LORAL DEFENSE SYSTEMS-AKRON, Akron, Ohio, on April 15 received an additional $47 million from the U.S. Air Force for test, delivery and installation of two more F-15S Weapon System Trainers for the Royal Saudi Air Force's Peace Sun IX Program. The Dept. of Defense said the contract was awarded by the USAF's Ogden Air Logistics Center, Hill AFB, Utah.
The House National Security Committee has increased funding for the Tier III Minus DarkStar unmanned aerial vehicle and directed that some of the funds be used for an improved and less costly version. The committee, in a draft of its report on the fiscal year 1997 defense budget request made available yesterday, also decided to increase the $57.8 million request for the Predator UAV program by $50 million, based on its performance in Bosnia and a need identified by the combat commanders.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN CORP. is in line for a U.S. Navy contract to supply over- the-horizon target control system to be used with the Chukar III/240 and/or BQM-74E targets. Naval Command Control and Ocean Surveillance Center, ISE East Coast Detachment (NISE East), Charleston, S.C., said in an April 15 Commerce Business Daily notice that a sole source contract to Northrop Grumman is planned.
MENASCO AEROSPACE has acquired 73% interest in a Polish aerospace operation, Wsk PZL Krosno, which will enable Menasco to develop landing gear and flight control systems for small aircraft. In addition, the facility in Krosno will produce components that Menasco will integrate into landing gears and flight controls on Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, Bombardier and other aircraft.
HUGHES TRAINING, INC., Arlington, Tex., got a $6 million increase to a U.S. Air Force contract for an extension of operation, maintenance and support of the C-141 Aircrew Training System for fiscal year 1996 and FY '96 work at the Satellite Learning Center at McGuire AFB, N.J. The contract was awarded April 30 by the Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.
NAVAL AIR WARFARE CENTER Training Systems Div., Orlando, Fla., is soliciting industry for modification of the EA-6B Weapon System, Tactics, and Operational Flight/Navigation Trainers. Contract award is scheduled for June 1997, according to an April 15 Commerce Business Daily notice.
The Senate Armed Services Committee and the House National Security Committee took different paths in increasing the Army's fiscal 1997 request for the RAH-66 Comanche program. SASC - adding $12.6 billion to the Defense Dept.'s $254.4 billion FY '97 budget request (DAILY, May 6) - proposed a $100 million increase for the helicopter program and said it "continues to be concerned about the funding profile for Comanche system as it is clearly based on minimum funding levels."
Israel says the Virginia Air National Guard's 192nd Fighter Group, based in Richmond, may be bound for Bosnia to provide additional reconnaissance capability. The unit's F-16s are the only Air Force tactical recce assets. Israel says the planes would be flown in both the recce configuration, with Lockheed Martin-built pods, and in standard configuration to show flexibility.
COMPUTER SCIENCES CORP., Falls Church, Va., beat two other competitors to win a U.S. Army contract with a cumulative total value of $371 million for support of the Communications and Electronics Command at Ft. Monmouth, N.J. The Defense Dept. said the contract, awarded March 15, consolidates existing high technology engineering services and system integration contracts into one Command, Control, and Communications (C3) Technology, Engineering, and Integration (TE&I) support contract.
The U.S. Army plans to issue a broad area announcement later this month to kick off its program to provide soldiers warning of incoming theater missiles. The program is being run as one of the Army Space and Strategic Defense Command's fiscal 1997 Space Exploitation Demonstration Programs. Craig Baker, the Army Space Command's director of plans, said the service is still considering two schemes to warn soldiers of when and where an enemy missile will impact, and has planned to spend several hundred thousand dollars for the initial demonstration.
LORAL ELECTRO-OPTICAL SYSTEMS, Pasadena, Calif., has received a $16.2 million follow-on contract from the U.S. Army for the Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System/Air-to-Ground Engagement System II (MILES/AGES II) program. The contract calls for production of 68 additional tactical engagement simulation systems. It said 62 are for the AH-64A Apache helicopter, bringing to 92 the total number of AH-64A systems it has delivered.
