Honeywell Space Systems has entered an agreement to supply as many as 24 Miniature Inertial Measurement Units (MIMUs) to Daimler Benz Dornier Satellite Systems for the European satellite-maker's Spacebus communications platform series. Consisting of three ring laser gyros, a computer and high- and low- voltage power supplies, the MIMU weighs 6.1 pounds and measures 5.3 inches by 7.8 inches in diameter. Work on the contract will be performed at the Honeywell unit's Space and Strategic Systems Operation in Clearwater, Fla.
JOINT STARS aircraft are slated to depart the U.S. for Bosnia operations tomorrow, according to the Dept. of Defense. The Joint Surveillance and Target Attack Radar System aircraft - an A model and the newer C model- will leave Northrop Grumman's Melbourne, Fla., facility for Rhein Main Air Base in Germany. At least 10 of the U.S. Army's ground station modules will also be deployed. The aircraft are expected to begin operations after Christmas, DOD said. About 400 defense and industry personnel will be deployed to support the systems.
Thrust One of ARPA's Microwave and Analog Front End Technology (MAFET) program, as unveiled yesterday at a press conference in Arlington, Va., focuses on the front end technologies of automated design and simulation in an attempt to reduce the lengthy development cycles and get advanced RF components into new weapon systems sooner.
THREE U.S. AIR FORCE U-2 reconnaissance aircraft will relocate from RAF Mildenhall in the U.K. to Istres, France, to support NATO operations in Bosnia, according to a spokeswoman at Beale AFB, Calif., home to all U-2s. The aircraft are scheduled to begin flying from Istres in January.
MCDONNELL DOUGLAS appointed E. David Spong vice president for the C-17 air vehicle integrated product team. His responsibilities include design, development and management of MDC intercomponent and supplier production for C-17s.
The U.S. Army's upper tier theater missile defense program is at the heart of a Pentagon review of TMD programs, but the service's acquisition chief says the system is "sound" and that he'll fight for it. The review, intended to control the overall cost of ballistic missile defense programs, is said to have shaken the support and funding for the Army's Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) program.
Hughes Aircraft reported that two ground test models of its Split- Stirling cryogenic coolers had completed two years of continuous operation, and that it has begun developing the next-generation cryocooler for the U.S. Air Force.
HUGHES TRAINING INC., Binghamton, N.Y., received a $16.9 million contract Dec. 5 from the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Div., Orlando, Fla., for development of five reconfigurable man-in-the-loop simulator prototypes in support of the Battle Lab Reconfigurable Simulator Initiative (BLRSI), to be managed by the U.S. Army Simulation, Training and Instrumentation Command (STRICOM) in Orlando. If contract options are exercised, cumulative value of the contract will be $53.2 million.
The Pentagon yesterday announced the first 17 projects to be funded in ARPA's Microwave and Analog Front End Technology (MAFET) program, successor to the agency's previous Microwave and Millimeter Wave Integrated Circuit (MIMIC) effort to push the state of the art in RF integrated circuitry for radars, precision weapons, electronic countermeasures and secure communications. Funding awarded to date, according to the announcement, is $105 million, with one of the projects still to be finalized.
CAE-LINK CORP., Binghamton, N.Y., was awarded a $17.1 million increase to an earlier contract for FY 1996 operation, maintenance and services for the Aircrew Training System of the C-130 aircraft. The contract was announced Dec. 6 and was awarded by the Air Logistics Center, Hill AFB, Utah.
EVANS&SUTHERLAND COMPUTER CORP., Salt Lake City, Utah, is working under a $10 million contract for two visual systems to be integrated with full mission simulators for C-130J aircraft. The simulators are being manufactured by Reflectone of the U.K., and will be installed at Lyneham Air Field in the U.K.
The JAST program office awarded General Electric and partner Allison Advanced Development Co. a one-year, $7 million contract to start work on an engine concept that would compete with Pratt&Whitney's F119 Advanced Tactical Fighter turbofan, a program that could wind up worth as much as $85 million through the rest of this decade, GE confirmed last week. "It's put us back in the ballgame now," a GE official explained, noting that the contract was awarded in mid-November.
B-2 bomber language is one of the last few issues outstanding as House and Senate defense authorization conferees work to wrap up the compromise bill, perhaps as early as today. Ironically, it's an issue that didn't even have to be addressed. That's because no matter what the conference said, it would have no impact on funding - the defense appropriations conference report, which has already become law, accepted the House position of providing an unrequested $493 million for long lead funding for B-2s beyond the present program of 20.
CONSTRUCTION of the largest and most advanced pilot training base in China has begun in Shanghai, according to a Dec. 5 report from AsiaInfo China Daily News of Beijing. It said the base will cover more than 30,000 square meters and cost $100 million. First phase of the project is due for completion by the end of 1996.
NASA'S Galileo orbiter received data for 57 minutes as its atmospheric probe parachuted into the ammonia clouds of Jupiter last week, program managers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory reported. A first look at the data, stored in the spacecraft's computer memory as a backup to its balky tape recorder, is set to be released Dec. 19. The 746-pound probe was designed to last as long as 75 minutes before failing, but scientists were reported to be "absolutely ecstatic" at the amount of data recovered.
The Pentagon's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) will spend $5 million to $6 million to develop an advanced solar array that will be tested on NASA's first New Millennium spacecraft, a 220-pound probe that will use solar-electric propulsion to visit a comet and an asteroid. BMDO has already announced plans to award a sole source contract to Able Engineering Co. of Goleta, Calif., for a Solar Concentrator Array with Refractive Linear Element Technology (SCARLET) to be mounted on the tiny NASA spacecraft.
A large Russian spacecraft plunged back to Earth southeast of the Hawaiian Islands Sunday, almost 25 years after it was launched from Baikonur as part of Russia's vain attempt to put a cosmonaut on the moon. Cosmos 398 reentered at 3:09 p.m. EST Sunday and some heavy pieces of the 4,400-pound spacecraft may have splashed down in the Pacific about 1,300 miles southeast of Hawaii, according to Russian news accounts. Russian experts reportedly believed part of the spacecraft's propulsion system would survive the heat of reentry.
The U.S. Air Force and Navy are homing in on what they want out of an improved High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile (HARM) - and what changes they can afford, officials of the services say. HARM developer Texas Instruments is under contract to build and deliver HARM Block V missiles. The Navy and AF are considering funding the next upgrade, Block VI, in the 1998 Program Objective Memorandum now being formulated and slated for submission to the Office of the Secretary of Defense next year.
EVANS&SUTHERLAND will also provide visual systems for two truck driving instruction and training simulators (Advanced Driving and Maneuvering Simulator, or ADAMS) to be supplied to the Swiss Army by Oerlikon-Contraves AG in Zurich, Switzerland. The Swiss Army plans to begin troop trials of the devices - being procured by the Swiss Ministry of Defense under the project name FATRAN - in September 1996. E&S said the ADAMS/FATRAN business could mean more than $7 million in revenues over the next three years.
