SIGNAL TECHNOLOGY'S Keltec Div. won a follow-on contract to produce its 4Kw transmitter, part of the Synthetic Aperture Radar which gathers intelligence imagery on the Global Hawk unmanned reconnaissance aircraft. The company said its ongoing participation in the Global Hawk program validates its technical and production capabilities in the transmitter market.
Northrop Grumman Technical Services Inc., Herndon, Va., was awarded on Oct. 3, 2000 a $14,367,807 option to a fixed-price contract to provide for FY2000 operation, maintenance and support of the Counterdrug Surveillance and Control System. Expected contract completion date is September 2001. Air Combat Command Contracting Squadron, Langley AFB, Va., is the contracting activity. Sharon Potter, (757) 764-9371, is the POC. Contract Number: F44650-98-C0008-P00046.
Boeing Co., Long Beach, Calif., is being awarded an $88,400,000 modification to a firm-fixed-price contract to provide for incorporation of the Extended Range Fuel Containment System (ERFCS) into production of 50 C-17 aircraft. The ERFCS will enhance the fuel capacity of the aircraft. Expected contract completion date is September 2005. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity. Thomas Rickey (937) 255-1081 is the POC. Contract Number: F33657-96-C-2059-P00086.
FASTER HAWKS: The Clinton Administration now believes it can send UH-60 Black Hawk utility helicopters to the Colombian army's drug fighters in 2001, instead of on the 2002-2003 timetable spelled out last month (DAILY, Sept. 27).
Rolls-Royce plc signed an exclusive five-year agreement with DaimlerChrysler Aviation, Inc., worth as much as $5.0 million, for maintenance on Rolls-Royce BR 710, Tay and Spey turbofan engines. The deal covers overall engine maintenance, repair and refurbishment, technical assistance, field service, lease engines and spare parts management. Meanwhile, Rolls-Royce also announced the company's BR710 turbofan will power the new Gulfstream GV-SP, high-end, ultra long-range, business jets.
Europe's Arianespace is gearing up to introduce the Ariane 5 to the launch market as its "main workhorse," but the company says it's ahead of the game since it's the only heavy-lift option available for now. For 20 years, Arianespace has kept one step ahead of market trends and learned to "tailor" its services to changing market needs, Jean-Marie Luton, chairman and CEO, told reporters at the launch company's annual breakfast in Washington, D.C. Friday.
FRANCE'S THOMSON-CSF has agreed to sell its Crouzet-Automatismes unit, which manufactures automation components, to Schneider Electric for about $204 million. The company said the deal represents a new step in the ongoing efforts to revamp its business portfolio. The transaction is slated to close in weeks, pending approval from competition authorities.
An investor group spearheaded by Wall Street investment giant Goldman Sachs plans to purchase 18 million shares of Hexcel Corporation owned by Ciba Specialty Chemicals, at a price tag of $160 million or $11.00 a share.
SHOOTING MATCH: V-22 program officials report Bell-Boeing has chosen a General Dynamics 50-caliber, triple-barrel, gattling type nose gun for the tiltrotor Osprey that will fire about 1,500 rounds per minute and use helmet sighting. To make it work they have to get the refueling probe out of the way first, but starting in fiscal year 2002 the probe will become retractable, according to a Marine Corps spokesman. Plans are to have the gun contract signed next March, with production to begin in FY '04 and earlier aircraft retrofitted with it.
Raytheon Company will be responsible for Navy-Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI) information security under a subcontract to EDS worth about $250 million over the five-year base period. "Information security is a Raytheon core competency," said Raytheon's chairman and CEO Dan Burnham. He continued, noting, "we have the critical capabilities for this important program. Our leadership in network security positions us not only to satisfy the needs of NMCI, but to address a growing government and commercial market as well."
GETTING LESS FOR MORE: The B-1B bombers' electronic warfare revamp may be pushed out even further as the Pentagon decides what type of self-protection equipment to put on the aircraft. The program's price tag has been pushed up by delayed delivery of the radio-frequency countermeasures subsystem, part of the U.S. Navy-led Integrated Defensive Electronic Countermeasures Program. The strike at Boeing earlier in the year also put the program off track, raising costs. Accordingly, Pentagon officials are now trying to figure out if the entire program can be funded.
CAUGHT IN THE NET: Jacques Gansler, the Pentagon's acquisition chief, predicts the U.S. Air Force and Army will follow the Navy/Marine Corps in purchasing some kind of commercially developed intranet. Electronic Data Systems (EDS) has just bagged a $6.9 billion information technology (IT) contract for the Navy/Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI)(DAILY, Oct. 9), and Gansler says "I think that is the direction we will go." Using a commercial vendor for IT is similar to the housing privatization issue the service is currently facing, he says.
