The global market for air traffic control/air traffic modernization (ATC/ATM) equipment, systems and services will top $92 billion over the next decade, and satellite technologies will play a significantly larger role in the market, according to a newly published study by consulting firm BoozAllen&Hamilton, McLean, Va.
Life sciences managers and researchers at NASA's Johnson Space Center are tightening their rules and procedures for medical tests involving human subjects in the wake of a testing incident last year that sent astronaut Bonnie Dunbar to the hospital with a serious allergic reaction. Many of the procedural changes recommended by a mishap investigation board earlier this year have been implemented, and others are under review by the new panel set up to oversee human testing at JSC, according to the formal implementation plan JSC managers prepared.
NASA landed a McDonnell Douglas MD-11 trijet transport Tuesday at the Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB, Calif., using only engine power for control, marking the first such landing for a jetliner.
The Defense Dept.'s Joint Staff and the Advanced Research Projects Agency are about to set up an advanced battlespace information task force, a DOD official said yesterday. The task force will "find where technology can have a great payoff" in information warfare, Vice Adm. Arthur K. Cebrowski, the Joint Staff's director for command, control, communications and computers said at ARPA- sponsored symposium in Chantilly, Va.
SANDERS, a Lockheed Martin company, received a $6.9 million contract from the U.S. Air Force on Aug. 28 for 30 Mission Planning Subsystem Suites applicable to the Air Force Mission Support System. The effort by the Nashua, N.H., company supports foreign military sales to Saudi Arabia. The contract was awarded by the USAF's Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom AFB, Mass.
REFLECTONE U.K. LTD. has finalized its contract with Lockheed Martin Aeronautical Systems to build flight simulators and other training devices, and to provide related training and services for the British Ministry of Defence. The value of the contract is $77 million. Talks with Lockheed Martin on the final details were recently concluded, following a preliminary award of $10.6 million in April, according to Reflectone President Richard G. Snyder. He said the contract is the largest received in Reflectone's 56-year history, and has already resulted in 40 new jobs.
SIMUFLITE Training International and K-C Aviation Inc. said they are teaming their marketing efforts to promote concurrent crew training scheduling of their Dallas-based services. "Scheduling crew training at the same time as aircraft maintenance can maximize a flight department's labor and minimize downtime," said Jeffrey G. Roberts, managing director of sales and marketing for SimuFlite. "SimuFlite and K-C Aviation have coordinated efforts to bring clients the equivalent of 'one-stop shopping.'"
The Defense Dept.'s Office of Net Assessment will take a look at its own focus areas to determine what new areas need to be explored, according to Andrew Marshall, the office's director. "We're going to do some planning for the office itself later this year and try to look at what we think we ought to be doing as we look ahead and begin to try to focus more work on the areas that we think will emerge as major assessment areas for us," Marshall said Monday during an interview in his Pentagon office.
WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC CORP., Baltimore, has won a $37.8 million contract from the U.S. Air Force for seven reprogrammable radar pods and six avionics pods applicable to the Advanced Airborne Interceptor Simulator. The contract was awarded Aug. 22 by the Air Force Development Test Center, Eglin AFB, Fla.
TRW has been awarded a $56.7 million U.S. Navy contract to support the Joint Training Analysis and Simulation Center (JTASC) in Suffolk, Va. The company said work on the five-year contract will employ about 200 people in the Virginia Tidewater area. JTASC, located in a complex originally built to house the Naval Undersea Warfare Center. The 220,000-square-foot compound is equipped with computers and simulators to support training for joint task force commanders and staff in the continental U.S., TRW said.
LORAL DEFENSE SYSTEMS-AKRON received a $5.5 million addition to a contract for production of a weapon system trainer for the F-15S aircraft to be operated by Saudi Arabia. The contract, from the U.S. Air Force's Ogden Air Logistics Center, Hill AFB, Utah, was awarded Aug. 14.
Two U.S.-built Japanese communications satellites were successfully launched into orbit within six hours of each other. The Hughes-built JCSAT-3 satellite was launched from Cape Canaveral at 8:53 p.m. EDT Monday evening aboard an Atlas IIAS rocket. The liftoff took place ten minutes behind schedule due to a minor delay in fueling. Ground controllers in Japan received the first signals from the satellite at 10:26 p.m. EDT, confirming that it was operating normally.