Deputy Defense Secretary John White said that the decision by the House National Security Committee to retain the 60/40 rule on depot maintenance is a setback, but that the final word isn't in. White, who was clearly disappointed, told The DAILY after a speech at an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics symposium in Arlington, Va., last week that "we were hoping that we could persuade people to give us some flexibility." But he said the decision "is obviously only one round in what is going to be a multi-round activity."
Rep. Jim Hansen (R-Utah), a senior member of the House National Security Committee, says the 34-13 vote in committee against repeal of the 60/40 rule restricting private industry to 40% of maintenance work amounts to "a landslide defeat" of Defense Dept. plans for "wholesale privatization" of the depot maintenance system. He says the vote should send a message to President Clinton to comply with the Base Closure and Realignment Commission (BRAC) and shut the Air Logistics Centers at McClellan and Kelly AFBs, in California and Texas, respectively.
NICHOLS RESEARCH CORP., Huntsville, Ala., was awarded a $37.3 million increment of a $53.4 million U.S. Army contract - with a projected cumulative total of $157.8 million - for integration of a High Performance Computing (HPC) capability, associated system integration and support infrastructure services and training. The contract was awarded May 1 by the Army's Information Systems Selection and Acquisition Agency.
Launch service providers worldwide are in a "gold rush stage," with some 300 satellites in line for launch by the turn of the century, according to Wolfgang Demisch, a managing director at BT Securities with expertise in space business. But the business is cyclical, he says, and once those satellites are launched there could be a launcher glut. That's bad news for competitors in NASA's X-33 competition, who are expected to provide a business plan explaining how they would finance and field a commercial reusable launcher early in the next century.
The F-22 fighter should provide 30% savings in operations and support funding over a 20-year period compared to the F-15C, says Maj. Gen. John Hawley, head of the Air Force's Global Power directorate. The difference would be even greater if the F-22 were slipped, he notes, because the cost of maintaining the F-15Cs would be greater. The reduced life-cycle cost of the F-22 remains an important consideration in executing the program, he says.
Pentagon planners will take another look next spring at the two-war strategy developed under the Clinton Administration's Bottom-Up Review, regardless of who wins this fall's presidential election, Air Force Secretary Sheila E. Widnall tells the AIAA. Congress and the Roles and Missions Commission want the study (DAILY, April 25), and Widnall says it will be a good opportunity to evaluate the impact of new technology and a new approach to international military cooperation on U.S. strategy.
The U.S. Navy plan to improve Harpoon missiles for littoral warfare (DAILY, March 1) calls for integration of a Global Position System/Inertial Navigation System (GPS/INS) and a new seeker with a smaller footprint, says Capt. Robert N. Freedman, the(Cont. p. 209) Navy's anti-ship weapon system program manager. The seeker for "Harpoon 2000" could be a radar like the one used now or "something else," he says. The new missile would be better able to discriminate targets.
GTE Government Systems Div., Taunton, Mass., received an additional $7.4 million from U.S. Army Communications and Electronics Command for its work on the Soldier Machine Interface program and related effort.
The U.S. Air Force's recently declassified Tacit Blue project benefited programs other than the B-2 bomber and Tri-Service Standoff Attack Missile (DAILY, May 1). Maj. Gen. Kenneth Israel, head of the Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office, points to the stealthy Tier III Minus, or DarkStar, unmanned aerial vehicle, noting similarities in the frontal sections of both aircraft.
One of the biggest questions facing the Navy on theater missile defense, says Rear Adm. Rodney Rempt, is: "Can we hit?" Tests have proven the Navy's missiles can detect and track targets, but so far there have only been near misses, and no intercept. The service hopes to demonstrate an intercept using a Standard Missile equipped with a lightweight exoatmospheric projectile (LEAP). The demonstration, under current budget plans, won't happen until 1999 unless there is a budget increase, says Rempt, director of theater air defense for the Navy.
HUGHES AIRCRAFT CO., Electro-Optical Systems, El Segundo, Calif., is working under a $3 million contract covering initial funding of follow-on production of Eyesafe Laser Rangefinders for the U.S. Army's Bradley Fighting Vehicle. Hughes said it recently began deliveries of 198 eyesafe rangefinders under the first-year, $5.8 million production contract received last year from the vehicle prime contractor, United Defense LP.
