While Loral chief Bernard Schwartz last week repeated his worry that the consolidation process could create huge, vertically integrated contractors that will squeeze out second-tier suppliers and major subcontractors (DAILY, March 17, page 406), his counterpart at Northrop Grumman, Kent Kresa, isn't sure it's happening that way. "We're all going away from vertical integration," he says.
TECHNOLOGY, MANAGEMENT AND ANALYSIS CORP., Arlington, Va., beat out two other competitors for a $5.4 million award from U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command for technical and engineering services in support of DDG 51-class Aegis destroyers. The contract was awarded on April 26.
Despite published reports that Senate Armed Services ranking Democrat Sen. Sam Nunn (Ga.) is considering not running for re- election, Nunn gives no signs of phasing out from the Senate. He shows up for lesser subcommittee meetings, participates actively in hearings of the full committee and the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, rushes to roll calls and meets constituent groups. For the record, Nunn says he will make a decision on running for re-election in late summer or early fall.
The 16 megabyte applique computers being delivered to the U.S. Army for its digitization effort are going to be stretched to capacity as early as next year, says Bennet Hart, the Army's command and control deputy program executive officer. He said during a recent conference in Arlington, Va. By the time the Warrior Focus exercise comes around, he said, warfighters will require systems with 32 megabytes.
Japanese officials take every chance they can to prod the U.S. to prop up the sagging dollar. The head of the Society of Japanese Aerospace Companies, Naomi Anesaki, tells a Washington aerospace conference that "I must urge monetary authorities to make more serious efforts" to support the dollar. A quick look at history illustrates the problem-in 1985, when Japan became involved in the FS-X fighter, cooperative space programs, and Boeing's 767, a dollar bought 250 yen. Ten years later, a dollar is good for barely 80 yen.
Boeing's plan to launch Ukrainian/Russian Zenit boosters from Norwegian sea platforms is up and running, and should be orbiting satellites from equatorial anchorages in about three years. Top officials from Boeing, Ukraine's NPO Yuzhnoye, Russia's RSC Energia and Norway's Kvaerner A.S signed a definitive agreement in Seattle last Wednesday, formalizing the Sea Launch venture first announced last month (DAILY, April 4, page 12).
Space launch preparation mishaps claimed two lives at Europe's Kourou Space Center in French Guiana last week, while a hydrazine fire slightly damaged the Space Shuttle Endeavour at Kennedy Space Center. Two French technicians were killed Friday while inspecting the Ariane 5 launch pad at Kourou. The European Space Agency said Luc Celle and Jean- Claude Dhainaut were asphyxiated after inhaling an inert gas, and emergency teams were unable to revive them.
A Defense Dept. report on development of a directed architecture for tactical communications has been drafted and should be delivered to Capitol Hill this week or next, Dickman tells Glenn. Congress last year directed DOD to deliver the report by March 31, 1995.
The mix between commercial off-the-shelf, ruggedized and mil- standard applique computers used by the Army's digitized forces during the Task Force XXI exercise in 1997 will be largely cost driven, Hart said. The current mix "will change over time as we have architecture meetings."
BOOZ, ALLEN&HAMILTON INC., McLean, Va., received a $21.8 million contract April 27 from the U.S. Naval Regional Contracting Center, Charleston, S.C., to provide training, education, engineering, technical and management support services for Royal Saudi Naval Forces, under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program.
House National Security Committee sets the schedule for its markup of the fiscal 1996 defense authorization. Subcommittee markups start Thursday, with the procurement and research and development subcommittees likely to mark up just before the full committee markup on May 23. Committee sources say House floor action is tentatively set for June 12. The Senate Armed Services Committee is set to mark up its authorization by the end of June, sources say.
FLEET SUPPORT CENTER, Chesapeake, Va., on April 26 received a $12 million contract from the U.S. Naval Undersea Warfare Center Div., Newport, R.I., to analyze surface ship anti-submarine warfare (ASW) systems.
Consolidation savings should help boost margins at newly combined Lockheed Martin by a full percentage point, to 10%, by 1997, management told financial analysts last week. Merrill Lynch's Byron Callan said that Lockheed Martin believes the consolidation is on track, and "the majority" of the consolidation expenses should hit the company's balance sheet before the end of June, although "there could be an additional, minor charge by year-end 1995."
One way for U.S. industry to avoid government regulations on space launches from other countries is to move launch platforms out to sea, says Jerry O. Tuttle, Oracle Corp. vice president. The proven U.S. proven sea-launch capacity would provide the additional benefits of a large safety zone if a launch goes bad and the extra lift capacity that comes from launching near the equator.
An official involved in the drafting of updated regulations for licensing U.S. commercial remote sensing systems said they may contain clearer provisions as to when the government can "shutter" the imaging satellites. The Commerce Dept. is "hoping" to issue proposed regulations within 30-60 days, John Milholland, chief counsel of atmospheric and space services at Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said.
ABOUT 70 FEDERAL AGENTS under the direction of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles raided six Northrop Grumman plants in Hawthorne and El Segundo, Calif., Wednesday, Justice Dept. and Navy Criminal Investigative Service officials confirmed yesterday. The facilities make parts for Navy F/A-18 Hornet fighters and flying target drones used by the Navy, but officials wouldn't say what they were looking for.
The Air Force chose a TRW/Hughes team to design the Brilliant Eyes Space and Missile Tracking System, continuing a program begun in December 1992, and bringing the initial contract value to $249 million, TRW reported yesterday.
Eurocopter, the French-German helicopter consortium, is accusing the Dutch government of favoritism following a Cabinet decision last month to buy McDonnell Douglas AH-64 Apache helicopters instead of Eurocopter's Tiger, and apparently hopes to persuade the Dutch parliament to reverse the choice.
TRW's patent on the use of medium-Earth orbits (MEO) for its Odyssey mobile communications satellite project is the "functional equivalent of Boeing trying to get a patent for [a] new airliner to carry passengers at altitudes of between 30,000 and 45,000 feet," an executive involved in a competing venture charged.
The Defense Dept. wants to change the way industry can protest contract awards in the face of large numbers of protests clogging the acquisition system, said Colleen Preston, DOD's acquisition reform chief. "We are pursuing change in the bid process," she told an audience largely of industry executives at this week's Global Air&Space conference. "We can't be doing it wrong 40% of the time."
NASA's top access-to-space official has blasted Marshall Space Flight Center for releasing a preliminary design study that appeared to favor Rockwell's winged-body approach to the agency's Reusable Launch Vehicle over competing concepts from Lockheed Martin and McDonnell Douglas.
HERON, Israel Aircraft Industries' long endurance unmanned aerial vehicle, established a new system endurance record Tuesday by flying 51 hours and 20 minutes with a 440-pound payload. IAI said the UAV operated "flawlessly." Heron is slated to be presented during the Paris Air Show.
NASA, General Electric Aircraft Engines and Pratt&Whitney continue to notch successes in making environmentally friendly components for engines powering the U.S.'s hoped-for Concorde SST successor, and have demonstrated the ability to reach low nitrogen oxide levels and to meet Stage III noise requirements.
Senate Armed Services ranking Democrat Sen. Sam Nunn (Ga.) said yesterday that he won't decide whether to try to add B-2 stealth bomber funding to the fiscal 1996 defense authorization until he reviews the Heavy Bomber Force Study assumptions.
Loral Corp. has applied to the Federal Communications Commission for a license to build and operate a high-speed digital telecommunications satellite in the Ka-band frequencies over the western U.S.
