The U.S. Navy decided Tuesday to delay a decision on full-rate production of the V-22 tiltrotor aircraft in the wake of the crash Monday night of a U.S. Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey that killed all four Marines aboard. "The Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition has decided to delay a decision on whether to proceed with full-rate production," said 1st Lt. David Nevers, a Headquarters Marine Corps spokesman.
Motorola won the U.S. Army's first Intelligence and Electronic Warfare Tactical Proficiency (IEWTPT) production contract, worth an estimated $30 million over eight years including options. "Motorola is a leader in integrating operational C4ISR systems to help the military achieve information dominance. It is only natural that we extend our expertise toward developing and fielding associated simulation technology," said Mark Fried, corporate VP and general manager of Motorola Integrated Information Systems Group.
Rockwell Collins, the soon-to-be spin-off from Rockwell International, plans more and larger acquisitions next year. "I would like to be in a place to take advantage of acquisitions larger than ones we've made in the last year," Rockwell Collins President and CEO-designate Clay Jones told analysts and investors at a meeting Monday.
The People's Republic of China has chosen two Sikorsky S-76C+ helicopters for search and rescue missions, a move that Sikorsky said yesterday is the first step in a major upgrade of the country's airborne offshore SAR capability. The two aircraft will be deployed by China's Ministry of Communications from the Shanghai Salvage&Rescue Bureau's new base, Sikorsky said. The initial Ministry of Communications buy includes an option for two additional S-76C+ SAR helicopters.
Adjusting for inflation, cost estimates for the Pentagon's 70 major programs have grown some $239.5 million between June and September, but only because an increase stemming from hardware enhancements on a single program - the U.S. Army's Joint STARS Common Ground System (CGS) - offset cost declines in other areas.
The Pentagon will use funding from the Fiscal 2001 National Defense Authorization Act to raise five more teams trained to investigate and assess incidents involving weapons of mass destruction, such as chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. The additions will boost the total number of homeland defense units to 32.
Boeing announced completion of structural mode interaction (SMI) testing of its X-32B Joint Strike Fighter concept demonstrator, moving a step closer to first flight, expected in the first quarter of 2001. "Completion of the SMI tests is another positive step as we continue to validate our design," said Katy Fleming, Boeing JSF system test director. "We're making great progress; these tests reduce risk and help confirm that we are ready to begin a safe and productive X-32B flight-test program."
Saab-BAE Systems, partners in the Gripen fighter project, submitted a proposal Nov. 30 to the Hungarian government in response to its request for information for modernization of the air force. The proposal, for 24 Gripens, is backed by offsets of more than $575 million. "A new-build Gripen solution is the best possible option for the Hungarian Air Force, for Hungarian industry and for the Hungarian national economy," said Jan Narlinge, managing director of Saab-BAE Systems Gripen.
Northrop Grumman Corp., teamed with Raytheon Co., has won a three-year, $303 million prime contract from the U.S. Air Force for the design phase of the Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program (MP-RTIP), a common modular, scalable radar system for future integration on airborne manned and unmanned surveillance platforms for the U.S. and NATO.
Investment rating services firm Fitch gave a negative rating to Raytheon outlook and put the company's commercial paper at BBB-, citing high leverage and limited financial flexibility due to debt burden. While Fitch cited Raytheon's $25.1 billion backlog, composition and growth as key credit strengths, it also highlighted the "competitive pricing pressures" in Raytheon's commercial and defense markets, as well as the cyclicality of the end-markets, as potential causes for concern.
French aerospace giant Thomson CSF is teaming up with Tenzing Communications to offer e-services to the commercial aviation industry. The two companies inked a memorandum of understanding to combine products and services, including Internet access and e-mail, aboard aircraft. The system will provide Web content and Internet connectivity in an end-to-end service package that links the cabin, cockpit and air and ground communications. Tenzing's system is slated to be deployed throughout the entire Cathay Pacific Airways fleet during the first quarter of 2001.
Air Force's TPS-75 ground-based tactical radars used to detect and track aircraft are gaining a new capability: missile detection and tracking. The service has awarded a $12.1 million contract to Northrop Grumman's Electronic Sensors and Systems Sector (ES3), Baltimore, MD. The contract is for two missile tracking modification kits for said.
