Rockwell International Corp., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was awarded on Dec. 13, 2001, an $8,915,759 firm-fixed-price contract modification to provide for an extension on the reliability warranty on the Pacer Compass Radar and Global Positioning system line replacement units through November 30, 2011. At this time, the total amount of funds has been obligated. The Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., is the contracting activity (F34601-00-C-0042, P00025).
FAREWELL: The mission of NASA's Deep Space 1 spacecraft comes to an end Dec. 18. The spacecraft, launched in 1998, tested 12 advanced technologies and conducted a successful fly-by of Comet Borrelly. Deep Space 1 will continue to orbit the sun after its ion engine is turned off, and its radio receiver will be left on "in case future generations want to contact the spacecraft," according to NASA.
CAE of Toronto will provide a CH-47 Chinook Full Mission Simulator to the Republic of Singapore air force under a $30 million contract, the company announced Dec. 17. The Chinook FMS will feature the company's Medallion visual system, which will include visual channels for the Chinook's chin windows and databases that will be optimized for low-level helicopter training. The simulator will be delivered in 2004, and the company will provide support to its maintenance contractor for its expected 15-year life.
HAMILTON SUNDSTRAND of Windsor Locks, Conn., has acquired Magnaghi Hydraulic Systems Division, an aerospace actuation supplier in Brugherio, Italy. The business will continue to operate in Brugherio and will become part of Microtecnica, a subsidiary of Hamilton Sundstrand headquartered in Turin, Italy. "Magnaghi's expertise in primary flight control actuation nicely complements Hamilton Sundstrand's already strong actuation capabilities," Jim Gingrich, president of Hamilton Sundstrand Flight Systems and Services, said in a statement.
McDonnell Douglas Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Boeing Co., St. Louis, Mo., is being awarded a not-to-exceed $13,000,000 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the Service Life Assessment Program for the F/A-18A/D aircraft. Work will be performed in St. Louis, Mo. (60%), and El Segundo, Calif. (40%), and is expected to be completed by December 2004. Contract funds in the amount of $4,500,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured.
The Air Force demonstrated the ability of the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) to destroy hardened target bunkers during a Dec. 15 test, JASSM maker Lockheed Martin said Dec. 17. In the test at the Western Test Range in Nevada, the weapon was launched from a B-52 flying at 24,000 feet, and then flew autonomously to the target.
The time is right for a new thrust to promote the use of remotely operated aircraft (ROA) in national airspace, according to a California company. The company, American Technology Alliances of Redwood City, Calif. - one of hundreds responding to a post-Sept. 11 request to industry from the Department of Transportation on ways to increase security for a range of transportation modes, nuclear facilities and oil and gas pipelines - says the need is urgent for several reasons.
SHUTTLE HOME: Space Shuttle Endeavour landed at Florida's Kennedy Space Center Dec. 17, returning the Expedition Three crew to Earth after they spent five months aboard the International Space Station. Endeavour delivered the Expedition Four crew to the station as part of its mission.
One of the key roles the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) sees for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) will be so-called "prodded" surveillance missions, according to John Stenbit, assistant secretary of defense for command, control, communications, and intelligence. Rather than simply relying on images from satellite or spy plane passes, with prodded surveillance a UAV is sent over a specific area to monitor the results of a pre-arranged military operation.
A House-approved cut in the Bush Administration's fiscal 2002 budget request for the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) would "jeopardize" the Defense Department's weather-monitoring capabilities and result in layoffs at several major aerospace companies, according to DOD. NPOESS is to replace the constellations of DOD's Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) and NOAA's Polar-Orbiting Environmental Satellite (POES) program. The first NPOESS satellite is supposed to be ready for launch in June 2008.
The prototype for the engine that could eventually power NASA's Second-Generation Reusable Launch Vehicle will begin initial testing early next year, according to contractor Aerojet. The company is partnered with Pratt&Whitney on the Co-optimized Booster for Reusable Applications (COBRA) - one of two prototype engines being developed under NASA's Space Launch Initiative (SLI). The other engine is Boeing Rocketdyne's RS-83 (DAILY, Aug. 17).
Joining the list of companies offering e-business marketplaces and e-business products to aerospace suppliers and vendors, First Index USA of Whippany, N.J., has launched a new web-based, e-sourcing software package to help buyers find suppliers for custom-made products. The package, called findFAST PRO, enables aerospace buyers to find suppliers capable of doing custom machining, metal forming, plastics injection molding, casting, forging and custom electronics work.
