Bell-Boeing Joint Program Office, Arlington, Va., is being awarded a $47,216,192 ceiling priced order for procurement of various full rate production of Lot 5 spares for the V-22 Osprey aircraft. These parts will be used for the remaining 16 aircraft, which are a part of the initial low-rate production lot. This procurement covers 3,192 types of spares. Among the estimated 30,000 total number of spares being bought are forward looking infrared turrets, latch assemblies, support assemblies, and seals.
The gap between test and evaluation (T&E) requirements and resources is wide and growing, according to a report released late Friday by Philip Coyle, the Defense Dept.'s director of operational test and evaluation (OT&E). Coyle's fiscal 2000 annual report says that T&E investment has fallen over 28 percent in the past decade, while military construction funding for T&E facilities has dropped over 90 percent. At the same time, T&E requirements and the complexity of weapon systems being tested have increased.
Titan Linkabit Wireless, San Diego, Calif., is being awarded a $5,159,430 ceiling-price order under basic ordering agreement N00383-99-G-023G for purchase of 15 AN/USC-42A(v)2 Dual Channel Mini-DAMA (demand assigned multiple access) Communication Sets used on various aircraft and shipboard platforms. This contract is for the Government of the Republic of Korea (100%) under the Foreign Military Sales Program. Work will be performed at San Diego, Calif., and is expected to be completed by January 2002. This contract was not competitively procured.
Lockheed Martin Tactical Defense Systems, Archbald, Pa., is being awarded an $8,999,990 firm-fixed-price contract for no-cost qualifications and procurement of 500 Laser Guided Bombs (LGB) GBU-16 kits. Work will be performed at Archbald, Pa., and is expected to be completed by December 2002. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured with two proposals solicited and one offer received. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity (N00019-01-C-0139).
Boeing Satellite Systems, Herndon, Va., is being awarded a $9,999,999 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for Satellite Connectivity Services and Bandwidth in support of the Standard Missile 3 Theater Ballistic Missile Defense (TBMD). This contract will provide technical and engineering services required to operate, upgrade, maintain and expand the ship/shore Satellite Connectivity System.
Rep. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) and 58 House colleagues sent a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld last week urging him not to delay a decision to begin low-rate initial production for the F-22. The lawmakers said they are concerned that funding for the Raptor will run out at the end of March unless DOD decides to move forward with LRIP.
General Electric Co., Cincinnati, Ohio, was awarded on Feb. 23, a $15,000,000 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to provide for the Engine Technology Improvement Contract (ETIC) effort in support of various aircraft and missile engines through December 2015. This effort will include engine and component design, development and test, engine/system evaluations, air vehicle integration design and development, trade, sensitivity and life cycle cost studies, and mission effectiveness evaluations. The work is expected to be completed December 2015.
Exostar, the mega e-marketplace backed by BAE Systems, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, has taken on a new software partner, PTC of Needham, Mass., that moves it beyond the pure electronic marketplace business model it began with a year ago to provide Internet-based manufacturing services. The move essentially turns Exostar into an application service provider for its aerospace manufacturing partners to collaborate among their individual supply chain members or among themselves.
AEROJET of Sacramento, Calif., has been awarded a contract extension to develop a first-stage rocket engine for a commercial launch vehicle. The contract is with Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co. of Japan, which is building the first stage of a commercial launch vehicle, the J-1 Upgrade (DAILY, July 8, 1998). The six-month, $480,000 contract extension brings Aerojet's first-stage engine configuration contract to $2.9 million, the company said yesterday.
TRW Systems and Information Group, Sunnyvale, Calif., is being awarded a $44,962,144 modification to a cost-plus-award-fee contract to provide for development of a production configuration version of the Joint Signal Intelligence (SIGINT) Avionics Family High Band Subsystem Demonstration unit. The High Band Subsystem will provide signal intelligence and geolocation capability for airborne reconnaissance platforms. At this time, $5,000,000 of the contract funds have been obligated. The work is expected to be completed June 2004.
Lockheed Martin is reorganizing its $3 billion-plus Consolidated Space Operations Contract (CSOC) with NASA to decentralize management and focus authority at each of the agency centers supported by the pact.
British army very short-range air defense units will achieve a new night/bad weather engagement capability from a 70 million pounds ($105 million) contract announced yesterday with Thales Air Defence Ltd (TADL, formerly Shorts Missile Systems), in Belfast. Thales' infra-red Thermal Sighting System (TSS) will be fitted to the self-propelled version of the army's high-velocity missile (HVM) V-SHORAD air defense weapon, for use against armored helicopters and low-flying aircraft.
Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics and Surveillance Systems, Manassas, Va., is being awarded a $6,485,812 modification to previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract N00019-00-C-0235 to exercise an option for the procurement of four USQ-78B upgrade kits for the P-3C aircraft. Work will be performed in Manassas, Va., and is expected to be completed by December 2003. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.
A group of European companies and the European Space Agency are designing a new satellite-based radio communications system for airline pilots and air traffic controllers to help ease crowded skies over Western Europe and elsewhere. The $4.2 million Satellite Data Link System (SDLS) uses both data and voice transmissions to link cockpit crews in the air with air traffic controllers on the ground in an advanced communications network aimed at complimenting current ground-based VHF radio systems.
Countdown clocks began ticking yesterday at Florida's Kennedy Space Center for this Thursday's launch of Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-102 - the first mission to exchange crews for the International Space Station Alpha. "I hear Discovery is ready for us," said astronaut Jim Voss, who'll begin his tour aboard Alpha along with colleagues Yuri Usachev and Susan Helms. "We are ready to go up to the International Space Station, get first-hand information from the Expedition One crew, take over and stay there for 4-1/2 or 5 months," Voss said.
B/E AEROSPACE INC. of Wellington, Fla., announced it has completed the acquisition of three companies: T.L. Windust Machine, Inc., Alson Industries, Inc. and DMGI, Inc., which it said will help with its business of manufacturing aircraft cabin interior products. B/E has issued about 2.5 million shares of company common stock in connection with the acquisitions and will retire or assume $11 million of the companies' debt. The combined purchase price, including debt assumed or retired, is about $65 million.
The Bush Administration is proposing a big budget increase for the Coast Guard in fiscal 2002 in part to help the agency modernize its fleet of offshore ships and aircraft. The president's budget outline, released last week, proposes a $545 million increase over FY 01, to $5.1 billion, to "support operational requirements and begin rebuilding the Coast Guard's aging fleet of ships and aircraft." The White House is expected to provide more details when it releases its detailed budget April 3.
A team of scientists and engineers at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida have found a way to convert rocket fuel waste to fertilizer, and are using it on orange groves around the center's grounds. The invention was developed by NASA's Clyde Parrish, Dale Lueck, Andrew Kelly and Dynacs Engineering's Paul Gamble. They were given NASA's Commercial Invention of the Year Award, announced yesterday.
PerkinElmer Inc. acquired Applied Surface Technology (AST), a San Carlos, Calif., supplier of processing techniques and services used in the fabrication of semiconductor wafer equipment. Terms of the deal were not announced. AST's annual revenue is about $7 million. PerkinElmer, based in Boston, is a $1.7 billion company.
Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services, Denver, Colo., and Delta Launch Services Inc., Huntington Beach, Calif., are being awarded a $75,000,000 modification to their requirements contracts to provide for Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) launch services for the Navy's Ultra-High Frequency Follow-On Program communication satellite F11. Delivery orders will be issued contingent upon the Navy selecting the EELV as their launch services provider for this mission.
Aerospace contractor BFGoodrich Co. will change its name on April 17 to Goodrich Corp., with shareholder approval, to represent its shift away from tire manufacturing to aerospace markets, it announced yesterday. About 84% of the company's $4.4 billion in annual revenues now comes from the aerospace industry, versus only 7% in 1985. The remaining 14% comes from sealing products, compressor systems and other industrial products, according to the company.
Iraq continued to work on an unmanned version of the Czechoslovakian L-29 trainer as a vehicle to deliver chemical or biological weapons during the first half of 2000, the Central Intelligence Agency says in a new report. Iraq may have conducted flights of modified L-29s, "possibly to test system improvements or to train new pilots," who would fly it from the ground, according to the report.
Commercial airline engine repair technology developed by engine maker Pratt&Whitney is being adapted to repair damaged AV-8B Harrier engines, Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md. reports.
I/NET INC., of Kalamazoo, Mich., received a $600,000 NASA contract to develop a form of intelligent control technology known as Complex Event Recognition Architecture, or CERA. The money will be generated over two years, according to the company. CERA is a computer-based system able to analyze complex situations in hostile or unusual environments. It is capable of contemplating a wide variety of variables in a given situation and either correcting problems on its own or prompting an operator to act.
SPACE VACANCY: Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) is giving up the chairmanship of the Senate Commerce Committee's space panel after only a few weeks on the job. Brownback, whose elevation to the chairmanship was announced Feb. 1 (DAILY, Feb. 6), has amassed too many subcommittee chairmanships under Senate rules and has to give one up. No successor has been announced.
