BFGoodrich Co. announced purchase of the electro-optical sensor business of Corning OCA Corp., expanding the company's capabilities in space systems. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Corning OCA's EO business has annual sales of $10 million to $12 million. "This acquisition uniquely positions BFGoodrich as a space subsystem supplier with the ability to provide the three main sensors for satellite orientation," said Al Daniels, president of space flight systems.
Shorts Missile Systems (SMS), a subsidiary of France's Thompson-CSF based in Belfast, Ireland, won an $86.3 million follow-on order for missile launchers for the U.K. Army. "The new order underlines the MOD's commitment to the High Velocity Missile System and provides a boost to the export prospects of this world-beating missile system marketed by SMS under the name Starstreak," said Defense Procurement Minister Baroness Symons.
GOVERNMENT OF EGYPT has asked for the sale of a co-production program with United Defense for 13 M88A2 heavy recovery vehicle kits, as well as related parts and services. The value of the proposed foreign military sale, to support Egypt's M1A1 tanks in inventory, is estimated at $73 million.
MARINE CORPS RADAR: White paper concepts for an Affordable Ground Based Radar (AGBR) are being solicited by the Office of Naval Research and U.S. Marine Corps Systems Command. The AGBR, they say, will serve as an advanced development model for the USMC Multiple Role Radar System (MRRS), a high mobility system that "should be able to detect, track, and acquire all air breathing air targets in all terrain, weather, and electronic attack environments."
RECYCLING: Engineers at Marshall Space Flight Center working on equipment to recycle urine into drinking water on the International Space Station may also recycle some of the hardware needed to make that happen. Engineers in the Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) Group at Marshall have approached the National Air&Space Museum in Washington looking for a two- to three-gallon aluminum bellows tank to hold the urine until it can be processed.
JSF FIRST FLIGHT: Boeing and Lockheed Martin may be ready at about the same time for first flights of their Joint Strike Fighter candidates. Each is hoping for takeoff within about a month.
Saudi Arabia wants to buy about $2.7 billion worth of equipment and services from the U.S. government under three foreign military sales (FMS) programs. First, Saudi Arabia has requested the continuation of U.S. Air Force and contractor technical services (CTS), spares, support equipment and simulators for its F-15s, at a price of $1.6 billion. The deal would extend CTS and logistics support through 2003.A contractor will be determined through joint negotiations.
SABRELINER CORP. said its Premier Turbines plant in Neosho, Mo., has received a $6.2 million U.S. Army contract to overhaul 70 T700-GE-700 turboshaft engines for Army H-60 Black Hawk helicopters.
Work on Lockheed Martin's X-35B short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) Joint Strike Fighter variant suffered a minor setback recently when a part apparently vibrated loose from the lift fan assembly during a test stand run and bounced around enough inside to create metal filings. The incident, reported in today's issue of Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine, was serious enough to halt testing and prompt disassembly of the unit, which was not in an airframe at the time.
EXPORT CONCERNS: A General Accounting Office report shows that the Foreign Military Sales end-use monitoring program is "in shambles," says an analysis by the Center for Defense Information. The GAO report says the Defense Dept. hasn't effectively implemented requirements to monitor the use of U.S. weapons sold to foreign countries (DAILY, Aug. 29). "The lack of prudent oversight of U.S. weapons is particularly troubling in light of the arms export reforms announced by the Clinton Administration earlier this summer," writes CDI senior analyst Rachel Stohl.
SATELLITE LICENSES: A senior State Dept. official boasts the agency is processing satellite licenses within an average of 14 working days for applications handled entirely within the State Dept., and 41 days if referred from another agency. Both include the time needed for congressional notification. These turnarounds are down considerably from the 90 working-day target set by State last year when licensing jurisdiction was passed from the Commerce Dept.
A U.S. astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut were scheduled to make a record-setting "climb" along the hull of the International Space Station today, hard-wiring the new Zvezda Service Module into the growing facility and installing other gear.
