Acquisitive Tracor Aerospace is ready to buy again, signing a definitive agreement yesterday to buy electronics house AEL Industries for about $115 million.
The number of geostationary commercial communications satellites that are orbited will continue to rise through the 1997-98 timeframe, but will then decline sharply as new, less costly low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites begin to dominate the market, a new 10-year forecast by the Teal Group concludes.
TASC INC., Dayton, Ohio, is working under a $16 million U.S. Air Force contract to support the service's Cost Analysis Agency in Washington, D.C. TASC said that AFCAA ensures that independent cost estimates are provided on all major Air Force programs, including those in command, control, communications and intelligence (C3I), aircraft, missiles and munitions, and space. TASC said it will support the agency through cost research and estimating activities.
September 28, 1995 DynCorp Aerospace Operations DynCorp Aerospace Operations, Fort Worth, Texas, is being awarded a $145,000,000 face value increase to a Firm Fixed Price contract for FY1996 modification, maintenance and repair for various Department of Defense weapons systems and support equipment. Contract is expected to be completed September 1997. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma is the contracting activity (F34601-93/D-0240, P00009).
Space Industries International Inc. said yesterday that its shareholders have approved a management buyout of the company led by Chief Executive Officer and former astronaut Joe Allen. At the same time, the company said the name of its parent corporation will be changed from Space Industries to Calspan SRL Corp. Company headquarters will remain in Washington, with major operations in Buffalo, Houston and Dayton, Ohio.
Lockheed Martin said Friday that a senior review team has begun studying flight data and the conclusions of a failure board on the Aug. 15 loss of a Lockheed Launch Vehicle (LLV) during the new rocket's debut flight. U.S. range safety officers at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., destroyed the LLV-1 two and one-half minutes after liftoff when it began oscillating (DAILY, Aug. 17, page 252).
The stealthy Tier III Minus DarkStar unmanned aerial vehicle has run into integration problems that will delay its first flight, according to the manager of the program for the Advanced Research Projects Agency. "Our first flight is a couple of months delayed," John Entzminger told The DAILY. Contract deadline is Oct. 20.
Engineers working with recording tapes retrieved from the Spartan 201 scientific spacecraft have found that it performed planned scientific observations despite an attitude control problem. The crew of the Space Shuttle Endeavour found the free-flyer spinning slowly, its batteries apparently drained, when they arrived to retrieve it during the recent STS-69 mission (DAILY, Sept. 13, page 395).
Lucas Industries agreed to pay the government $88 million to settle a civil lawsuit stemming from the discovery of faked gearbox parts tests on U.S. Navy contracts, a move that will force write-offs against profits totalling some $146 million when the fiscal 1994/1995 results are posted next week. "The financial effect is out of all proportion to the issues involved," declared Lucas chief George Simpson, "but we believe that this was the best settlement available."
FEDERAL RAILROAD ADMINISTRATION and the U.S. Air Force have agreed to develop magnetic levitation technologies for use in missile defense warhead testing and high-speed ground transportation, the Dept. of Transportation said. The technologies "will give the Dept. of Defense a capability to conduct realistic, hypersonic testing of warhead lethality and propulsion systems at an affordable price," said Maj. Gen. Stewart E. Cranston, commander of the USAF Development Test Center.
Defense contractors should provide more information on their commercial-off-the-shelf technologies to allow the Defense Dept. to leverage them in its attempts to reduce total system cost, DOD officials say. "Industry need to be very aggressive in this [COTS] business," Vice Adm. T. Joseph Lopez said Friday in Washington. "You don't advertise [COTS technology] well enough," he told industry representatives during a COTS conference sponsored by Mercury Computer Systems. "We don't know in many cases what's out there," Lopez said.
The two losing bidders in NASA's Earth Observing System common spacecraft bus competition have filed formal protests with the General Accounting Office, actions that could delay a contract award several months. Lockheed Martin and Hughes filed the protests last week after NASA announced it would award the contract for two and possibly four of the spacecraft to TRW. The contract is worth at least $398.7 million, and as much as $668.5 million with options for the third and fourth common buses (DAILY, Sept. 18, page 421).
NORTHROP GRUMMAN CORP., Rolling Meadows, Ill., was awarded a $12.3 million contract Sept. 29 for 32 AN/ALQ-162 defensive electronic countermeasure sets. The contract, awarded by the Fleet and Industrial Supply Center, Norfolk Detachment, Philadelphia, combines purchases for the U.S. Navy (75%) and the government of Italy (25%), under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program.
September 28, 1995 Serv-Air Incorporated Serv-Air Incorporated, Greenville, Texas, is being awarded a $145,000,000 face value increase to a Firm Fixed Price contract for FY1996 modification, maintenance and repair of various Department of Defense weapons systems and support equipment. Contract is expected to be completed September 1997. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma is the contracting activity (F34601-93/D-0243, P000010).
BOEING DEFENSE&SPACE GROUP, Seattle, received an additional $15.2 million Sept. 25 from the U.S. Air Force's Oklahoma Air Logistics Center for spares applicable to the E-3 aircraft's electronic support measures systems.
GENERAL ELECTRIC CO., Lynn, Mass., won a $10.8 million contract Sept. 28 from the U.S. Army Aviation and Troop Command, St. Louis, for 208 Hover Infrared Suppression System core kits for the UH60 Black Hawk helicopter.
The two-seat JAS-39B version of the Gripen will be fully combat-capable apart from its core missions of tactical and conversion training, officials here said. Formally rolled out on Sept. 29 on schedule and within budget, the JAS-39B has nearly the same mission system equipment as the single-seater, although the internal 27mm Mauser BK27 cannon had to be removed to accommodate the extended forward fuselage and extra seat.
Materials-specialist Hexcel Corp. agreed yesterday to a long-planned merger with Swiss conglomerate Ciba-Geigy's Ciba Composites division, and the companies hope to close the deal sometime in the fourth quarter. Hexcel and Ciba-Geigy signed a letter of intent outlining the deal in July, and the anti-trust waiting period under Hart-Scott-Rodino expired last week, clearing the way for the merger to go forward so long as the companies' shareholders don't object.
NASA has launched a fellowship program aimed at identifying advanced technology concepts that could provide "revolutionary" breakthroughs in government and commercial space applications. Known as Advanced Concepts Research Projects (ACRPs), the program will name roughly eight "ACRP Fellows" who propose concept work in a wide range of space technology disciplines. Each will be funding at about $1 million over 24 months, with NASA and its partner in the ACRP "cooperative agreement" sharing the cost in some cases.
