U.S. Special Operations Command is killing concept exploration of the Quiet Knight navigation system in favor of a less ambitious, less costly program, SOCOM said in today's Commerce Business Daily. Meetings of the SAAIWG, or SOF Avionics Architecture and Integration Working Group, are cancelled, as are any sources-sought announcements to industry to support a future Quiet Knight production program and the efforts to assemble the documentation needed to win a Milestone I approval to proceed into demonstration/validation.
Lockheed Martin will demonstrate an electric flight control actuation system and show how it would eliminate a future fighter's central hydraulic system as part of a $48 million Joint Advanced Strike Technology (JAST) effort.
Northrop Grumman has demonstrated its close-range variant of the Joint Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (JT-UAV), or Maneuver UAV. A request for proposals for the program is expected soon. Northrop Grumman's Spectre II underwent a series of flights at a test facility in France, during which "various ground and air targets were located, identified and tracked," the company said.
The Defense Dept. must upgrade its lethal and non-lethal suppression of enemy air defense (SEAD) mission capability, a DOD official said yesterday. "In terms of the 1996 president's budget I think we got hurt a lot," particularly "in suppression of enemy air defenses, both lethal and non- lethal," said Anthony R. Grieco, deputy director for electronic warfare in DOD's acquisition and technology office.
Aerospace continues to set the pace in laying off U.S. workers, cutting 55,226 positions this year through September, outplacement firm Challenger, Gray&Christmas reported yesterday in its monthly report on U.S. employment.
TRW's Avionics and Surveillance Group, San Diego, received a $5.4 million contract Sept. 29 from the U.S. Air Force's Wright Laboratory for research and development to reduce the risk associated with the design, fabrication and test of an air-cooled Integrated Communication, Navigation, Identification Subsystem for current aircraft based on the avionics of the F-22 aircraft.
EER SYSTEMS INC., Seabrook, Md., on Sept. 28 received a $6.2 million contract from U.S. Naval Air Systems Command for validation/verification of the kits to upgrade the navigation/communications systems of the CH-53E helicopters.
The B-52 is slated to be the threshold platform for the Defense Dept.'s Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Weapon (JASSM), according to Maj. Peter Katsufrakis, the U.S. Air Force's B-52 program element monitor. "The flying hour cost [of the B-52] is less expensive [than other bombers]," Katsufrakis said, making "this is a very efficient way for the Air Force to test the weapon." So, he said, "We're expecting [it] to be the threshold bomber on the JASSM."
Appropriators' cuts in the Joint Advanced Strike Technology demonstrator program to the tune of $131 million have left contractors wondering whether JAST may have to be "re-phased" to avoid disruptions, McDonnell Douglas Aerospace Deputy President Herb Lanese said yesterday.
Texas Instruments tested a powered Joint Standoff Weapon last month, the company's entry for the Joint Air-to-Surface Stand-off Missile (JASSM) competition in the U.S. and the Conventionally-armed Stand-off Missile (CASOM) program in Britain.
The U.S. Army's Aviation Applied Technology Directorate, or AATD, hopes to award contracts next year for additional research in high-power helicopter turbines, "smart" processes for curing composite materials, active measures for limiting helicopter blade erosion and ways to join composite parts together without metal fittings.
Eager Wall Streeters may have to wait up to three years longer than they expected before Boeing will reach the lofty earnings forecasts that swelled the company's stock last month, but that's not a reason to be bearish on Boeing or its prospects, contends Merrill Lynch VP Byron Callan.
Hughes Space and Communications Co. yesterday announced plans to launch a new body-stabilized geostationary satellite that will have nearly twice the capacity and more than double the power of the most sophisticated spacecraft now in operation. The HS 702 was designed as a low-risk evolution of the HS 601, the body-stabilized Hughes satellite that became the world's top selling model after its introduction eight years ago. The first HS 702 is being built for another Hughes unit and is scheduled for launch in 1998.
