XM Satellite Radio, one of two companies hoping to build a new U.S. radio audience around satellite-relayed S-band broadcasts to high-end car radios, is nearing completion of the three elements it will need to make its network - two big satellites and ground repeater stations to carry the signal in urban areas, a studio complex where its 100 channels of digital radio will originate, and radios to receive the signals.
General Electric Aircraft Engines, General Electric Company, Lynn, Mass., is being awarded a $19,249,593 modification to previously awarded contract N00019-99-C-1175 to definitize the advanced acquisition contract to a firm-fixed-price for the production of 73 F414-GE-400 engines, devices, and production tooling for the F/A-18E/F aircraft. Work will be performed in Lynn, Mass. (58 %); Evendale, Ohio (25%); Rutland, Vt. (4%); Albuquerque, N.M. (4%); Madisonville, Ky. (4%); Hooksett, N.H. (3%) and Wilmington, N.C. (2%), and is expected to be completed by June 2003.
Aerospace and defense companies gave $5.2 million in soft money contributions to the Democratic and Republican national party committees in the first 18 months of the current election cycle, according to a new report by advocacy group Common Cause.
The first flight of Boeing's X-32A Joint Strike Fighter conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) version occurred yesterday when the concept demonstrator aircraft took off from Palmdale, Calif., several minutes before 8:00 a.m. local time and landed at nearby Edwards AFB some 20 minutes later.
McDonnell Douglas Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Boeing Company, St. Louis, Mo., is being awarded a $19,600,000 modification to previously awarded contract N00019-00-C-0307 for engineering and manufacturing development for the Fiber Channel Network Switch for the Advanced Mission Computer and Displays (AMC&D) Program. The AMC&D system will provide hardware and infrastructure software commonality that can be used on F-18E/F aircraft platforms.
Northrop Grumman Corp., Melbourne, Fla., is being awarded a $512,454,643 cost-plus-award fee contract to provide for total system support from November 2000 through October 2006 (transition Sept. 15, 2000 through Oct. 31, 2000) for the E-8 Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) aircraft. This effort includes maintenance, training, sustainment, upgrade, integration, and repair support. Expected contract completion date is Oct. 31, 2006. Solicitation issue date was Dec. 22, 1999. Negotiation completion date was Sept. 12, 2000.
HEICO CORP. of Boca, Raton, Fla., completed the sale of its Trilectron Industries unit to Hobart Brothers, a subsidiary of Illinois Tool Works. HEICO also changed the name of its Electronics&Ground Support Group to Electronic Technologies Group in connection with the transaction.
Boeing North American, Inc., Long Beach, Calif., is being awarded a $11,227,500 firm-fixed-price contract for replacement spars for the B-1B bomber. There was one proposal solicited and one proposal received. Work will be performed in St. Louis, Mo. and is expected to be completed by May 31, 2003. Funds will not expire at the end of the fiscal year. The Defense Supply Center Richmond, Richmond, Va., is the contracting activity (SP0475-00-C-1333).
Northrop Grumman Corp., El Segundo, Calif., is being awarded a not-to-exceed ceiling-priced $15,116,451 order for 263 aircraft rudders in support of F/A-18C/D aircraft. This announcement combines purchases for the U.S. Navy (98.86%) and the government of Finland (1.14%) under the Foreign Military Sales program. Work will be performed in El Segundo, Calif., and is expected to be completed by September 2004. Contract funds will not expire by the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured.
Pratt&Whitney said its JSF119 engine met or exceeded all performance requirements in the first flight of the Boeing X-32A Joint Strike Fighter concept demonstrator. "This is an outstanding accomplishment by everyone on the Boeing One Team and the Pratt&Whitney employees who developed this superior engine," said Steve Finger, president, P&W Military Engines. "The JSF119s will provide our customers with affordable, dependable propulsion over the life of the program."
Space Shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to land at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., tonight after almost 12 days in space, eight of them spent on an ambitious schedule to outfit the International Space Station that the seven-man crew met and surpassed.
General Electric Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, is being awarded a $123,174,235 (estimated) requirements contract to provide for various quantities of 258 line items of spare parts for the J85 engine on the T-38 aircraft, the TF34 engine on the A-10 aircraft, and the TF39 engine on the C-5 aircraft. Funds will be obligated as individual delivery orders are issued. Expected contract completion date is September 2003. Solicitation issue date was Feb. 17, 2000. Negotiation completion date was Sept. 1, 2000.
STAYING ALIVE: Administrator Daniel S. Goldin is still on the job at NASA, more than a week after the STS-106 mission to the International Space Station launched. Headquarters scuttlebutt had Goldin, the longest-serving NASA chief, leaving after the current mission sets up the Station for full-time crews, allowing him to say "my work here is finished" (DAILY, July 5). Instead, he laughs at the gossip and crows "I can still fog a mirror."
Although the U.S. has had 16 years to prepare for the sale of FM radio spectrum by European governments, it's still not completely ready for the Jan. 1, 2001, deadline and some U.S. military aircraft may have to contend with more complicated landing procedures as a result. Gen. Gregory S. Martin, commander of the U.S. Air Forces in Europe (USAFE), said radio broadcasts by commercial stations on the former government frequencies could cause interference with some Instrument Landing Systems on the Continent.
