BAE Systems has joined with Boeing to form a consortium for the Ministry of Defense's Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft (FSTA) project, a private finance initiative program potentially worth 5 to 7 billion pounds ($7.2 to $10 billion). BAE Systems was one of three international contenders shortlisted for the project. The program calls for providing a complete air-to-air refueling (AAR) service to the RAF - including contractor ownership, management and maintenance of the aircraft - plus provision of training facilities and some personnel, for 25 years.
McDonnell Douglas Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Boeing Company, St. Louis, Mo., is being awarded a ceiling price $5,199,255 cost-plus-fixed-fee term contract for engineering services in support of airframe engineering changes for the AV-8B Harrier II Plus program for the U.S. Marine Corps and the governments of Spain and Italy under a joint program memorandum of understanding. The estimated level of effort for this contract is 42,167 man-hours. Work will be performed in St. Louis, Mo., and is expected to be completed by January 2002.
Three days after bad weather postponed its scheduled return from orbit, Space Shuttle Atlantis and its five astronauts Tuesday landed safely at NASA's backup landing site at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. Atlantis commander Ken Cockrell steered the 100-ton winged spacecraft to a gliding landing in the Mojave desert at 3:33 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, a little over an hour after he fired the Shuttle's engines to break out of Earth orbit.
Today, the Air Force is modifying an "other transaction" with Northrop Grumman Corp., San Diego, Calif. It is an $84,000,000 modification to a cost-plus-award-fee contract. This action definitizes pre-engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) support for the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle program. This effort encompasses transition efforts related to non-recurring engineering and diminishing manufacturing source materials required before proceeding to EMD.
The release of a General Accounting Office (GAO) report that found considerable shortcomings with the Marine Corps MV-22 tiltrotor aircraft should be taken with a grain of salt, according to Pentagon sources familiar with the program. While the report faults the V-22 program for inadequate testing and evaluation, specifically in areas where the Bell Boeing aircraft is susceptible to vortex ring state, the Marines defend their beloved program. Several program insiders told The DAILY to consider the source and bias of the report.
LOCKHEED MARTIN Missiles and Fire Control - Dallas successfully fired an Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) Block 1 missile from the new Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) upgraded launcher, the company announced. The flight occurred at White Sands Missile Range, N.M.
The Boeing Company, St. Louis, Mo., is being awarded a $16,652,011 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, cost type line items contract for organizational, selected intermediate and as an over and above item, limited depot level maintenance for aircraft operated by the Adversary and Strike Squadron based at Naval Air Station Fallon, Nev. Work will be performed in Fallon, Nev., and is expected to be completed by February 2002. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
The government of Israel has signed a letter of offer and acceptance with the U.S. Dept. of Defense for the purchase of nine AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopters, the Boeing Co. announced Monday. Once government-to-government negotiations are completed through a foreign military sales agreement, the U.S. Army will contract with Boeing for the Israeli aircraft and equipment. The company estimated the whole program could be worth up to nearly $500 million, including aircraft, ordnance, spares, training and support.
THE BFGOODRICH CO. of Charlotte, N.C., has received a follow-on order from the U.S. Air Force to supply advanced wheel and carbon brake systems for the balance of 750 F-16 Block 32 and prior aircraft. This order completes a contract award originally announced in November 1999. The total contract is valued at about $30 million, and follow-on deliveries are scheduled to begin in August 2001.
Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.), co-chairman of the House Electronic Warfare Working Group, plans to push for increased EW spending later this year, a spokesman told The DAILY yesterday. Pitts, a former EW officer in the Air Force, is concerned about shortfalls across the military in electronic attack and protection capabilities, spokesman Gabe Neville said. Among Pitts' concerns is identifying an eventual successor to the Navy's aging EA-6B Prowler, the only airborne radar jammer available to protect Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy aircraft.
Ingalls Shipbuilding, Inc., Pascagoula, Miss., is being awarded a not-to-exceed $105,511,641 cost-plus-award-fee letter contract modification for repair and restoration of USS Cole. Work will be performed in Pascagoula, Miss., and is expected to be completed by February 2002. Contract funds in the amount of $500,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Arlington, Va., is the contracting activity (N00024-01-C-2302).
U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair is expected to support U.S. proposals for a National Missile Defense (NMD) program, at least in principle, when he meets President George W. Bush in Washington on Friday. But more active U.K. participation - including access and upgrades to Britain's long-range radar early-warning station at Fylingdales, in northern England, as part of the planned NMD system - is meeting strong opposition from some senior British politicians and military leaders.
