LOCKHEED MARTIN CORP.'S Defense Systems unit, Pittsfield, Mass., on June 27 received an $11.9 million contract from the U.S. Army Communications and Electronics Command for 295 Bradley Fighting Vehicle System HMPT-500-3EC Remanufactured Transmissions.
The Pentagon awarded $21.82 billion in research development, test and evaluation (RTD&E) contracts in fiscal year 1994, down from $22.29 billion in FY '93 (DAILY, June 20, 1994, page 449). The contracts are listed in the following tabulation, compiled by the Dept. of Defense.
A PanAmSat satellite will be launched on an Ariane rocket Aug. 1 in place of a Japanese communications satellite that was damaged in transit and is currently undergoing repairs. An Arianespace spokeswoman confirmed yesterday that PanAmSat's PAS-4 will be launched from Kourou, French Guiana, on Aug. 1 instead of Aug. 23. The damaged N-Star satellite, which was built by Space Systems/Loral for Nippon Telegraph&Telephone Co., will then apparently take PAS-4's original launch slot on Aug. 23.
The House Science Committee was expected to approve multi-year funding for the U.S. share of the International Space Station late yesterday after dispatching an amendment that would have terminated the project by a vote of 11-33. Committee members rejected the amendment offered by Rep. Tom Roemer (D-Ind.), a perennial Station foe, that would have canceled the project and set aside $500 million to cover termination costs. The panel's space subcommittee earlier rejected Roemer's amendment by a margin of 18-3.
The Senate Armed Services strategic subcommittee mark of the fiscal 1996 defense authorization would create a select committee on the future of the ABM Treaty, fund a major new cruise missile defense initiative and call for deployment of a multi-site national missile defense by 2003.
The U.S. Air Force awarded two contracts worth nearly $990 million for R&D services at Arnold Engineering Development Center in Tennessee. Sverdrup Technology Inc. of Tullahoma, Tenn., got $528.5 million and ASC-a Falls Church, Va.-based joint venture managed by Computer Sciences Corp. and including DynCorp and General Physics-got $460.3 million. The contracts, each for five years, were awarded Monday. AEDC operates more than 50 wind tunnels, rocket and engine test cells, space environmental chambers and ballistic ranges.
The U.S. Air Force is about to release a request for proposal for its Desktop V program, expected to involve up to 360,000 computers over a three- year period. Tony Valletta, DOD's C3I acquisition chief said Tuesday during an Electronics Industry Association conference in Washington that the RFP "will probably be out next week...either Monday or Wednesday," and that the Air Force hopes to work through proposals quickly and award a contract a "couple of months down the road."
CONVENTIONAL MUNITIONS SYSTEMS INC., Tampa, Fla., is in line to supply U.S. Army Missile Command with 36 Reduced Weight Precursor (RWPC) warheads for the Javelin missile. MICOM, in a June 20 Commerce Business Daily notice, said it needs 18 live and 18 inert RWPC warheads.
Lockheed Martin yesterday delivered the first of two reactivated SR- 71A Blackbird reconnaissance planes to the U.S. Air Force during a ceremony at the Lockheed Advanced Development Co. in Palmdale, Calif.
Tactical reconnaissance will be the subject today when USAF Brig. Gen. David McCloud, director of operational requirements, briefs Pentagon acquisition chief Paul Kaminski. With the competition for funds, the Defense Dept. is trying to figure out how tactical recce fits into the overall reconnaissance picture, a defense source told The DAILY yesterday. The Air Force is looking at some near-term and long-term options, including unmanned aerial vehicles, and it's McCloud's job to "put that picture together," the source said.
Crews of the Space Shuttle Atlantis and Russia's Mir space station spent yesterday setting up for their historic on-orbit rendezvous and docking this morning. The Atlantis crew prepared the Shuttle's Spacelab module to probe the physical condition of the three-man Mir 18 crew, while that crew prepared Mir to receive the two cosmonauts who will replace it.
U.S. MARINE CORPS Systems Command is issuing a solicitation for design and development of a Light Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Reconnaissance System (LNBCRS) that it would use jointly with the U.S. Army. MarCorSysCom said in a June 21 Commerce Business Daily notice that the system must be "capable of NBC hazard detection and identification, ground surface sampling, meteorological data collection, multimedia communications, hazard warning, reporting and marking, and navigation using hand-held and vehicle mounted Global Positioning Systems (GPS)."