BAE Systems Avionic Systems Div., of South Gyle in Edinburgh, has received a multi-million-pound order from the Royal Air Force to supply 400 Active Matrix Liquid Crystal Displays (AMLCD) for the F3 fighter and Tornado GR4 ground attack fleets.
NEW MISSION: The addition of Lockheed Martin's LANTIRN targeting system has converted the U.S. Navy's air-to-air F-14 into one of the service's best ground-attack aircraft. The "Black Aces" of VF-41 at NAS Oceana, Va., recently became the first Tomcat unit to receive the Rear Adm. Clarence W. McClusky Award for air-to-ground strike warfare excellence. The prestigious award traditionally was won by A-6 Intruder or F/A-18 Hornet squadrons. VF-41 was recognized for its 1,100 combat hours and 384 sorties over Kosovo during last year's Operation Allied Force.
STRONG DOLLAR: Arianespace and the European satellite industry stand to gain from the weakness of the euro against the dollar, says Prudential Securities analyst Todd Ernst, but only if the launch consortium and space manufacturers like Astrium pass along their savings to potential customers. If they do, it's bad news for the U.S. competition, already hampered by sluggish U.S. export control processes. Ernst notes the space markets are "somewhat price sensitive in our view, making sustained 'cost' advantages a potential source of competitive concern."
TANDEM TESTS: NASA's Stennis Space Center is getting ready to test two Rocketdyne XRS-2000 linear aerospike engines in tandem, just as they would be mounted in the X-33 reusable launch vehicle testbed if it ever flies. Test engineers are hoping for nine tests with the two aerospikes side by side, verifying the seal between the two engines, various operational parameters and the ability of the two engines to work together to produce vectored thrust. If all goes well the testers will also try to run both engines on one set of turbomachinery.
Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Logicon unit won a $114 million task order to support battle simulation centers for the 7th Army Training Command, Directorate of Simulations-Forward, U.S. Army Europe (USAREUR). "The USAREUR Battle Simulations task order solidifies Logicon's leadership in the training and simulations marketplace," said Al Ferrari, VP training systems at Logicon.
WAITING FOR V-22: The U.S. Air Force's humanitarian relief mission in Mozambique earlier this year underscores the service's need to procure the V-22 tilt-rotor aircraft, says Lt. Gen. Joseph Wehrle Jr., Air Force deputy chief of staff for plans and programs. Wehrle, who led Joint Task Force Atlas Response as commander of the 3rd Air Force, says the service could have done the mission with fewer air-refueling C-130s if it had V-22s, which will fly farther and faster than the MH-53 helicopters it used. "The V-22 would have definitely helped out," Wehrle says.
Europe's third commercial Ariane 5 orbited two big communications satellites last week, while the Arianespace launch consortium won three more contracts to launch satellites for Intelsat. Lifting off at 6:54 p.m. EDT Thursday from the Guiana Space Center near Kourou, the Ariane 5 put Astra 2B and GE-7 into the targeted geostationary transfer orbits. Jean-Marie Luton, Arianespace chairman and CEO, said the third commercial Ariane 5 launch in less than a year "has once again demonstrated its performance and its reliability."
Boeing said its X-32A Joint Strike Fighter concept demonstrator completed high-speed taxi tests Friday at Palmdale, Calif., clearing the way for first flight, which could occur in days. "All went well and we are looking forward to the next milestone, which is first flight," a company spokesman said. Mike Heinz, Boeing's JSF deputy program manager, said Sept. 11 that first flight could come in about a week (DAILY Sept. 12).
'CHICKEN IN THE HOLE:' While measures have not yet been fully implemented to resolve the problem of small cracks in F-22 canopies, program executives insist it is "not a constraint in terms of our ability to conduct the flight test program." Bob Rearden, Lockheed Martin's F-22 vice president and general manager, says engineers are "data-limited on what may happen" with the fractures at this point. So, keeping safety concerns first, a series of bird-strike tests are planned for early next year.
An RQ-1A Predator unmanned aerial vehicle crashed Thursday on the Nellis Air Force Base Range seven miles north of Indian Springs, the Air Force said. The UAV belonged to the 15th Reconnaissance Squadron at Indian Springs Air Force Auxiliary Field, a Nellis spokesperson told The DAILY here. The 15th RS and the 11th RS, also at Indian Springs, operate the Predator.
SELF-DESTRUCT FEATURE: In the wake of heightened concern about unintended injury from collateral damage or unexploded ordnance, Textron Systems is adding a third self-destruct mechanism to its Sensor Fuzed Weapons. The CBU-97 and CB-105 SFWs, each housing 10 BLU-108 submunitions which in turn each carry four Skeet warheads, will now have three separate methods of self-destructing if they don't hit their targets. "We do not leave hazardous ordnance on the battlefield," explains Donald L. McCrory, business development director for military products at Textron.
