CTA Space Systems is looking for a piggyback payload to ride along with its "Clark" smallsat when it is launched into polar orbit next year, according to a Jan. 25 Commerce Business Daily announcement. The McLean, Va.-based company noted that the lift capability of the Lockheed Launch Vehicle (LLV1) it intends to use exceeds the weight of the Clark imaging satellite by 210 pounds, and offers to enter a separate launch agreement for either a free-flying spacecraft or an experimental payload that would use the Clark satellite bus.
Australia signed a A$600 million contract this week with E-Systems to upgrade 18 Lockheed P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft, which should extend the operational life of the aircraft to the year 2015. When the deal was first revealed last summer, E-Systems put the value of the contract at US$360 million (DAILY, Aug. 1, 1994, page 169B). But at today's exchange rates, the contract is worth US$100 million more.
Gordon Ow Aircraft Ltd. (GOAL), Long Beach, Calif., has received a $250,000 state grant to develop a high speed vertical takeoff and landing aircraft modeled on a "Frisbee" flying disk toy. The design, said to be capable of high subsonic speeds, is in the concept stage, with development depending on whether the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) awards a contract in coming months. Lloyd Ikerd, president of GOAL, told The DAILY that ARPA, NASA, and the U.S. Air Force and Navy have all voiced support for the still-unnamed program.
Rockwell International's Rocketdyne Div. faces $202,500 in fines for five citations issued Monday by California state officials in connection with a July 1994 explosion that killed two workers and seriously injured a third.
Alliant Techsystems last week started work at its new demilitarization facility in Ukraine, dismantling and reclaiming Ukrainian conventional munitions. The facility is operated by Alliant Kyyiv, a joint stock company comprised of Alliant Techsystems and British Rapierbase, Ltd. The agreement to establish the facility was singed last November, during President Clinton's visit to Ukraine.
U.S. ARMY MISSILE COMMAND is soliciting four companies-Hughes Aircraft, United Defense Limited Partnership, Boeing and Martin Marietta- for the job of interfacing the Standard Vehicle Mounted Launcher, which uses the Stinger RMP missile, with the Bradley Fighting Vehicle. All have been involved in interface study efforts for this program, MICOM said in a Jan. 17 Commerce Business Daily notice. "The basic contract will consist of eight Bradley/Stinger modification kits," it said.
RAYTHEON CO., Lexington, Mass., has received contracts totaling more than $123 million for Patriot air defense systems. It received $106.9 million from U.S. Army Missile Command for services to support Patriot inventories of the U.S. Army, The Netherlands, Germany, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Israel. Raytheon also received a $16.6 million Patriot Missile Support Center contract from MICOM to support fielded Patriot facilities in Texas, Germany and The Netherlands.
MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY INC., Fort Walton Beach, Calif., is working under a $1.6 million contract from U.S. Naval Air Warfare Center Training Div., Orlando, Fla., on the M2A2/M3A2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle (BFV) Conduct of Fire Trainer (COFT) Operation Desert Storm enhancement program.
The U.S. Army has chosen a Martin Marietta team to build Hydra 70 rockets in a follow-up procurement. The company's Ordnance Systems unit in Burlington, Vt., won a $123 million contract last Friday to build 413,933 rockets in 1996-1998 for Army and Marine Corps helicopters, Air Force and Navy fixed-wing aircraft, and Army Special Operations Forces. Also included are 6,000 rockets for Egypt and 400 for Bahrain. The contract was awarded by the Army's Armament, Munitions and Chemical Command.
The British Home Office has awarded a TRW-led team an eight-year, $150 million contract to install its National Automated Fingerprint Identification System (NAFIS).
SAIC, San Diego, has begun work on a five-year, $157.3 million contract from the U.S. Army for services for information mission area systems engineering, information systems integration, systems analysis and related tasks. The work is being carried out for Information Systems Command and Information Systems Engineering Command at Fort Huachuca, Ariz.
CONTRAVES INC.'s Simulation and Training Systems Div., Tampa, Fla., has received a contract from the U.S. Army's Simulation and Training Command (STRICOM) for maintenance training equipment for the M1A2 tank and the M2A3 Bradley Fighting Vehicle. Initial phase of the multi-year contact is valued at $5.6 million. If options are exercised, it could be worth $15 million. The first of the systems are to be delivered in mid-1996 to Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., and Fort Knox, Ky.
