Thiokol and AlliedSignal will join a Russian joint stock company in a venture to build three facilities to reprocess highly toxic rocket fuel from missiles demobilized under the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I), according to Russia' State Committee on Defense Industries (Goskomoboronprom).
USAF AERONAUTICAL SYSTEMS CENTER's Air Base Systems Div., Eglin AFB, Fla., will issue a solicitation for development and production of MultiSpectral Ground Decoys of the F-117A and F-15E aircraft and ground support equipment.
House Appropriations Committee members dropped language ordering NASA to close three of its field centers yesterday, as they passed a $13.67 billion fiscal 1996 appropriation for the space agency. Committee members voted unanimously to eliminate report language inserted by the VA, HUD and independent agencies subcommittee last week requiring NASA to close Goddard Space Flight Center, Marshall Space Flight Center and Langley Research Center (DAILY, July 11, page 33).
USAF WRIGHT LABORATORY is soliciting proposals froam industry for an anti-jam filter technology program. The aim of the effort "is to identify, evaluate, develop, demonstrate, and deliver innovative GPS anti- jam (AJ) filter(s) that are effective against intentional and unintentional interference to GPS User Equipment (UE), with emphasis on multiple broadband Gaussian noise interferers," according to a July 18 Commerce Business Daily notice.
The extent to which the U.S. Army will be able to accelerate fielding the Boeing-Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche scout helicopter depends on the level of funding provided in the fiscal year 1999-2001 timeframe, the Army's top acquisition official said yesterday. "When you get to the end of the POM [program objective memorandum] cycle, we've got to make sure we, the Army, come in with some extra monies in around '00 and '01, perhaps as early as '99," Gilbert F. Decker, the Army acquisition executive said.
Boeing Co. has decided to press ahead with its tiltrotor unmanned aerial vehicle development, building one additional, slightly more powerful Heliwing to replace one that was destroyed in a crash last month. The new vehicle will be fitted with a Williams International Model 124 engine like the one used on the UAV that crashed, but this engine will produce 295 horsepower, an additional 55 hp, a Boeing spokesman said. The new engine "will enable it [Heliwing] to fly a longer range and carry a slightly larger payload," he said.
Martin Marietta Astronautics Group, Littleton, Colorado, is being awarded a $12,187,500 face value increase to a Cost Plus Fixed Fee contract for technical studies regarding integration of payloads onto the Titan IV launch vehicle. Contract is expected to be completed September 1999. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles, California is the contracting activity (F04701-85/C-0019, P01367).
In criticism sure to be applauded by electronic combat supporters, the Senate Armed Services Committee blasts the Defense Dept.'s electronic warfare approach and authorizes $205 million to rectify the situation as soon as possible.
Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), Falls Church, Va.; Sciences Application International Corporation (SAIC), San Diego, Calif., and Merdan Group, Incorporated, San Diego, Calif., are being awarded a $6,000,000 indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract to provide technical support for information systems security applications to the Department of Defense. The maximum value of all contracts is $1.95 billion. The Defense Information Systems Agency, National Capital Region Contracting Office, Arlington, Va. is the contracting activity.
The first operational fleet of about a dozen McDonnell Douglas C-17 airlifters had notched a 98.4% dispatch rate through Sunday afternoon, about a week and a half into the crucial month-long reliability, maintainability and availability evaluation, or RM&AE. Lt. Col. Ronald Ladnier, commander of the 437th Airlift Wing's 17th Airlift Squadron, told The DAILY Sunday after a pre-flight briefing here for aircrews that so far only one aircraft has had to scrub its planned flight, "and that was for weather."
The Senate Armed Services Committee's funding of $150 million under the Joint Advanced Strike Technology (JAST) program to modify an existing F-117A stealth fighter for carrier suitability, if enacted into law, could move Lockheed Martin's proposal out of the briefing stage and into hardware. SASC, in its just-released fiscal 1996 defense authorization report, added funding of $175 million, of which $25 million is for the Secretary of the Navy to conduct an initial examination to validate A/F-X capability to meet Navy requirements.
An effort to develop a heavy-fuel engine for the Hunter Joint Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle is being halted because the powerplant is overweight, a senior U.S. Army official said. The AS240 JP8-burning engine was supposed to come in at 235 pounds, but its weight is "significantly higher," said Col. P.K. Tanguay, JTUAV program manager.
