The House Appropriations national security subcommittee will begin its three-day markup of defense appropriations today with a budget allocation of $244.1 billion in fiscal 1996 budget authority. The Appropriations Committee allocated the subcommittee $244.1 billion in budget authority (B.A.) and $244.3 billion in outlays as its share of national security funding.
The Societe Europeenne des Satellites (SES) has exercised an option to order a sixth satellite from Hughes Space and Communications International, Hughes announced. The new satellite, designated Astra 1H, is identical to a high-powered Hughes HS-601 ordered by SES in January and will act as an in-orbit spare in the Astra constellation. SES plans to launch the satellite in 1998, Hughes said.
Dazed after recording its first-ever post-war loss, Germany's Daimler-Benz thinks Europe's enginemakers should band together to form a single company, and on-again off-again talks between Daimler's engine leadership and the BMW/Rolls-Royce venture took on new urgency last week thanks to the financial results. Daimler's vision is to combine its own enginemaker, MTU, with rival BMW/Rolls-a prospect MTU partner Pratt&Whitney doesn't like, and one that BMW/Rolls' biggest customer, Gulfstream Aircraft, finds uncomfortable.
U.S. Naval Air Systems Command on Friday partially reinstated the Medium Range Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (MRUAV) program with an $11.5 million award to contractor Teledyne Ryan for six of the UAVs. The Navy canceled the program earlier for convenience of the government, saying the UAV wasn't affordable given its priority (DAILY, Nov. 2, 1993, page 199B). On Friday, the Defense Dept. said Teledyne Ryan was awarded the new contract for "partial reinstatement" of the program.
Intelsat last week announced several new additions to its senior management team. It said that: -- Andrew Browne has been appointed vice president and chief financial officer of the Washington-based international satellite communications consortium. Browne, a citizen of Ireland, will replace David Tudge, who will remain as an adviser to Intelsat Director General Irving Goldstein until he retires Dec. 31.
-- KOLLSMAN DIV. of Sequa Corp., Merrimack N.H., said it has received a $36.2 million award for 44 Night Targeting Systems for the AH-1 Super Cobra helicopter. Deliveries will begin in July 1996 and be completed in July 1997. Kollsman began delivering the system to the U.S. Marine Corps in 1993. "The contract includes options to meet requirements through 1998 for an additional 100 systems, which could involve Foreign Military Sales," said Ronald H. Wright, president of Kollsman.
An $88.8 million U.S. Navy contract to EER Systems Corp. for weapon system support has been withheld pending a Small Disadvantaged Business Set-Aside protest filed by a losing bidder, the Pentagon reported. Under the $88,798,480 cost-plus-award-fee contract, the Vienna, Va.- based company would provide engineering and technical support services for the Weapon System Support Activities (WSSA), systems software support activities and weapons system support facilities at the Naval Air Warfare Center, Weapons Div., China Lake, Calif.
Fokker's management board predicted that the company's net loss for the first six months of this year will be higher than the whole of 1994. It blamed the "past depressed state of the market" but said that "by far the largest portion of the loss stems from the steep decline of the U.S. dollar." It said it is attempting to arrange a "package of measures aimed at strengthening the company's capital base," and expects to reach a solution by autumn, after which a "general meeting of shareholders will be consulted on the package of measures to be taken."
The Senate Armed Services Committee authorized $506.2 million for the Joint Advanced Strike Technology program, adding $175 million to the request to initiate a limited demonstration of a naval version of the Air Force's F-117 stealth aircraft, a SASC spokeswoman said Friday. After its markup of the fiscal 1996 defense authorization, the committee on June 30 announced a lower figure for JAST-$324.3 million (DAILY, July 6, page 11). The spokeswoman said this figure included the Navy's request of $149.3 million, and the F-117 add-on.
Typically only a tiny fraction of contractors' challenges are actually sustained. In fiscal 1993, for example, GAO-which arbitrates most bid protests-received 3,109 appeals, and the General Services Administration Board of Contract Appeals, or GSBCA, had another 287. But for those who win, they usually win big, with full reversals of contract award decisions and the ability to collect reimbursement for lawyers' fees incurred in preparing the protest.
French enginemaker SNECMA is putting the Dassault Rafale's M88 turbofan in the running to power the third batch of JAS39 Gripen multirole fighters for Swedish air force service. So far the only official powerplant for the plane is Volvo Flygmotor's RM12 version of General Electric's F404, but both Eurojet EJ200 and GE F414 managers have spent a lot of time in "informal" talks with JAS Industry Group leader Saab Aircraft and Volvo.
Hughes Radar Systems is evaluating the use of fiber optics for onboard radar testing, and sees easy integration in such systems as the F/A-18 fighter's AN/APG-73 radar and the F-15's AN/APG-63(V)1. The Fiber Optic Radar Test Equipment (FORTE) concept is part of a Hughes internal research and development effort that so far has only been looked at by the U.S. Navy and Air Force, Irwin L. Newberg, Hughes' project manager said in an interview.
