full Marine aviation unit to operate from a base in the country. The unit, the 1st Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron (VMU-1), is deploying to a site near Tuzla. It will field one Pioneer system, which consists of five air vehicles, one ground control station and four receiving stations.
The congressional budget resolution compromise agreement accepts the Senate's $1.6 billion lower national security budget authority ceiling for fiscal 1997 while essentially splitting the difference in outlays. In the six-year budget, covering fiscal years '97 to '02, the conferees essentially split in both budget authority and outlays for the national security function, which includes Pentagon funding and Dept. of Energy nuclear weapons programs.
Lockheed Martin Astronautics is combining launch vehicle product areas into a single Denver-based operation called Space Launch Systems, to be headed by Michael W. Wynne as vice president and general manager, the company said yesterday. Wynne has run the Space Systems organization, which includes the Atlas family, the Lockheed Martin Launch Vehicle and the Multi-Service Launch System. As of June 28, Astronautics said, he will also assume responsibility for the Titan II and Titan IV.
FLIGHT SAFETY INTERNATIONAL, LaGuardia Airport, N.Y., will conduct annual UH-1N (Bell 212) helicopter simulator refresher training for 110 pilots and 55 flight engineers of the U.S. Air Force, according to a June 4 Commerce Business Daily notice from Randolph AFB, Tex. It said an RFP will be issued on about June 17, and that training will begin about Oct. 1.
NASA's Stennis Space Center has been designated the agency's lead center for propulsion testing, managing rocket testing at Marshall Space Flight Center, Lewis Research Center and the White Sands Test Facility as well as its own facilities. Wilbur Trafton, associate administrator for space flight, made the designation effective May 30, according to an announcement issued by the Mississippi facility. The shift was made as part of NASA's agency-wide management streamlining effort.
British Aerospace hopes to widen the market for its Nimrod 2000 patrol plane through a recent teaming agreement with Boeing and McDonnell Douglas, as well as improve its chances against rivals Lockheed Martin and E-Systems in the U.K.'s maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) competition.
The Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee, preparing to mark up its fiscal year 1997 defense spending bill this month, is mulling a $203 million boost to the Pentagon's $84.4 million B-1B bomber budget request, according to congressional sources. A document outlining the subcommittee's proposed markup breaks the $203 million down this way: -- $87 million for the B-1B conventional bomb module. -- $15 million for conventional missile upgrades. -- $10 million to upgrade the defensive system.
The NASA/McDonnell Douglas Clipper Graham experimental reusable rocket on June 8 demonstrated an airliner-like turnaround at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., flying twice in 26 hours. The vehicle lifted off at 12:14 a.m. MDT and flew for 142 seconds after completing a flight of about 60 seconds the day before (DAILY, June 10).
International Consultants, Incorporated, Dayton, Ohio, is being awarded a $49,200,000 firm fixed price contract to provide for Environmental Engineering Services in support of the Offices of Environmental Management of both the 88th Air Base Wing and the Aeronautical Systems Center, both at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. Contract is expected to be completed October 2000. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There were 46 proposals received. Solicitation began August 1995; negotiations were complete April 1996.
Jackson and Tull, Washington, D.C., is being awarded a $20,645,866 cost plus award fee contract to provide for Integration Support Services, including equipment maintenance and specialized manpower effort, to support the integration and test of experimental vehicles, payloads and subsystems being developed by the Space Experiments and Space Technologies Directorates of the Phillips Laboratory, Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico. The work will be performed at Jackson and Tull Space and Aeronautics, Albuquerque, New Mexico Contract is expected to be completed May 1999.
Scientific Atlanta, Incorporated, is being awarded a $5,525,251 firm fixed price contract for a complete digital video compression and transmission system for the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS) Satellite Network and an initial quantity of 650 receive units. Total estimated face value of the contract is $20,085,332 (if every line item were to be ordered over the period of the contract which is for a base year and four option years).
The U.S. Air Force has "taken a dramatic step into getting into the weaponization business" because commercial suppliers have moved so strongly into field of fiber and cable communications channels, according to the Air Force's deputy chief of staff for communications and information. Lt. Gen. John Fairfield said last Thursday that the commercial providers are doing the work the Air Force used to do, and doing it faster and cheaper.
