April 5, 1995 Llamas Plastics, Inc., Sylmar, California, is being awarded a $5,737,282 five-year requirements contract for windshield assembly parts in support of the S-3 aircraft. Work will be performed in Sylmar, California, and is expected to be completed by April 1999. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. The Navy Aviation Supply Office, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the contracting activity (N00383-95-D-014A).
Network and satellite operations will be core features of an impending request for proposal for the Command and Control (C2) development contract for the Air Force Satellite Control Network's (AFSCN) Command and Control Segment (CCS), according to the U.S. Air Force.
Preston is also calling for review of contract protests to be consolidated in the Court of Federal Claims. The Pentagon is now subject to suit in any district court in the nation, and those courts often differ in their interpretations, she said.
JAPAN'S ITOCHU CORP. is planning to offer satellite-based cellular phone services beginning in 1998. Itochu said it plans to establish a joint venture in September with AirTouch Communications, San Francisco. The venture will utilize Globalstar, a constellation of 48 low-Earth orbit satellites that will enable worldwide voice communications. The Globalstar project is being led by Loral Corp.
Pratt&Whitney has finalized a $47 million deal with the U.S. Air Force to design, assemble and test a second build of the Advanced Turbine Engine Gas Generator, or ATEGG, core engine to meet or exceed goals for the second phase of the Integrated High Performance Turbine Engine Technology (IHPTET) initiative.
Gen. John M. (Mike) Loh, head of the U.S. Air Force's Air Combat Command, tells members of the House National Security procurement subcommittee that he feels the AF can capture a lot of the technology from the canceled Tri-Service Standoff Attack Missile (TSSAM) in a follow-on program.
The fourth flying EH Industries EH-101 heavy helicopter, PP4, crashed late Friday in Yarcombe, England, but all four Westland Helicopters' crew-two pilots and two flight test engineers-escaped with minor injuries. The aircraft, a prototype of a basic naval variant, was slated to reach a maximum of 12,000 feet during the test flight, and it's believed that some "fairly catastrophic failure of some sort" occurred close to that altitude, perhaps at 11,000 feet, a Westland spokesman told The DAILY.
Boeing Chairman Frank Shrontz was referring to industry-wide annual jetliner deliveries of about 400-450, not Boeing's shipments, in a story about the aerospace industry's imminent upturn (DAILY, April 5, page 18).
NASA said that Joseph H. Rothenberg has been selected as the new deputy director of Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Rothenberg was associate director of flight projects for the Hubble Space Telescope at Goddard from 1990 to 1994. He left Goddard in February 1994 to become executive vice president of Computer Technology Associates, Inc.'s Space Systems Div. in Lanham, Md. The appointment is effective April 24.
Rep. Norman Dicks (D-Wash.) tells a House National Security subcommittee hearing on the B-2 bomber that when he asked Boeing what a "B- 3" might look like, he got this response: It would have long range, like the B-2; enough munitions, like the B-2; and stealth, like the B-2. Boeing's advice, Dicks continued, was to stay with the B-2 and buy enough to allow a high sortie rate.
TWO ORBCOMM SATELLITES launched April 3 by Orbital Sciences Corp. are in good condition, but one has developed a problem with its uplink receiver that prevents it from receiving standard commands from ground controllers. Orbital is "optimistic" the problem can be resolved. The satellites are the first in the Orbcomm constellation, which will offer two-way message communications around the globe via hand-held receivers. Orbital plans to build and orbit another 24 Orbcomms by early 1997 to complete the constellation.
A request for proposals to replace the AH-64D Longbow Apache's monochrome displays with color displays is about to be released. The new displays will give the helicopter a digital map capability, enhance its radar picture of the battlefield, and provide a more detailed terrain profile.
Meanwhile, the House Intelligence Committee has only one hearing to go to wrap up its fiscal 1996 intelligence authorization bill. Chairman Larry Combest (R-Tex.) wants to finish up in time to begin public hearings around late May on his intelligence study, known as IC21 (DAILY, Feb. 24, page 290). Combest has reportedly already lined up five former directors of central intelligence to testify during his study, which is expected to be completed by March 1996.
