McDonnell Douglas Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Boeing Co., St. Louis, Mo., is being awarded a $6,661,000 modification to a previously awarded fixed-price-incentive-fee contract (N00019-97-C-0136) for incorporation of five engineering change proposals into 20 F/A-18E/F LRIP II aircraft. A number of these five engineering change proposals will also be incorporated into the 30 F/A-18E/F LRIP III aircraft. Work will be performed in Lemoore, Calif. (80%); St. Louis, Mo. (15%); and Cecil Field, Fla. (5%), and is expected to be completed in June 2003.
A shortage of funding for aviation is one of the Army's most pressing budgetary problems, top Army officials told lawmakers on July 30. "...Recapping the aviation systems is a huge challenge," Secretary of the Army Thomas White told members of the House Appropriations Committee's defense subcommittee Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki agreed, singling out aviation programs as the area of greatest need for recapitalization.
NASA is using its Terra satellite, instruments on six aircraft and a Virginia lighthouse for a field study aimed at helping researchers understand global climate change. Led by NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va., the Chesapeake Lighthouse and Aircraft Measurements for Satellites (CLAMS) program is intended to help scientists learn how the ocean affects the atmosphere.
PGSUS Limited Liability Co., Orlando, Fla., is being awarded a $30,839,000 firm-fixed-price modification contract to provide for 33 AFB-142F-1 and seven AGM-142F-2 Have Nap Standoff Attack Missiles, 40 shortwings/fins/canards, 40 slide-in data links, one missile test set, one dummy rocket motor, and associated training, data, spares and warranties. This effort supports foreign military sales to Israel. At this time, the total amounts of funds have been obligated. This work is to be completed by October 2002.
Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Navigation Systems Division will provide data terminals for the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence's Bowman battlefield communications system under a teaming agreement with Computing Devices Canada Systems U.K. Ltd., the company announced July 30. CDC won the $2.4 billion British army contract earlier this month (DAILY, July 23). Northrop Grumman's participation in the program could be worth more than $180 million, according to the company.
A California congresswoman has introduced an amendment to a fiscal 2002 appropriations bill that would shift $150 million from NASA's human space flight account to a clean water program at the Environmental Protection Agency. Although the amendment doesn't specify which program would be cut, aides to the measure's sponsor, Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.), told The DAILY that the money is intended to come from the Crew Return Vehicle (CRV) for the International Space Station. The cut would leave the bill's CRV funding at $125 million.
Lockheed Martin Corp., Littleton, Colo., is being awarded a $21,000,000 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to provide for research and development for the XSS-11 Experimental Satellite System Microsatellite Program. This effort includes design, development, fabrication, integration, test, delivery and support for demonstration of a space-qualifiable 100 kilogram microsatellite that can perform autonomous on-orbit operations. At this time, $1,500,000 of the funds have been obligated. Solicitation was requested using the Electronic Posting System; five proposals were received.
An upcoming decision to move the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) program to the low rate initial production phase may be delayed by a July 27 incident, when a warhead on one of the missiles failed to detonate during a test at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. The test, the fourth in a series of 10 developmental tests, was to have been the third demonstration of the stealthy cruise missile's warhead. The first two tests, also at White Sands, were successful.
Lockheed Martin's X-35B Joint Strike Fighter concept demonstrator completed STOVL flight testing at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., July 30, two days after the competing Boeing team flew five flights in a day to complete flight testing of its X-32B.
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp.'s first MH-60R test aircraft has completed its first flight at the company's Stratford, Conn., facilities, according to Sikorsky. The test aircraft, a remanufactured U.S. Navy SH-60B, successfully performed all fight Acceptance Test Procedures on July 19, including engine power checks, auto rotation and vibration checks. The initial flight lasted for 1.7 hours, and pilots have flown the aircraft an additional 2.3 hours in preparation for customer acceptance, according to the company.
Alliant Techsystems (ATK) announced its ATK Missile Products Co., of Rocket Center, W.Va., will become ATK Tactical Systems Co. effective Aug. 1. ATK said the name change reflects the company's expanded product offering and customer base following the integration of Thiokol Propulsion Co.'s Elkton, Md.-based tactical propulsion operations into its business. ATK acquired Thiokol Propulsion in April.
