Spiral Technology, Inc., Lancaster, Calif. is being awarded a $7,855,939 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to provide for advanced research and engineering advisory and assistance services in support of the Air Force Flight Test Center, Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. This effort consists of analytical, numerical, systems and affordability/ failure analysis, experimental testing, data acquisition and reduction, hardware design and development, software development, financial and technical advice, and acquisition support and management.
While Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld examines an alternative to the traditional two major-theater-war (MTW) scenario as the guiding principle for U.S. defense strategy (DAILY, Jun. 22), defense analysts are left pondering what that alternative could and should be. Michelle Flournoy, senior advisor for International Security at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, was reluctant to speculate on exactly what Rumsfeld might have in mind, although she said "it's clear that they're going to keep some sort of multi-theater capability.
The U.S. Air Force has assigned a second Defense Satellite Communications System satellite to a Boeing Delta IV rocket, the Boeing Co. announced June 25. The DSCS III A3 satellite will be deployed by a Delta IV Medium expendable booster, scheduled for launch in the second quarter of 2003 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. The Air Force Space Command operates 10 Phase III DSCS satellites, which provide defense officials and battlefield commanders secure voice and high-rate data communications.
Atlantis Systems International, of Brampton, Ontario, has signed a technology licensing agreement with the Canadian Department of National Defence to sell products based on helicopter deck landing simulator technology.
Lockheed Martin Corp., Missiles and Fire Control-Dallas, Grand Prairie, Texas, is being awarded a $5,733,000 increment as part of a $6,300,000 modification to cost-plus-award-fee contract DAAH01-00-C-0002. The Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS), High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), is a C-130 transportable, wheeled, all weather, indirect fire, rocket/missile system that is capable of firing all rockets and missiles in the current and future MLRS family of munitions.
Joint Strike Fighter demonstration aircraft of both competitors are preparing to vault new hurdles after advancing in their STOVL flight testing. The Lockheed Martin-led team's X-35B demonstrator took off vertically from a Palmdale, Calif., hover pit June 25, sustained a hover for "about two minutes," and landed, the company announced. During the flight, the pilot executed pitch, yaw, roll and down-and-up maneuvers, company spokesman Jim Saye said.
Pratt&Whitney, East Hartford Conn., is being awarded a $6,153,732 firm-fixed-price contract to provide for purchasing of spare parts, 149 each fan duct, turbine for the F100-200/220E engine of the F-15/F-16 aircraft. The work is expected to be completed May 2002. At this time $6,165,964 of the funds have been obligated. There were 20 firms solicited and six proposals were received. Solicitation began February 2001; negotiations were completed March 2001. The work will be performed in El Cajon, San Diego, Calif.
Harris Corp. of Melbourne, Fla., will provide the Ka-band spot antennas for the Department of Defense's Wideband Gapfiller Satellite (WGS) program, according to the company. WGS is a high-capacity satellite system, jointly funded by the U.S. Air Force and Army, to support the warfighter with newer and greater wideband communications capabilities. The WGS contract for Harris - awarded by Boeing Satellite Systems, Inc., of El Segundo, Calif. - could reach $30 million by 2006 if the government exercises options for up to six satellites.
KAISER ELECTRONICS, a Rockwell Collins company, has been awarded the F-22 Raptor Award of Distinction by Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. for its performance on the F-22 program. Kaiser produces the F-22's head down displays, including the up front display and the primary and secondary multifunction displays.
Senate Armed Services Committee ranking Republican John Warner (Va.) will try to add as much as $5 billion to the Bush Administration's fiscal 2002 defense budget request, a spokesman said June 25. The Administration has proposed boosting the Defense Department's budget by almost $33 billion, to $329 billion. "He would like to see as much as $5 billion more and is going to work with the White House on that," Warner's spokesman said.
The Bush Administration's nominee for deputy under secretary of defense for logistics and materiel readiness said June 22 that she wants to conduct a thorough review of the U.S. military's system for obtaining spare parts for weapons systems. Diane Morales, who was deputy assistant secretary of defense for logistics from 1990 to 1993, testified at her nomination hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee that she would conduct an "end-to-end study" of the logistics system.
California businessman Dennis Tito, who became the world's first space tourist earlier this year by flying to the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz, will appear at a congressional hearing June 26 to discuss the potential for putting other non-professional astronauts in space.
Fitch Ibca, Duff&Phelps, the international ratings agency, has upgraded Raytheon Co.'s ratings outlook from negative to stable. Fitch analysts say the upgrade reflects the company's near-record backlog and significant breadth in defense electronics, tactical missile systems, and aircraft product offerings. The rating also considers "management's commitment to improve credit quality and financial flexibility by reducing fixed costs, divesting non-core businesses and growing operating cash flow," Fitch said.
