Aerospace contractors would suffer minor inconvenience, at worst, under a shutdown of the federal government stemming from the spending impasse between the White House and the Republican leadership in Congress - "less than meets the eye," in the words of one contractor.
Saudi Arabia, which received its first F-15S aircraft in September, is due to get its first operational GBU-15 guided bombs for the planes in late 1998, according to a foreign military sales proposal estimated at $371 million submitted to Congress last Thursday. The sale would be the second to the region, following an earlier order from Egypt. The GBU-15 was used by the U.S. Air Force during Operation Desert Storm to take out bridges and to extinguish oil well fires that had been set by Iraq.
Senate signers of a letter to Defense Secretary William J. Perry warning against plans to cut back or slow down the Theater High Altitude Air Defense (THAAD) program were driven by concern that Pentagon acquisition chief Paul Kaminski this week may recommend a delay in THAAD production to permit a flyoff with the Navy Upper Tier, Senate sources said yesterday. The sources quoted unnamed officials in the Pentagon as saying that Kaminski will recommend the competition to Deputy Defense Secretary John White, with the winner going into production.
November 7, 1996 -- General Electric Aircraft Engines, Lynn, Massachusetts, is being awarded a $6,956,544 ceiling priced order contract for procurement of forward cooling plates used in F/A-18 aircraft engines. Work will be performed in Lynn, Massachusetts, and is expected to be completed by January 1997. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. The Naval Inventory Control Point, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the contracting activity (F34601-92-G-0010).
November 6, 1996 -- Lockheed Martin, Martin Marietta Government Electronics Systems, Moorestown, New Jersey, is being awarded a $73,100,889 modification to previously awarded contract N00024-94-C-5157 for DDG 51 Class AEGIS combat system installation and testing, and AEGIS backfit design integration. Work will be performed in Moorestown, New Jersey (73%), Bath Maine (17%), and Pascagoula, Mississippi (10%), and is expected to be completed by March 1999. Contract funds in the amount of $500,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
November 6, 1996 -- Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, Stratford, Connecticut, is being awarded a $6,790,200 firm fixed price contract for 150 Rotary wing blades (tail blades) used on the Black Hawk helicopter. Work will be performed in Stratford, Connecticut, and is expected to be completed by December 31, 1997. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on May 12, 1995. The contracting activity is the U.S. Army Aviation and Troop Command, St. Louis, Missouri (DAAJ09-92-D-0045).
November 8, 1995 -- Loral Vought Systems Corporation, Grand Prairie, Texas, is being awarded a $33,189,604 modification to a firm fixed price contract for FY 96 full rate production of the Army Tactical Missile System (TACMS) guided missile and launching assembly and associated warranty. Work will be performed in Dallas, Texas, 98.2%, and Horizon City, Texas, 1.8%, and is expected to be completed by August 31, 1997. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract solicited on April 2, 1991.
The Dept. of Defense will press on with its modernization program, raising procurement from $38 billion in the fiscal year 1996 budget to $67 billion by the end of the century, Deputy Defense Secretary John White told a joint meeting of the National Security Industrial Association and American Defense Preparedness Association yesterday in Arlington, Va.
November 6, 1996 -- AlliedSignal Engines, AlliedSignal Incorporated, Stratford, Connecticut, is being awarded a delivery order amount of $6,198,988 firm fixed price contract for direct support plus 248 phase II tool sets for the M1 Tank. Work will be performed in Stratford, Connecticut, and is expected to be completed June 30, 1997. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on March 3, 1995. The contracting activity is the U.S.
November 9, 1995 -- General Electric Aircraft Engines, Lynn, Massachusetts, is being awarded a $5,961,344 cost plus fixed fee contract for FY 1996 support services for the F-117A aircraft, including logistics support, sustaining engineering, engineering and technical data. Contract is expected to be completed September 1996. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There was one firm solicited and one proposal received. Solicitation began May 1995 and negotiations were complete September 1995.
November 7, 1995 -- STANDARD Missile Company, Falls Church, Virginia, is being awarded a $70,798,631 Not-to-Exceed (NTE) letter contract for R&D engineering support services. Work will be performed in Bedford, Massachusetts (45%), Tucson, Arizona (45%), and Falls Church, Virginia (10%). The Naval Sea Systems Command, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N00024-96-C- 5301).
