May 30, 1996 Lockheed Martin Corporation Lockheed Martin Corporation, Nashua, New Hampshire, is being awarded a $6,058,842 face value increase to a cost plus award fee contract to provide for software maintenance support for the Air Force Mission Support System. Contract is expected to be completed July 1997. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts, is the contracting activity (F19628- 93/C-0016, P00100).
Five Japanese companies - Mitsubishi, Kawasaki, Fuji, ShinMaywa and Japan Aircraft Manufacturing Co. - have agreed to negotiate jointly with Boeing Co. on possible participation in development of the proposed 747-500 and -600 airliners.
The House Appropriations national security subcommittee has increased the Pentagon's fiscal year 1997 request of $17.4 million for the DarkStar unmanned aerial vehicle by $42.5 million - the most generous funding provided for the program by any of the congressional panels so far this year.
LOCKHEED MARTIN CORP., Marietta, Ga., received a $59.3 million increase to an earlier U.S. Air Force contract for development of avionics system modifications that will permit the F-22 aircraft to receive data from the Joint Tactical Information Distribution System (JTIDS). The contract, awarded by the AF Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, was announced by the Dept. of Defense on May 31.
The National Transportation Safety Board is urging FAA to require immediate and periodic inspections of perhaps as many as 6,890 older Pratt&Whitney JT8D turbofans to look for fatigue cracks similar to those that forced a Delta Boeing 727 to abort takeoff following an uncontained engine failure in one of its JT8D-15s on Jan. 30. NTSB is particularly concerned with turbine hubs - otherwise known as the fourth-stage low-pressure turbine - manufactured before 1989 from a single-piece machined forging of Incoloy 901 alloy.
May 30, 1996 Hughes Missile Systems Company Hughes Missile Systems Company, Tucson, Arizona, is being awarded a $12,139,681 modification to previously awarded contract N00019-94-C-0257 to exercise an option for 167 Tomahawk All-Up-Round Missile Recertifications. Work will be performed in San Diego, California (80%), and Tucson, Arizona (20%), and is expected to be completed by June 1997. Contract funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity.
Japan's National Space Development Agency (NASDA) has entered full-scale development on three variants of its H-II space launch vehicle that would be able to lift heavier payloads at lower cost. NASDA and prime contractor Mitsubishi hope to lower the cost of building and launching an H-II to about $79 million, from the present $130 million, while raising the maximum geostationary payload from two to four metric tons. With designs completed by the end of 1995, the Japanese space agency hopes to launch the first "H-IIA" in 2001.
RETIRED VICE ADM. THOMAS CONNOLLY, the former deputy chief of naval operations who was a leading force behind development of the Grumman F-14, died May 24 at age 86 in a hospital in Holland, Mich., a Navy spokesman confirmed yesterday. Connolly was in charge or naval air warfare between 1966 and 1971, before he became deputy CNO.
GDE SYSTEMS, INC., San Diego, will provide seven automatic test equipment packages and optical test benches for the Improved Avionics Intermediate Shop for the F-16 fighter under a $21.8 million contract from the U.S. Air Force's Aeronautical Systems Center. The contract was awarded May 2.
PAKISTAN will buy 40 Mirage III fighters from France, and is continuing to negotiate with France's Dassault for between 26 and 32 new Mirage 2000s, according to news reports from Islamabad. The Mirage IIIs will be delivered over the next two years by France's Sagem, which will upgrade the planes. In 1989, Pakistan bought about 50 Mirages from Australia, according to the reports .
Trying to determine the true cost of a national missile defense (NMD) system called for in the GOP's Defend America Act is like pricing a new car, according to Lt. Gen. Malcolm O'Neill, who retired Friday as head of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization. "It's kind of like somebody asking me what does an automobile cost...there are automobiles that cost $200,000 and there are automobiles that cost...$11,000." For NMD, "what you're seeing in these cost estimates is the difference between the equivalent of a Rolls-Royce and a Ford Escort.