Northrop Grumman Corp., Rolling Meadows, Ill., is being awarded a $65,111,239 firm-fixed-price contract modification to provide for 23 AN/ALQ-135 Band 1.5 internal countermeasures sets applicable to the F-15E aircraft. At this time, the total amount of funds has been obligated. This work will be complete December 2002. The Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-98-C-0037, P00033).
Raytheon Company of Andover, Mass., is being awarded a delivery order amount of $11,960,212 as part of a $13,486,766.57 fixed price redetermination contract for antenna elements for the Patriot Missile System. Work will be performed in Andover, Mass., and is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2005. Contract funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Bids were solicited on May 25, 2000 and one bid received. The contracting activity is the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., (DAAH01-00-D-0062).
Lockheed Martin Corp., Orlando, Fla., was awarded on Dec. 13, 2001, a $15,043,566 firm-fixed-price contract modification to provide for aircrew training for C-130 aircrews, maintenance and support of courseware, and flight simulators. At this time, the total amount of funds has been obligated. This work will be complete September 2002. This effort will be performed by Lockheed Martin Corp., in Building 1230A, Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark. (74%), and by CAE USA Inc., Tampa, Fla. (26%).
The Navy may not be able to begin construction of the new DD(X) destroyer in fiscal 2005 as planned if the House-Senate conference committee for the FY '02 defense appropriations bill accepts a House-approved program cut of $483 million, according to the Defense Department.
NASA R&D: Given the commercial aerospace industry's reliance on NASA for advanced aviation technologies, NASA's research and development budget will have to be increased for advanced safety and security measures to be in place by the time the industry experiences an upswing in 2003-2004, says John Douglass, president and CEO of the Aerospace Industries Association. "The biggest structural problem relating to homeland defense that NASA has to deal with is [that] the FAA and the people in the homeland defense effort depends mostly on NASA for future security systems.
Automated rendezvous in space, which the United States has never demonstrated, will be a critical need both for NASA's Second-Generation Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) and for resupply of the International Space Station (ISS), according to NASA. "We actually have identified it as an enabling technology for practically all the [Second-Generation RLV] architectures that are in the contracts right now," said Chris Calfee of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.
Military operations in Afghanistan are proving the effectiveness of ground forces in precision targeting for air strikes, according a Pentagon official.
INTEL BILL: The fiscal 2002 intelligence authorization bill is a presidential signature away from becoming law. The Senate passed the conference committee version Dec. 13, a day after the House. The bill adds funds to the Bush Administration's budget request to improve the intelligence community's ability to analyze information gathered by its collection systems (DAILY, Dec. 10).
RETHINKING SECURITY: The "fundamental need" of the government next year will be to "rethink the whole way we approach our national security," according to Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, who also chairs the subcommittee on military procurement.
Following harsh Congressional criticism of the Pentagon's approach to Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) upgrades, Raytheon is offering to take the SIGINT payload it developed for the U-2 manned reconnaissance aircraft and install it on the Global Hawk high altitude, long endurance unmanned vehicle.
YOU'RE BEING WATCHED: Northrop Grumman is developing a specific emitter identification (SEI) capability for the E-2C aircraft's ALQ-217 electronic support measures sensor system. SEI technology, already carried by such platforms as the P-3C patrol aircraft, helicopters and submarines, helps identify and track individual ships suspected of transporting nuclear, biological or chemical weapons by picking up on the ships' unique radio-frequency signatures.
A representative of the BAE Systems-Saab consortium known as Gripen International says landing a $1.4 billion deal to supply the Czech Republic with a fleet of Gripen single-engine, multirole fighters should strengthen the consortium's position in central and eastern Europe. Gripen says the deal - coming on top of Hungary's decision last month to lease 14 of its aircraft - has raised its hopes of winning similar tenders in neighboring Austria, Poland and Slovakia and, in the longer term, Romania.
Congress has voted to keep alive work on a potential mobile version of the Tactical High Energy Laser (THEL). The final version of the FY '02 defense authorization bill, approved by Congress the week of Dec. 10-14, contains $10 million in an Army account for research on a mobile THEL. The Bush Administration requested no funding for the program.