Space Systems/Loral has spent about $1.7 million to upgrade an old thermal vacuum chamber at the Air Force's Arnold Engineering Development Center in Tennessee, giving itself a backup facility for spacecraft testing as a way to avoid costly delivery delays. The company's money went into the old Mark 1 chamber at AEDC, a 42-by-82-foot facility that simulated the space environment over the years for government spacecraft programs ranging from NASA's Apollo to the Air Force's Global Positioning System satellites.
LOCKHEED MARTIN AERONAUTICS CORP. is the prime contractor for a proposed $81 million foreign military sale to Singapore of 20 M61A1 20mm guns and 22 Global Positioning Systems (GPS) as well as related parts and services. Singapore plans to use the equipment on F-16D Block 52 aircraft being procured through direct commercial sales.
NASA has formally taken delivery of the $880 million U.S. Laboratory Module for the International Space Station from Boeing, which used every minute of delay caused by Russia's problems completing its Station hardware to make up its own delays. An agency spokeswoman said Boeing turned over the 28-foot-long aluminum structure at Kennedy Space Center last week. The Lab Module has been at KSC for almost two years, but NASA now owns it.
Boeing's 737-700C aircraft earned type certification from the FAA on Aug. 31, the company said. The plane is capable of operating in all-passenger and all-cargo modes. First customer for the 737-700C is the U.S. Naval Reserve, which calls it the C-40A Clipper. The C-40A will be introduced Saturday, Sept. 9, at a ceremony at Boeing Field in Seattle.
Aerochem Inc., a subsidiary of Los Angeles-based Ducommun Inc., signed a $4.6 million long-term agreement (LTA) with Hughes Space and Communications Co. to supply satellite battery cell housings through June 2002.
DynCorp Technical Services Inc. (DTS), a unit of Reston, Va.-based DynCorp, won a $900 million Life Cycle Contractor Support (LCCS) contract from the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command to maintain the Army's 169 C-12/RC-12 and 22 UC-35 aircraft. The contract was previously held by AGES Group. "This contract establishes a DynCorp presence in the Contractor Logistics Support community and further strengthens our relationship with the United States Army," said Robert Alleger, president.
The Arrow-2 anti-ballistic missile is still on the launch pad -- despite Israeli press reports that the system's eighth flight test would be a go last week -- and will remain there until engineers fix some bugs unrelated to the missile system itself.
A Gore-Lieberman Administration would spend $100 billion of the projected surplus on defense spending over 10 years, the Democratic presidential campaign says in a new economic plan. "This proposal adds $100 billion of the surplus for national security to the $112 billion agreed to last year by the White House, Pentagon and Congress and which is already in the baseline," according to the 191-page document, "Prosperity for America's Families," released by the campaign Wednesday.
Despite a slight decrease in fourth-quarter revenue, Spacehab trimmed its costs enough to edge into the black. Fourth-quarter profits of $22,000 compare to a $610,000 loss last year.
NATIONAL AIR INTELLIGENCE CENTER at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is planning to award a five-year, $95 million contract under which it would be provided with support for ballistic missile flight test and data collection. Responses to a solicitation for the "Have Gold 3" project, posted in the Sept. 7 issue of Commerce Business Daily, are due Oct. 7.
Lockheed Martin's Joint Strike Fighter team has completed development and integration of the aircraft's avionics systems. "These tests prove our JSF avionics are now low-risk and ready to move forward to the Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) phase," said Frank J. Cappuccio, vice president and program manager for the Lockheed Martin JSF. "This team has produced a highly evolved, integrated avionics package that ensures our JSF is lethal and supportable, yet still affordable."
Capitol Hill proponents of a National Missile Defense said this week that Congress is unlikely to take action this year to reverse President Clinton's decision not to begin building a system. A reversal is "not going to happen," Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) told The DAILY yesterday.
Saying "we've been a little squishy about the timing of the next test," Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon told reporters that although the Defense Dept. would like to complete the next National Missile Defense test as soon as possible, it will likely be early next year.
