Raytheon Systems Co., Tucson, Ariz., is being awarded a $9,825,527 modification to a firm-fixed-price contract to provide for software upgrade and test in support of 2,244 AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles. The work is expected to be completed July 2003. This effort supports foreign military sales to Finland, Israel, Italy, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Korea, Japan, Turkey, and Norway. Aeronautical Systems Center, Eglin AFB, Fla., is the contracting activity (F08626-98/C-0018, P00039).
NORTHROP GRUMMAN CORP. said yesterday that, in order to give the U.S. government time to review its pending acquisition of Litton Industries, it has voluntarily withdrawn its Jan. 4 Hart-Scott-Rodino notification of the deal. The company said it expects to "refile the notification in a timely manner." It also said that it plans to provide the European Union with the required filings before the end of the month.
Lockheed Martin Corp., Naval Electronics and Surveillance Systems-Baltimore, Baltimore, Md., is being awarded a $19,187,824 modification to previously awarded cost-plus-award-fee contract N00024-00-C-5486 for engineering services in support of the MK 41 Vertical Launching System. Work will be performed in Baltimore, Md., and is expected to be completed by December 2001. Contract funds in the amount of $45,778 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured.
Allied Research Corp., Vienna, Va., announced the appointment of a new management team headed by Gen. J.H. Binford Peay III (USA-ret.). Peay, a current Allied Research director, was named chairman, president and CEO. He replaces W. Glenn Yarborough who retired as president and CEO.
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Stratford, Conn., is being awarded an $18,648,976 modification to firm-fixed-price contract DAAJ09-97-C-0005, for 13 CH-60S Sea Hawk aircraft for the U.S. Navy. Work will be performed in Stratford, Conn., and is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2001. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on Oct. 4, 2000. The U.S. ARMY Aviation&Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity.
The DD 21 Alliance, comprised of Bath Iron Works Corp., Bath, Maine and Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Miss., is being awarded an $11,995,594 firm-fixed-price advance agreement modification for the acceleration of the DD 21 program long range land attack munitions for the advanced gun system currently being developed by United Defense, Limited Partnership, Minneapolis, Minn. Bath Iron Works Corp. has been selected by the DD 21 Alliance to lead and execute this modification. Work will be performed in Minneapolis, Minn., and is expected to be completed by March 2001.
Globalstar Telecommunications suspended principal and interest payments on its debt yesterday as a way to buy more time to sell its "Big-LEO" low-Earth orbit communications service. By the end of last week Globalstar had only 31,200 subscribers, according to Bernard L. Schwartz, chairman and CEO of Globalstar and its parent, Loral Space&Communications. Schwartz asked bondholders for patience while The Blackstone Group develops a plan to restructure the company's debt, a process he said would take about six weeks.
Lockheed Martin reported installation of the lift fan in its X-35B Joint Strike Fighter short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) aircraft, and said hover-pit testing is planned to begin next month. "The installation was a spectacular success," said Scott Winship, STOVL product manager for the Lockheed Martin JSF team. "The lift fan went in very easily. A laser-alignment check verified that the fit is essentially perfect."
The U.S. National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) should develop, within 120 days, a plan for integration of commercial imagery, an independent federal commission has recommended. "The Director of NIMA, in concert with the Director of NRO, should develop, within 120 days, a new commercial imagery strategy - i.e., prepare an integration plan for commercial imagery - consistent with current market conditions," the commission said.
SKIPPING A GENERATION: President-elect George W. Bush pledged during his campaign to "skip a generation" of weapons, but he didn't say which weapons he'd skip. Now the Cato Institute wants to help him decide.
Today marks the official opening of the U.S. Exports Systems (USXPORTS) interagency program management office, a step designed to reduce the paperwork and time required for export license approval. The opening of the office in Arlington, Va., is the result of a study directed by Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.). Launched more than two years ago, the study asked the inspector generals of the departments of Defense, Commerce, State, CIA, Energy and Treasury to submit reports on the export licensing review process, according to a Pentagon source.
