NICHOLS RESEARCH CORP., Huntsville, Ala., has received a contract from U.S. Army Missile Command for computer updates at the Missile and Space Intelligence Center in Huntsville. Nichols said the contract is valued at $8,689,451 including all options, with $1,942,847 obligated immediately.
Hughes Aircraft Co. is proposing its new third generation forward looking infrared (FLIR) system as an upgrade of the F/A-18 strike fighter's targeting and navigation pods. The company is trying to convince the U.S. Navy to put the pods through a product improvement program, replacing the first generation FLIR, according to Arslan C. Safyurtlu, program executive, fixed wing aircraft for Hughes Electro-Optic Systems, El Segundo, Calif. Hughes is the primary supplier of the navigation pod and the second supplier on the targeting pod.
AUSTRIA is exploring the purchase of Bell Helicopter Textron's Bell 412 to enhance and modernize its medium twin-engine military helicopter force. Austrian Ambassador Swanee Hunt visited the company's Fort Worth, Tex., site to discuss the potential sale, Bell Helicopter Textron said.
The Aerospace Industries Association expects nearly 6% of the aerospace workforce to be eliminated this year, and the trade association estimates that "non-production labor" will absorb the brunt of the cuts. Aerospace companies cut 80,000 jobs last year and will probably cut another 48,000 this year. AIA's new estimate, made public yesterday, puts total aerospace employment at 779,000 by the end of 1995, "a loss of 41% of the aerospace workforce, or 552,000 jobs, since the peak of aerospace employment of 1.331 million in 1989," AIA said.
Questions on the key role granted a shaky Russia in International Space Station development and on the impact of Station spending on NASA's overall budget dominated Senate questioning of NASA officials yesterday as Station opponents in the House mounted yet another drive to kill the orbiting laboratory.
TURKEY will update four F-16C maintenance trainers to the F-16C Block 30B/E configuration under a $5.2 million foreign military sales contract. Hughes Training will perform the upgrade to include a high- fidelity cockpit, a flat panel with two- and three-dimensional physical simulations, and an interactive video station for student or instructor interface.
SIKORSKY AIRCRAFT DIV. of United Technologies Corp., Stratford, Conn., yesterday received $107.4 million under a previously awarded U.S. Navy contract for six Model S-70B-7 helicopters and related equipment for the Royal Thailand Navy, under a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program.
LORAL VOUGHT SYSTEMS CORP., Grand Prairie, Tex., was awarded a $75.3 million modification to an earlier contract for 49 Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) launchers, 1,315 MLRS practice rocket pods, and 158 tactical rocket pods for Israel, Japan, Greece and the U.S. Army Missile Command awarded the contract on May 10.
HUGHES AIRCRAFT CO. said it has received U.S. Army clearance to produce the first infrared sight for the service that is light enough to be used with rifles and other infantry systems. Exercise of a $22 million contract option by the Army's Communications and Electronics Command calls for production of about 500 Thermal Weapon Sights (TWS), with second-year options for up to 1,500 units, Hughes said. Deliveries are slated to begin next spring, it said. Last year, the company delivered 27 engineering and manufacturing development units.
Textron Defense Systems will receive U.S. Air Force solicitation to move into the full rate production phase of the Sensor Fuzed Weapon (SFW) program. The AF's Aeronautical Systems Center, Eglin AFB, Fla., said in a May 23 Commerce Business Daily notice that the first full rate production annual buy of the CBU-97A/B wide area munition "will consist of the procurement of 500 full-up CBUs with delivery 18 months after contract award, 54 Seek Eagle test units, warranty and data."
The House Intelligence Committee held the first hearing of its Intelligence Community in the 21st Century (IC21) review yesterday with no fewer than six former directors of central intelligence (DCIs) on hand to offer their suggestions on how to shape future U.S. intelligence operations.
U.S. ARMY Communications-Electronics Command intends to contract with SAIC of the U.S. in partnership with Schiebel of Austria and Alvis of Great Britain for work on a non-developmental Interim Vehicle Mounted Mine Detector System. CECOM, Ft. Monmouth, N.J., said in a May 17 Commerce Business Daily notice that the purchase will be through Nunn Amendment appropriations.
Britain's Defense Ministry placed a follow-up order late last week for another 1,000 Shorts Starstreak high-velocity laser-guided close air defense missiles, an order welcomed by recently beleaguered Shorts, which sees it as a "major boost" that will "secure continuity of production and employment" at Shorts in Belfast. Shorts President Roy McNulty said that in addition to Starstreak's surface-to-air role with the British army, he believed it offered significant advantages over its competitors for air-to-air use.
U.S. ARMY Simulation, Training and Instrumentation Command plans to provide industry with a draft statement of work and related documents on the SINCGARS Monitor and Control Subsystem (SMCS) integration upgrade effort.
Hughes Radar and Communications Systems has demonstrated an advancement in radar technology using fiber optics which it believes can be made available to tactical aircraft, a Hughes official said. Mike Wechsberg, the unit's senior scientist for general technology programs, said using the system on tactical aircraft is merely "a packaging issue."
Russia finally got its Spektr pressurized laboratory module off the ground and on the way to the Mir space station over the weekend, and the two cosmonauts aboard the orbiting Russian facility promptly donned spacesuits for another trip outside to prepare for the module's arrival June 1.
Alliant Techsystems on May 15 received $69 million in U.S. Army contracts for ammunition and munitions. The contracts were as follows: -- $43.2 million to exercise an option on a contract for the assembly, production and integration of 12,000 Volcano M87A1 munition canisters. The contract was awarded by the Armament Research Development&Engineering Center, Picatinny Arsenal, N.J.
NEW ENGLAND ORDNANCE, Guild, N.H., beat nine competitors for a $5.4 million U.S. Army contract for 2,091,744 M21 artillery flash simulators, 98,010 of which are for Kuwait. The Dept. of Defense said on May 9 that the contract was awarded by U.S. Army Armament, Munitions, and Chemical Command.
The Defense Dept. announced its selection of Advanced Concept Technology Demonstrations for fiscal year 1996. It said Friday that the ACTDs will allow users to evaluate new technologies in operation. ACTDs were first introduced in 1994 to speed up the introduction of new capabilities at low cost, including the rapid integration of maturing technologies. Larry Lynn, deputy under secretary of defense for advanced technology, selected the following twelve programs for FY '96:
The Society of British Aerospace Companies (SBAC) is talking over detailed proposals with the government aimed at improving the competitiveness of the U.K. aerospace industry, which the group says needs an annual sales boost of some 2.5 billion pounds ($3.9 billion) to reverse recent declines. SBAC Director Sir Barry Duxbury said last week that Britain's aerospace industry, which employs some 140,000, faces problems of "marked" overcapacity and weak customer demand, which require an overall strategic approach never previously achieved.
Boeing is making headway against its announced goals of cutting cycle time and defects in commercial aircraft programs in half, and is within two months of the cycle time goal for 767 and 747, Boeing Commercial Airplane Group President Ron Woodard said. "We have reduced our cycle times from as high as 18 months a few years ago down to 10 months for the 737 and 757 and 10.5 months for the 767 and 747," Woodard said here Tuesday.