Textron's Cessna Aircraft unit Friday formally protested the award of the Air Force/Navy Joint Primary Aircraft Training System (JPATS) program to Raytheon's Beech Aircraft, arguing that despite public talk about a "best value" procurement, the services opted to go for the low bidder. Cessna issued a statement late Friday confirming rumors of a protest that had been circulating throughout the day, but offering few details.
The Space Shuttle Atlantis landed at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., Friday after taking the first step in what Administrator Daniel S. Goldin said will be a "marathon" effort to build the International Space Station.
Europe's first spy satellite was launched Friday, marking the first step in a French-led effort to break away from decades of reliance on the United States for reconnaissance satellite data. The Helios 1A satellite was launched at 12:23 p.m. EDT on an Ariane 4 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana. France oversaw development of the $2 billion spacecraft, with minor participation from Italy and Spain. Matra Marconi was the prime contractor.
-- SBS TECHNOLOGIES INC. is the new name of SBS Engineering Inc., the Albuquerque, N.M., company said. Dr. Andrew C. Cruce, chairman and chief executive officer, said, the change "reflects our successful exit from the flight simulator market and our new business focus as a rapidly growing designer and producer of high-end computer products and systems for the industrial market." SBS Technologies designs and manufactures specialized electronic and computer products and interface products to support avionics system test/data transmission.
-- KAISER ELECTRONICS, San Jose, Calif., has delivered two cockpit displays to McDonnell Douglas for the F/A-18E/F fighter. One is the Multi- Purpose Color Display (MPCD), an active matrix liquid crystal display which provides full color map video or high resolution monochrome sensor video, overlaid with full color graphics symbology, Kaiser said. The other, it said, is the Multi-Purpose Color Display Up-Front Control Display (UFCD), a monochrome LCD infrared touch screen for pilot interactive control.
Workers at Russia's Votkinsk Mechanical Plant have been furloughed and the plant has stopped operations until the end of July due to a lack of funding from the Russian state. The Russian ICBM manufacturer, where the Topol mobile ICBM (known as SS-25 in the West) and its derivatives, including the Start family of commercial launchers, hasn't been paid because the Russian government hasn't approved the 1995 State Defense Order. That makes the job of U.S.
-- DCS CORP., Alexandria, Va., has received a $750,000 contract from Naval Air Warfare Center, Aviation Div., Patuxent River, Md., to integrate a helmet mounted display into the E-2C aircraft cockpit.
Even though the Aegis radar will be able to continue to fill the Navy's radar requirement, it's designed primarily to deal with clutter and will eventually have to be replaced, Huchting says. The extent to which microwave technology can be used is reaching its limit, he notes. Advances such as solid state active arrays and shared apertures will be required and ideally be conformal, he says, adding that DOD has to "put that in the budget to go forward."
McDonnell Douglas' DC-X successfully completed its eighth flight and final test Friday after performing a critical rotation maneuver that a vertical-landing rocket would have to execute after re-entering the Earth's atmosphere.
-- BOEING DEFENSE&SPACE GROUP said U.S. Air Force fighter pilots are helping it and Lockheed Martin develop the tactical display system for the F-22 fighter. It said pilots from Eglin, Nellis and Langley AFBs meet at least twice a year at the Boeing Developmental Center in Seattle to examine F-22 head-down displays. They determine how effectively the system integrates and displays combat information, according to the company. The goal is to maximize situational awareness. Boeing is designing seven of the F-22's 20 cockpit displays.
NAVAL AIR WARFARE CENTER, Aircraft Div., Warminster, Pa., plans competitive procurement of up to 8,200 chemical-biological-radiological (CBR) systems to protect U.S. Navy and Marine Corps air crews. "The system will provide the U.S. Navy Helicopter Crew and USMC Air Crew with head-eye-respiratory personal protective equipment compatible with existing air crew life support equipment and mission essential equipment to execute mission operations in a CBR warfare environment," NAWC said in a July 3 Commerce Business Daily notice.
-- HONEYWELL DEFENSE AVIONICS SYSTEMS, Albuquerque, N.M., said its integrated vehicle and mission management system (IVMMS) was aboard a Belgian Air Force C-130 avionics modification program aircraft as it made its first flight May 4. Honeywell said the modifications, by prime contractor Sabena Technics, include a complete avionics upgrade. Honeywell said its avionics suite contains military and commercial equipment. It said at least 15 countries have expressed interest in the IVMMS.
The Pentagon will provide up to $50 million in airlift, sealift and equipment to the European Rapid Reaction Force being deployed to Bosnia- Herzegovina. It said the amount will be in addition to about $10 million being provided for intelligence, surveillance and close air support. Initial support will total around $15 million, breaking down this way:
