COLLIER TROPHY: The National Aeronautic Association's 2001 Robert J. Collier Trophy will go to the Integrated Lift Fan Propulsion System that Pratt&Whitney and Rolls-Royce will build for Joint Strike Fighter prime contractor Lockheed Martin. The system is designed for the short takeoff/vertical landing version of the JSF.
The Feb. 23 Arianespace launch of the Intelsat 904 communications satellite atop an Ariane 4 rocket marks the 20th Arianespace launch for Intelsat, Arianespace's first and largest customer. Liftoff took place at 6:59 a.m. GMT (3:59 a.m. local time) from Arianespace's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The launch was delayed from Feb. 20, to allow more time for checks of the vehicle.
Northrop Grumman Corp. will supply four Radar System Improvement Program (RSIP) kits to the Boeing Co. to upgrade the French air force's E-3F Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) fleet under a $61 million contract announced Jan. 25. Northrop Grumman's Electronic Systems sector will provide most of the RSIP hardware, which will be installed and tested by other members of the Boeing-led AWACS upgrade team. Boeing announced a $133 million contract to upgrade France's AWACS fleet earlier this month (DAILY, Feb. 11).
While testing on the Air Force's F-22 Raptor shows it is meeting its required capabilities, the director of the Pentagon's office of Operational Test and Evaluation warns in his 2001 annual report that the air-superiority fighter still faces some developmental risks.
AMP CONTRACT: Rockwell Collins Flight Dynamics will develop dual head-up display (HUD) systems for the U.S. Air Force C-130 Avionics Modernization Program (AMP) under an $11 million contract from the Boeing Co. Boeing was selected by the Air Force as the prime contractor to upgrade the avionics systems for more than 500 C-130 aircraft (DAILY, June 6, 2001). Rockwell Collins' initial contract is for development and delivery of the first 16 HUD shipsets, with first delivery slated for October 2003.
February 22, 2002 Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., Savannah, Ga., is being awarded a $7,700,000 (not-to-exceed) firm-fixed-price with economic price adjustment contract modification to provide for undefinitized contractual action for upgrading the communications system for the C-37A aircraft. At this time, $5,775,000 of the funds has been obligated. This work will be completed by September 2006. The Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F34601-97-C-0231, P00060).
Aerospace and defense industry analysts are divided over whether Northrop Grumman's proposed acquisition of TRW Inc. represents the beginning or the end of a new wave of consolidation in the industry. DFI International Vice President William Lynn, who served in the Clinton Administration as undersecretary of defense and comptroller, said Northrop Grumman's bid to acquire TRW (DAILY, Feb. 25) represents the first in a series of vertical and horizontal mergers that will begin this year.
February 19, 2002 Bell-Boeing Joint Program Office, Patuxent River, Md., is being awarded a $36,000,000 modification to a previously awarded cost-plus-award-fee contract (N00019-93-C-0003) to provide additional funding for the MV-22 Engineering and Manufacturing Development Program. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas (50%) and Philadelphia (50%), and is to be completed by December 2005. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.
The Khrunichev Space Center has announced it plans to conduct the first commercial launch using a Rockot vehicle in March. The company had earlier planned to launch two Grace gravity research satellites in February, but that was delayed. Grace satellites are manufactured by Astrium for a joint German Aerospace Center/NASA research project. The Rockot vehicle is a converted SS-19 Scalpel ICBM equipped with a Khrunichev-made Briz-KM (Breeze-KM) upper stage.
Northrop Grumman Corp. is aggressively pushing to expand the sale of its unmanned aerial vehicles to take advantage of growing domestic and foreign interest in UAVs, a company representative has told a congressional panel.
TEAM FORMED: The Boeing Co. is leading a team to compete for the first phase of an Air Force program to acquire wideband satellite communication terminals, the company announced Feb. 22. The team competing for the Family of Advanced Beyond Line-of-Sight Terminals (FAB-T) includes Boeing Space and Communications, Harris Corp., L-3 Communications, TRW Inc. and ViaSat Inc.
