The Defense Dept. is urging the House-Senate conference committee on fiscal 2001 defense authorization legislation to shift unrequested funds for procurement and research and development to a host of aerospace and other programs that have been cut.
Microvision Inc., a developer of retinal scanning display technology, won a $600,000 addition to a $7.8 million contract modification from the U.S. Army for helmet mounted displays, bringing the contract to $8.4 million.
Boeing plans to ask NASA and the Russian Aerospace Agency to settle a developing dispute over who will get to use the Earth-facing docking port on the Zarya module of the International Space Station for a commercial outpost - its own Russian partner or the one that has signed with Spacehab Inc.
Citing a lack of commercial viability, Fairchild Dornier's new owners have canceled the 428JET regional jet program, wiping out $1 billion in orders and options, the company confirmed yesterday. The move came after a top-to-bottom review of Fairchild Dornier's programs by new investors. "Immediately following the infusion of new equity, we launched a 100-days effort to ground all programs in reality," Chairman Chuck Pieper said. "...It became clear that the 428JET program, while technically on track, was not viable commercially."
A "single-point" failure in the upper stage assembly of the booster caused the unsuccessful separation of the kill vehicle in the last National Missile Defense test, but the booster has caused other setbacks and may ultimately be a factor in President Clinton's upcoming decision on whether to deploy the system.
DRS Technologies has won a $1.1 million contract to produce the enclosure for a processing unit on the Submarine Acoustic Warfare Control System, a torpedo defense system under development by Alenia Marconi Systems. Northrop Grumman's Electronic Sensors and Systems Sector awarded the contract.
Alliant Techsystems won a $95 million U.S. Army contract to continue work on the Objective Individual Combat Weapon (OICW), a next-generation rifle. "We look forward to working with our U.S. Army partners at Picatinny Arsenal on this important new weapon system that will dramatically increase the effectiveness and survivability of our fighting forces," said Sharon Boone, OICW program director for ATK Integrated Defense.
A Russian Progress supply capsule docked automatically and without incident to the aft end of the International Space Station yesterday as Space Shuttle processing crews at Kennedy Space Center began stacking the Shuttle Atlantis for what is scheduled to be the first of eight Station assembly flights in the coming year.
The U.S. Navy is in the midst of an analysis of alternatives for its projected Advanced Land Attack Missile (ALAM) and expects to complete the study in March 2001, when it will issue a request for proposals. "In the spring of '01, the Navy and the Dept. of Defense will make a decision on what the Advanced Land Attack Missile [ALAM] is going to look like," said Capt. Brian Schires, the head of Land Attack Warfare in the Surface Warfare Directorate.
ROLLS-ROYCE has won a $160 million order from Cathay Pacific for engines to power three aircraft types. The engines include Trent 700s for four Airbus A330-300s, RB211-524s for a Boeing 747-400 freighter, and Trent 800s for a Boeing 777-200. The orders bring the total value of business announced by Rolls-Royce this year to more than $8.5 billion.
Computer Sciences Corp. is one of a group of contractors tapped by Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) to handle information technology needs and professional services at DISA, DOD and other federal government sites worldwide. "This contract award provides CSC the opportunity to provide a full range of information assurance support," said Thomas Robinson, president of CSC's Defense Group. "We have assembled a team that will continue to help DISA fulfill its mission of providing information superiority to the warfighter."
Japan's Institute of Space and Astronautical Sciences (ISAS) and NASA have changed the launch date for the planned MUSES-C asteroid sample return mission, which required a change in the target asteroid. Originally set for launch in July 2002, the probe is now planned for a launch in November or December of that year. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said the change was forced by a delay in delivery of the M5 rocket ISAS will use to send the probe into space.
Orbcomm Global L.P. has laid off another 100 employees as it struggles to make ends meet in the face of "lower-than-expected subscriber ramp-up and revenues," and expects to miss a scheduled Aug. 15 interest payment on its outstanding senior notes.
The Defense Dept. should deploy the initial part of a National Missile Defense as a "test bed system" to allow for more realistic field trials than are now planned, according to a new report released by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Alliant Techsystems Integrated Defense Co., LLC, Hopkins, Minn., is being awarded a $6,946,000 increment as part of a $95,426,483 cost-plus-award-fee contract for research and development to advance the state-of-the-art Objective Individual Combat Weapon (OICW), Program Definition and Risk Reduction (PD&RR). Work will be performed in Hopkins, Minn., and is expected to be completed in the third quarter of FY04. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There was an announcement in the Commerce Business Daily on Nov.