The U.S. Air Force is stepping up an effort to find a buyer for the F- 16 fighters originally destined for Pakistan, and will soon brief the Philippines and Indonesia on technical issues related to the aircraft, according to Lynn Davis, under secretary of State for arms control and international security affairs. "There's not a large market out there for these F-16s at the moment," she told reporters in Washington yesterday, noting that Indonesia and the Philippines are the only two countries to have expressed an interest.
LORAL INFORMATION DISPLAY SYSTEMS, Atlanta, received a $23.8 million contract from U.S. Naval Air Systems Command on Sept. 20 for 52 programmable tactical information display units for the F-14 aircraft.
E&S CORP., St. Louis, is working under an $18.8 million contract from the Fleet&Industrial Supply Center, Norfolk, Va., for design, development, and production of avionics support equipment to support high power radio frequency avionics. The Dept. of Defense, announcing the contract Sept. 21, said that if all options are exercised, the total cumulative value of the contract will be $59.8 million.
NASA managers are studying ways to keep backup Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) technology development efforts under way even after an X-33 flying testbed configuration is selected, so they won't have to go back to the drawing board if a particular technology doesn't work out in flight test.
McDonnell Douglas won't know whether it prevailed in the Joint Direct Attack Munition contest for about a week, but "the number we've turned in" is eight times smaller than the company's original, internal guess on what it would cost to compete, said MD Aerospace Deputy President Herb Lanese.
Moody's Investors Service may downgrade ratings on about $120 million of Airbus Industrie's long-term debt over worries about changes in the consortium's structure and the credit quality of its members. The debt-rating agency's move reflects concerns not only about possible changes in the legal structure governing the consortium, but "in the way benefits of Airbus are allocated to its members," Moody's said yesterday in a prepared statement. It also reflects "the weakening credit quality of certain key partners of Airbus."
CANADIAN MARCONI CO. said an Aug. 10 flight of a prototype Tactical Navigation System (TNS) in a Turkish AH-1P Cobra helicopter was so successful that the initial tests were extended from the original two hours to over six hours. Canadian Marconi said the TNS uses Doppler and GPS to provide navigation information to both Cobra pilots. The system was supplied by Canadian Marconi under contract to Triton Systems Corp., and installed by IAI Tamam. Plans call for TNS to be installed in all current AH-1Ps of the Turkish Land Forces.
Mission planning subsystems to be supplied by Lockheed Martin's Sanders unit to the Royal Saudi Air Force (DAILY, Aug. 30, page 328) will support the RSAF's F-15, RF-5 and Tornado aircraft, the company said. Sanders said it will build 27 subsystems in the two-seat configuration of the Air Force Mission Support System (AFMSS) that it is producing for the U.S. Air Force.
A team of U.S. officials will visit Thailand to discuss the sale of Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles, a top State official said yesterday. "We'll be sending out, in the next couple of weeks, a State/Defense [Dept.] team to have discussions with the Thais to understand precisely what their goals are, how they see security, how we see security, and what the best system is that will go on the airplane" that the Bangkok government wants to buy, said Lynn Davis, the State Dept.'s under secretary for arms control and international security affairs.
HONEYWELL SATELLITE SYSTEMS OPERATION, Glendale, Ariz., is adapting the technology of the avionics system it developed for the Boeing 777 to satellites. By adapting to space applications its Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA), which operates as the control system for most of the 777's electronics, Honeywell said it will be able to create a centralized control system for future satellites and launch vehicles.
EDO CORP.'s Barnes Engineering subsidiary has won a $10.5 million subcontract to provide miniature Earth and sun sensors for the Globalstar mobile satellite venture. Under the contract from Germany's Daimler-Benz Aerospace, Barnes will supply the 11-ounce sun sensors, designed to provide Globalstar's low-Earth orbit constellation of 48 satellites with position data that enables stabilization of the satellites in their operational orbit. EDO President and CEO Frank A.
The Defense Dept. has signed-off on a list of nine core software acquisition Best Practices and 43 other software acquisition recommendations drawn up to reduce the problems associated with software development and to save money.
