Russia and Ukraine are not planning any military missile alliance as a response to U.S plans to build a national missile defense system, Russian officials said in the wake of a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma last week. "Ukraine is a nuclear-free state, and we respect this status," Putin told members of the media before the visit. "And we haven't any need to attempt violation of this order of things. All our plans are aimed towards the joint work in the civilian sector."
Honeywell International Inc., Phoenix, Ariz., is being awarded $151,928 of a $1,212,480 increment, as part of a $25,000,l000 (estimated base year total) indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity with cost-plus-fixed-fee-task orders contract, with an estimated cumulative total of $50,000,000, for the T55/53 Engine Component Improvement Program. An appropriation number and dollar value will be issued with each task order. Work will be performed in Phoenix, Ariz., and is expected to be completed by Feb. 4, 2006. This is a sole source contract initiated on Oct. 13, 2000.
McDonnell Douglas Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of The Boeing Company, St. Louis, Mo., is being awarded a $7,800,000 modification to previously awarded fixed-price incentive-fee contract (N00019-97-C-0136) to incorporate Engineering Change Proposal (ECP) 6035 into F/A-18E/F low rate initial production 3 (LRIP 3) aircraft. This ECP will incorporate trailing edge control surfaces buffet redesign and retrofit into 20 F/A-18E/F LRIP 3 aircraft. Work will be performed in St. Louis, Mo. (59.6%); Mesa, Ariz. (22.7%); Melbourne, Australia (17.4%); and Cecil Field, Fla.
Lockheed Martin's Joint Strike Fighter X-35C carrier variant (CV) flew 2,500 miles last week in what is probably the first transcontinental flight for an "X" aircraft. It landed at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md. on Saturday to begin four to six weeks of flight testing for carrier suitability in sea-level conditions.
NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous probe touched down gently enough on the surface of the asteroid Eros yesterday to continue broadcasting a carrier signal after what engineers tentatively said was a small bounce. "I'm happy to report that the NEAR spacecraft touched down on the surface of Eros. We are still getting some signals, so evidently it's still transmitting from the surface itself," said Robert Farquhar, NEAR mission director at the Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory here.
Military plans to invest billions in new tactical aircraft and to spend $1.3 billion for structural modifications to its aging F/A-18C/Ds and F-16s through 2014 won't help reduce the average age of aircraft in the force, according to a General Accounting Office (GAO) report released last week. "DOD's planned investment of $258 billion to $338 billion in new tactical aircraft modernization is not likely to decrease the average age of tactical aircraft over the next 25 years," the report says.
INTEGRAL SYSTEMS, INC., announced it received a sole-source subcontract to complete the final phase of a three-phase upgrade of Air Force simulators for the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program. The subcontract is with Lockheed Martin Corp.'s Missiles and Space Operations division and involves software modifications to the simulators for improved testing, training and anomaly resolution.
Hydraulics International, Inc., Chatsworth, Calif., is being awarded a $54,891,987 firm-fixed-price contract to provide for 299 (best estimated quantity) Hydraulic Component Test Stands (HCT-20) applicable to multiple aircraft. These units allow pressurization of aircraft hydraulic systems without use of aircraft thus allowing for functional check of flight control systems and landing gear operations. The HCT-20 also permits testing of the individual components of an aircraft's hydraulics system. The work is expected to be completed February 2005.
Canada's CAE Inc. is expected to announced Thursday that it plans to purchase BAE Systems Simulation and Flight Training business - otherwise known as BAE/Reflectone - in an all-cash transaction valued at nearly $80 million. Also bidding for the operation was L-3 Communications, which narrowly lost the auctioned property. The Tampa, Fla.-based unit of BAE Systems plc designs and manufactures a wide range of flight simulators and training devices for commercial and military customers worldwide. BAE Systems purchased Reflectone in 1997, when the U.K.
Spacewalking astronauts Robert Curbeam and Thomas Jones worked with mission specialist Marsha Ivins and the Shuttle Atlantis' robot arm to connect the Pressurized Mating Adapter 2 to the Destiny laboratory on the International Space Station Alpha yesterday. The spacewalkers completed yesterday's tasks ahead of schedule and were able to finish some work intended for tomorrow's spacewalk, including installing a shutter on Destiny's 20-inch diameter window and removing protective insulation that had protected the window.
NASA's new "Destiny" Laboratory Module delivered to Space Station Alpha over the weekend includes the first U.S.-built life support hardware on the orbiting outpost, but it will be mid-2005 at the earliest before NASA completely matches the Mir-vintage gear on the Russian side of the Station.
