Net profits climbed modestly back into the black at overhaul and aftermarket specialist UNC in 1995, recovering to just under $2 million compared with a loss of $67.9 million a year earlier, and Chairman Dan Colussy predicted a roaring recovery for this year. Revenues edged up 2% to $536.2 million.
The DAILY incorrectly reported in the Feb. 26 issue (page 286) that the Lockheed-Boeing team started final assembly of F-22 fighter last fall. The work is slated to start this fall. Also, before budget cuts, the first F-22 flight was slated for July 1995, not July 1996 as reported.
McDonnell Douglas Corporation, Long Beach, California, is being awarded a $79,537,656 contract to provide for CY 1996 field support for the C-17 aircraft. Contract is expected to be completed December 1996. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Solicitation began August 1995; negotiations were complete December 1995. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-95/C-2027).
An expected $212.5 million charge against fourth-quarter profits left Aviall with a net loss of $241.1 million for 1995, but management cautiously forecasts better profits ahead.
NASA's Polar spacecraft, one of two built for the Global Geospace Science mission, is in its planned elliptical polar orbit after a Saturday launch aboard a McDonnell Douglas Delta II rocket. Liftoff from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., came at 6:24 a.m. EST Saturday, and the spacecraft separated from the booster about 43 minutes later, NASA said. An agency spokesman said yesterday the mission had been "perfect" so far.
United Technologies Corporation, West Palm Beach, Florida, is being awarded a $159,424,128 face value increase to a fixed price contract to provide for 32 F117-PW-100 engines applicable to the C-17 aircraft. The work will be performed at Pratt&Whitney Manufacturing Operations in Middletown, Connecticut. Contract is expected to be completed January 1998. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio is the contracting activity (F33657-94/C-2155, P00001).
The head of the National Reconnaissance Office and his deputy have been fired for questionable management practices, Secretary of Defense William Perry and Director of the Central Intelligence John Deutch said yesterday. They said in a brief statement that had asked NRO chief Jeffrey K. Harris and his deputy, Jimmie D. Hill, to step down. Harris and Hill were notified of the decision on Saturday.
Bell Helicopter Textron and Samsung Aerospace Industries of Korea will design and build a new light twin engine helicopter, tentatively called the Bell 427 and based on Bell's 407 light single engine helicopter. Certification of the 427, which will be 13 inches longer than the 407, is slated for late 1998. It will be priced at $1,875,000. Samsung will build cabins and tailbooms for the new helicopter. Bell will supply the flight dynamics.
Newport News Shipbuilding Company, Newport News, Virginia, is being awarded a $11,409,487 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for advance planning and material procurement for the Extended Selected Restricted Availability (ESRA) of USS Enterprise (CVN 65). Work will be performed in Newport News, Virginia, and is expected to be completed by September 1996. Contract funds in the amount of $9,799,135 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured.
The requirements for the Joint Strike Fighter shouldn't be locked in too early, says Adm. William Owens, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. But, he says, there has been interest in the last few (Cont. p. 286) months in seeing that demanding communications criteria are met. One requirement, he says, is to get Global Broadcast System information into JSF cockpits.
The House National Security Committee staff has launched a series of internal studies on a range of defense policy issues. White papers on topics like the post-Cold War threat and U.S. security relations with China are expected to surface throughout the year. Chairman Floyd Spence (R-S.C.) has been pushing for more reviews of this kind. The idea of circulating papers on defense policy may be seen as a return to the years when the late Les Aspin chaired the committee. Aspin and his staff were known for their studies on force structure and military requirements.
Advances in ammunition technology could also change the Pentagon's way of doing business, particularly in terms of air- and sea- lift, Owens says. "Ammunition is the big-cubed element," taking up a lot of space, he says. But as munitions get smaller - with the advent, for instance, of 500- and 250-pound bombs - "this could dramatically affect our lift capability in the future."
The F/A-18E/F Super Hornet will be the U.S. Navy's first stealth aircraft and the first low-observable platform to undergo testing at NAS Patuxent River, Md. But Capt. Chip Dudderer, who heads the test center, says no new equipment will be needed to evaluate the aircraft's low-observability. The equipment was bought in anticipation of the now-canceled A-12 program, so "we're pretty well prepared," he says.