GEN. DENNIS REIMER, commanding general of the Army's Forces Command, has been named to succeed Gen. Gordon Sullivan as the chief of staff of the Army, the Pentagon said Friday. Before becoming head of the Army's largest major command, Reimer served as vice chief of staff, deputy chief of staff for operations and plans, and commanding general of the 4th Infantry Division (Mechanized). Sullivan is expected to retire in June.
The U.S. Air Force has agreed to test a Rockwell-proposed precision weapon which would provide a capability for the B-1B bomber until the Joint Direct Attack Munition comes on line, according to Brig. Gen. James Richards III, acquisition director for training, airlift and long-range power projection.
The Joint Primary Aircraft Training System, or JPATS, contest is back on track with a trainer selection scheduled for June, says U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. James Richards III, acquisition director for training, airlift and long-range power projection. "The program is now moving along and we don't see any other speed bumps along the way, so we think we're back on track," Richards tells The DAILY. He won't commit to a contract award date, saying the Defense Acquisition Board will have to bless the chosen aircraft first.
The Senate Intelligence Committee plans to hold a confirmation hearing for Director of Central Intelligence nominee John Deutch on April 26, two days after it returns from the Easter recess. The FBI's background check of Deutch has apparently revealed no surprises that could hold up his confirmation. "I think this is going to be a pretty easy confirmation," says a Senate source.
By June, Lockheed probably will be done evaluating the effectiveness of the F-117 and what improvements could be gained through new technologies, the AF official says. The sweeping review includes a look at "all things possible," including a synthetic aperture radar and all-weather weapons like the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) and the Joint Stand-Off Weapon (JSOW). So far, however, the AF isn't biting on Lockheed's offer to go all out and develop a B model.
The price NATO countries would pay for Joint STARS aircraft has yet to be determined, Northrop Grumman CEO Kent Kresa tells a McGraw-Hill Aviation Week finance conference in Arlington, Va. The price will vary depending on whether allies are willing to buy the plane off the U.S. production line or want to be involved in producing their own. "Clearly," says Kresa, "there will be many options."
NASA'S Lewis Research Center has successfully tested a complete solar dynamic power system that may one day have applications in space stations, communications, Earth-observing satellites and electric propulsion. The fully integrated solar dynamic power system produced the designated 2kWe of power during the test in Lewis' space simulation vacuum chamber in Cleveland.
Integration incompatibilities between Lockheed's Theater High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile and launcher are the most recent reason the Army has delayed starting the weapon system's flight test, said Bill Evers, the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization's deputy director.
The mission capable rate of the F-117 stealth fighter should be at its 80% goal by next year, a U.S. Air Force official tells The DAILY. The aircraft's readiness rating fell from 84% during Desert Storm to as low as 51% in November 1993, partly because of a move from Tonopah, Nev., to Holloman AFB, N.M.. In the first five months of fiscal 1995, the F-117's mission capable rate was 73%.
SPACE IMAGING INC. has made it official: it's moving its headquarters from Sunnyvale, Calif. to suburban Denver. The Lockheed Martin-led remote sensing venture said it has already moved 10 employees to Thornton, Colo., and will begin moving the other 30 by the end of May. The company said it received economic incentives for the move. Space Imaging expects employment at the new headquarters will grow to 70 by the end of the year and several hundred over the next decade.
NASA has awarded a $14 million contract to EER Systems Corp. for a mission that will use components originally developed for the Commercial Experiment Transporter (COMET) project. Under the contract, NASA will fill about half the payload space on a single commercial mission that is scheduled for launch in July on EER's Conestoga rocket from Wallops Island, Va. EER has sold most of the other half to commercial customers, Jack Levine, director of the flight integration office at NASA's Office of Space Access and Technology, said in an interview Friday.