Litton Systems Inc., Guidance and Control Systems Division, Woodland Hills, Calif., is being awarded an estimated $19,724,023 indefinite-quantity contract for repair of such items as gimbal assemblies supporting the AN/ASN-92(V) Carrier Inertial Navigation System (CAINS) on F-14 A/B, E-2 and S-3 aircraft. This contract contains options, which if exercised, will bring the total cumulative value of the contract is $36,000,000. Work will be performed in Salt Lake City, Utah (40%); Norfolk, Va. (35%); and San Diego, Calif.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in a variety of sizes, shapes, and nationalities peppered the skies over the Webster Field Annex of Naval Air Station Patuxent River July 30, as part of the first International Unmanned Aviation Demonstration. The public demonstration, the first of its kind ever held in the U.S., was sponsored by Pax River's Program Executive Office for Strike Weapons and Unmanned Aviation, in conjunction with the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI).
Rep. Steve Horn (R-Calif.), whose congressional district includes the Long Beach assembly site for the Boeing C-17, has asked the House Armed Services Committee to add $230 million to the Bush Administration's fiscal 2002 budget request to build the transport aircraft at a faster pace in FY '03.
NASA'S JET PROPULSION LABORATORY has awarded $300,000 contracts to the Boeing Co., Lockheed Martin Corp. and TRW for six-month studies of concepts for a Mars Ascent Vehicle. The vehicle would lift surface samples gathered by the Mars Sample Return mission, slated for 2011 at the earliest.
LOCKHEED MARTIN COMMERCIAL SPACE SYSTEMS is realigning its business structure, the company announced. The company designs and builds geostationary and non-geostationary telecommunications and remote-sensing satellites. Commercial Space Systems will relocate program management, business operations, satellite engineering and design, business development and executive functions from Sunnyvale, Calif., to the company's Newtown, Pa., facility.
MONEY WARS: As the House Armed Services Committee prepares to mark up the fiscal 2002 defense authorization bill the week of July 30, Democrats are considering proposing cuts to the Bush Administration's request for missile defense to pay for other programs. Many Democrats consider the proposed $3 billion increase for missile defense to be excessive and look at it as a potential "bill payer" for other programs.
MISSILE CAUTION: Three influential House Democrats are urging the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization to hold off on plans to begin building a missile defense test bed at Ft. Greely, Alaska, in August. In a July 27 letter to Air Force Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish, the director of BMDO, House Armed Services Committee ranking Democrat Ike Skelton (Mo.), senior committee member John Spratt (S.C.) and House Appropriations defense subcommittee member Norm Dicks (Wash.) say that fiscal 2001 military construction funding that the Defense Department intends to use at Ft.
GLOBAL HAWK HOME: The Air Force says it has officially selected Beale Air Force Base, Marysville, Md., as the main operating base for the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) now that the program has received an environmental impact assessment saying it will have no significant impact. The final selection is not a surprise - Beale was named in January as the preferred base (DAILY, Jan. 19). The selection was based on a number of factors including climate, runway space, air traffic in the base's air space and base facilities.
SPECTRUM ASTRO of Gilbert, Ariz., will develop spacecraft network hardware called Space Network Devices (SND) for the NASA Glenn Research Center under a $960,000 contract, the company announced. The SND contract is part of the High Rate Data Delivery (HRDD) area of NASA's Cross-Enterprise Technology Development Program. The HRDD program is aimed at facilitating communication and information technology to enable a high rate of delivery of data between space and the ground.
BRAC AGAIN: The Department of Defense is preparing draft legislation for another base realignment and closing (BRAC) round and expects to submit its proposal to Congress before the August recess. "As Secretary Rumsfeld has said on several occasions, there's no question that we have more infrastructure than we need," says Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. Craig Quigley.
ASTRIUM GMBH developed a research facility that was used aboard the International Space Station for the first time, the Bremen, Germany-based company announced. Astrium's Compact Protein Crystallization Facility (CPCF) was returned to Earth by the Space Shuttle Atlantis last week. Astrium has handed over the experiment's material samples to researchers. "This project shows that even in the initial stages the International Space Station is successfully used as a research center," said Josef Kind, head of the company's space infrastructure business division.
PDQ QDR: With the September 30 deadline for completion of the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) approaching, defense analyst Michelle Flournoy thinks the Defense Department may not have left itself enough time to perform a credible analysis of military force requirements.
Range safety officials destroyed a Peacekeeper ICBM shortly after launch early July 27 from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. The missile was on a test mission to carry nine unarmed re-entry vehicles about 4,800 miles to a pre-determined target at Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. It was destroyed at 1:04 a.m. Pacific time when it "failed to perform as expected," the Air Force said. "The cause of the anomaly is unknown at this time and is being investigated." The test was part of a program to verify the accuracy and reliability of the Peacekeeper force.
THE BOEING CO. may lay off 85 employees at Kennedy Space Center due to a decrease in the planned workload there caused by the International Space Station program's transition from a development to an operational program. The job shift involves the Payload Ground Operations Contract (PGOC) and the ISS programs that support Boeing's Human Space Flight and Exploration effort.