November 8, 1995 -- Raytheon Company, Equipment Division, Sudbury, Massachusetts, is being awarded a $9,408,000 modification to previously awarded contract N00024-94- C-5614 for production of five Medium Pulse Repetition Frequency Upgrade (MPU) Kits and two AN/SPS 49A(V)1 test fixtures for the AN/SPS-49(V) radar system. Work will be performed in Waltham, Massachusetts (68%), and Sudbury, Massachusetts (32%), and is expected to be completed by March 1999. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
Ironically, two of the four Tier 2 Plus "down selectees," Raytheon and Orbital Science Corp., had made a substantial effort to take advantage of the relaxed acquisition procedures. Raytheon, in particular, established a central organization to implement the 845 procedures if the company had won a Tier 2 Plus Phase 2 contract.
TITAN CORP., San Diego, reports production contracts totaling $10.2 million for its MULTIBUS and VME computer products from Loral Defense Systems, Lockheed Martin, the government of Taiwan and others. The equipment supports military data processing applications, including fire control and early warning.
Senate Democrat Carl Levin (Mich.) says there's "a learning curve, frankly," for House and Senate Republican leaders in coming to agreement on the fiscal 1996 defense authorization conference. Failure of the conferees to come up with a compromise bill has led to grumbling, both private and public, about the leadership of House National Security Committee Chairman Rep. Floyd Spence (R-S.C.). A published report quotes congressional sources as saying he may be forced to step down next year and be succeeded by either Rep.
The team of Lockheed Martin Sanders and ITT, having won the competition for radio frequency subsystem of the Integrated Defensive Electronic Countermeasures (IDECM) system, outlined its duties under the new contract. Sanders, as team leader, said the $26.8 million engineering and manufacturing development contract awarded earlier this month (DAILY, Nov. 6, page 214) calls for it to provide 15 technique generators, 50 fiber optic towed decoys, and 50 decoy mass models for development flight testing.
Despite Defense Secretary Perry's June 1994 pronouncement that performance specifications are to replace mil specs in new programs and upgrades to existing ones, industry and DOD still haven't figured out how to get there from here. The two competing approaches are "top down," applying the procedures across the board (generally favored by DOD) and "bottom up," selecting specific processes and contractors (generally favored by industry). A proposed compromise is to select new programs embodying relatively low levels of technology.
Olin Corp. announced top management changes to be effective Jan. 1, 1996. It said James G. Hascall and Michael E. Campbell were elected executive vice presidents of the corporation effective Jan. 1, 1996 Hascall, 56, now president of Olin's Brass Div., will have operating responsibility as executive VP for the Brass, Winchester, Ordnance and Aerospace divisions. He has been with Olin since 1960. His offices will be located at East Alton, Ill., headquarters for Winchester and Olin Brass.
Members of the House Science panel with NASA oversight responsibility expressed irritation Thursday at the U.S. space agency's abrupt decision not to hold a competition for the Space Shuttle operations prime contract, and skepticism that United Space Alliance can operate the Shuttle safely and at less cost.
Switzerland's defense establishment continues to look inward and base its procurement decisions largely on expelling invaders, a Swiss official says in Washington. He says the policy has stopped Switzerland from buying deep attack weapons, such as the U.S. Army's Advanced Tactical Missile System (ATACMS). The official also says elements in Switzerland's air force are beginning to believe that a more proactive defense should be considered.
The U.S. Air Force watered down this summer's Reliability, Maintainability and Availability Evaluation of the C-17 airlifter, the General Accounting Office argues in an interim report on the tests in which the airlifter met or surpassed specifications in 10 of 11 categories.
The U.S. Army, apparently preparing to quickly add a moving target indicator-synthetic aperture radar to its Airborne Reconnaissance Low (ARL) surveillance planes, is updating its list of suppliers for such a system.
Commercial companies are so reluctant to bid on government business, fearing the loss of patent and intellectual property rights, that none of the top companies in the field responded to a recent Army RFP for computers and telecommunications systems. The Army commissioned a study by the Rand Corp. to find out why.
The U.S. Dept. of Defense notified Congress of an Egyptian request to buy 124 M113A2 armored personnel carriers and related logistics support at an estimated $25 million to augment Egypt's M113 inventory for troop mobility and border security. The APCs, from the Red River Army Depot, Texarkana, Tex., would be sold "as is, where is."
A U.S. team is upgrading the electronic warfare suites of the Norwegian air force's two DA-20 Falcon jamming planes. The team, under San Jose, Calif.-based Condor Systems, received an unspecified amount for the effort, which also includes integration of equipment developed by the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment. The Dassault planes, modified Falcon business jets, have the mission of jamming radar and communications.
