ORBITAL SCIENCES has picked Integral Systems Inc. to provide primary and backup Satellite Supervisory and Control Equipment (SSCE) equipment for NTT DoCoMo's N-STAR e program to provide mobile communications in Japan. Orbital is working with Lockheed Martin's Newtown, Pa., unit to provide systems engineering, the N-STAR e satellite bus, launch services and the SSCE. Integral will provide all hardware and software for the main and backup SSCE in Japan, using the company's Epoch 2000 product line.
GENERAL SCIENCES CORP., Beltsville, Md., will support NASA's Ocean Color research programs and flight projects under a five-year contract with Goddard Space Flight Center that has a potential value of $25.8 million. The company will also work on the Seasonal to Interannual Prediction Project at GSFC, which seeks to assimilate satellite data into a modeling system that combines atmosphere, ocean, land and ice to predict short-term climate variations growing out of temperature variations in the tropical regions of the Pacific Ocean.
CORRECTION: An article in The DAILY of Sept. 6 incorrectly stated the amount the Russian government hopes to raise by selling its shares in NPO Molniya. The correct amount is 118.5 million rubles ($4.27 million).
President Clinton's nominee to be commander-in-chief (CINC) of the U.S. Southern Command testified during his confirmation hearing yesterday that the Defense Dept. needs more aircraft for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR). "I do not believe that the current DOD inventory of airborne intelligence platforms or programmed procurement of additional assets is adequate to satisfy all of the CINCs' requirements," Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Peter Pace told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Northrop Grumman is paying $302 million to purchase Federal Data Corp., a systems information technology integrator and supplier, in a move to boost its IT services and build shareholder value.
Despite turning in solid sales and earnings growth for the third quarter of fiscal 2000, HEICO Corp. hinted that earnings in the fourth quarter might be "down to flat" versus the prior year.
Crash of a U.S. Air Force T-37 trainer yesterday near Vance AFB, Okla., resulted in the death of a student pilot, the AF said. The plane crashed one mile short of the runway. The name of the pilot was withheld pending notification of next of kin. No standdown is planned, and T-37s will be flying tomorrow, a top AF officer said. It was the second crash in a week of a trainer assigned to the AF's Air Education and Training Command. Two pilots ejected safely when their T-6 Texan II crashed Aug. 31 near San Antonio, Tex. T-6 flights remain suspended.
The chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee's international security panel said yesterday that the Clinton Administration has been "dragging its feet" in developing a National Missile Defense, but that the technology is ready, nonetheless, for the next president to decide to deploy a system.
China orbited an Earth-observation satellite with a Long March 4B Friday, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Designated ZY-2, the new satellite was designed to collect imagery and other data that can be used for land-use surveys, disaster mitigation and urban planning, Xinhua said. The satellite was launched from the Taiyuan Launch Center in Shanxi province.
Lockheed Martin plans to build a 220,000-square-foot facility at NASA's Stennis Space Center, Miss., to produce advanced propulsion and thermal control systems and to handle test equipment and tool calibration with advanced metrology techniques.
Boeing Military Aircraft and Missile Systems Group, Seattle, Wash., is being awarded a $16,457,445 modification to a firm-fixed-price contract to provide for Phase Two of the Penetrator modification supporting the conversion of the AGM-86B nuclear air launched cruise missile into the AGM-86D conventional air launched cruise missile. The Penetrator modification incorporates an armored warhead and near precision strike capability into cruise missiles being converted.
Following completion of a Phase I program to modify the 2,000-pound Enhanced GBU-15 glide bomb, the Precision Strike system program office of the U.S. Air Force's Air Armament Center has moved into Phase II. The office, at Eglin AFB, Fla., has completed two test drops and is preparing for two more within the month.
Northrop Grumman Corp., Melbourne, Fla., is being awarded a $6,359,547 modification to a cost-plus-incentive-fee contract which extends by two months the pre-engineering and manufacturing development phase of the Radar Technology Insertion Program supporting the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) aircraft. Expected contract completion date is Oct. 31, 2000. Negotiation completion date was June 22, 2000. Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom AFB, Mass., is the contracting activity (F19628-99-C-0011-P00019).
L3 Communications Corp., Display Systems, Alpharetta, Ga., is being awarded a $9,080,005 firm-fixed-price contract for replacement of the E-2C aircraft Enhanced Main Display Unit (EMDU) cathode ray tube with a state of the art flat panel display screen. Upon successful completion of first article testing, the Navy will incrementally provide the contractor with 141 government owed EMDUs at an estimated rate of 20 per year to perform flat panel installation.
