Boeing has delivered the Block 3.0 avionics software to Lockheed Martin for installation in the F-22 Raptor, marking a major milestone that officials at one time feared would keep the program from reaching its goals on schedule. The Boeing Block 3.0 software provides increased multi-sensor information fusion capability and will add weapons-delivery capability to the F-22's integrated avionics.
Captive-carry flight testing of a new automatic target acquisition (ATA) system for the Standoff Land Attack Missile-Expanded Response (SLAM-ER) was conducted last week at NAS Patuxent River, Md., the U.S. Navy said. The ATA system adds a small, internal hardware module to the missile, as well as missile and mission planning software mods, giving the pilot real-time target cueing on an F/A-18's cockpit display.
ALLIANT TECHSYSTEMS won a $4.1 million contract from the U.S. Army Operations Support Command to manage the production of 105mm M927 high-explosive rocket-assisted (HERA) artillery ammunition. "This is the first time the Army has chosen a contractor to act as the system manager for this program," said Michael McCann, president, ATK Ammunition Systems Co.
Sweden's Saab Ericsson Space is set to buy 65% of Dutch company Fokker Space, a key supplier of solar arrays and advanced robotic technology, to bolster its presence in the international space market, according to a letter of intent inked by the two yesterday.
NASA and Russian flight controllers plan to keep the Progress supply vehicle now docked at Space Station Alpha in orbit during the upcoming Space Shuttle mission to Alpha for possible flight testing later, U.S. officials said yesterday.
METEOSAT SECOND GENERATION (MSG), Europe's newest weather satellite, has completed high-speed spin testing in preparation for storage prior to launch in 2002. The spin-stabilized geostationary satellite will rotate at 100 rpm in orbit. In all the European Space Agency and Eumetsat plan three of the new spacecraft, with the second to be launched 18 months after the first and the final satellite set for launch on an Ariane 4 or Ariane 5 four years after that.
BOEING won a firm order from Korean Air Lines for two 747-400 freighters, worth about $380 million based on current list prices. The new aircraft are slated to be delivered in 2002.
A small Utah company is selling satellites on orbit for as little as $45,000, targeting universities that want to fly student experiments and organizations that need to space-qualify hardware. One Stop Satellite Solutions, a spinoff of the Center for Aerospace Technology at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, plans to use technology it developed for student projects to develop "CubeSats," four-inch cubes weighing about a kilogram, and launch them on converted U.S. and Russian ICBMs.
The market for military aircraft upgrades enjoyed fast, short-term growth in recent years but the heyday is over, according to a new report from Frost&Sullivan. "Although the market was negatively impacted by military drawdowns after the Cold War, mid-life upgrade and service life extension programs increased market growth in recent years. These programs will end as new aircraft buying increases," the report said.
NASA will be able to use the services of two commercial satellite ground tracking stations under its Consolidated Space Operations Contract (CSOC) with Lockheed Martin, the company announced yesterday. Stations on Svalbard Island, Norway and Poker Flat, Alaska, will be available to NASA "customers" on a per-pass basis. The Svalbard station is owned by Kongsberg Spacetec-Lockheed Martin Space Data Services, while the Alaskan facility is owned by DataLynx (Honeywell TSI).
Eurocopter said it has "substantially increased" its bid for the Australian Army's program to acquire 20-25 armed reconnaissance helicopters to replace aging Kiowas and Iroquois. The company said yesterday that it has inked an "enhanced" deal to expand the role of ADI, one of its primary Australian subcontractors. ADI is responsible for developing the mission control and planning system as well as software support to make sure Eurocopter's source code can be modified in Australia as required.
EUROPE*STAR 1, the new satellite owned by Alcatel Spacecom and Loral Space&Communications, will deliver broadband Internet and IP streaming services across Europe and the Middle East under a lease Europe*Star signed with Communications and Banking Equipment S.A. (CBL) of Luxembourg. CBL said it will target the business-to-business and business-to-consumer markets in the two regions with the service, relayed via two transponders on Europe*Star 1.
TRW AND NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have introduced a new family of high-frequency indium phosphide integrated circuits designed to boost data rates while shrinking the size of future communications and remote sensing satellite payloads. The new chips offer operating frequencies from 100-215 GHz, the highest ever publicly acknowledged. They also carry state-of-the-art gain and noise figures to take maximum advantage of the 70-180 GHz frequencies recently opened by the International Telecommunications Union for satellite, radio, radar and radio astronomy.