The Russian government has allocated 15 billion rubles ($3 millions) to Kompomash Corp., a consortium of Russian space businesses, "for implementation of programs providing mastery of dual-use high technologies in the interest of the national economy." Kompomash is a group of several dozen companies, primarily from the rocket and space industry, coupled with some Moscow banks. President Boris Yeltsin formed it by edict on Nov. 1, 1994, a move endorsed by a government decree on July 1, 1995.
The initial version of a 555-seat A3XX airliner will cost about $180 million in today's dollars, according to Jurgen Thomas, senior VP, Airbus Industrie's large-aircraft division. The consortium believes it will cost about $8 billion to develop the aircraft and is aiming for service introduction in 2003. Preliminary design would be frozen in 1997 and the final design in 1999, he told aviation reporters here, and about 8% of the total program cost could come between the preliminary and final design freezes.
Boeing spent $12 billion last year with 34,000 U.S. companies in the day-to-day course of running its export-dominated business - a fact the company is publicizing just as the biannual Capitol Hill debate on China, trade and human rights gets into high gear in advance of an expected House vote later this month on Most Favored Nation status.
King Carl Gustav XVI on Sunday cut the ribbon here on a new combat development center for the JAS-39 Gripen fighter as the Swedish Air Force and Gripen prime contractor Saab continue to refine the aircraft and its support systems. The Gripencentrum, at the F7 Air Force Wing where Gripen training is being centralized, is a one-of-a-kind facility. Gripen pilots and ground crew will both be sent here.
Contraves, Incorporated, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is being awarded an increment (appropriation number and dollar value will be issued with each delivery order) as part of a $15,715,917 firm fixed price contract for the procurement of high performance tracking platforms. The Manned Kineto Tracking Mount (MKTM) and unmanned Launch Area Thedolite System (LATS) are state-of-the-art mobile elevation over azimuth dynamic platforms capable of carrying multiple sensors for use in test and training range applications.
Grumman Aerospace Corporation, Bethpage, Long Island, New York, is being awarded a $12,050,000 ceiling-priced order for acquisition of operational and maintenance training development to support the French E-2C aircraft. This contract is for the government of France (100 %) under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) Program. Work will be performed in Bethpage, New York (40%), and St. Augustine, Florida (60%), and is expected to be completed by August 1998. Contract funds would not have expired at the end of the current fiscal year.
Lockheed Martin asked the Pentagon to reimburse at least $855 million in restructuring costs stemming from the merger of Lockheed and Martin Marietta, according to Defense Dept. correspondence released yesterday by Rep. Bernard Sanders (Ind.-Vt.).
McDonnell Douglas is offering the RAF the option of a stealthier, longer-range version of its Grand SLAM entry in the conventionally armed stand-off missile, or CASOM, contest, called Grand SLAM Plus.
Sierra Technologies, Incorporated, Buffalo, New York, is being awarded a $24,271,979 modification to a firm fixed price contract for three Aircraft Survivability Equipment Trainer (ASET) IV Systems. Work will be performed in Buffalo, New York, and is expected to be completed by February 6, 1998. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. A notice of intent to exercise unpriced options was made on March 18, 1996. The contracting activity is the U.S. Army Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama (DAAH01-93-C-A018).
Praxair Incorporated, Danbury, Connecticut, is being awarded a $13,819,520 firm fixed price contract to provide for liquid oxygen in support of NASA and Air Force Space Shuttle and rocket launch programs. The work will be performed at Praxair, Mims, Florida. Contract is expected to be completed June 2001. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There were 22 firms solicited and 3 proposals received. Solicitation began February 1996; negotiations were complete April 1996.
Saab Dynamics is pitching integration of an infrared missile seeker on the JAS-39 Gripen that would give pilots additional surveillance capability. Gert Malmber, Saab Dynamics vice president for airborne systems, told reporters here that the system, known as IR-OTIS, uses the seeker from the IRIS-T short-range missile. Saab is teamed with Germany's BGT on IRIS-T, one of the many follow-ons to the Sidewinder missile that are now in development.
NASA selected Orbital Sciences Corp., Dulles, Va., for final negotiations leading to the award of a contract to build the X-34 small reusable technology demonstrator vehicle and to begin flight testing in late summer 1998, the agency said yesterday. The program, which includes the first two X-34 flight tests, is valued at about $60 million.
