Lockheed Martin Corporation, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, is being awarded a $5,246,254 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to repair and recertify MK 5 Inertial Measurement Units (IMU), repair and recertify monitor component assemblies, and provide failure verification of IMUs. Work will be performed in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and is expected to be completed in July 1997. Contract funds in the amount of $5,246,254 would have expired at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured.
The U.S. Army's strategy to speed up production of the Joint STARS Common Ground Station "unnecessarily risks millions of dollars on an unproven system," the General Accounting Office concluded last week. Fiscal 1997 is the second of two low-rate initial production, or LRIP, years, and the Army's FY '97 budget request would give the service some 50% more LRIP units than originally planned - more than 14 units beyond the number needed for operational test and evaluation, or OT&E.
TEAL GROUP predicts a geostationary launch crunch in 1998, as satellite owners replace communications satellites launched in the mid- to late 1980s. The defense and aerospace market analysis firm counted 114 active communications satellites in GEO, with peak launch cycles growing longer as satellite-makers improve the service lives of their products. After the 1998 peak, the next will fall in 2002-2003, followed by another in 2010, Teal said.
The Defense Dept.'s operational testing procedures and plans are "generally adequate," but some improvements should be made, according to the Pentagon Inspector General. The IG said implementing the recommendations "will improve the effectiveness and efficiency of DOD test planning and testing," although it could find no financial benefit from such action. The May 6 report, released May 23, said:
Overseers of the satellite architecture run by the National Reconnaissance Office must understand that shifting to new technology takes time, and that a steady stream of funds is required to make the changes, said Director of Central Intelligence John Deutch.
The Navy doesn't view the Expanded Response variant of the Standoff Land-Attack Missile (SLAM-ER) and the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile as competitors, but McGinn says "there would obviously come a time in the next year or so when we would want to look, for the future years beyond 2000, at the relative buy of SLAM-ER versus JASSM." He notes that right now JASSM is a concept, "not a real missile." SLAM-ER, on the other hand, "is a real missile," he says, with an expected initial operational capability in 1998
Japan's fourth and final F-2 fighter prototype flew for the first time May 24 from Nagoya Airport. Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems said the plane is the first of the prototypes to fly with the company's cocured composite wing box. The prototypes, designated XF-2, were designed and built during the FS-X development program, Lockheed Martin said.
The fiscal 1997 defense appropriations bill, which cleared the House Appropriations national security subcommittee last Thursday, is scheduled to go to the full committee next Tuesday or Wednesday, June 4 or 5, with House consideration likely the following week, committee sources say. The Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee is tentatively expected to mark up on June 19, Senate sources say.
McDonnell Douglas' reliance on the F/A-18E/F program for its future and relationship with rival Boeing may mean that of all the Joint Strike Fighter competitors MDC has the most to win - or lose - from the outcome of this fall's downselect from three competitors to two, contends Merrill Lynch aerospace analyst and VP Byron Callan. In October or November, the Pentagon will choose two teams to develop flying prototypes of two of the three planned JSF versions, and then in 2000 or 2001 another downselect will choose the overall winner.
TETHERED SATELLITE: Administrator Daniel S. Goldin probably will get the results this week of a NASA investigation into the February loss of the U.S.-Italian Tethered Satellite on its second flight (DAILY, Feb. 27). Astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia reported charring at their end of the 12.8-mile electrically conductive tether after it broke, raising speculation that it burned out under excessive power loads.
Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), chairman of the House National Security R&D subcommittee, says he will seek to get the House-Senate conference on the fiscal 1997 defense authorization to designate the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) as a major acquisition program, a designation which would open it to reporting requirements from which it is now exempt.
House Appropriations national security subcommittee Chair Rep. C.W. (Bill) Young (R-Fla.) isn't worried about the threat of a veto of the subcommittee's fiscal 1997 Pentagon money bill, which at $246.5 billion is $12.5 billion over President Clinton's request. Young says after the subcommittee concluded its hearings, but before the markup, it invited Defense Secretary William J. Perry to go over potential veto issues.
NASA will ask Congress for more buyout authority to ease the pain of its coming reductions in force at agency headquarters and elsewhere. With headquarters morale depressed by a constant barrage of memos outlining just how drastic jobs cuts there will be (DAILY, April 18), Goldin tells the Washington Space Business Roundtable that he wants to avoid firings if he can because they would deprive agency managers of "flexibility" needed to preserve critical skills. But he ducks a question on Sen.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER has licensed a supersonic cleaning system developed by its engineers to two companies, Precision Fabricating and Cleaning Co., Cocoa, Fla., and Va-tran Systems Inc., Chula Vista, Calif. The Supersonic Gas-Liquid Cleaning System removes contaminants by mixing air and water and ejecting the mixture at supersonic speeds from a hand-held wand, eliminating the need for solvents and using relatively low pressure to clean objects ranging from delicate circuit boards to buildings.