TESTING, TESTING: The State Department's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, which oversees its export licensing system, hopes to begin testing a fully electronic export licensing application system in a few weeks, says Lincoln Bloomfield, assistant secretary of state. A number of companies will participate in the data tests, which are expected to last six months, says Bloomfield, who spoke last week at AIAA's Defense Excellence conference in Washington.
PERFORMANCE PROFITS: One way the Defense Department might help the defense industry transform its operations is by encouraging more research and development spending, says Edward "Pete" Aldridge Jr., undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics. Aldridge, who spoke last week at AIAA's Defense Excellence conference in Washington, says the DOD hopes to encourage companies to conduct more independent research and development by "not demanding your IR&D money to pay for shortfalls in the Department of Defense.
Lockheed Martin this week delivered its first laser guided bomb kit to the Navy, a development that means the service is now receiving kits from two sources. Until the Feb. 18 delivery, Raytheon had been the sole source for such kits, which convert standard bombs to smart bombs.
The Bush Administration's fiscal 2003 budget request for NASA does not include enough funding to build even the "core complete" configuration of the International Space Station, according to a new report by congressional analysts.
Russia will begin its military modernization with the Space Troops, Minister of Defense Sergey Ivanov said Feb. 20 in a televised announcement. "We are lacking the spacecraft and to build normal modern armed forces being blind and deaf is hopeless," Ivanov said. The government gave priority to military space spending in its 2002 defense budget, although how much of the 284.2 billion ruble ($9.5 billion) military budget will go to space programs has not been released.
Northrop Grumman Corp. offered shareholders of TRW Inc. a stock swap worth an estimated $5.9 billion Feb. 22 in an unsolicited bid to take control of the company. Northrop Grumman Chairman and CEO Kent Kresa said in a written statement that his company is prepared to offer shareholders $47 in Northrop Grumman common stock for each share of TRW stock.
DEPLOY THYSELF: Although the current concept of operations for the Air Force's Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) calls for the aircraft to spend most of their time stored in containers until needed, in the future some of the systems may have to deploy themselves in order to assuage leadership concerns over airlift, according to Heinz.
The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has awarded the Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. the first two contracts to begin work on its new Missile Defense National Team (MDNT), the agency announced last week.
F-22 FUNDING: The Air Force is asking Congress for $9.7 million in fiscal 2003 to buy additional test equipment for three F-22 Raptor aircraft that will be used to perform force development evaluation and tactics development at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., the service says in a statement. The Air Force also is requesting $1.5 million in FY '03 to modify two F-22s to ensure they are "operationally representative" when they are used to perform operational test and evaluation. The need for the changes to the two Raptors was determined during developmental testing.
Repeating some of the same issues mentioned in last year's report, the annual Department of Defense review of program testing says the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) needs to focus on more realistic tests of its Ground-based Midcourse Defense System, formerly known as the National Missile Defense program. The Office of Operational Test and Evaluation (OT&E) recently submitted its annual report to Congress (DAILY, Feb. 20). The report covers more than 100 systems, including programs managed by the MDA.
ASSURED CONTROL: The development of adaptive autonomous controls, rather than air vehicle development, has been the key sticking point in the advancement of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), according to Mike Heinz, head of Boeing's Unmanned Systems unit. "I don't want to minimize the technological challenges associated with the air vehicle itself, but the key technology breakthrough for unmanned systems is in the adaptive autonomous controls, and the ability to operate autonomously while still retaining the robust communication ...
Four aviation pioneers will be added to the National Aviation Hall of Fame in July at a ceremony at Dayton Convention Center in Dayton, Ohio. Those honored are: -- Frank Piasecki, who made America's second successful helicopter flight in the PV-2 in April 1943. His Piasecki Helicopter Corp. began building aircraft in 1946. -- Dick Rutan, who in 1986 completed the first around-the-world, nonstop, non-refueled flight in the Voyager, with his co-pilot, Jeana Yeager.
PAC-3 TRANSFER: The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is again seeking congressional approval to transfer the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) and Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) programs to the Army. MDA, which contends that the two missile defense programs are mature enough for the Army to take over, proposed the transfer during the fiscal 2002 budget process. The agency was rebuffed by Congress, which was not convinced the Army would be able to adequately support the programs (DAILY, Dec. 13, 2001).
