Rolls-Royce plc has become the fifth founding partner in Exostar, bringing an engine maker's perspective to the industry's largest procurement and supply-chain management Internet exchange.
Lockheed Martin Corp. has dropped its protest of the Air Force's award to Raytheon Co. of a $64 million contract to produce GBU-16 Paveway laser-guided bomb kits.
Orbital Sciences Corp. announced June 15 that its Taurus rocket has been selected to launch Taiwan's next remote sensing satellite, called ROCSAT-2. ROCSAT-2, intended to monitor the terrestrial and marine environment and natural resources throughout Taiwan and nearby waters, will be launched in 2003, according to the Dulles, Va.-based company. The satellite will also carry a "Sprites Imager" scientific instrument to study the electrodynamic coupling between thunderclouds and the upper atmosphere by taking images of lightning discharges.
BROADCAST OVER BROADBAND: Though the number of satellite broadband subscribers is expected to grow over the next six years, it will not overtake the number of subscribers to direct broadcast satellite services, says Karekin Jelalian, a consultant for The Strategis Group. The reason, Jelalian says, has to do with the type of content provided by each service.
After a week of successful flight tests of their Retinal Scanning Display technology, Microvision Inc. may be looking to expand use of such technology beyond its core military clients to private pilots, defense and aerospace marketing manager Steve Whiston said.
FiatAvio and Agusta have signed a contract for production and logistics support of the T700/T6E1 engine for the Italian military's multi-role NH 90 helicopters, the companies announced June 13. FiatAvio is the aerospace division of the Fiat Group, and Agusta is an AgustaWestland company. The companies will produce 396 engines, plus spares, for 196 helicopters. The contract covers the initial procurement of 232 engines for 116 helicopters.
Congress has received its official notification of a possible foreign military sale of up to 60 Lockheed Martin-made F-16s to the government of Poland. The proposal lays the groundwork for the country to purchase the aircraft should it decide to do so, and may also open the door for future NATO nations to follow suit. A sale to Poland would mean equipping another NATO country with F-16s, and could provide a further entree into central Europe for Lockheed Martin.
While the Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) is having technical problems of its own, troubles plaguing Raytheon's digital ASR-11 radar pose a "major risk" to FAA deployment of STARS, according to the Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General.
Some aerospace groups have said the licensing for commercial satellite exports should shift from the State Department back to the Commerce Department because State moves too slowly to approve them. A General Accounting Office report, released June 14, says export license review times between the two agencies are similar - but also says the State Department's approval time varies depending on the commodity being exported.
CAE of Toronto, which supplies commercial full flight simulators (FFS), announced contracts for three simulators to American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and Lufthansa Flight Training. The company has also been awarded a major FFS upgrade contract by Delta Airlines. The total value of the contracts is $50 million Cdn ($33 million USD), the company announced June 14.
The U.S. Navy, which has spent years developing theater missile defenses, could produce a sea-based "global" missile defense system with relative ease, according to Rear Adm. Rodney Rempt, the assistant chief of naval operations for missile defense.
The technology is already in place for missile defense, and future success will simply be a matter of proper integration and testing, according to Lt. General Ronald T. Kadish, director of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO). Testifying before the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Research and Development June 14, Kadish said that despite some highly publicized failures, the ability does exist to, as some have phrased it, "hit a bullet with a bullet."
While acquiring more long-range B-2 Spirit bombers would add to the military's long-range strike capability, additional acquisitions of the aircraft are unlikely given current budgetary constraints and opposition among senior military officials, several defense analysts said June 14. The idea of buying more B-2s was raised by Northrop Grumman Corp. CEO Kent Kresa, who wrote a letter of offer to the Air Force and the Secretary of Defense committing to manufacturing 40 more aircraft at the company's Palmdale, Calif., facility.
The second Boeing C-17 Globemaster III for the United Kingdom became Royal Air Force property on June 13, Boeing announced. RAF Air Commodore David Vass accepted the aircraft, called UK2, at the Boeing C-17 production facility in Long Beach, Calif. The first C-17, UK1, was delivered to the RAF in May (DAILY, May 24). The airplanes are stationed at Brize Norton, north of London. UK2 is the second of four C-17s to be delivered to the U.K. They are leased under a seven-year contract, with two separate one-year term extensions available.
