TEAC America, Inc., Industrial Products Division, Montebello, Calif., is being awarded an $8,347,636 five-year requirements contract for the procurement of 1,265 cockpit video recorders (P/N V80-AB-F9) used on the F/A-18 aircraft. This contract contains options, which if exercised, will bring the total cumulative value of this contract to $10,934,140.
Globalstar's founding partners have agreed to back another round of equity financing, marking the second cash infusion for the sole remaining low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite telephone company in a week.
EUROCKOT has completed a fit-check of its Multi-Satellite Dispenser for the two Gravity Recovery And Climate Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites it plans to launch next June from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia. The test, at Astrium facilities in Friedrichshafen, Germany, demonstrated that the satellites can be side mounted to the Rockot vehicle, a modified SS-19 ICBM carrying a Breeze KM commercial upper stage. GRACE is a joint project of NASA and Germany's DLR.
U.S. export controls for military technology and equipment are too cumbersome, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), which has begun a study to find ways to improve the system. In a letter asking members of Congress to participate in the study, CSIS President John Hamre said the system is "choking on large numbers of unimportant license applications" while too little attention goes to truly sensitive exports.
Raytheon Systems Co., St. Petersburg, Fla., is being awarded a $5,443,672 modification to firm-fixed-price with economic price adjustment and time and materials contract DAAB07-97-C-J437, to exercise the third-year option for 52 Joint Tactical Terminals (briefcase version) from the low rate initial production and full rate production contract for Joint Tactical Terminal/Common Integrated Broadcast Service Modules (JTT/CIBS-M). Work will be performed in Largo, Fla., and is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2007.
Honeywell International Inc., Engines&Systems, Phoenix, Ariz., is being awarded a $15,190,685 increment as part of a $195,649,956 cost-plus-award fee contract for the Abrams-Crusader Common Engine program. The contractor will design and develop the basic engine and/or its major assemblies that are interchangeable between the Abrams and Crusader configurations as defined in the engine specifications and the common Interface Control Documents (ICDs) for Abrams and Crusader.
McDonnell Douglas Corp., Long Beach, Calif., is being awarded an $17,063,909 (not-to-exceed) modification to a cost-plus-award-fee contract to provide for various spare parts in support of the Readiness Support Package for the C-17 aircraft. Expected contract completion date is January 2002. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity. Martin Trent, (937) 255-1240 is the POC. Contracting Number: F33657-97-C-0008-P000119.
MCDONNELL DOUGLAS CORP., Berkeley, Mo., has been awarded a $45 million engineering and manufacturing development contract for 500-pound MK-82 Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) to be used from F-16 aircraft, the Dept. of Defense reported yesterday. The Air Force's Air Armament Center, Eglin AFB, Fla., is the contracting agency. Work is expected to be completed by December 2002.
Congress has agreed to cut from 30 days to 15 the time Congress has to review license applications to export U.S. commercial communications satellites to Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. The measure, aimed at expediting satellite exports, is contained in a security assistance bill which gained final approval from the House and Senate last week. The House approved it Thursday by a 396-17 vote, while the Senate passed it by unanimous consent Friday. The legislation awaits President Clinton's signature.
Eastman Kodak's Commercial&Government Systems unit has bought Research Systems, Inc. (RSI), of Boulder, Colo., which designs software that scientists and engineers use to extract information from imagery captured by satellites, aircraft and weather instruments.
BALL AEROSPACE supplied the spectral radiometer mounted on the NOAA-L weather satellite launched last week from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. (DAILY, Sept. 22). The Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet Radiometer 2 (SBUV/2) will measure the concentration and vertical distribution of atmospheric ozone from six to 30 miles in altitude. It was the eighth SBUV/2 built by the Boulder, Colo.-based company.
RUSSIA LAUNCHED a military satellite from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan yesterday aboard a Zenit-2 rocket. Designated Cosmos 2372, the satellite was described in press accounts from Moscow as a communications relay. It lifted off from Baikonur at 6:10 a.m. EDT, and reached its initial orbit 10 minutes later, according to the Interfax news agency.
