The U.S. Army has chosen a team of Westinghouse Electric Corp. and Hughes Aircraft Co. to demonstrate an all-weather, multi-sensor engagement capability for tanks. Under a 38-month, $16.5 million contract from the Army's Communications and Electronics Command, the team will pursue the Target Acquisition Advanced Technology Demonstration program. It is aimed at the M1 Abrams tank and future main battle tanks, and uses aided target recognition to cut engagement timelines and increase lethality, Westinghouse said yesterday.
With the announced departure of Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), the dominant Senate figure on defense, the Armed Services Committee faces a loss of stature in the Senate that could rival the decline of the Foreign Relations Committee. Under Chairman J. William Fulbright, Foreign Relations became the forum for challenging Johnson Administration policy on the Vietnam war.
ASTRA 1E European television satellite is scheduled for launch on Saturday at 8:38 p.m. EDT aboard an Ariane 42L rocket from Kourou, French Guiana. The satellite is the third in a series of six ordered from Hughes by the Luxembourg-based Societe Europenne des Satellites (SES).
GE Aircraft Engines agreed to sell its engine controls manufacturing and service business to Lockheed Martin, a deal that will re-unite the controls design and manufacturing operations separated two years ago when then- Martin Marietta bought General Electric's Aerospace units.
The Defense Dept. has embarked on a number of initiatives to cut overhead and flow the savings back into readiness and modernization, but Andrew Krepinevich of the Washington-based Defense Budget Project says those savings may not be sufficient. DOD is "resting recapitalization on some mighty thin reeds," Krepinevich said Wednesday in Arlington, Va. Lack of sufficient savings will force DOD to look at low-cost options for leveraging advances in technology, he said during a Technical Marketing Society of America conference on digitizing the battlefield.
MILSATCOM JOINT PROGRAM OFFICE will hold an informational briefing for industry to acquaint potential offerors with government requirements for the Military Integrated Satellite Communications Study. The briefing will be held on Oct. 20 at the Aerospace Corp. in El Segundo, Calif. Classification will be at the "Secret/NOFORN" level. For details, contract Ms. Hayley Philbrick, SMC/MCK, Los Angeles AFB, in writing at least three working days before the briefing. Fax: (310) 336-2011.
Credit-watcher Duff&Phelps assigned a relatively favorable rating yesterday to the $1.8 billion of debt that will be controlled by the spun- off ITT Industries, which will include ITT Corp.'s defense business, although the single-A-minus grade is a little lower than the rating enjoyed by parent ITT today.
The Clinton Administration will monitor the use of space launchers based on Soviet-era ICBMs to ensure the U.S. defense industrial base doesn't suffer from the competition, but it will consider authorizing U.S. payloads on the converted missiles on a "case-by-case" basis.
ANALYSIS&TECHNOLOGY INC., North Stonington, Conn., has received two U.S. Navy contracts totaling $47 million. Under a $21 million award from the Naval Undersea Warfare Center Div., Newport, R.I., the company will support heavyweight and lightweight torpedo programs. A $26 million contract from the Fleet Technical Support Center Atlantic, Norfolk, Va., calls for overhaul, installation, maintenance, test and repair of surface antisubmarine warfare, and surface mine countermeasure equipment, a new area for Analysis&Technology.
MOTOROLA's Government&Space Technology Group, Scottsdale, Ariz., has been awarded a $9 million U.S. Navy contract to develop and build a fuze for naval projectiles that will replace several types of fuze. The company said its Multi-Function Fuze (MFF) will replace VT, CVT, MT and PD fuzes for 5"/54 projectiles and VT, CVT and PD fuzes for 76 mm projectiles. It will carry four modes-anti air, height of burst, electronic time, point detonating and a default or autonomous mode.
FLIGHT SAFETY SERVICES CORP., Littleton, Colo., will upgrade computer systems for the operational flight trainers of the KC-135 aircraft's aircrew training system under a $9.9 million contract awarded Sept. 28 by the U.S. Air Force's Ogden Air Logistics Center, Hill AFB, Utah. On Sept. 25, Ogden awarded the company an additional $7.5 million to upgrade the computer systems of the Weapon System and Cockpit Procedures Trainers of the C-5 aircraft's Aircrew Training System. This work will also be performed at CAE Electronics Ltd., Quebec, Canada.
