Canada's Maritime Helicopter Program (MHP) officials stunned Lockheed Martin Canada by disqualifying its bid for an estimated $3 billion contract to replace the country's fleet of aging Sea Kings. The Public Works and Govern-ment Services Ministry announced Dec. 17 that Lockheed Martin Canada (LMC) had failed to pre-qualify and would not be allowed to respond to a request for proposals. Only Sikorsky International, with the S-92, and E.H. Industries Ltd. pre-qualified to supply 28 maritime helicopters.
BATTELLE, Columbus, Ohio Maj. Gen. James T. Jackson (U.S. Army, ret.) has been named marketing manager for the Battelle Office of Homeland Security. DRS TECHNOLOGIES, Parsippany, N.J. Ervin T. Kiriu has joined the company as vice president, programs for the Electronic Systems Group, based in Gaithersburg, Md. KEYSTONE HELICOPTER, West Chester, Pa. Peter Wright Jr., president of the company, has been named vice chairman. NORTHROP GRUMMAN, Los Angeles
The U.S. Navy plans to award a major contract to Raytheon Co. this week to replace the ship-based Cobra Judy radar system, sources said Dec. 17. The contract is expected to have a value of roughly $1 billion. Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) announced in the July 30 FedBizOpps that it intends to hire Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems to design, produce, integrate and test the Cobra Judy replacement. Cobra Judy is used to track foreign ballistic missile launches.
LAUNCH CONTRACT: Arianespace will launch France's Syracuse IIIB military communications satellite for the French defense procurement agency, the company said Dec. 17. The satellite, built by Alcatel Space on a Spacebus 3100 platform, will be launched on an Ariane 5 by the end of 2005.
Boeing hopes to have an industry consortium on interoperable data standards for military systems up and running by next spring, according to Tip Slater, deputy director for Boeing's Strategic Architecture business unit.
The Pentagon's top budget official said Dec. 17 that the Bush Administration's upcoming fiscal 2005 defense budget request will largely adhere to the results of a biennial review of programs that coincided with the Defense Department's FY '04 budget preparations. The FY '05 request is "going to reflect changes on the margin" and "it'll maintain the themes that we set" in the previous year's budget, Undersecretary of Defense and Comptroller Dov Zakheim told the Defense Writers Group.
The U.S. Navy has awarded General Dynamics Electric Boat (GDEB) a $30 million modification of its contract for the conversion of Trident SSBN (Ship Submersible Ballistic Nuclear) submarines to SSGN (Ship Submersible Guided Nuclear), the company announced last week.
A recently announced restructuring of the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) is starting to take shape. The Defense Department's decision to combine Clusters 3 and 4 is not expected to change plans to begin deliveries in late fiscal 2008 or early FY '09, the U.S. Air Force said in a statement responding to questions from The DAILY. The combined effort, known as Airborne, Maritime and Fixed (AMF), "is to maintain delivery schedules of original Cluster 3 and 4 programs," the Air Force said.
CENTURY OF FLIGHT: Commemorations of the Wright Brothers' first flight are scheduled to lead to a re-creation of that flight at Kitty Hawk, N.C., Dec. 17 in a historically accurate aircraft - although one that has benefited from NASA wind-tunnel testing.
A Dec. 15 attempt to launch an Atlas III carrying the U.S. Navy's final Ultra-High Frequency Follow-on (UFO) satellite was scrubbed when a mechanism attaching the rocket to the pad was colder acceptable. Technicians inspected the "bolt-cutter" mechanism Dec. 16, and probably will have to replace the unit, said International Launch Services (ILS) spokeswoman Fran Slimmer. A joint venture of Lockheed Martin and two Russian companies, ILS is managing the flight for the Navy.
PRAGUE, Czech Republic - Belgium and the Netherlands have urged the Czech government to hold further talks on their U.S.-backed offers to supply 14 F-16 aircraft to the Czech Republic. At a Dec. 16 press conference here, co-hosted by F-16 producer Lockheed Martin, the military attaches of the two countries said it would benefit the Czech Republic to allow nations ruled out earlier in a selection process to submit best and final offers (BAFOs).
NASA's X-37 program is preparing for the first drop tests of its atmospheric demonstrator vehicle starting next November, although funding constraints have prompted the agency to put the brakes on an orbital variant that was to have flown in late 2006. The unmanned X-37 vehicles are intended to demonstrate technologies for reusable spacecraft. The atmospheric version, called the Approach and Landing Test Vehicle (ALTV), is in assembly at prime contractor Boeing's facilities in Palmdale, Calif., according to Boeing X-37 Program Manager Paul Geery.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes can begin offering its 7E7 Dreamliner aircraft to airlines following a nod of approval from the company's board of directors, the company said Dec. 16. The company expects the sales proposals to result in firm commitments and production approval next year.
Lockheed Martin Corp. announced Dec. 16 that its bid to produce the Navy's Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft (MMA) will propose using a variant of Pratt & Whitney's PW150A turboprop engine. The PW150A is part of the PW100 engine family, which is used on more than 1,900 aircraft. Lockheed Martin also said it would use Hamilton Sundstrand's eight-bladed NP2000 propeller, which already is in production for the Navy's E-2C Hawkeye aircraft and C-2 aircraft retrofit program.
The first launch test of a new interceptor booster for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system has been delayed until early January because of an "extremely minor" electronic glitch, a Pentagon spokesman said Dec. 16. Separately, the Israeli Ministry of Defense announced it has successfully conducted the latest in a series of intercept tests for the Arrow weapon system.
Lockheed Martin and teammate PerkinElmer Optoelectronics demonstrated the multi-target warhead fuze for Lockheed Martin's proposed Joint Common Missile (JCM) in a series of tests completed earlier this month at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.