A Chinese manufacturer revealed its stealthy multi-role surveillance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) design during the Zhuhai Air Show in China last month, indicating to U.S. watchers that the country is well on its way to building an unmanned combat aircraft. According to Richard D. Fisher, senior fellow at The Jamestown Foundation, "A very clear impression that the Chinese wanted to project--especially through the Beijing University of Aeronautics--was that they have their own unmanned combat aerial vehicle program underway."
Arianespace said the launch of Eurasiasat 1 has again been delayed. The satellite, originally set for launch from the Kourou site in French Guiana on the night of Dec. 8-9, was first slipped to the night of Dec. 11-12. Yesterday, Arianespace said that Alcatel Space, the satellite's prime contractor," has requested additional verifications on [the] satellite....A new date for the mission will be determined in coordination with the customer once the results of the satellite verification are known."
Boeing has asked the Pentagon's Joint Strike Fighter program office to approve "bridge" funding of "less than $6 million a month" to help keep the company's JSF team together until the engineering and manufacturing development phase begins, Boeing officials said yesterday.
Northrop Grumman Marine Systems, Sunnyvale, Calif., is being awarded a $45,408,930 fixed-price-incentive, cost-plus-incentive, cost-plus-fixed-fee, level of effort and cost-plus-fixed-fee upon completion contract to provide support for production of US/UK Trident II (D5) Launcher Subsystem D5 Backfit Production and Deployed Systems Support. Work will be performed in Sunnyvale, Calif., and is expected to be completed by April 2003. Contract funds in the amount of $30,175,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The contract was not competitively procured.
The Pentagon will use funding from the Fiscal 2001 National Defense Authorization Act to raise five more teams trained to investigate and assess incidents involving weapons of mass destruction, such as chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. The additions will boost the total number of homeland defense units to 32.
Boeing Co., Seattle, Wash., is being awarded a $95,000,000 indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract to provide for research of new technologies that will provide affordable, revolutionary capabilities to the warfighter. The developments will provide for cost effective, survivable aerospace platforms capable of accurate delivery of weapons and cargo worldwide. This contractor will the second of three participating in the Air Vehicles Technology Integration Program (AVTIP). Funds will be obligated as individual delivery orders are issued.
Lockheed Martin, which had faced a much larger lawsuit involving 3,000 Burbank, Calif., residents, said Monday that approval of the agreement under which the company will pay $5 million to 300 of the residents shows "the justice system works."
Sabre and Skyfish.com are building on a strategic alliance announced earlier this summer, focused on developing the aerospace e-marketplace. According to the latest announcement, Sabre also plans to take a minority stake in Skyfish.com. The agreement features a "broad revenue sharing arrangement" between the two companies. The exchange will provide direct and indirect procurement, decision and support technology, information services, supply chain management and ASP-hosted software. Skyfish.com e-marketplace is currently beta testing with a few select customers.
Universal Propulsion Co., Inc., Phoenix, Ariz., was awarded on Dec. 6, 2000, $5,250,000 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to provide for Phase I of the Joint Ejection Seat Program. The Phase I effort includes trade studies and limited risk reduction testing. The work will be performed at Universal Propulsion, Phoenix, Ariz. and IBP Aerospace Group, Inc., East Hartford, Conn. The work is expected to be completed November 2001. There was one proposal received. Solicitation began September 2000; negotiations were completed November 2000.
E-manufacturing has a bright future, given that investment in information technologies at the plant level has lagged in recent years. Don H. Davis, CEO of Rockwell International, said that over 90% of plants around the world are not ready to operate in the new environment of lean manufacturing, customized and production-on-demand and e-procurement, and will need to adjust accordingly. To ensure non-stop operation and drive down costs means automating many of the factory processes, and Rockwell is actively developing software and products to assist in this process.
The latest version of Boeing's MyBoeingFleet.com has hit the Web. With the updated version - the second within six weeks - users can access fleet reliability statistics, product standards, a loadable software information site, and more maintenance documents features. MyBoeingFleet.com contains 79,000 maintenance documents, flight manuals, 5.6 million engineering and tooling drawings and access to the Boeing Web-based spare parts ordering system, the PART Page.
Despite U.S. efforts to institute laws to safeguard online privacy, the efforts have only made a messy legislative environment messier. Furthermore, "the maze of new rules" will only up the costs for businesses - without making consumers feeling more protected, according to a new study by Forrester Research Inc. Privacy law, the study says, will become more "entangled" as lawyers try to keep a handle on the "myriad exceptions" to the privacy rules.