The U.S. Army expects all of its Apache attack helicopters to be back in the air by the end of February. The service said that as of Dec. 21 it had returned to flight 648 out of 742 Apaches grounded one week earlier for tail rotor swashplate assembly inspection or repair. The Army directed the grounding of all 742 Boeing AH-64A and D Apache aircraft worldwide on Dec. 14 as a precautionary measure following the discovery of a faulty tail rotor swashplate assembly, officials said.
Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.) will be the ranking Democrat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence for the next two years, replacing Sen. Richard Bryan (D-Nev.), who retired from Congress, Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle (S.D.) announced late last week.
SPACE WARS: The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments agrees with the Space Commission report on the U.S. military's growing dependence on space-based systems.
(Editor's note: Following is the text of responses by Defense Secretary-designee Donald H. Rumsfeld to written questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee.) Q. The Hart-Rudman Commission, the 21st Century National Security Group Phase 3 report is scheduled to be completed by February 2001 to recommend alternatives to the current national security apparatus and suggest ways to implement the proposed national security strategy.
A month after concerns over the payload kept it grounded, an Ariane 44P thundered into orbit Wednesday evening from its jungle launch pad in Kourou, French Guiana, with the Turkish communications satellite Eurasiasat 1. Flight 137 roared off the pad on time at 5:09 p.m. EST as the first commercial space mission of 2001.
Global Positioning System satellites are among the U.S. space assets that could make attractive targets, the bipartisan Space Commission said in its report to Congress last week. GPS is a prime command and control asset of the U.S. military and is heavily relied on for a variety of civil uses, including air navigation.
SPACE CORPS: While the Space Commission report does not find that forming a separate Space Dept. or a Space Corps within the U.S. Air Force is either currently necessary or inevitable, it does say that "The use of space in defense of U.S. interests may require the creation of a military department for space at some future date." But the Commission believes that "the disadvantages of creating a Dept. today outweigh the advantages." It offers up a number of options for creating a Space Corps within the Dept. of the Air Force.
BASE CLOSINGS: If Donald Rumsfeld is confirmed as defense secretary as expected, base closings might get a serious look as a way to free up money for other needs. Rumsfeld says he "instinctively" believes the Pentagon has too much infrastructure but needs to study the situation more to know for sure. "I'm a firm believer that base structure has to fit force structure," he says. "My impression is it doesn't."
Boeing Co. said it has delivered the first Block 1A Conventional Air-Launched Cruise Missile (CALCM) to the U.S. Air Force. Six of the missiles were shipped to Fairchild AFB, Wash., for checks before a planned first flight next month. During the next year Boeing is slated to deliver more than 200 kits of the new hardware and software to be retrofitted into earlier Block 0 and Block 1 CALCM models. The Block 1A features a third-generation GPS receiver, advanced navigation software and a GPS anti-jam system.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) is interested in becoming the next chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee's seapower panel, spokesman Mike Brumas told The DAILY late last week. Chairing the subcommittee, which oversees Navy, Marine Corps and airlift programs, would increase Sessions' ability to shape military policy and look out for the interests of Alabama residents who work in the shipyard industry.
The name of a Northrop Grumman spokesman quoted in the Jan. 10 issue of The DAILY was misspelled. The person quoted was James W. Taft, the company's Director of Corporate Public Information.
Lockheed Martin is preparing a Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Block 5D-3 spacecraft for launch on Jan. 19 from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. A Titan II launch vehicle, also supplied by Lockheed Martin, will carry the satellite into orbit.
QDR DELAY? The Bush Administration may ask Congress for more time to conduct the congressionally mandated Quadrennial Defense Review, according to Defense Secretary-designate Donald Rumsfeld. The Sept. 30 deadline may not give the new Administration enough time to revise the national security strategy that the QDR will be based on, Rumsfeld says.
Russia plans to de-orbit the 15-year-old space station around March 6, a week later than was originally planned, Itar-Tass reported on Friday. "From the middle of February, we shall start to design the orbit of descent," Yuri Koptev, director of the Russian Space Agency told the Russian news agency. A Russian Progress supply ship is to be launched on Jan. 18 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to dock with the now-abandoned Mir. The Progress will begin pushing the space station out of orbit in early March.