Field tests of the first Battlefield Combat Identification System (BCIS) units demonstrated their ability to prevent friendly fire incidents like those of the Persian Gulf War, TRW Space&Electronics Group said yesterday. The units, mounted on three platforms-a HMMWV and two Bradley Fighting Vehicles-were tested at the U.S. Army's Camp Roberts in central California, TRW said.
Ogden Corp., New York, has completed acquisition of Applied Data Technology Inc. of San Diego, a supplier of air combat maneuvering instrumentation systems and after-action reporting and display systems.
Hughes Aircraft Co. and Raytheon Co. said yesterday they are teaming as a joint venture to pursue the U.S. Army's Corps SAM mobile air defense program. Earlier this month, Loral, TRW and Westinghouse said they were joining forces to compete for the next generation replacement for the Hawk system (DAILY, Jan. 13, page 64).
NASA is negotiating with the governments of Canada, Ireland and Spain for new emergency landing sites should the Space Shuttle lose more than one main engine during a launch to Russia's Mir or the International Space Station at 51.6 degrees inclination.
Wake vortices from a Delta 727 reached USAir Flight 427 at about the same time the USAir 737 began its fatal nosedive last September just short of Pittsburgh International Airport, Boeing simulations detailed yesterday at a National Transportation Safety Board hearing show.
TRW yesterday posted record financial results for 1994, a year in which space and defense sales rose for the first time since 1990. Net earnings ballooned more than 70% to $332.7 million on 14% stronger sales of a little over $9 billion, and "TRW is poised for substantial growth in both sales and earnings for the foreseeable future," said Chairman and CEO Joseph T. Gorman. "We continue to earn significant returns from our growth investments and have improved our cost structures, processes and productivity."
In the latest attempt in Congress to prevent ABM Treaty restrictions that would jeopardize deployment of the Theater High Altitude Air Defense (THAAD) and other advanced theater missile defense systems, 22 Republican senators are urging President Clinton to temporarily suspend negotiations with Russia on a demarcation between theater and strategic missile defenses. The senators say in a Jan. 17 letter, originated by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Strom Thurmond (S.C.), and released yesterday, that the talks "are seriously off track."
Hughes Aircraft Co. said it will team with five other companies to compete for the U.S. Army's Land Warrior program, intended to improve the ability of the individual soldier to survive and function on future battlefields. Hughes is being joined by Motorola, Honeywell, Arthur D. Little, Battelle and Gentex. Hughes said it will serve as the prime contractor, and provide systems integration, weapon components and software. Motorola will also provide software, miniaturized communications and computer hardware.
NASA won't escape close scrutiny from the House Appropriations VA, HUD and independent agencies subcommittee as it prepares its fiscal 1995 rescission bill, the chairman of the panel said yesterday. Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.), in a brief interview at the Capitol, said there is "no doubt" that NASA is one of the agencies he and his staff are currently looking at as they seek to claim back FY '95 funds that were appropriated but have not yet been spent.
Thiokol Corp. posted 24% lower second-quarter profits Monday on 9% lower sales, but only because one-time gains in the year-ago period widened the gap between 1994 and 1995. Fiscal 1995 second-quarter net income came to $11.3 million on $218.6 million in sales, versus $14.8 million on $240.7 million in the like quarter a year ago. But the fiscal 1994 second quarter includes $6.7 million in interest income on tax refunds-without it, 1995's earnings were up 6%.
NASA's Johnson Space Center has entered a $34 million lease/purchase arrangement with McDonnell Douglas Corp. to develop Space Station facilities in three industrial buildings near Ellington Field in Houston.
New Zealand's Ministry of Defense has approved the navy's plan to replace its Westland Wasp helicopters, which entered service in 1966. According to the New Zealand embassy in Washington, requests for tender offers will go out later this year. The contract will be for six helicopters and will be worth around NZ$200 million, roughly US$90 million. The New Zealand government will spread the cost over several years.
Net earnings soared 41% at Martin Marietta in 1994 despite only modest sales gains, as efficiencies from two acquisitions took hold and paid off on the bottom line. Excluding one-time charges a year ago for accounting changes, net earnings rose $185.3 million to $635.6 million on 4.6% better sales of $9.87 billion. Improvements in key financial measures underscored the effects of absorbing the former GE Aerospace units and General Dynamics Space Systems.
