Vought Aircraft Industries is betting $200 million that it can significantly expand its worldwide aerostructures business despite tough global competition. The company will invest roughly $40 million a year for five years in new manufacturing processes, equipment and material technologies, Chief Operating Officer Tom Risley said in an interview during the Paris Air Show. The investments are aimed at improving quality, shortening cycle time, and reducing costs.
Northrop Grumman Corp., Bethpage, N.Y., is being awarded an $11,368,867 modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract (N00019-97-C-0147) for all non-recurring engineering for the Taiwan E-2T aircraft and unique administrative services for the Government of Taiwan under the Foreign Military Sales Program. Work will be performed in Bethpage, N.Y., and is expected to be completed in September 2004. 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.
Harris Corp., of Melbourne, Fla., has been awarded a $7 million contract by the Boeing Company to develop Digital Video Map Computers (DVMC) for the U.S. Navy's F/A-18E/F Super Hornet aircraft. First unit delivery of the DVMC is expected in March of 2003, according to Harris Spokesman Bill Bentz. The DVMC will be part of Boeing's Advanced Crew Station upgrade, which provides a new cockpit for the F-18 F back seat, including a new high-resolution, large format display.
Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) plans to offer an amendment to the fiscal 2001 supplemental spending bill to give the Army National Guard $204 million to buy 20 UH-60L Black Hawks, an aide told The DAILY July 2. Guard units deemed to have "the most severe shortages of modern utility helicopters" would get the Sikorsky helicopters, according to the amendment.
The X-35B, the Lockheed Martin-led team's STOVL entry in the high-stakes Joint Strike Fighter competition, is wrapping up flight testing of its unique lift-fan system at Palmdale, Calif., and will fly to Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., within "a day or two," a company spokesman said July 2.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc., San Diego, Calif., is being awarded a $16,016,421 modification to a cost plus fixed fee contract to provide for 12 Predator unmanned aerial reconnaissance vehicles. At this time, $2,450,769 of the funds have been obligated. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-00-C-4010-P00014).
McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Co., Mesa, Ariz., is being awarded a $5,966,362 delivery order amount, as part of a not-to-exceed $12,176,250 firm-fixed-price, unpriced order for 750 rotary rudder blades applicable to the AH-64 Apache helicopter. Work will be performed in Mesa, Ariz., and completion is expected by July 5, 2004. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on June 19, 2001. The U.S. Army Aviation&Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (DAAH23-99-G-0014).
Lockheed Martin Corp., Marietta, Ga., is being awarded a $120,559,000 modification to a firm-fixed-price contract to provide for extension through Nov. 15, 2001, of advancement procurement supporting low rate initial production of 13 F-22 aircraft and associated equipment (Lot II). At this time, the total amount of funds have been obligated. This effort will be performed by The Boeing Co., Seattle, Wash. (52%), Lockheed Martin, Fort Worth, Texas (35%), and other locations. This work is expected to be completed November 2001. Solicitation began April 2000.
The Boeing-led Joint Strike Fighter team, by conducting three X-32B short takeoffs July 1, has completed all flight-test requirements set by the U.S. Department of Defense and is beginning flight tests designed to demonstrate contractor-set requirements, Boeing said July 2.
The Italian military is expected to announce a decision as soon as this week on whether it will buy several tanker/transport aircraft from the Boeing Co. or contract rival European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. (EADS). Boeing spokesman Rick Fuller said the company expects the announcement to come "any day. We thought we might receive word before the Paris Air Show."
Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force is expected to announce this month which competitor - the Boeing Co. or Bell Helicopter Textron - will be selected to replace its aging fleet of Bell/Fuji AH-1S anti-tank assault helicopters. A group of specialists from Japan visited the United States in late May and early June seeking replacement candidates, and has narrowed it down to Boeing's AH-64D Apache Longbow and Bell's AH-1Z.
McDonnell Douglas Training Systems, St. Louis, Mo., is being awarded a $7,233,097 (estimated) firm-fixed-price contract to provide for incorporation of terrain awareness warning system, into each of the 13 weapon system trainers and cockpit systems simulator for the training of C-17 aircrews. Work is expected to be completed January 2006. This effort will be performed in BAE Systems Control Inc, Johnson City, N.Y. (68%) and other locations. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-98-D-2030).
Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control and ELTA Electronics Industries Ltd., a subsidiary of Israel Aircraft Industries Ltd., announced they have won a U.S. Navy contract to study a way to give attack fighters all-weather targeting. The contract funds an integration and impact study to incorporate the Tactical All-Weather Collection and Long Range (TACL) Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) system capabilities into the Shared Reconnaissance (SHARP) system for use on the Navy's F-18E/F Super Hornet.
The Aging Aircraft Integrated Product Team (AAIPT) at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., is developing a number of new weapons in the fight against aircraft corrosion - a problem that costs the Navy more than a billion dollars a year. These technologies include corrosion removal brushes that don't allow the user to damage the underlying surface, as well as networks of embedded sensors that could enable non-invasive inspections.
Poland is considering purchasing 44 F-16 Block 50/52 fighters from the U.S. Air Force, with the option of buying or leasing 12 additional F-16As and four F-16Bs - one of several international offers Poland is considering for bringing its Air Force up to NATO standards. "The Polish government's schedule for the aircraft selection calls for 'technical and tactical' discussions to be held throughout the month of July," U.S. Air Force spokeswoman Capt. Almarah Belk told The DAILY.
(Editor's note: The following is excerpted testimony from the responses by John J. Young, nominated to be the assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, to written questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee. Young testified June 27.)
RIGHT DIRECTION: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's fiscal year 2002 defense budget amendment is heading in the right direction to eliminate waste and inefficiency in the Pentagon budget, says Gen. Richard D. Hearney, president and CEO of Business Executives for National Security (BENS). "Inefficient and outmoded business practices eat up too much of the Pentagon budget," Hearney says.
NASA and the European Space Agency have altered plans for an international science mission to Saturn to work around a telecommunications problem with a probe aiming for the planet's moon Titan. The Cassini spacecraft's Huygens probe was supposed to parachute into Titan's thick atmosphere in late 2004. The new plan will bump that to Jan. 14, 2005, nearly two months later than originally planned.
The U.S. Army is sending six X-ray technicians to key Apache helicopter units around the world in an effort to determine which tail rotor blades on the aircraft need to be replaced. The effort is underway because one of the four tail rotor blades on an Israeli Apache failed during a June 11 flight, prompting an immediate landing at a base in Israel. No one was injured, but the Army wants to be sure there are no other such incidents.
XM SATELLITE RADIO'S second satellite, "Roll," has been formally handed over to XM by satellite builder Boeing and has started broadcasting, the Washington, D.C.-based company said. Roll has reached its final position in geostationary orbit at 85 degrees West longitude. The satellite, launched May 8, is performing beyond expectations, like XM's other satellite, "Rock," according to the company. XM plans the launch of its commercial digital satellite radio service later this summer. "XM's space infrastructure is complete.
FIGHT LIGHT: In light of changing threats and a diminished budget surplus, defense analyst Michael O'Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, thinks the Army should focus on becoming a "lighter, more expeditionary force." Heavy ground force units should be replaced by "units that are maybe smaller in size, but have a much more lethal punch," he says.
NASA has developed a plan to keep the International Space Station within budget for the next few years, but it's still about half a billion over through 2006, according to Mike Hawes, NASA's deputy administrator for the space station. "We have a budget assessment that we have finished up - the end result is still a problem," Hawes said June 29 in a conference call with reporters.
UNPREDICTABLE: House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) disagrees with calls from some defense analysts to trim force structure to adapt to changing threats. "I think what we can predict is that the next conflict will probably be unpredictable," he says. "And that means you've got to have broad capability. And in the end you have to pay for that. We only have 10 army divisions, [so] why are we torturing ourselves over whether we can cut them more? We're down to a little over 2 percent of GNP being spent on defense.
NEW REP: Newly elected Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) will join the House Armed Services and Science Committees. He is filling the House seat held by Rep. Norm Sisisky (D-Va.), who represented Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth until he died in March (DAILY, March 30).
Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) is trying to add language to the fiscal 2001 supplemental appropriations bill that would allow the Bush Administration to operate a missile defense system at Fort Greeley, Alaska, according to Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.). According to Nelson, the language would allow the defense secretary to use part or all of Fort Greeley to "to meet military operational, logistics and personnel support requirements for missile defense."
