Sens. Dirk Kempthorne (R-Idaho), Hank Brown (R-Colo.), Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) and Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) are cosponsoring an amendment that would create a defense export loan guarantee program. Lieberman says the program would level the playing field for U.S. manufacturers once an export license has been approved, noting that American companies must compete against European and Canadian companies that benefit from government support, including subsidies in some cases.
DEFENSE NUCLEAR AGENCY is soliciting industry for studies to identify alternative methodologies for elimination of Ukrainian SS-24 ICBMs, with emphasis on the disposition of the missiles' solid rocket motors and propellants. DNA made its announcement in an April 18 Commerce Business Daily notice.
COMPTEK FEDERAL SYSTEMS INC., Buffalo, N.Y., will provide software development support services to ensure the operational readiness of fleet, shore, and other electronic defense systems used by the U.S. Navy. The company, a subsidiary of Comptek Research Inc., will carry out the work under an $11.9 million contract from Naval Command Control and Ocean Surveillance Center, ISE East Coast Detachment (NISE East), Norfolk, Va. Comptek said the base year of the contract begins April 15, 1995, and is valued at up to $2.3 million.
The U.S. Navy is gearing up for another test of commercial satellite use to meet the fleet's bandwidth requirements. The service plans to select a commercial bandwidth supplier or multiple suppliers later this year. PanAmSat, Intelsat and TDRSS (Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System) are possible C-band providers for the Challenge Athena III exercise slated to take place in the Indian and Pacific Oceans next spring, a Navy official told The DAILY.
The Boeing 777 transport is scheduled to receive joint U.S.-European certification in a ceremony Wednesday at Boeing Field in Seattle. The ceremony will take place in the B-52 hangar at 9 a.m. Boeing last week completed final certification tests on the No. 2 777, and said the aircraft was on track to attain joint certification from the FAA and Europe's Joint Aviation Authorities.
The U.S. Air Force intends to stick with its plan to keep 95 B-1B, 66 B-52H, and 20 B-2 bombers in the inventory through 2014-provided that a soon-to-be-released heavy bomber force study doesn't come up with something the service has overlooked, according to a top Air Force acquisition official.
Rockwell International said its net income for the fiscal 1995 second quarter increased to $191.4 million from $154.7 million for the same 1994 period. Earnings per share were up 26%, from 70 cents to 88 cents. Sales for the second quarter hit $3.4 billion, 21% higher than the $2.8 billion of 1994's second quarter. "The increase is about equally attributable to the inclusion of the recently acquired Reliance Electric and to growth in the company's other commercial businesses," Rockwell said.
RF MICROSYSTEMS, San Diego, has received two five-year U.S. Navy contracts for engineering, design, development and support services worth a total of $57.2 million. The first contract, for $49.1 million, is with the Naval Air Warfare Center-Aircraft Div. in Maryland. The second contract, valued at $8.1 million, is with the Research and Development Division of the Naval Command, Control and Ocean Surveillance Center in San Diego. Award of the contracts "represents a significant step in RFM's strategic plan to be a major provider to U.S.
TRW Inc. yesterday reported record first quarter results, with earnings up 79% and sales up more than 20%. Space and defense sales were up for the second quarter-to-quarter comparison, the Cleveland-based company said.
NASA plans to use the Space Shuttle Atlantis to deliver 1,300 pounds of water to Russia's Mir space station on both the third and fourth Shuttle/Mir docking missions next year, as well as 1,900 pounds of supplies on each trip.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN will develop and demonstrate the JAST Affordable Weapons Delivery System (JAWS) avionics concept under a $3.5 million, 31- month contract. The company described JAWS as a target detection and weapon delivery sensor suite concept, and said results of the contract will be provided to all companies that won concept development contracts in December for the Joint Advanced Strike Technology program. In the JAWS concept, it said, wide area search, target nomination and strike system assignment would be performed by offboard systems.
PanAmSat announced a preferred stock offering aimed at raising $275 million toward the development, launch and construction of its PAS-5 and PAS-6 satellites. The company said Thursday that it plans to use the satellites for Galavision, a direct-to-home (DTH) venture to provide satellite-based programing to specific markets in Latin America, the Caribbean and the southwestern U.S.
The U.S. Navy is ahead of its sister services in the use of information technology for joint operations, a fact that could translate to budget savings, according to Deputy Defense Secretary John Deutch. Deutch, in an address to the Navy League convention in Washington last Thursday, said he "was amazed" on a recent trip aboard the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk off San Diego "to see the amount of awareness there is on what's going on under the water, on what's going on on top of the water, and what's going on in the air."
Europe may pay its share of the common operating costs of the International Space Station with an annual Ariane V launch to refuel the orbiting laboratory. In March NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin agreed to a cap on common Station operating costs after Jean-Marie Luton, director general of the European Space Agency, complained that otherwise Europe's tight space budget would be at the mercy of decisions taken at the Station program office in Houston (DAILY, March 13, page 375).
LUCAS AEROSPACE Power Systems, Aurora, Ohio, will produce components for the Patriot missile launcher under a $1.9 million contract from Martin Marietta Electronics and Missiles, Orlando, Fla. Delivery of azimuth and elevation actuators and motor controllers will begin in October. Lucas said that since production began in 1980, Power Systems has delivered more than $70 million worth of Patriot actuation system components.
Both the Lockheed and Martin Marietta political action committees, separate entities during last year's congressional elections, followed the trend of most major business PACs and gave heavily to Republicans in the post-election period from Nov. 9 to Dec. 31. It was also a time for both PACs to make amends for picking the wrong horses in some of the congressional races.
Orbital Sciences Corp. was working Friday to correct a malfunctioning gateway receiver in one of its on-orbit Orbcomm satellites, but the company was saying little beyond that. The malfunction in the satellite, one of two Orbcomms launched April 3, is preventing it from receiving standard commands from ground controllers. But Orbital is declining to say how bad the problem is or what measures it is taking to try and correct it.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology will review commercial and government radar cross-section ranges as part of an overall effort to improve the accuracy and consistency of RCS measurements in the antenna industry. NIST's Electromagnetic Fields Div. at the Boulder Laboratories in Colorado will do the reviews on request and at cost. For more information, contact Lorant Muth, Div. 813, NIST, Boulder, Colo., 80303-3328 or via Internet at [email protected].
DCX INC., Franktown, Colo., has received a contract worth about $225,000 from Lockheed Fort Worth Co. to provide ground support interface test adapters for the F-16 aircraft.
AERO LLOYD, the German charter carrier, has signed a series of agreements to acquire 16 Airbus A320s and A321s to replace its fleet of MD- 80s, Airbus Industrie said Wednesday. Aero Lloyd will purchase two A320s and four A321s from Airbus and lease four A320s and six A321s from International Lease Finance Corp. (ILFC). In addition to the firm commitments, Aero Lloyd holds options to take four more of either type aircraft from Airbus and two more from ILFC. Delivery of the aircraft is scheduled during a five-year period beginning early next year.