TRW, Incorporated, Electronic Systems and Technologies Division, Redondo Beach, California, was awarded on July 11, 1995, a $1,659,206 increment as part of a $22,000,011 (basic contract with a cumulative total of $30,309,016 if options are exercised) cost plus fixed fee contract for Microwave and Analog Front End Technology (MAFET).
A Tier II Predator unmanned aerial vehicle incurred $200,000-500,000 in damage last Wednesday after making a dead-stick landing in the California desert and hitting a fence, a UAV spokesman said.
Alliant Techsystems, Kilgore Operations, Toone, Tennessee, is being awarded a $14,514,508 firm fixed price contract for 514,836 MJU-7A/B infrared flares and 308,200 M206 infrared flares. Work will be performed in Toone, Tennessee, and is expected to be completed be December 5, 1997. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There were 3 bids solicited on April 25, 1995, and 3 bids received. The contracting activity is the U.S. Army Armament, Munitions and Chemical Command, Rock Island, Illinois, (DAAA09-95-C-0094).
The Defense Dept. is disputing a report that its B-2 bomber doesn't meet stealthiness requirements, that its radar is performing below expectations, that its flight control system is erratic, and that it is failing system tests. A draft report by the General Accounting Office says "the Air Force has yet to demonstrate that the B-2 design will meet some of its most important mission requirements," according to an article in Saturday editions of the New York Times.
Raytheon Company, Electronic Systems Division, Sudbury, Massachusetts, is being awarded a $34,905,686 cost-plus-award-fee contract for Mk. 57 NATO Seasparrow Missile Systems (NSSMS) architecture. Work will be performed in Sudbury, Massachusetts (90%), and Waltham, Massachusetts (10%), and is expected to be completed by December 1998. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00024-95-C-5409).
Aero Systems Engineering, St. Paul, Minnesota, is being awarded a $5,636,831 firm-fixed-price contract for three standard engine test systems. Work will be performed in St. Paul, Minnesota, and is expected to be completed by December 1996. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. This contract combines purchases for the U.S. Navy (35%), and the governments of Malaysia (34%), and Taiwan (31%), under the Foreign Military Sales Program.
The Senate Armed Services Committee has more than doubled the Pentagon's budget request for the low-Earth orbit component of the Space Based Infrared early warning system (SBIRS) and is ordering the effort to be significantly accelerated.
Hughes Missile Systems Company, Tucson, Arizona, is being awarded a $2,599,527 modification to a definitization of letter/firm fixed price contract with a cumulative total of $5,199,053, for various Stinger repair parts for the countries of Japan, Denmark, and Switzerland. The Stinger is a shoulder-fired, infrared missile system that homes in on the heat emitted by either jet or propeller-driven, fixed-wing aircraft or helicopters. Work will be performed in Tucson, Arizona, and is expected to be completed by November 30, 1997.
Development and production of the Tier II Predator unmanned aerial vehicle, now being readied in Eastern Europe for deployment over Bosnia, would be halted if the Senate Armed Services Committee has its way. A provision in the SASC report on the fiscal 1996 defense authorization would prohibit obligating or expending funds for further procurement, research, development, test or evaluation of the Tier II program.
Olin Ordnance, Downey, California, was awarded on July 13, 1995, a $22,100,000 firm fixed price contract for 170,000 M919 25mm armor piercing, fin stabilized, discarding sabot with tracer, cartridges. Work will be performed in Downey, California (84%), and Marion, Illinois (16%), and is expected to be completed by August 30, 1996. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on December 22, 1994. The contracting activity is the U.S.
The U.S. Air Force may "miss an opportunity" to cut $77 million in Sensor Fuzed Weapon procurement costs over the Future Years Defense Plan, the Defense Dept. Inspector General said in a recent report.
Although official observers will be evaluating every phase of the operation of C-17s and their crews, the crucial grades will be handed out for Reliability, Maintainability and Availability. Here's what's on the scoring sheet: Reliability Evaluators will look at mission completion success probability, mean time between removal, and mean time between maintenance, all of which measure how often C-17s need to be maintained. Maintainability
Lockheed Fort Worth Company, Fort Worth, Texas, is being awarded a $46,368,317 face value increase to a firm fixed price contract to definitize production of 32 F-16C aircraft, eight F-16D aircraft and associated alternate mission equipment. Contract is expected to be completed October 1998. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This effort supports foreign military sales to Greece. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-90/C-2002, P00350).