JAPAN'S NEW H-2A commercial launch vehicle has slipped some more, with its first test flight now scheduled next summer instead of February as originally planned. Japanese news agencies reported yesterday the National Space Development Agency (NASDA) recommended the move because of engine problems. A year ago, after back-to-back failures of the predecessor H-2 rocket, NASDA pushed back commercial launches with the upgraded vehicle two years and ordered another flight test article (DAILY, Dec. 15, 1999).
Selection of Nortel Networks GPS(D) of Newport, South Wales, as preferred bidder for a new advanced communications network for the U.K.'s Joint Rapid Reaction Force through the Project Cormorant program, was announced on Monday by the Ministry of Defense.
Raytheon Systems Company, Goleta, Calif., was awarded on Nov. 20, 2000, a $152,872,700 cost-plus-award-fee contract to provide for Phase II algorithm and design development, investigation and analysis, and construction of three flight production units in support of the Visible/Infrared Imagery and Radiometric Suite sensor for the National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environment Satellite System (NPOESS). Expected contract completion date is March 31, 2015. Solicitation issue date was June 2, 2000. Negotiation completion date was Sept. 13, 2000.
PanAmSat's Galaxy VII telecommunications satellite failed in orbit last week, but the private satellite operator had already replaced it in orbit and expected no impact on revenues.
Raytheon Co. won a $14 million contract for the Programmable Integrated Ordnance Suite Phase II (PIOS II), a program jointly funded by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory and the U.K. Ministry of Defense. "PIOS is a concept designed with eyes to look at the target, then deliver a more intelligently placed punch using an aimable warhead," explained Terry Adams, the MOD's Procurement Agency project manager. "This is exciting technology with applications across a wide spectrum of missiles and is not being developed for a specific system."
Pennsylvania State University Applied Research Laboratory, University Park, Pa., is being awarded a $9,300,000 cost-plus-firm-fee R&D contract to develop and demonstrate an integrated system of: (1) shipboard and torpedo sensor signal processing for improved probability of target detection and classification; (2) shipboard tactical situational awareness processing and displays; and (3) improved torpedo guidance and control, featuring ship-torpedo connectivity to significantly increase the probability of a kill in a shallow water engagement.
Due to an editing error, an article in the Nov. 22 issue of The DAILY, was misleading concerning the first flight of Boeing's X-32B short takeoff vertical landing (STOVL) Joint Strike Fighter. The X-32B has not yet flown and is expected to begin flight test next March. First flight of the company's X-32A conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) aircraft was Sept. 18.
NASA has picked six astronomy teams to conduct research with the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) scheduled for launch in July 2002 to probe the origins of galaxies, stars and planets. Overall the six proposals, selected from 28 submitted, will consume more than 3,000 hours of observation time - about half of the time available on SIRTF during its first year of operation. Projects selected, with their team leaders, were:
Lockheed Martin Corp. Lockheed Martin Information Systems, Orlando, Fla., is being awarded a $15,779,804 modification to previously awarded firm fixed price contract N00019-00-C-0480 to exercise an option for the procurement of 48 first article operational test program sets for use with the AN/USM-636(V) Consolidated Automated Support System in support of the EA-6B aircraft (44 radar communications testers and four new electronic warfare test sets). Work will be performed in Orlando, Fl. (65%), and Americus, Ga. (35%), and is expected to be completed by January 2004.
AAI Corp. has been awarded a $7.5 million contract from the government of Romania for a Shadow 600 unmanned aerial vehicle system, including multiple air vehicles, a ground control station, a ground data terminal and other support equipment. The new contract follows AAI's successful completion of a similar contract for the Romanian Air Force in 1999 and continues the company's drive to expand its competitive position in the international UAV marketplace.
The appointment of Jeffrey R. Immelt, 44, to succeed John F. Welch , 64, as chairman and CEO of General Electric could lead to several high-level personnel changes, including a promotion for a GE Aircraft Engines executive. Immelt, who had been president and CEO of GE Medical Systems, was chosen over two other GE CEOs, W. James McNerney Jr. of GE Aircraft Engines, and Robert L. Nardelli of GE Power Systems.
Withdrawal from long-term service of the Royal Australian Air Force's few remaining Aermacchi MB.326H advanced jet-trainers is gathering steam, following formal acceptance on Nov. 22 of the first of 33 Hawk 127 Lead-In Fighters (LIF) on order. Speaking at a ceremony marking the Hawk 127's introduction into service at RAAF Base Williamtown near Newcastle, in New South Wales, Air Force Chief Air Marshal Errol McCormack said the aircraft represented a new era for the RAAF, and a quantum leap in its fast-jet training program.
