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.
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.
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
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.
QWEST COMMUNICATIONS INTERNATIONAL INC. of Denver, Colo., was awarded a five-year contract from NASA to continue providing high-speed Internet access to NASA's research and education network (NREN). Qwest will connect eight NASA centers - including NASA headquarters in Washington - with a faster connectivity rate, allowing for more bandwidth to be used by the facilities. The contract extension is valued at up to $25 million.
General Dynamics announced June 4 it is extending its offer to buy all outstanding common stock shares of Newport News Shipbuilding, Inc. to midnight on June 22. The offer had been scheduled to expire at midnight on June 1. The move follows a May 23 announcement from Northrop Grumman Corp. that it would begin offering to buy or exchange all outstanding shares of Newport News common stock from shareholders.
NASA has indefinitely delayed the launch of the High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (HESSI) after the June 2 failure of the modified Pegasus booster which was carrying the X-43A hypersonic test vehicle. HESSI was scheduled to launch on a standard Orbital Sciences-built Pegasus XL from Cape Canaveral, Fla. June 7. The booster for the X-43A is a derivative of the Pegasus, in which the payload fairing and the second and third stages of the rocket have been eliminated.
Raytheon Co., El Segundo, Calif., is being awarded a not-to-exceed $9,271,508 cost-plus-firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to provide engineering services in the support of Navy F-14 aircraft radar systems. Work will be performed in Point Mugu, Calif. (86.7%), and El Segundo, Calif. (13.3%), and is expected to be completed by May 2004. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured.
Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control of Dallas, the prime contractor on the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) Missile, has selected its own production facility in Camden, Ark., as the final assembly site for the PAC-3 Missile. The company said the decision, announced June 4, was largely based on the facility's outstanding performance, particularly on the Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS).
The cultures of the National Reconnaissance Office and the Air Force have sometimes clashed, but integrating them more closely - as recommended by the Space Commission - can be done, according to an Air Force general who also served as the head of the NRO's Office of Space Launch. "It's going to take a team," said Maj. Gen. Howard J. Mitchell, now director of operations for Air Force Space Command. "It's going to take, number one, the desire to do it, and number two, leadership...."
Boeing Co., Information and Surveillance Systems, Seattle, Wash., is being awarded a $7,000,000,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) modernization and sustainment support effort. The purpose of this program is to lengthen the service life of the AWACS system and to sustain and improve its operational capabilities and effectiveness. The Air Force can award delivery orders totaling up to the maximum amount indicated above, though actual requirements may necessitate less than that amount.
Competitors for the Block III Global Positioning System program expect the U.S. Air Force to issue a draft request for proposals in July for the next phase of the effort, Component Advanced Development. A formal RFP will follow in September, and two contracts of $100 million each will be awarded late this year or early in 2002. A single contractor will be chosen in about 2004 for development and production of the multi-billion dollar next-generation satellite navigation system.
JAMES G. ROCHE has been sworn in as the 20th secretary of the Air Force, according to the Department of Defense. Roche, a retired Navy captain, was nominated by President Bush on May 7, confirmed by the Senate on May 24 and sworn in at a Pentagon ceremony on June 1.
Litton Systems Inc., San Carlos, Calif., is being awarded a $8,939,423 (estimated) firm-fixed-requirements type contract to provide for three years of repair services for the traveling wave tubes applicable to the APF-68 radar on the F-16 C/D aircraft. Funds will be obligated as individual delivery orders are issued. This work is to be completed by May 2004. Solicitation began September 2000; negotiations were completed May 2001. Ogden Air Logistics Center, Hill AFB, Utah, is the contracting activity (F42620-01-D-0025).
Light Helicopter Turbine Engine Co., Indianapolis, Ind., is being awarded $8,499,998 as part of a $17,000,000 modification (because this is an undefinitized contract action, only 50% is being awarded at this time) to cost-plus-fixed-fee contract DAAJ09-92-C-0453. This requirement is for the efforts necessary to extend the current T800 contract that will lead to the Pre-Production Qualification Program for the T800 engine in support of the Comanche Airframe Program.
Northrop Grumman Corp., Bethpage, N.Y., is being awarded a $6,900,000 modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract (N00019-97-C-0147) to exercise an option for three outer wing panels for the U.S. Navy E-2C aircraft. Work will be performed in Bethpage, N.Y. (70%), and St. Augustine, Fla. (30%), and is expected to be completed by March 2005. 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.
Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) of San Antonio and Teledyne Brown Engineering of Huntsville, Ala., have been awarded a six-month contract worth up to $6 million to evaluate Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter systems and subsystems for possible upgrades. The award, made through the Army's Design Engineering Support Program, calls for the companies to examine components and small systems on the helicopter that have not been updated, such as transmissions, shafts, hydraulics and auxiliary power units.
Raytheon Aircraft Co., Wichita, Kan., is being awarded a $5,468,445 fixed price incentive firm contract to provide for computer work stations, and software and Training Integrated Management System in support of the Joint Primary Aircraft Training System and the T-6A aircraft. At this time 100 percent of the funds have been obligated. The work is expected to be completed by August 2002. The work will be performed by Flight Safety Services Corp, Englewood, Colo., (85%), and other locations.
The United States and United Kingdom together are studying how a trimaran warship might fit into their respective navies of the future, with the British Research Vessel Triton serving as the first prototype demonstrator for such concept validation.
Prime Minister Tony Blair's Administration plans major defense cuts in its next term if he wins re-election on Thursday, according to news reports here. Whitehall sources said that contracts for defense equipment worth at least $38 billion - approved during New Labor's current four-year term - have left little available for additional planned programs in on-going military budgets, pegged at about $32 billion per year.
Officials from the Israel Ministry of Defense announced that Pratt&Whitney's F100-PW-229 engine has been selected to power the Israel Air Force's follow-on buy of fighter aircraft, a decision worth about $300 million. "This latest procurement marks the third consecutive time that Israel has selected Pratt&Whitney's F100 engine to power our front line fighters," Maj. Gen. (Res.) Amos Yaron, the director general of the Israel Ministry of Defense, said in a statement distributed by Pratt&Whitney.
The biggest concern for the federal government about the proposed merger of Newport News Shipbuilding, Inc. with one of two aerospace and defense companies may not be cost savings. Rather, it might be preserving the company's intellectual talent for future technical innovation, according to several analysts. General Dynamics Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp. have both filed per-merger notification with the Department of Justice, Department of Defense, and the Federal Trade Commission to acquire Newport News.
The Boeing Co. and its machinists union in St. Louis reached an agreement on a new contract after extensive consultation between union leaders and employees, union officials said June 4. The agreement heads off a possible strike at the plant, where workers complete the final assembly on the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, the F-15 Eagle, the AV-8B Harrier II and the T-45 Goshawk.
The House Appropriations Committee's VA-HUD subcommittee, which oversees NASA's budget, tentatively plans to mark up its fiscal 2002 spending bill June 27, according to a committee aide. The schedule is less clear in the Senate, where Democrats are about to gain control, forcing committees to reorganize and re-examine their agendas.
NEOLINEAR INC., of Pittsburgh, announced June 4 it has entered into a $3.8 million Defense Advanced Research Project Technology Investment Agreement for the development of a next generation analog/mixed signal synthesis system for ultra high frequency integrated circuit design. These circuits will be used for the Department of Defense's next-generation communication and sensing requirements, according to the company.
