Raytheon Co. of Bedford, Mass., has been awarded a $53 million U.S. Army contract to enhance the capability of the Patriot Air Defense System's radar, the company announced June 6. Raytheon will provide four Radar Enhancement Phase III (REP III) kits and four Classification, Discrimination and Identification Phase 3 (CDI-3) kits. It will also produce spare kits and provide kit integration. The REP III improvement kits will double the power of the Patriot
The board of directors of Newport News Shipbuilding has unanimously reaffirmed its recommendation that its shareholders tender their shares to General Dynamics, which is seeking to acquire the company. The company announced June 6 that the board is waiting to hear from the Defense Department and the Justice Department about the General Dynamics offer and a rival offer from Northrop Grumman Corp. A company press release said the board took no position on the
Lawmakers announced June 6 that they plan to revive the dormant House Aerospace Caucus and use the group to push for increased federal funding for aerospace research and development. Other priorities of the caucus will include reversing the erosion of the aerospace industrial base and reducing congestion in the civil transportation system, said Rep. Dave Weldon (R-Fla.), who is co-chair of the caucus with Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio).
UNIVERSAL SPACE NETWORK, INC. (USN) of Newport Beach, Calif., and its partner, Frontier Technology, Inc., (FTI) of Goleta, Calif., have been awarded a $100,000 grant by the California Technology, Trade and Commerce Agency. USN and FTI will match the grant and use the money to integrate FTI's scheduling optimization system into USN's satellite operational control network. The resulting prototype system could provide a way to schedule thousands of satellite communications contacts each day from
XM SATELLITE RADIO'S second satellite, "Roll," which was launched May 8 by Sea Launch, has completed a sequence of liquid apogee engine firings and has entered geosynchronous orbit, the Washington, D.C.-based company announced. Roll is maneuvering toward its final geostationary orbit position at 85 degrees west longitude. It has successfully deployed its solar arrays and communication antennas, keeping it on schedule to begin transmission tests later this month and is expected to begin
(Editor's note: The following is excerpted testimony from the responses by under secretary of defense for policy nominee Douglas J. Feith to written questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee. He testified June 5.) Q. The President has made clear his commitment to the deployment of a limited missile defense system to protect the American people and our overseas interests and allies. In your view, to what extent should the
NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has found new populations of suspected black holes in several starburst galaxies, where stars form and explode at an unusually high rate, the space agency announced June 5. Although a few suspected mid-mass black holes have been found before, this is the first time they have been detected in such large numbers, according to NASA. The discovery could help explain the relationship of black holes to star formation and the production of even more massive
The U.S. Air Force is evaluating a proposal from the Boeing Co. to replace the service's aging KC-135 tanker fleet with 767-derivatives, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Ryan said June 6 at a Senate hearing that also touched on several other aircraft, including the F-22 and X-33. Ryan told the Senate Appropriations Committee's defense panel that the Air Force needs to begin replacing its KC-135s within about 15 years. Its KC-135s are 38 1/2 years old on average and require an increasing
Aerojet has been awarded an $11 million low-rate initial production contract from Raytheon Missile Systems to build 51 Dome Cooling Systems (DCS), which protect the infrared sensors on Navy Standard Missile 2 Block IVs. Work on the contract begins immediately, the Sacramento, Calif.-based company announced June 6. Once the LRIP phase is finished in about three years, the company expects a full-rate production contract to be awarded. Aerojet projects it
Senior Pentagon officials say progress is being made to improve interoperability between the branches of the U.S. military, but there is still a ways to go when it comes to interoperability with coalition partners. "With the allies, we're behind...," said Nancy Spruill, director of Acquisition Resources and Analysis in the Pentagon. Speaking with The DAILY following a panel discussion on defense acquisition reform in Washington yesterday, Spruill, who is also the
The U.S. government must adopt a "new way of thinking" about its allies if it wants to ensure efficient joint coalition operations, said Jacques S. Gansler, professor and Roger C. Lipitz Chair at the Center for Public Policy and Private Enterprise at the University of Maryland. Gansler, who served as under secretary of defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics from 1997 until January of this year, made his remarks at a defense acquisition reform seminar in Washington, D.C. June
CRAY INC. of Seattle announced it has received a $3.3 million order for a Cray SV1ex supercomputer system and related services from Government Micro Resources of Manassas, Va. The contract with GMR calls for a 32-processor supercomputer to be installed in the second quarter of 2001 at the NASA Ames Research Center facility at Moffett Field, Calif. The system will support research aimed at improving the safety and durability of aircraft and aerospace vehicles. Ames officials will run computational
The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization is forming three teams to help improve the ability of a U.S. missile defense system to defeat countermeasures, according to Retired Air Force Gen. Larry Welch, who is chairing one of the teams.