Raytheon Systems Company, Tucson, Ariz., is being awarded an $18,669,750 (not-to-exceed) firm-fixed-price contract to provide for 500 MAU-169H/B Computer Control Groups, 1,500 MXU-650/B Air Foil Groups, 750 MXU-667/B Air Foil Groups and one lot related data. The above items are applicable to the GBU-12 and GBU-16 Paveway II Laser Guided Bombs. This effort supports Navy requirements. Expected contract completion date is June 28, 2002. Negotiation completion date was Aug. 31, 2000.
The 17-in.-by-1-in. piece of metal found on the Paris runway after the Concorde crash may have fallen from a Continental Airlines DC-10 that took off minutes before the Air France aircraft began its takeoff roll.
Saab Aerospace, moving to reverse the trend of continuously more expensive military aircraft, is carrying out studies aimed at development of a stealthy unmanned plane for attack missions. Wind tunnel tests to explore the flight envelope of such an aircraft are underway in Stockholm, the company said yesterday. The UAV, called SHARC, for Swedish Highly Advanced Research Configuration, is 10 meters long and has a wingspan of 8 meters.
UNC Johnson Technology Inc., Muskegon, Mich., was awarded on Aug. 25, 2000, an $18,639,084 (maximum) firm-fixed-price contract to provide for a maximum of 8,718 high-pressure turbine nozzle segments applicable to the F110 engine on the F-16 aircraft. Further funds will be obligated as individual delivery orders are issued. The Air Force can issue delivery orders totaling up to the maximum amounts indicated above, though actual requirements may necessitate less than those amounts.
Northrop Grumman Corp., Linthicum Heights, Md., was awarded on Aug. 25, 2000, an $11,010,301 firm-fixed-price contract to provide for 10 AN/APG-68 fire control radars applicable to the F-16 aircraft. Expected contract completion date is May 31, 2002. Solicitation issue date was March 10, 2000. Negotiation completion date was March 22, 2000. Ogden Air Logistics Center, Hill AFB, Utah, is the contracting activity (F09603-98-g-0017-QP02-01).
The U.K. Defense Ministry yesterday announced finalization of contract arrangements for a planned seven-year lease of four Boeing C-17 airlifters to fulfil its Short-Term Strategic Aircraft (STSA) requirement. The aircraft will be delivered from current USAF production allocations and will enter British service at Brize Norton, in Oxfordshire. The first is slated to arrive there at the end of next summer, and the last by September 2001.
Russia's government may offer its majority stake in NPO Molniya, manufacturer of the Buran space shuttle, for public sale soon in the hopes of raising about $4 billion. Molniya was among 11 government-owned enterprises listed in an Aug. 22 draft of the government's privatization program for 2001. In the draft the Ministry for Property Relations proposes to sell 34.5% of Molniya's shares for 118.5 billion rubles (about $4.27 billion).
Newly retired Marine Corps Gen. Anthony Zinni has been named a "distinguished senior adviser" at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Washington-based public-policy organization announced last week. As the commander in chief of the U.S. Central Command for three years, Zinni led U.S. efforts to contain Iraq. "Gen. Zinni's expertise and reputation will be a cornerstone of our efforts to reinvigorate policy decision-making in Washington," said CSIS President and CEO John Hamre.
Raytheon Electron Systems, Naval and Maritime Systems, Portsmouth, R.I., is being awarded an $11,778,684 firm-fixed-price letter contract for two AN/AQS-20 towed bodies which is a high speed acoustic mine hunting system towed from the MH-53E helicopter. It is designed to detect, localize, and classify bottom, close-tethered, and volume mines. This contract contains two options, which if exercised, would bring the total cumulative value of this contract to a ceiling of $48,204,321.
Concurrent Technologies Corporation, Johnstown, Pa., is being awarded $3,744,000 as part of a $33,458,288 (options included) cost plus fixed-fee contract for the development and prototyping of the Next Generation Command and Control System (NGCCS) Tactical Operation Center (TOC) 3-D.
A Russian Proton rocket put the second Sirius digital radio satellite in its elliptical orbit yesterday following launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Liftoff came at 5:43 a.m. EDT, and the Block DM upper stage released the Sirius-2 spacecraft about two and a half hours later. A spokeswoman for Sirius in New York said the company's control center established communications with the satellite at 8:08 a.m. EDT, and ordered the satellite's solar arrays to deploy at 11:49 a.m. EDT. "Everything went as planned," she said.