Off to a running start for its fiscal 2001 and beating analysts' estimates, Alliant Techsystems grew earnings per share (EPS), expanded operating margins and generated strong cash flow in the first quarter, thanks to operating improvements, expense cuts and fewer shares outstanding in the period. "Our solid performance in the first quarter leaves us tactically poised to deliver another year of excellent performance in FY '01," said Paul David Miller, chairman and CEO.
BFGoodrich Co. won contracts from Lockheed Martin worth as much as $600 million through 2015 to supply pylon systems and nacelle components for the U.S. Air Force's Reliability Enhancement and Re-engining Program (RERP). "Winning these contracts was a strategic business acquisition goal for 2000 and a reflection of our renewed focus on military aircraft and space products markets," said Bud Wetzler, president of BFG's Aerostructures and Aviation Services Group.
General Dynamics Government Systems Corp., Taunton, Mass., is being awarded a $13,453,377 modification to firm-fixed-price contract DAAB07-94-C-N853, to exercise options for common hardware/software items for project manager Army Tactical Command and Control Systems computers and associated peripherals for battlefield commanders. Work will be performed in Taunton, Mass., and is expected to be completed by April 10, 2005. Of the total contract funds, $260,447 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
ALLIANT TECHSYSTEMS posted a decline in fiscal 2001 first-quarter sales from $118 million to $110 million because the Titan IVB program required fewer of the company's solid rocket motors for its boosters, and because the composite structures development program for Lockheed Martin Skunk Works X-33 reusable launch vehicle prototype program concluded, according to the company's quarterly report. The company expects to recover the declining business in the Titan IVB line with a new solid rocket motor it has qualified for Boeing's Delta IV program.
MACDONALD, DETTWILER and Associates, a Canadian subsidiary of Orbital Sciences Corp., has formed a joint venture with LandAmerica Financial Group to deliver up-to-date property information to real estate lenders on-line to hasten mortgage and loan approvals. The service, known as RapidTract, will be introduced in Florida and California initially and expand elsewhere in 2001 and 2002.
WANG GOVERNMENT SERVICES announced the appointment of C. Harlan Johnston as president and chief executive officer. Johnston will be responsible for the $400 million information and communications technology company, based in McLean, Va. He was most recently president of Logicon Defense Technology Group, San Pedro, Calif., and vice president of Northrop Grumman. During his 30-year career, Johnson held a number of senior management positions. Before joining Logicon, he served in the U.S.
The Raytheon/Lockheed Martin Javelin Joint Venture, Tucson, Ariz., has been awarded $383.7 million as part of a $1.2 billion multi-year contract for follow-on full rate production of the Javelin weapon system. The portable, shoulder-fired anti-armor missile has a reported range of 50 to 2,500 meters. The U.S. Army requested 3,754 of the missiles, at a cost of $379 million, in the fiscal year 2001 budget.
McDonnell Douglas Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Boeing Company, St. Louis, Mo., is being awarded a $25,509,087 modification to previously awarded contract N00019-00-C-0290 to exercise an option for the procurement of 64 SLAM ER All-Up-Rounds in various configurations and for the installation of 64 automatic target acquisition retrofit kits. Work will be performed in St. Louis, Mo. (59%); Clearwater, Fla. (17%); Melbourne, Fla. (8%); Middletown, Conn.
United Parcel Service has signed a ten-year agreement with Pratt&Whitney Engine Services under which P&W will provide maintenance for all of the JT9D-7A engines that power UPS' fleet of 12 Boeing 747-100F freighter aircraft. The deal is worth an estimated $410 million, P&W said yesterday.
The Bell-Boeing Joint Program Office, Patuxent River, Md., is being awarded a $16,810,355 cost-plus-incentive-fee modification to previously awarded contract N00019-99-C-1090 for the manufacture, installation, test and support of one MV-22 full flight simulator. Work will be performed in Broken Arrow, Okla. (49%); Fort Worth, Texas (35%), and Ridley Park, Pa. (16%), and is expected to be completed by November 2002. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.