Boeing's Joint Strike Fighter concept demonstrator program has passed more mileposts for both the conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) and short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) versions in the competition for what promises to be the largest military aircraft contract ever. Lockheed Martin is competing with Boeing for the JSF contract, with the Dept. of Defense planning to award a single contract next year for the production phase of the program -- now projected at $300 billion for 3,000 multi-service U.S. and 2,000-3,000 international aircraft.
H POWER CORP. has signed a memorandum of understanding with Ball Aerospace to supply proton-exchange membrane fuel cell stacks for the portable hydrogen fuel cell power systems Ball sells to the U.S. military and elsewhere. H Power will deliver stacks with power outputs ranging from 10 to 500 watts for Ball's PPS-15, PPS-50 and PPS-100 portable power systems. The company said it expects the technology to find its way beyond the military sector "to improve the way we live, work and play." SAAB ERICSSON SPACE has opened a second U.S.
The AIM-9X Sidewinder air-to-air missile has been approved for production by Jacques Gansler, under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, after a review by the Defense Acquisition Board. This first production contract, worth about $43 million, will be awarded to the Raytheon Systems Co. as soon as fiscal year 2001 appropriations are received, Naval Air Systems Command reported.
Industrialization and initial low-rate production of components for rockets motors of the Aster missile will accompany a contract awarded late last week to the Hunting Engineering subsidiary of Hunting Defense by Celerg in France. Celerg is principal subcontractor for the Aster's propulsion unit.
Raytheon Co. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Daniel P. Burnham has been appointed by President Clinton to the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee, the White House announced Friday (Sept. 22). The committee advises the president on protecting and improving telecommunications resources that support national security and emergency preparedness. Burnham is a member of the Board of Governors of the Aerospace Industries Association.
The U.S. Marine Corps is slowly bringing back to flight status nearly 400 aircraft that it suspended from operations Aug. 25 for several reasons. The action affected 165 CH-53E heavy-lift helicopters, 198 AH-1W Cobra attack helicopters and 11 MV-22 Ospreys. Flight of 22 out of 45 AV-8B Harriers was re-suspended. A Naval Air Systems Command spokesman said at the time that it was pure coincidence that restrictions on so many aircraft came at the same time. A Marine Corps spokesman called it "a convergence of disparate anomalies."
Air France flew a stranded Concorde back to Paris from New York Sept. 21 after getting clearance from French officials to bring it home. The Concorde had been on the ground at John F. Kennedy International Airport since grounding of the French supersonic fleet after the crash of an Air France Concorde near Paris on July 25, killing 113 people.
BOEING X-32A Joint Strike Fighter concept demonstrator, shown during its first flight Sept. 18, was scheduled to fly for the second time Friday at Edwards AFB, Calif., but winds were too high. Meanwhile, Deputy Secretary of Defense Rudy de Leon said that because the JSF will be the largest aircraft contract ever awarded, Boeing and Lockheed Martin will probably collaborate to some degree, as they do on most other DOD contracts.
LITTON INDUSTRIES INC. announced election of James H. Frey, 62, as senior vice president of the corporation. Frey, who served as Litton vice president and president of TASC Inc., a Litton subsidiary, was appointed group executive of Litton Information Systems Group in August. He continues to maintain management responsibility for Litton TASC and will be based in McLean, Va.
SPY HOLE: National Reconnaissance Office Director Keith R. Hall plans to "step down, like any other political appointee on Jan. 20, 2001," when a new president is sworn in, says a spokesman for the agency. While Hall has made no formal retirement announcement, he does acknowledge his plan to step down from the position, the spokesman confirmed. Acting head is likely to be David Kier, who has served as the deputy director since May 1997.
GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS: The good news is that transformation has emerged as a major, accepted theme at the Pentagon since the last Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR); the bad news is the U.S. defense establishment isn't ready yet, says Michele A. Flournoy, professor at National Defense University's Institute for National Strategic Studies. She sees "complacency in some quarters," fueled by a lack of urgency. High optempo periods, such as the one the U.S. is in now, are generally marked by low levels of innovation, she says.