The U.S. Air Force's electronic combat community is setting up its own acquisition reform initiative which it hopes will improve the way systems are procured and the extent to which they meet user requirements, AF officials say. The goal of the "Electronic Warfare Coalition Process" is to "institutionalize a better [acquisition] process," an AF official told The DAILY yesterday. "Everybody is involved from the start," he said, which will eliminate the stovepipe system.
Rep. George Brown (D-Calif.), the former chairman of the House Science Committee and currently ranking Democrat on the panel, has announced plans to seek re-election next year. At an Aug. 24 press conference in his home district in southern California, Brown said he decided to run for a 17th term to help "steer our country back on a moderate course and oppose the radical right-wing Republican dominance of the public policy agenda."
CIMLINC INC., Itasca, Ill., said it has been chosen by Pratt&Whitney to supply two application software solutions for its Product Delivery Center. Increasing demands for shorter production times and increased quality in the airline industry prompted P&W to dramatically decrease the final assembly time for its jet engines, and the software will help by integrating process plans, ERP, CAD and PDM information, CIMLINC said. It said that Pratt placed an initial order worth $930,000 and that the agreement could expand significantly over the next several years.
Lockheed charts being circulated on Capitol Hill show that the proposed A/F-117X, which the company is trying to sell to Congress and the U.S. Navy as a carrier-capable medium strike aircraft, would have a lower radar cross section in all respects than the current U.S. Air Force F-117 stealth fighter. The timing of Lockheed's move is no accident. Congress is nearing final authorization and appropriations decisions on the fiscal 1996 Joint Advanced Strike Technology (JAST) program:
Investigators from ANSER Inc. have found conditions at Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome improved since the consulting company conducted an initial survey in September 1993, with work on new commercial satellite preparation facilities underway and better living conditions in the nearby city of Leninsk.
ALLIANT TECHSYSTEMS will develop and demonstrate a prototype system capable of detecting, analyzing and relaying the location of gunfire in an urban environment. Under a $1.7 million contract from the Dept. of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency, the company's Emerging Business Group will demonstrate operational effectiveness of the device-called SECURES, for System for the Effective Control of Urban Environment Security-in Washington in mid-1996. Alliant said the system could be a law enforcement resource for the more than 260 major metropolitan areas in the U.S.
A U-2R PILOT was killed yesterday after his plane, embarking on an Operation Deny Flight mission over Bosnia, crashed at RAF Fairfield in England. The plane took off at 2:30 a.m. EDT to support the NATO operation when it suffered mechanical problems. The 35-year-old pilot, Capt. David Hawkens of McLean, Va., was attempting to return to base when he crashed on the runway.
EDO CORP., College Point, N.Y., said its Defense and Space Systems Div.'s Combat Systems business unit, Chesapeake, Va., has received a $1.4 million contract from Canada's Dept. of National Defense to manufacture and deliver Link-11 radar consoles and portable tactical Link systems to Canadian Maritime Command Headquarters. The systems are designed to enhance the Canadian Navy's command and control capabilities and provide more effective data transfer within the fleet.
A Russian Typhoon-class submarine has performed the first launch of a strategic missile from the North Pole, according to the daily newspaper Izvestia.
Photograph: Photograph: Photograph: The F-22 fighter's main weapons bay loaded with six AIM-120C missiles is shown in this computer-generated image from Lockheed Martin and Boeing The F-22 fighter's main weapons bay loaded with six AIM-120C missiles is shown in this computer-generated image from Lockheed Martin and Boeing.
The U.S. Special Operations Command's CV-22 tiltrotor initially may use a developmental version of the Army-developed Advanced Threat Infrared Countermeasure (ATIRCM) system until the self-protection system has been tested and is ready for fielding, industry officials said yesterday. "This is a production airplane we're designing," Stuart Dodge, vice president of the Bell-Boeing V-22 Program Office told The DAILY during an interview. "So we're not at the stage where we can be kind of iffy about stuff. We've got to have some pretty good information."
GENCORP'S AEROJET, Azusa, Calif., has received a $14.5 million increment as part of a $29 million contract for low rate production of the Sense and Destroy Armor Munition. The U.S. Army's Tank-Automotive&Armaments Command awarded the contract on Aug. 14.