Air Force Space Command is surveying industry to help determine the availability of new electronic warfare technologies for protection of aircraft. Capt. John Allison, an acquisition program manager at Schriever AFB, Colo., the command's headquarters, said yesterday in a telephone interview that "... a lot of our systems are very old and we're curious as to what's the new technology and the art of the possible for electronic warfare at this point."
A preliminary version of the congressionally mandated Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) will be ready in about mid July, a senior defense official said at the Pentagon June 14. Whether it will be for public release is another issue. The QDR is officially due September 30, but Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld found the timeline "out of sync" with that of preparing the next budget, according to the official.
General Electric and Honeywell gave the European Commission a final package of actions they are willing to take to get approval for their proposed $40 billion merger, although company officials said the package is short of the EC's demands and they don't expect it to be approved. The package proposes divestitures in Honeywell's aerospace business, including a new business and regional jet engine program, air turbine starters and some avionics products. The divestitures would be worth $2.2 billion in revenue, according to the companies.
Crewmembers onboard the International Space Station Alpha have activated or completed all the station's science payloads, NASA announced. One experiment is intended to measure the performance of equipment installed on the station to dampen vibrations caused by crews and equipment.
Age and a lack of money are taking a toll on Russia's 90 orbiting satellites - 68 of which are at or near the end of their operational lifetimes, the head of Russia's space agency told the Russian parliament June 13. Yuri Koptev, head of Rosaviakosmos, said many of the country's 43 military satellites are now so old that they can no longer be considered reliable, Aerospace Daily affiliate AviationNow.com reported. "There is a real chance that we will no longer be operational in this regard," Koptev said.
The House Appropriations Committee June 14 revamped the Bush Administration's request for supplemental defense spending, approving a bigger cut in V-22 production funding while adding money for Osprey research and development and shifting part of a proposed increase for the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle to other priorities. The committee, which approved the fiscal 2001 supplemental spending bill by voice vote, cut $590 million in previously approved V-22 production money, $115 million more than the Administration's requested cut of $475 million.
AAR Corp. said it has signed an exclusive agreement with Delta to be the single source non-OEM supplier of engine, bare engine accessories and APU (auxiliary power unit) surplus parts, Aerospace Daily affiliate Aviation Daily reported. The pact represents renewal and expansion of a previous three-year agreement. Delta engine overhaul facilities service over 600 engines and 335 APUs a year for the carrier's fleet of 580 aircraft. Engine types include the CFM56, GE CF6-80 and Pratt&Whitney JT8D-200, PW2037, PW4060 and PW4460.
The Army should reassess the RAH-66 Comanche helicopter program's cost, schedule, and performance goals before submitting its next fiscal year budget, the General Accounting Office wrote in a new report released June 12 by Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), a Comanche critic. Defense Department and Army officials agreed that the current cost and schedule goals aren't achievable and should be revised, but they said the planned January 2003 review for the Comanche program is the appropriate time to address such changes.
NASA has selected the 10 most promising Mars mission proposals out of 43 submitted for possible launch in 2007, and will give each money for six more months of study, the space agency announced June 13. Included in the proposals for missions are concepts for returning samples of martian atmospheric dust and gas; networks of small landers; orbiting constellations of small satellites; and a rover that would attempt to establish the surface ages of soil and rocks.
Officials from Lockheed Martin Corp.'s Naval Electronics&Surveillance Systems division and the Ingalls Shipbuilding unit of Northrop Grumman Corp. announced a joint partnership June 13 to provide engineering solutions for the Coast Guard's Deepwater Capability Replacement Project. Under the joint venture, called Integrated Coast Guard Systems, the two companies will submit a proposed "best value" solution for the Deepwater Program.
Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) said June 13 he has received indications from military officials that they are exploring whether boosting funding for the Army's Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system would allow the system to be fielded a year or two earlier than the planned date of 2007. The examination is believed to be part of the Bush Administration's broad review of defense programs.