Tracor Inc. completed its previously announced acquisition of AEL Industries last week in a cash transaction of just under $100 million. James B. Skaggs, chairman and president of the Austin, Tex.-based Tracor, said the acquisition, which followed a vote by AEL shareholders approving the sale, "is expected to push us over the $1 billion mark in sales for 1996."
The Pentagon's decision to reduce its projected inflation rate (DAILY, Feb. 8, 21) could slip the Army's Theater High Altitude Area Defense program two more years, Army officials say. If the adjustment from an average of 3.3% to 2.2% over the course of the future years defense plan (FYDP) is applied to the THAAD program - which could be exempted - it will be fielded in fiscal year 2006 instead of FY 2004, an Army official told The DAILY Friday. He said schedule would be sacrificed to preserve the scope of the program.
C-17 enginemaker Pratt&Whitney now has a contract with the U.S. Air Force covering not only the final round of engines for the 40 C-17 airlifters already authorized, but the options needed for any of the proposed multi-year buys of aircraft and engines.
In an election year where arch-conservative Pat Buchanan is emerging as the Republicans' favorite presidential candidate, President Clinton goes on the road to McDonnell Douglas' Long Beach, Calif., plant to deliver the good news himself to hundreds of aerospace workers - he's submitted a formal legislative proposal to Congress to authorize spending on 80 additional Globemaster IIIs in a seven-year buy. But Capitol Hill sources say there's no proposal yet. Informal talks continue (DAILY, Feb.
U.S. Naval Air Systems Command intends to contract with Consolidated Electronic Countermeasures, a joint venture of ITT Avionics and Westinghouse, for support, installation, checkout and troubleshooting for AN/ALQ-165(V) hardware and software in F-14 and F-18 fleet aircraft. NavAir said in a Feb. 15 Commerce Business Daily notice that the company is the only source capable of carrying out the work.
Though Congress was in recess last week, a number of defense committee leaders quickly made known their concerns about the Pentagon's plan to restructure its theater missile defense (TMD) program. In the wake of the DOD announcement on TMD restructure (DAILY, Feb. 20), Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) said in a statement the new program ``in no way responds to Congress' clear direction to accelerate both theater and national missile defense programs.
Syscon Corp., San Diego, is working under an $11.9 million U.S. Navy contract to supply engineering services for the Integrated Undersea Surveillance System (IUSS) and Battle Group Passive Horizon Extension System (BGPHES). The contract was awarded Feb. 15 by the Naval Command and Control Ocean Systems Center, according to a Feb. 20 Commerce Business Daily notice.
The Pentagon's decision to retain $13 billion of the savings resulting from inflation rate adjustment and to pass that money to the services has reduced the impact of the adjustment to the U.S. Air Force's budget, but service officials say they are still down about $4 billion.
A $16.2 million U.S. Army contract to Loral Federal Systems to supply radar frequency interferometer (RFI) systems for Longbow Apache helicopters (DAILY, Dec. 12) calls for deliveries to begin in November 1996 and to wind up in October 1997.
Owens says fiber optics may be the key to his concept of "dominant battlefield awareness," and could reduce the military's need for other communications equipment. The military is looking at a "fiber revolution," he says, which "may mean you don't need to buy as many satellites anymore."
The Pentagon's fiscal year 1997 defense budget request, due to be released March 4, contains $2 billion in RDT&E funding for the U.S. Air Force's F-22 next-generation fighter, industry and congressional sources report. Under the current plan, some of the money would be used to buy four pre-production verification vehicles, an industry official said. These verification fighters also would be used for operational test and evaluation flights.
Sen. Bob Dole's staff is composing yet another letter to President Clinton listing Republicans' complaints about ballistic missiledefense policy. Over the past year, GOP lawmakers have bombarded the Administration with well over a dozen letters spelling out their concerns about missile defense and the ABM Treaty. "We have tried to be polite," one aide said. "But in case we weren't clear enough, this letter will tell them not to send up a budget without sufficient funds for theater and national missile defense."