The growing use of the Global Positioning System of satellites has been a boon for both the military and civilian sectors, but it has also raised numerous questions about its signal use and protection - areas that are being examined as the government seeks to modernize the system. "Although GPS is already heavily utilized, the U.S. government continues to modernize the GPS system," said Greg Finley, director of the Interagency GPS Executive Board (IGEB), Department of Commerce, which manages GPS use at a national level.
The ratings service Standard&Poor's affirmed its A minus ratings on Goodrich Corp. on June 4 and removed the company from CreditWatch, where it had been placed in February. "Goodrich's profitability is good, as evidenced by operating profit margins in the high teens percent area and improving returns, aided by a focus on lean manufacturing and efficiencies," according to Standard&Poor's.
The Pentagon's new acquisition chief said June 5 that he believes spending on defense science and technology (S&T) should be increased to 2 1/2 to 3 percent of the Defense Department's budget to ensure the U.S. military keeps its technological edge.
BOEING CAPITAL CORP. announced it is opening an office in Dublin, Ireland, to expand its international presence. "The city of Dublin has established itself as an anchor in the European financial community," said Jim Palmer, president of Boeing Capital Corp. The company provides lease and loan financing for commercial aircraft, commercial equipment, corporate aircraft and space and defense products. Boeing Capital Corp. is headquartered in Renton, Wash.
The government aerospace contracting system is designed to provide only modest profit margins, so contractors should not aim for the profit levels that typify successful companies in other industries, according to W. David Thompson, president of Spectrum Astro.
FAA Administrator Jane Garvey released the agency's Operational Evolution Plan on June 5 amid indications from an industry coalition that it will give the OEP a chance to prove itself. Aerospace Daily affiliate Aviation Daily reported that Garvey described the plan as a commitment by the FAA and industry to "meet the air transportation needs of the United States for the next 10 years." The plan is divided into near-term (2001), mid-term (2002-2004) and long-term (2005-2010) goals.
Herley Industries Inc., of Lancaster, Pa., won a contract from Lockheed Martin Corp. to supply telemetry data acquisition systems that will be used in monitoring the Trident II D-5 Test Missile Kit program. Total revenue from the 13-year production effort, after engineering development, is expected to exceed $23 million, the company announced June 5.
In its annual "best in the business" issue, released June 5, Aviation Week&Space Technology named seven companies as the best-managed companies in the global aviation and aerospace industry. The winning companies, by category, are: -- General Dynamics Corp. - Best-Managed Large Aerospace Company -- Elbit Systems Ltd. - Best-Managed Medium-Size Aerospace Company -- Herley Industries, Inc. - Best-Managed Small Aerospace Company -- Singapore Airlines - Best-Managed Major Airline
Russia's newest rocket - a reusable booster with combined jet engine and rocket propulsion system - has arrived in France for its first-ever appearance at the 2001 Paris Air Show, Aerospace Daily affiliate AviationNow.com reported. The Khrunichev Space Center's Baikal booster was flown Sunday from Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport to Le Bourget near Paris aboard a Volga-Dnepr Airlines Antonov An-124-100 for display at the air show, which opens June 16. The An-124 is the world's largest freighter aircraft available for regular charter service.
Saab Aerospace-BAE Systems has offered its NATO interoperable multi-role Gripen fighter to the Czech Republic government - apparently the only team to meet the May 31 deadline for proposals for the 100 billion Czech koruna ($2.5 billion USD) program. The Czech government sought fighter proposals to modernize its air fleet to meet national, NATO and European defense requirements.
On June 15, 2001, Rockwell International Corp. will spin off its avionics and communications unit, Rockwell Collins. The company announced in December that it would split in two and spin off the Collins unit, but it didn't announce the date until June 4. At the close of business on June 15, Rockwell shareholders of record will receive one share of the new Rockwell Collins company for every one share of Rockwell International held at that time.
Boeing has been chosen the winner of the lucrative C-130 Avionics Modernization Program competition, which aims to upgrade and standardize 519 of the tactical airlifters at a total program cost of $4.9 billion over more than a dozen years.