The full Senate Armed Services Committee today is expected to take up a package from its seapower subcommittee that provides funding for the New Attack Submarine to both General Dynamics Electric Boat and Newport News Shipbuilding and would add partial funding for two additional DDG-51 destroyers.
TRW is asking the Federal Communications Commission to reject an application by Comsat Corp. to invest in an Inmarsat spinoff that will compete with TRW's Odyssey satellite communications system. In a petition to the FCC last Friday, TRW said that Comsat's plan to invest in I-CO Global Communications Ltd.-commonly known as Inmarsat-P- "significantly extends Comsat's exclusive status within Inmarsat in direct and obvious violation of the Maritime Satellite Act and is plainly contrary to the terms of the Inmarsat Convention and the public interest."
The Defense Dept.'s information warfare initiatives will receive additional funds in FY '96 if DOD's C3I acquisition chief succeeds in his quest to secure funds from a congressional add-on. "Security in information warfare will be one of the primary areas we'd like to throw some more resources at," Anthony Valletta, Deputy Secretary of Defense for command, control, communications and intelligence acquisition said last week in Washington.
C4I systems are supplying commanders with an abundance of information that they often can't use and don't want, according to a U.S. Marine Corps general. The answer to lifting the fog of war "is not 1.3 million LAN [local area network] messages," said Maj. Gen. Paul van Riper, the Marines' command, control, communications, computers and intelligence chief.
The Senate Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee's mark of the fiscal year 1996 defense bill funded $500 million for additional B-2 strategic bomber production and increased the Administration's $2.9 billion Ballistic Missile Defense by slightly less than the $750 million that the House added, subcommittee chairman Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said yesterday.
LUCAS AEROSPACE Power Systems, Aurora, Ohio, said it has been chosen by Israel Aircraft Industries to supply DC starter-generator systems for the Astra SP and Astra Galaxy business jets. Lucas said the Astra SP order supports current production, and that the Astra Galaxy order represents development work for the new aircraft slated for certification in 1996.
Now that Boeing and Airbus are turning their guns on each other, third-place Douglas Aircraft may be quietly positioning itself for a comeback, concludes Merrill Lynch First VP Byron Callan. Callan, who admits that he has "blown hot and cold on Douglas' prospects" along with the rest of Wall Street, met with Douglas management last week and told his clients in a research report circulating yesterday that he is "encouraged" that Douglas has the right ideas.
The Space Shuttle Atlantis lifted off from Cape Canaveral yesterday on a mission that is scheduled to see it dock with Russia's Mir Space Station for five days and bring U.S. astronaut Norm Thagard back to Earth.
BOEING CO.'S first 767 freighter made its initial flight June 21, taking off from Paine Field in Everett, Wash., and landing at Seattle's King County International Airport. The flight comes 29 months after UPS and Boeing joined to launch the derivative of the 767-300 extended-range twinjet. UPS said it would order up to 60 airplanes in January 1993. The 767 freighter flight test program will involve three airplanes. The second rolls out July 18 and the third Aug. 26. UPS will take delivery of the first 767 freighter-actually the No. 2 airplane-on Oct. 12.
MCDONNELL DOUGLAS delivered the first C-17 airlifter with improved Pratt&Whitney F117 engines to the U.S. Air Force. The plane, the 20th C- 17 to be delivered, features engines with single-crystal turbine blade technology, a supercharged compressor and improved thermal barrier coatings, McDonnell Douglas said. It said the improvements yield increased reliability and improved cooling techniques leading to reduced combustor exit temperatures.
ROCKWELL SYSTEMS AUSTRALIA, a subsidiary of Rockwell International, said it has completed the acquisition from Australia of the Aerostructure Components and Defense businesses of AeroSpace Technologies of Australia (ASTA) Ltd. "The acquisition of ASTA is part of Rockwell's overarching strategy to build its core businesses through global business development," said Donald R. Beall, Rockwell chairman and chief executive officer.
Ballistic Missile Defense director Lt. Gen. Malcolm O'Neill said yesterday that he wanted "one or two additional tests" of the Lightweight Exoatmospheric Projectile (LEAP) before deciding whether it or the Theater High Altitude Air Defense (THAAD) system would be the interceptor for the Navy Upper Tier theater missile defense system.
EER SYSTEMS CORP., Vienna, Va., will supply 38 Helicopter Night Vision System (HNVS) kits to Naval Air Systems Command for installation in CH-53E helicopters, according to a June 27 Commerce Business Daily notice.