With the Air Force footing about 90% of the bill and 85% of the personnel power for Dept. of Defense space programs, the service has an unclassified space funding budget of $6.3 billion for fiscal year 2001, and up to $8.5 billion with the inclusion of intercontinental ballistic missiles. About one third of the overall Air Force modernization budget goes to space resources. For fiscal year 2001, and on out into the future years defense plan (FYDP), the service forecasts spending about 30% of its modernization budget on space.
The Dept. of the Navy has declared the MV-22 Osprey operationally effective and suitable for land-based operations but not for sea-based missions, a large part of the job the Marine Corps plans for the 360 copies of the tiltrotor aircraft it wants to buy. Following 804 flight hours in 522 sorties over an eight-month operational evaluation (OPEVAL), which determines if the aircraft is ready for fleet introduction, the MV-22 was found to have a shortcoming with its blade fold wing stow (BFWS) system, needed for on- and below-deck ship operations.
The House late Thursday gave final approval to the fiscal 2001 intelligence authorization bill, which allows a classified amount of intelligence spending at 11 federal agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency.
The Senate late Thursday gave final approval to the fiscal 2001 defense authorization bill, as well as a one-year reauthorization of the Defense Production Act (DPA). Both bills now go to President Clinton, who is expected to sign them.
ENGINEERING DEVELOPMENT LABS, INC. (EDL), a unit of Paravant, Inc., won a $1.5 million firm fixed price contract from the U.S. Air Force to handle additional system engineering tasks on the Air Combat Command (ACC) HH-60G helicopter. The contract, related to the HH-60G software Block Cycle Change program, is expected to be completed over a one-year period. EDL will implement maintenance changes to correct operational deficiencies in the current software.
NASA WARNED: Congress may pass legislation to clarify the Iran Nonproliferation Act if NASA doesn't change its interpretation of the seven-month-old law. House International Relations Committee Chairman Benjamin Gilman (R-N.Y.) says that "NASA's present course may leave us with no choice but to legislate again on this issue," while Democratic committee member Brad Sherman (Calif.) says he's "confident" Congress will "respond very quickly" if NASA doesn't change course.
EURO MULTIMEDIA: Astrium GmBH is discussing a role on the International Space Station for an unnamed "media customer" in Europe, now that its shareholders have decided to become a "strategic partner" in the space multi-media venture established by Spacehab's Space Media unit and RSC Energia.
FIRST EXPEDITION DELAY: There is a chance the planned Oct. 30 launch of the "First Expedition" crew to the International Space Station will have to slip a day or two because the Space Shuttle Discovery was so late getting underway on its assembly mission to the ISS, according to U.S. and Russian officials. Discovery, which docked with the Station Friday afternoon, was almost a week late getting off the pad, and because of orbital mechanics that might throw the Station "out of phase" for its scheduled Nov.
GE AIRCRAFT ENGINES (GEAE) and FIATAVIO OF ITALY won Part 33 FAR engine type certificate from the FAA for their jointly designed turboshaft engine, the CT7-8. The CT7-8, the newest addition to the T700/CT7 turboshaft engine family, will power Sikorsky's S-92 helicopter.
The director of the Defense Intelligence Agency appointed Mark W. Ewing to the agency's number two position after Deputy Director Jeremy C. Clark retired last week. Ewing comes to the position after serving most recently as assistant deputy chief of staff for intelligence for the U.S. Army, following a 20-year career in the Army. Vice Admiral Thomas R. Wilson, DIA director, made the appointment official on Oct. 8. Clark, who has served in military intelligence for the past 40 years, had held the deputy director's slot since May 1996.
CALIFORNIA FIGHTER? Proponents of building the Joint Strike Fighter in Palmdale, Calif., say they've won a major victory by securing language in the fiscal 2001 defense authorization conference report requiring the Defense Dept. to do a cost-comparison study of the proposed final assembly sites.
AIM-ING ABROAD: Pentagon officials are hoping Raytheon nails its first international order for the company's upgraded AIM-9X Sidewinder air-to-air missile. Presentations have been made to 10 countries, and five of the prospective buyers have been handed detailed price and availability information, according to the U.S. Air Force. The initial order is anticipated to be rolled into the AIM-9X second production lot in Fiscal 2002. By adding about 50-100 missiles to the U.S.'s targeted purchase of 243 missiles, the price per missile would drop by about $35,000.
HOUSE-SENATE CONFEREES have reached agreement on a fiscal 2001 spending bill that provides $14.3 billion for NASA, $250 million above President Clinton's request and $683 million over fiscal 2000. The bill includes the $290 million that NASA proposed for its Space Launch Initiative, which was removed in the House. It also fully funds the request for Space Shuttle operations and the $420 million request for the Mission to Mars. It provides $2.114 billion for the International Space Station, $211 million below fiscal 2000.
