Airbus Industrie will sponsor SITA's Interactive Distributed Information and Support (IDIS) web portal to streamline online distribution of aircraft component technical documents. The service, said SITA, offers a "neutrally hosted database" for airlines and air transport users. IDIS can also be accessed through AeroNet, SITA's extranet for the air transport industry, or a secure Internet connection. Airbus will showcase IDIS to airline customers through the Airbus On Line Services Systems (AOLS).
Four industry consortia are being asked by the U.K.'s Ministry of Defense to bid for a possible Private Finance Initiative (PFI) deal to provide the Royal Air Force with aerial refueling services. The Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft (FSTA) deal, according to Defense Procurement Minister Baroness Liz Symons, is the MOD's biggest current PFI, with potential value of nine billion pounds (more than $13 billion) over a 25-year period. The four consortia submitted outline proposals in November 1999.
Aeroexchange, the e-market backed by 13 major international carriers, has chosen the Air Transport Assn.'s Spec 2000 Procurement Database for supply chain management, e-procurement catalog and information services. The decision could boost the association's efforts to have the system recognized as the industry's most reliable and easily available.
Raytheon Co. won a $43 million firm fixed-price contract for low rate initial production of the AIM-9X next-generation Sidewinder missile. The contract calls for 103 all-up-round missiles, 39 captive air training missiles, and associated components. "The unprecedented success of the AIM-9X development effort gives me confidence that our forces will receive this highly capable and affordable weapon on time," said Capt. David J. Venlet, Naval Air Systems Command's program manager for Air-to-Air Missiles.
The U.S. Army handed out a $453 million deal to PricewaterhouseCoopers to provide distance education for about 80,000 soldiers over the next five years. The new education Web portal - Army University Access Online - is slated to go live in mid-January at three Army posts in Georgia, Kentucky and Texas. It includes more than a dozen technology providers and 29 accredited education partners. The cyber-initiative is aimed at creating "Information Age-savvy soldiers" for the high tech warfare of the future, according to Secretary of the Army Louis Caldera.
To defeat integrated enemy air defenses, the U.S. services must adopt a more coordinated approach and need a joint office to direct their efforts, the General Accounting office says in a new report. The 20-page report - "Electronic Warfare: Comprehensive Strategy Needed for Suppressing Enemy Air Defenses" (GAO-01-28) - finds that while the individual services' efforts to beef up capabilities and handle responsibilities are "beneficial," they don't reflect a "comprehensive, cross-service approach."
KB YUZHNOYE blamed computer failure for last week's failure of its Tsiklon-3 launch vehicle, which claimed six small satellites belonging either to Russia's defense ministry or the Russian Aerospace Agency. The rocket crashed a few minutes after liftoff Dec. 28, 2000, from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. Yuzhnoye said telemetry showed an erroneous on-board command shut down the rocket's engines 367 seconds after liftoff.
TRW Inc warned Wall Street it will miss fourth quarter earnings expectations, turning in earnings per share between $0.50 to $0.55 a share versus analysts' consensus estimate of $0.74 a share. Along with a $14 million after-tax hit in the quarter due to recalls, the company also blamed the shortfall on a $2 million reserve to account for a customer's bankruptcy and lighter North American auto production. The actions however, are not expected to have any lingering effects beyond the fourth quarter, according to the company.
The recent award of an initial contract by Germany's Federal Procurement Office to the European Aeronautics Defense and Space company (EADS) for mission support systems for the Franco-German Tiger attack helicopter will facilitate control of the helicopter from the ground by advanced electronic support equipment. EADS' Dornier GmbH subsidiary was the recipient of the first of four phases planned for this contract, worth an initial 11 million euros ($10.23 million).
EXPEDITION ONE crewmembers aboard Space Station Alpha plan to dismantle the rendezvous system on the Progress capsule Cosmonaut Yuri Gidzenko redocked with the Station on Dec. 26, 2000, and return it to Earth for study, according to RSC Energia. Gidzenko used the Toru manual docking system to reattach the robotic supply capsule from a range of 185 meters after the its Kurs automatic docking system demonstrated it could lock on the proper docking port with a software patch uploaded from Mission Control Center-Moscow (MCC-M).
Raytheon Co., Bedford, Mass., was awarded $5,433,120 as part of a not-to-exceed $11,088,000 modification to cost-plus-incentive-fee contract DAAH01-99-C-0002, on Dec. 22. This acquisition is for the repair of an additional 240 Radio Frequency Downlinks to support the Patriot Reliability and Enhancement Program, which provided for the repair and/or recertification of Patriot PAC-2 and GEM Missiles in the United States. Work will be performed in Bedford, Mass., and is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2001.
Reported MOD interest in non-lethal radio frequency munitions delivered by 155m artillery shells or rockets, designed to destroy all electrical circuits within a wide radius in key areas, has been linked with possible research by MATRA BAe Dynamics.