Raytheon Co. has been awarded an $89 million not-to-exceed contract by the U.S. Army for 1,007 Stinger Block 1 missiles and equipment for foreign military sales to Italy, Greece and the U.K., the company announced Monday.
Undersea Sensor Systems Inc., Columbia City, Ind., is receiving a $7,751,931 firm-fixed-price contract for 17,742 AN/SSQ-53F sonobuoys and associated data. The AN/SSQ-53F sonobuoys are dropped from various airborne platforms and utilized for search and detection of submerged submarines. Work will be performed in Columbia City, Ind. (80%) and Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada (20%), and is expected to be completed by January 2003. Contract funds will not expire before the end of the fiscal year.
The first heavy-lift Ariane 5 of the year is a step closer to launch after Arianespace officials in Kourou, French Guiana, moved the rocket this week from the company's integration building to the final assembly site near the jungle launch pad. The Ariane 5 - set to be launched in early March - is essentially complete after several weeks in the integration building where the rocket's core stage, two solid-fuel boosters, equipment bay and upper stage were brought together.
NASA'S JET PROPULSION LABORATORY has supplied a tiny mass spectrometer to International Space Station Alpha so spacewalking crew members can check for leaks when they are outside the orbiting facility. The device is only about five centimeters (about two inches) long, but it can detect ammonia, propellant, oxygen, nitrogen and water leaks. Delivered by the crew of the STS-98 Shuttle mission last week, the spectrometer is part of a trace gas analyzer developed in collaboration with Johnson Space Center and Oceaneering Space Systems.
F-22/JSF MIX PROMOTION:The U.S. Air Force, criticized for seemingly quieting its support on the Joint Strike Fighter, is once again vocalizing its promotion of the high/low mix of F-22/JSF the service planned all along. "The capability of [the JSF] is just a perfect fit for that high/low mix and we truly expect that it will not only be a most significant platform for the U.S. Navy, Air Force and Marines, but also for our allies," says Acting AF Secretary Lawrence Delaney. He tells The DAILY, "That's always been our position.
DEFENSE EXPORTS: The U.S. plans to restore Canada's exemption under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations to allow license-free transfers of many unclassified defense goods and technology to Canada. The U.S. suspended the exemption in April 1999, saying Canada lacked adequate safeguards to prevent transfers to third countries. Canada is making several changes to address U.S. concerns, including harmonizing its export control list with the U.S. munitions list
WORKER PLAN: NASA needs to develop a long-term plan to retain, recruit, train, and help develop the careers of its workers, the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel says in its most recent report. The panel says NASA's recent downsizing has left a workforce with a potential future shortage of experienced leadership.
British security will be guaranteed "for the foreseeable future" by the UK nuclear deterrent, according to policy papers published last week by the Ministry of Defense that summarize government thinking on key military factors in the run-up to national elections expected in May.
U.S. defense exporters complete about $3 billion a year in defense offset transactions with other nations, according to a new report by the Presidential Commission on Offsets in International Trade.
WELDON IN RUSSIA: Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee is leading a congressional delegation to Russia this week to meet with President Vladimir Putin. Missile defense and other security issues will likely be discussed.
MESSAGE SENT: Despite Pentagon and White House statements that the Feb. 16 air strikes against Iraqi command and control radars were routine actions to defend allied pilots, in fact the strikes were of greater significance, for two reasons, Kenneth Allard of the Center for Strategic&International Studies told The DAILY. First, the action marked "the first time this new national security team put American forces in harm's way," he said. Second, the action sent "a very clear signal that there is a new gang in town and the adults are back in charge."
SPACE PUSH: ProSpace, a non-profit organization dedicated to opening the space frontier, is planning its latest "March Storm" trip to Capitol Hill to talk to lawmakers about its agenda for commercial space. This year's storm is slated for March 10-15, and the group's number one agenda item is to convince Congress to steer NASA's Space Launch Initiative program more toward the private sector.
RAPT ATTENTION: Senate Armed Services Committee member Max Cleland (D-Ga.), whose state is home to the F-22's final assembly site, is keeping a close eye on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's review of the program, a spokeswoman says. The Pentagon says it won't reconsider whether to move the Raptor into low-rate initial production until Rumsfeld reviews the program (DAILY, Feb. 7). But F-22 supporters want that review done before March 31, when funding intended to keep the program on track runs out.
