Gen. Joseph Ashy, head of U.S. Space Command, yesterday reimbursed the Air Force $5,020 for a C-21 executive jet flight that he and his wife took last year from Peterson AFB, Colo., to his promotion ceremony in Washington. Ashy's payment arrived at the Pentagon via Federal Express on the same day that the Defense Dept.'s Inspector General released its long-awaited report regarding Ashy's travel habits.
Kaman Corp. has exceeded all test criteria in trials of the Magic Lantern heliborne mine countermeasures system, the company's founder, chairman and CEO said yesterday. Charles H. Kaman also said the company on Monday submitted a proposal to the U.S. Navy in a program to come up a replacement for the service's aging vertical replenishment helicopters, and that the proposal involves a charter lease concept.
Hughes Training Inc., Arlington, Tex., has beaten three other competitors in the U.S. Army's competition for the Fire Support Combined Arms Tactical Trainer (FSCATT) program, which may ultimately be worth more than $100 million. Hughes was chosen Loral, Northrop Grumman and Metric for a $16.3 million contract for engineering and manufacturing development of FSCATT, intended to provide the field artillery gunnery team with a family of training devices that will allow soldiers to train individually or as a team.
About a week ahead of schedule, Lockheed Martin officially started assembling the first major portion of the F-22 Advanced Tactical Fighter yesterday, when workers loaded subcomponents of the mid-fuselage into an assembly fixture at the company's Fort Worth, Tex., plant. The 5,700-pound mid-fuselage assembly-17 feet long by 15 wide and with more than 200 composite parts-should be completed next July, when it will then be shipped to Lockheed Martin's Marietta, Ga., plant for final assembly with the rest of the plane's components.
A redesigned turbine for Pratt&Whitney's F119 Advanced Tactical Fighter engine recently passed a crucial series of worst-case tests, doing well enough that P&W and the U.S. Air Force are ready to abandon an all-new turbine design that had been in the works as a back-up. "The stunning success of the new turbine design has made it possible for us to stop work on an alternate contingency turbine design," said James Yankel, F119 Propulsion lead engineer in the F-22 fighter System Program Office, or SPO.
The acting heads of NASA's Office of External Relations and Office of Aeronautics have been appointed full-fledged associate administrators at space agency headquarters, Administrator Daniel S. Goldin announced Monday. John D. Schumacher was named associate administrator for external relations, and Robert E. Whitehead was appointed associate administrator for aeronautics.
AT&T is planning a satellite constellation for military and commercial customers that uses multiple satellites in the same geostationary orbit node. The concept, called QuestStar, is being proposed by AT&T Federal as part of its proposal for the Common Satellite Communication Initiative contract, which the Defense Information Technology Contracting Office (DITCO) at Scott AFB in St. Louis is expected to award July 17. Hughes, COMSAT and MCI are also vying for the contract.
The decline in the U.S. Defense Dept.'s information technology obligations should slow over the next five years as the Air Force and Defense Information Systems Agency continue record growth for IT obligations, according to a new forecast by the Electronic Industries Association (EIA).
Two satellite manufacturing plants in the eastern U.S. will close and more than 12,000 jobs will be eliminated under a long-awaited consolidation plan announced yesterday by Lockheed Martin Corp. The plan, designed to maximize efficiencies and eliminate overlap from the merger of Lockheed and Martin Marietta earlier this year, should generate annual savings of $1.8 billion when it is fully implemented, the company said. The plan envisions phasing out twelve major facilities and laboratories and 26 duplicative field offices no later than 1999.
CUBIC DEFENSE SYSTEMS INC., San Diego, said it has won a $34.2 million contract from the U.S. Army Simulation, Training and Instrumentation Command (STRICOM) to build the service's Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System (MILES) 2000. The system will replace the currently fielded MILES, first developed in the late 1970s and now reaching the end of its economic life. MILES is a laser-based system used by U.S. Army and Marine Corps personnel as well as allied forces in realistic force-on-force combat training exercises, Cubic said.