SIRIUS SATELLITE RADIO plans to begin commercial service with its digital audio broadcast system this month, following completion of in-orbit testing of its third geostationary spacecraft. Once end-to-end testing and integration of its receiver, studio, broadcast, transaction management and customer service systems are complete, the New York-based company plans to begin offering 100 channels of digital-quality radio - 50 of music and 50 of news, sports and other talk - at a monthly subscription fee of $9.95.
President Clinton signed the fiscal 2001 intelligence authorization bill into law last week after Congress removed an anti-leaks provision that he opposed. The new law authorizes spending on intelligence activities at the Defense Dept., the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency and other federal agencies. Although the exact amount authorized is classified, it is widely believed to be roughly $30 billion.
Raytheon Systems Co., Tucson, Ariz., was awarded on Dec. 21 a $26,224,556 modification to a firm-fixed-price contract to provide for 72 AIM-120C Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles. The work is expected to be completed July 2002. Air-to-Air Joint Systems Program Office, Eglin AFB, Fla., is the contracting activity (F08626-98/C-0018, P00041).
STARSEM, the Franco-Russian company that launches commercial satellites on human-rated Soyuz rockets, will launch two European Metop weather satellites from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan beginning in 2005, with an options for a third launch. Under a contract with the Eumetsat consortium, Starsem plans to place the European weather platforms into polar orbits at an altitude of 840 kilometers (521 miles). Built by Astrium, the satellites will be Europe's first polar-orbiting weather satellites.
Lockheed Martin, Naval Electronics and Surveillance Systems, Baltimore, Md., is being awarded a $79,951,026 modification to previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract N00024-98-C-5363 for production of MK 41 vertical launching systems and ancillary hardware for the U.S. Navy. Work will be performed in Baltimore, Md. (58%); Aberdeen, Md. (37%); and Minneapolis, Minn. (5%), and is expected to be completed by June 2007. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Arlington, Va., is the contracting activity.
Lockheed Martin Corp., Fort Worth, Tex., was awarded on Dec. 26 a $47,469,220 firm-fixed-price contract to provide for four F-16 Block 50 aircraft with the Air to Air Interrogator and associated Alternate Mission Equipment. The work is expected to be completed January 2003. Solicitation began August 2000; negotiations were completed December 2000. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-99/C-0031).
Pascal Lamy, European Commissioner in charge of Trade, said the European Commission would protect Airbus from any American attacks concerning subsidies and would retaliate. Recent U.S. allegations that government loans for the development of the A380 superjumbo airliner violate World Trade Organization rules "do not hold water," he said. "We are there to act as a shield, a solid and thick shield that will stay in place," Lamy said in an interview broadcast Dec. 28 by French radio Europe 1. "And I can say that we will defend our Airbus."
Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., Savannah, Ga., was awarded on Dec. 22 a $42,164,072 modification to a firm-fixed-price contract to provide for one C-37A (Gulfstream V) aircraft for the Navy. The work is expected to be completed July 2002. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-00/C-0018).
The U.S. Air Force F-22 Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) meeting scheduled for today has been postponed for the second time, giving program officials more time to complete remaining exit criteria before a low rate initial production (LRIP) decision is made. But with less than three weeks until the Bush Administration takes over, the postponement may mean the decision to approve $2.1 billion in funding production money for 10 LRIP aircraft and long-lead materials for 16 airplanes will fall to the new Pentagon structure.
A top challenge for Defense Secretary-designate Donald Rumsfeld will be to tackle a problem whose solution has so far been elusive: how to pay for the Defense Dept.'s ambitious weapons modernization effort, congressional sources said yesterday.
SEA LAUNCH is set to launch the first of two geostationary digital radio satellites for XM Satellite Radio on Jan. 8. The international joint venture's Odyssey launch platform and Commander launch control vessel have left their home port in Long Beach, Calif., with the XM-1 spacecraft - dubbed "Roll" - aboard for the equatorial launch site at 154 degrees West longitude. Sea Launch also plans to launch XM-2 - "Rock" - in the first quarter of this year to set up a commercial digital audio broadcast system in the U.S. (DAILY, Sept. 19, 2000).
Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Marietta, Ga., was awarded on Dec. 22 a $734,500,000 firm-fixed-price contract to provide for 12 C-130J aircraft (one C-130J and two C-130J-30 aircraft for the Air National Guard, three KC-130J aircraft for the Marines, and six C-130J aircraft for the Coast Guard). The work is expected to be completed December 2006. There was one firm solicited and one proposal received. Solicitation began October 2000; negotiations were completed December 2000.
General Electric Aircraft Engines, Lynn, Mass., is being awarded an estimated $21,509,260 requirements contract for seven types of items supporting the F404-400/402 engine on F/A-18 aircraft. These items include combustion liners and low pressure turbine shafts. Estimated quantity of purchase in the first two years is 849. This contract contains options, which if exercised, would bring the total cumulative value of this contract to $53,773,150. Work will be performed in Lynn, Mass., and is expected to be completed by December 2007.