HIGH EYE IN THE SKY: NORAD is sponsoring a high-altitude aerostat surveillance platform as an Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD) project for fiscal year 2002 to demonstrate its potential for national cruise missile defense. The unmanned lighter-than-air vehicle, which loiters untethered at 70,000 feet where winds are minimal, is solar-powered and likely to be produced by Stratcom International (DAILY, Mar. 21, 2000). The aerostat would provide a long-reach surveillance platform that covers quite a broad swath of the earth.
JSF SOURCE SELECTION BEGINS:Boeing and Lockheed Martin, competing to build the Joint Strike Fighter, have both submitted their proposals to the joint program office for engineering and manufacturing development (EMD). The proposals for the JSF prime weapons system concept (PWSC) contract are in response to the call for improvements (CFI) issued by the JPO last Nov. 13. According to a JPO spokesperson, receipt of the proposals last week officially kicked off the beginning of source selection.
The Space Frontier Foundation, a California-based space media and policy group, has called upon NASA to overhaul its Space Launch Initiative program or cancel it. The program is NASA's own effort to develop new, low-cost space launch vehicles with the help of commercial companies, but the SFF has complained it will actually prevent those companies from developing new and innovative launch vehicles.
WAIT-AND-SEE: President Bush's decision to not seek an immediate supplemental to the $310 billion Defense Dept. budget (DAILY, Feb. 8), may leave the military between a rock and a hard place. Although Bush did not rule out a supplemental later in the year, the services have predicted they may not have enough money to meet such things as flying hour requirements.
BUDGET ADVICE: Nine Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee, including Chairman John Warner (R-Va.), are urging President Bush to adopt a "two-track" approach to addressing readiness and quality of life issues. The "first track" would focus on immediate needs and consist of a fiscal 2001 supplemental appropriations bill and the FY '02 budget request, the senators write in a letter last week. Pressing problems include a $1.4 billion shortfall for flying hours and spare parts, they say.
NAVY NUDGED: Members of the St. Louis-area congressional delegation, including House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.), are urging the U.S. Navy not to reduce the number of F/A-18E/Fs it buys in fiscal 2001. The Navy has warned it may have to cut 12 aircraft and a ship if it doesn't get a supplemental spending bill for urgent shortfalls in other areas, and a congressional source has said the reduction could include six Super Hornets (DAILY, Jan. 23). In a letter late last month to Chief of Naval Operations Adm.
U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Michael E. Ryan said that for coalition forces to fight alongside the USAF, they must use English as the common air language and have a U.S.-compatible command and control system or they won't be allowed to participate in future conflicts.
NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif., gave a $35 million Engineering and Technical Support contract to the McDonnell Douglas Corp. of St. Louis, Mo., NASA announced last week. McDonnell Douglas is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Boeing Co. The contract provides for the engineering, technical support and other technical services for Dryden's two F/A-18 research aircraft, F-15 research aircraft, several F/A-18 mission support aircraft and a planned U.S. Air Force C-17 test aircraft.
GOOD SOLDIER: NASA Administrator Dan Goldin, appointed by the first President Bush in 1992, is taking steps to follow policy set by the second President Bush this year.
The Ministry of Defense published two forward-looking documents last week aimed at encouraging a serious and open debate on defense. The first, entitled "Defense Policy 2001," is said to include a clear and full statement of the U.K. approach to European defense, while the second, "The Future Strategic Context for Defense", looks further ahead to the challenges expected over the next 30 years.
TOURIST TRAP: U.S. and Russian space officials will meet in Houston Wednesday on whether California millionaire Dennis Tito will get his $20 million ride to Space Station Alpha. The bilaterial crew operations panel will spend two days discussing the Russian proposal to fly Tito in the empty seat of the fresh Soyuz capsule going up to Alpha later this spring, as well as a similar "taxi-flight" proposal involving French Astronaut Claudie Andre-Deschays (DAILY, Jan. 31). Also on tap at Johnson Space Center this month is a meeting Feb.
Spacehab Inc. is seeking partners to help it pay for new hardware developments as it struggles to earn profits on its pressurized Space Shuttle cargo and research modules, the chairman and chief executive of the commercial space company reported last week.
ACCELERATING SHIELD: NASA plans to work with its Russian partners on the International Space Station Alpha to try to get shielding against micrometeorites and space particles installed on the Station sooner than currently planned. The first part of the Station's shielding is scheduled to go up this year but the bulk of it won't be aloft until 2004, according to current Station construction plans.
A Canadian unit of EMS Technologies, Inc., will supply Russian satellite operator and builder Khrunichev State Research and Production Center of Moscow with three satellite repeaters and one engineering model under a contract valued at U.S. $23 million, the company announced last week. The repeaters will receive, amplify and retransmit communications signals to provide fixed satellite service communications throughout Russia, Eastern Europe and Western Asia and are baselined to fly on Dialog satellites.