The Pentagon isn't convinced by reports that Libya's underground facility in the Tarhuna mountains won't be used to manufacture chemical weapons. Reports from Egypt say the facility will become a munitions storage site. But a Pentagon spokesman notes that Libya first claimed the facility's extensive tunnels were intended for irrigation, but then said it was a pharmaceutical plant. "We have to remain skeptical," he said.
THE BOARDS of Lucas Aerospace parent Lucas Industries and Varity Corp. voted to merge the two companies to create a "highly competitive, global automotive parts, diesel and aerospace company," Lucas reported Friday.
Possible cooperation between the U.S. and Britain on the future Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile has been reduced to a data exchange and U.S. Air Force officials say there's only a slight chance that efforts of the countries will be merged. Arbuthnot confirmed that assessment saying, "I suspect that the merging of the two programs is likely to be difficult." He wouldn't say if failure to link up hurts U.S. companies bidding for both the U.S. Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) program and the U.K.'s Conventionally Armed Standoff Missile (CASOM) program.
After thwarting an attempt to kill the International Space Station Thursday night, the House passed by voice vote a fiscal year 1997 omnibus science authorization bill that provides $13.5 billion for NASA. However, a presidential veto of the bill would be almost certain if it remains in the form adopted by the House. The White House is particularly concerned about portions of the science bill that deal with Commerce Dept. activities and environmental research projects.
The U.S. Air Force on Friday signed $16.2 billion in multi-year contracts for 80 additional C-17 airlifters, but it hasn't decided whether the buy will span six or seven years. In either case, the deal covers the longest period and is largest contract ever entered into by the U.S. government, the Pentagon said Friday in a prepared statement. The lion's share of the money - $14.2 billion - goes to C-17 prime contractor McDonnell Douglas. It will build to a peak of 15 aircraft per year.
JAPAN AIR LINES selected Pratt&Whitney PW4090 engines to power the five 777-300s it has on order from Boeing. Value of the engine order was estimated at $140 million. The aircraft will enter service beginning in 1998. JAL also has ordered 10 777-200s powered by PW4077 engines. JAL's first two 777s went into domestic service on April 26.
The government of Egypt has signed an agreement with the U.S. for 21 new F- 16 fighters, Lockheed Martin reported. The agreement, signed May 30, is worth $338 million to Lockheed Martin, according to the company. It calls for deliveries in 1999 and 2000, and preserves about 2,600 jobs at Lockheed Martin's Tactical Aircraft Systems unit in Fort Worth, Tex. It also ensures that the production line will remain open into mid-2000, and brings the company backlog to about 420 aircraft.
The U.S. Army will try to prove the concept of using aerostats for cruise missile defense during the annual Roving Sands exercise this month in Texas, Army officials say. Aerostat participation "is a proof of principle" effort, according to Maj. Gen. John Costello, who commands Ft. Bliss, Tex., and the Army's Air Defense Artillery Center.
While Republican leaders in the Senate plan to hold a vote Tuesday that could force debate on the Defend America Act, they know it's a long shot. In order for debate to commence without the chance of a filibuster, they would have to round up 60 votes, and aides say there is no way that will happen. But GOP chiefs aren't giving up, and are looking at other bills to which they could attach Defend America as an amendment. The most obvious candidate is defense authorization bill, which the leadership hopes to move to the floor within the next two weeks.
Two lawmakers with opposing views - Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.), best known as a staunch opponent of abortion, and Rep. Bernard Sanders (Ind.-Vt.), a self-styled Socialist - have introduced almost identical bills that would repeal a law permitting the Defense Dept. to pay the costs of restructuring resulting from defense mergers.
Acting on orders of the White House, NASA has directed the independent Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) to conduct a special review of Space Shuttle safety as the aging space plane undergoes significant changes in mission and management structure.
NASA's F-18 High Alpha Research Vehicle (HARV) made its final flight last week, after a nine-year flight test program that increased the U.S. aeronautics agency's data base for fighter design. Equipped with thrust vectoring paddles and nose strakes, the HARV notched a number of "firsts," including first multi-axis thrust vectoring flight; first controlled flight using strake to high angle of attack pointing; first stabilized flight at 70 degrees angle of attack, and first demonstrated maneuvering and tracking at high angle of attack.