Boeing finds growing acceptance in official circles of what it claims is a "paradigm shift" in thinking about jetliner safety, a Boeing safety expert told The DAILY yesterday. It's a little more than a year after the company launched its effort to change the focus of airlines, designers and regulators away from survivability toward preventing accidents with a series of briefings in Washington and around the world.
The U.S. Army has decided to rule out an intercept during the third test-firing of its Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile, citing concerns about debris.
HUGHES TRAINING INC., Link Operations, Binghamton, N.Y., is providing contractor logistics support for the F-16 aircraft's Weapon System Trainer. The work, which supports foreign military sales to Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark and Turkey, is being carried out for the U.S. Air Force's Ogden Air Logistics Center (AFMC), Hill AFB, Utah, under a $9.1 million increase to an earlier contract. Hughes got the new award on Sept. 27.
RADA ELECTRONIC INDUSTRIES of Israel will supply computers for the country's F-15 fighters under a Ministry of Defense contract for about $1.4 million. The company, based in Herliya Pituach, Israel, said that it previously provided automatic test equipment for the F-15, and that it expects to receive additional orders for the new F-15I being purchased by Israel's Air Force.
MCDONNELL DOUGLAS named John W. Steurer vice president, general manager of the Joint Advanced Strike Technology (JAST) program, replacing Donald R. McGovern, who will retire on Dec. 31. The company said yesterday that the two men will work together during the next three months to ensure a smooth transition. McDonnell Douglas said Steurer has been working with McGovern since August when he was appointed vice president, air vehicle/integrated product definition for the JAST program.
LORAL LIBRASCOPE, Glendale, Calif., is in line for a contract from the U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center's Dahlgren Div. to develop and demonstrate advanced undersea warfare combat control technologies to process and manage tactical information for control and employment of undersea warfare assets, and to aid operators and support command decisions.
RAYTHEON AIRCRAFT CORP., Wichita, on Sept. 29 was awarded a $30.1 million modification to an earlier U.S. Missile Command contract for 81 MQM-107D aerial targets. On Sept. 22, Raytheon was awarded a $9.7 million contract modification for 22 of the targets.
Litton Industries has received a $21 million contract to continue pre- planned product improvement work on the U.S. Air Force's Modular Control Equipment (MCE) tactical air operations control system. Litton's Data Systems Div., Agoura Hills, Calif., said the new contract brings total funding on the project to nearly $185 million. Litton got its first funding for the program in 1988. Options under the new award could add another $65 million to company revenues.
ROCKWELL INTERNATIONAL's Autonetics Electronics Systems Div., Anaheim, Calif., received a $19 million U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command contract on Oct. 2 to design and construct the Fiber Optic Data Multiplex System (FODMS) for DDGs -80, -81, and -82.
EVANS&SUTHERLAND, Salt Lake City, has acquired Xionix Simulation Inc., a supplier of flight management system trainers, a move that E&S said solidifies its expansion into the civil airline training system market. Terms of the deal weren't announced. E&S said Xionix will continue to operate from its base near the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport as a separate business unit within Evans&Sutherland's existing commercial simulation business.
Asia Satellite Telecommunications Co. Ltd. said yesterday that it has received approval from its board of directors to proceed with the procurement of the AsiaSat 3 satellite. The new satellite will be launched in 1997 and will be placed in geostationary orbit at 122 degrees East, offering a "total Asia beam" and targeted beam coverage of India and China, Hong Kong-based AsiaSat said, adding that three "leading satellite manufacturers" had submitted bids to supply the spacecraft.
A demonstration involving the Hunter unmanned aerial vehicle and the Predator UAV, originally scheduled for this week at Ft. Huachua, Ariz., has been rescheduled until next year. The Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Joint Project Office said the demo will be held in February, but an official said it could be delayed until March.
FLIGHTSAFETY INTERNATIONAL, La Guardia Airport, N.Y., said it will install its third advanced full flight simulator for the Bell 412/212 at its Paris/Le Bourget training center. It will also enhance the two Bell 412/212 simulators at the FSI/Bell Learning Center in Fort Worth, Tex.
Improved modeling and simulation could be the key to demonstrating the value of electronic warfare equipment and could improve system design, says Anthony R. Grieco, DOD's deputy director for EW in the acquisition and technology office.