General Electric Aircraft Engines, Lynn, Mass., is being awarded a $5,096,380 priced basic ordering agreement order of for 13,774 high pressure turbine blades used on the F-404 engine in F/A-18 aircraft. Work will be performed in Lynn, Mass., and is expected completed by June 2003. Funds being used are Defense Base Operations Fund and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. The Naval Inventory Control Point, Philadelphia, Pa., is the contracting activity (N00383-00-G-0001-0155).
Russian observers said a Swiss firm's attempt to impound two Russian aircraft at the Paris Air Show last week could cast a pall over French President Jacques Chirac's planned visit to Russia next month. During last week's show, French bailiffs tried to impound a Russian Su-30MK fighter and a MiG-AT trainer. Both planes ended up leaving the air show and flying back to Russia.
The first flights and sustained hovers demonstrated here by Lockheed Martin's X-35B Joint Strike Fighter bring a new option for vertical flight, and heat up the competition with contender Boeing for the multi-billion JSF program contract. As the two companies move into the final concept demonstration phase of the JSF program, it is widely viewed that their respective Short Takeoff Vertical Landing (STOVL) solutions will carry the most weight in the contract source selection, expected Sept. 30 of this year.
SONIC CRUISER BETS: Boeing's planned Sonic Cruiser airliner will never get off the ground, say the co-chairman and the co-CEO of the group that owns most of archrival Airbus. At the Paris Air Show last week, Boeing attracted widespread attention by displaying a scale model of its proposed Sonic Cruiser, which is intended to cruise at high-subsonic speeds of .95 Mach to .98 Mach.
VOLVO AERO, ASTRIUM AND DLR will cooperate to develop thrust chamber technology, the companies announced. The companies plan to gain experience and knowledge for the further development of thrust chambers for main-engine stages of space launch vehicles. They will run a series of hot-fire tests, preparing for future thrust chambers that have higher expansion ratios than engines today. Testing of sub-scale combustors and nozzles will take place at the DLR facilities in Germany.
THURAYA SATELLITE TELECOMMUNICATIONS CO. of United Arab Emirates will begin launching satellite-based voice, data, fax and GPS location determination commercial service to more than 20 countries in July. The company uses the high-power Thuraya-1 GEO-mobile satellite built by Boeing Satellite Systems, and handsets built by Hughes Network Systems, a unit of Hughes Electronics Corp.
ORBITAL SCIENCES CORP., of Dulles, Va., said its BSAT-2b, the second of three geostationary satellites the company plans to deliver to customers in 2001, has been shipped to its launch site in Kourou, French Guiana. From Kourou, the satellite will be launched in July aboard an Ariane 5 rocket into a geosynchronous orbit at 110 degrees East longitude. The BSAT-2b is the second spacecraft built by Orbital for Japan's Broadcasting Satellite System Corp. and will serve as an in-orbit spare designed to deliver direct-to-home digital television broadcasting throughout Japan.
C-130 CONVERGENCE: Robertson is working on plans to streamline the diverse C-130 fleet. "C-130 is ... getting old," he says. "We've got 20 different models scattered across eight different major commands. When you deploy C-130s you have to deploy a different maintenance package for every different model of airplane you send. And we have concluded that it's not impossible to bring those different models of airplanes together into a single model - we call it the C-130X.
THE EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY has awarded the largest contract in European space astronomy history for the manufacture of two ESA astronomy satellites. The contract, valued at 369 million euros ($317 million USD), went to prime contractor Alcatel Space of France. Astrium GmbH of Germany and Alenia Spazio of Italy are part of the satellite consortium.
FUNDING BOOST? Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond (R-Mo.) is considering proposing an amendment to increase defense spending in the fiscal 2001 supplemental appropriations bill by up to $1.45 billion, according to a congressional aide. The $6.5 billion bill now includes $5.5 billion for defense. The additional money would be for operation and maintenance (O&M) and personnel costs, since Bond believes they are underfunded in the supplemental. It's possible some of the extra O&M money would be used to alleviate shortages of aviation spare parts, the aide says.
An attempt by the unmanned Helios solar-powered aircraft to reach 100,000 feet, possibly by late July, will help prepare for the day when such vehicles will fly routinely in civil airspace.
DON'T MESS WITH C-17: Gen. Charles T. Robertson, commander in chief of U.S. Transportation Command, explains why modifying the C-17 to give it more cargo room would be a mistake. "The flexibility of the C-17 is one of its greatest attributes - that is, its ability to land on short runways," Robertson says. "We can park eight C-17s on the same ramp we can park three C-5s.