National Missile Defense is likely to be the only defense issue to be debated by presidential candidates in their bid for the White House, with charges that "Republicans plan to bankrupt the country and Democrats plan to leave it naked to defend itself" being levied, Walter Slocombe, the under secretary of defense for policy, tells reporters. "But I think, in fact, there is an issue of defense policy that probably won't get debated, which is what is the interrelationship between the various balanced budget programs and the long-term defense budget," he says.
The Pentagon plans to sell $199 million worth of missile technology to Greece, The Netherlands and Taiwan under separate Foreign Military Sales (FMS) agreements. It said May 23 that the Dutch Navy would buy four Mk. 41 Vertical Launch Systems and associated parts and services for $87 million; that Taiwan would buy 465 Stinger missiles, 55 dual mounted Stinger launcher systems and 55 captive flight trainer missiles for $84 million, and that Greece would buy 914 TOW 2A missiles for $28 million. Congress must approve the deals.
SASC and Intelligence Committee staffs hope to resolve the jurisdictional issues holding up Senate consideration of the defense authorization bill during the Senate's recess this week. Majority Whip Trent Lott (R-Miss.) says he hopes the bill will move to the floor the first week in June, when the Senate returns. Some Democrats threaten to filibuster the bill if controversial missile defense language is not removed from the bill.
A move by the Senate leadership could force a floor vote on Republican-drafted missile defense legislation next Tuesday, June 4. Last Thursday night, before departing for the week-long Memorial Day recess, Senate leaders decided to file a cloture motion that could prompt the vote.
Spain's CASA and the overhaul, maintenance and support group of airline Air New Zealand are teaming to offer CASA's CN235 turboprop to Australia's armed forces as a fully supported replacement for elderly Caribou light tactical airlifters. CASA's general manager, Carlos Navarro, signed an agreement recently with Ian Diamond, general manager of Air New Zealand Engineering Services, or ANZES, making ANZES the "major participant" for the service life support program, ANZ reported Friday.
TRW INC. will define a satellite communications system, including payload and ground facilities, for the Republic of China's ROCSAT-2 system under a 12-month study contract awarded by the National Space Program Office. The geostationary will provide Ka-band services to Taiwan and other Asia Pacific nations, building on the ROCSAT-1 and KOMPSAT lightsats, scheduled for launch in 1998 and 1999, respectively.
Debt-watcher Duff&Phelps thinks AlliedSignal's recently completed $1.5 billion sale of automotive units will give it the cash it needs to accelerate its already aggressive acquisition program - which could mean buys in the aerospace segment. The agency likes the company's strategy of combining short- and long-cycle businesses, in which aerospace plays a key role, and relentless attention to boosting productivity and margins.
SASC aides want their bill passed and off the Senate floor quickly to avoid a situation similar to the one last year when the defense appropriators got out ahead of the authorizers, raising questions about the relevance of the annual authorization action. Several SASC members, including Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), have expressed concern that if that were to happen two years in a row it could make SASC appear pointless.
The performance of the Airborne Self Protection Jammer in operations over Bosnia has resolved most of the technical and operational questions the system was facing, says Rear Adm. Dennis McGinn, Navy Air Warfare director. The Navy plans to use the systems it purchased before the program was canceled on its F-14Ds, but McGinn says "I am very much supportive of using ASPJ on our F/A-18s." He emphasizes that "we've made an investment in that system, [so] we ought to be able to get the return on investment."
Defense Secretary William Perry has agreed to testify before the Intelligence Committee on intelligence community (IC) reforms. As a result, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) Thursday night released a hold on Senate consideration of the general officer promotions, but has not released a hold on the FY '97 Defense Authorization Bill.
SPECTRUM ASTRO INC. has opened a new satellite development facility at its Gilbert, Ariz., headquarters complex. The 10,000-square-foot facility includes advanced rapid prototyping and test equipment in a class-100,000 clean room, with class-10,000 "tents" available. NASA's Deep Space-1, the first New Millennium technology demonstration satellite, will be built in the new facility. To support the NASA satellite development effort, as well as other recent contracts, the privately held company has hired 40 new employees.