June 23, 1995 Kollsman Division of Sequa Corporation, Merrimack, New Hampshire, is being awarded a $36,205,272 firm-fixed-price contract for 44 night targeting systems for AH-1W helicopters for the U.S. Marine Corps. Work will be performed in Merrimack, New Hampshire, and is expected to be completed by June 1997. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. The Naval Air Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00019-95-C-0211).
LORAL CONTROL SYSTEMS, Archbald, Pa., was awarded a $9.7 million contract on May 24 by Naval Air Systems Command for 2,500 Laser Guided Training Rounds (LGTRs), used as expendable training devices by Navy air crews. The Dept. of Defense said LGTRs allow training for the proper deployment of laser guided munitions.
Boeing Co.'s board of directors yesterday authorized production of the stretched 777 airliner following announcements at the Paris Air Show earlier this month that four airlines have ordered 31 of the planes. Boeing Chairman Frank Shrontz said the aircraft, the 777-300, "offers an attractive option for progressively lower cost per seat within the 777 family and for replacements of early model 747s."
CONCURRENT COMPUTER CORP., Oceanport, N.J., said Aero Simulation Inc. (ASI) has chosen its Maxion multiprocessor system for the Naval Air Warfare Training Systems Div.'s KC-130 modification for Devices 2F107 and 2F107A. Concurrent said the KC-130 Upgrade Program incorporates GPS training for the U.S. Marine Corps' flight simulation program. ASI, of Tampa, Fla., recently won the $5 million KC-130 Modification Upgrade contract.
U.S. AIR FORCE'S Air Combat Command said yesterday that Lt. Gen. Thomas R. Griffith, commander of the 12th Air Force and U.S. Southern Command Air Forces at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., was relieved of duty Sunday. An AF announcement said Gen. Joseph W. Ralston, ACC's commander, reacted to inappropriate personal conduct on Griffith's part. Maj. Gen. James F. Record, Griffith's vice commander, will be acting commander until a replacement has been confirmed.
The U.S. Air Force's Wright Laboratory is soliciting industry for a program of R&D on laser-hardened optical modules for the LANTIRN system and the forward looking infrared (FLIR) system of the AC-130U gunship. The lab said in a June 20 Commerce Business Daily notice that it is considering multiple awards for a 24-month program.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN, Bethpage, N.Y., has received a $4.6 million contract from Naval Air Systems Command for a maintenance trainer for the F-14A/B upgrade. A June 27 Commerce Business Daily notice said the contract was awarded May 24.
Plans by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to zero funding for the Advanced Research Projects Agency's Tier II Plus high altitude endurance unmanned aerial vehicle would leave the recently rolled out Tier III Minus UAV without a ground station, an ARPA official warned. "The ground control station will be common for both systems" so eliminating its funding will also affect Tier III Minus, also known as DarkStar, according to John Entzminger, ARPA's HAE UAV program manager.
The General Prosecutor's Office has focused on Russia's aerospace industry in a report charging that for more than three years Russia's State Committee on Managing State Property (GKI) has mismanaged state-owned property, including trying to privatize strategic facilities which are legally excluded from private ownership.
Closings: 12 facilities and laboratories, plus 15 international and 11 domestic field offices, to be closed or consolidated. Jobs eliminated: 12,000 Cost: $1.7 billion over two years. Company will take a second-quarter pretax charge of $525 million to 1995 earnings on top of a $165 million first quarter charge. Anticipated Savings: $1.8 billion annually when fully implemented Completion date: No later than 1999 Major Closings
Alliant Techsystems will develop a new solid rocket motor to boost McDonnell Douglas' planned Delta III space launcher, while a variant of Pratt&Whitney's venerable RL10 will power the new Delta's cryogenic upper stage. McDonnell Douglas said yesterday the Magna, Utah, solid rocket concern known as Hercules until it was acquired by Alliant Techsystems, will develop a new graphite epoxy motor four feet longer than the motor Alliant builds for the Delta II.
EAST INC., Centreville, Va., is pursuing R&D for virtual simulation for terminally-guided weapons under a $69,243 contract from Naval Air Systems Command. The contract, according to a June 27 Commerce Business Daily notice, was awarded April 25.
