Bombardier Aerospace said its new Q400 airliner established time-to-climb records in three flights from David Airfield in Muskogee, Okla. The records were claimed in three weight categories. "It has the winning combination of most of the capabilities of a jet aircraft with the thrifty economics of a turboprop," the company said.
Long-awaited decisions on new U.K. military equipment procurement commitments exceeding $7.5 billion, announced yesterday by Defense Secretary Geoffrey Hoon, contain sizeable work-shares for U.S. as well as European industries. Earlier pressure by President Clinton, and last-minute intervention by U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen, for the U.K. to accept Raytheon's AMRAAM-based bid instead of the Matra BAeD Meteor for a new ramjet-powered beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile to arm RAF Eurofighters, proved unsuccessful.
The Senate Armed Services Committee is recommending a provision that would increase the cost cap for the F-22's engineering and manufacturing development phase by 1%, according to a report accompanying the defense authorization bill that the committee approved last week. The provision is designed to add a cushion to the development phase to ensure adequate testing has occurred, said the report, which was released Monday.
Globalstar's partner in Australia, Vodaphone Australia, finished rolling out the mobile satellite telephony service across the country, saying that its wireless service now reaches 95% of the landmass without cellular service. Globalstar, the only national wireless service provider in Australia, said the buildout of the last two Australian gateways was completed two weeks ahead of schedule.
Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, Fort Worth, Texas, is being awarded a $6,496,000 (not-to-exceed) firm-fixed-price contract to provide for incorporation of the Air-to-Air Interrogator friend-or-foe system into nine F-16 aircraft. Expected contract completion date is Dec. 31, 2002. Solicitation issue date was Jan. 28, 2000. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-99-C-0031).
A privately held company here is working to launch a $360 million regional satellite telephone system based on a single Russian-built satellite in geostationary orbit. The Space Communications branch of Crosna Closed Stock Company has unveiled the new Zerkalo (Mirror) satellite communication project.
Northrop Grumman Corp., Rolling Meadows, Ill., is being awarded a $28,925,353 firm-fixed-price contract to purchase 33 AN/ALQ-162(V) defensive electronic countermeasures sets for the governments of Norway (88%) and Denmark (12%) under the Foreign Military Sales Program. The Royal Norwegian Air Force will receive 29 units and the Danish Air Force will receive four units. Work will be performed in Rolling Meadows, Ill., and is expected to be completed by October 2002. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
General Electric Aircraft Engines, Cincinnati, Ohio, is being awarded a $5,936,400 firm-fixed-price contract to provide for 102 high-pressure turbine disks applicable to the F110 engine on the F-15 aircraft. Expected contract completion date is October 2000. Solicitation issue date was Dec. 9, 1999. Negotiation completion date was May 1, 2000. Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, Tinker AFB, Okla., is the contracting activity (F34601-97-G-0002-0403).
TAYCHYON INC., a San Diego-based seller of high-speed Internet connections using existing geostationary satellites, small rooftop antennas and an indoor server that acts as a satellite terminal and router, has signed resale agreements with five companies. The five partners, Taychyon's first since it launched its service in January, are Knoware, based in The Netherlands; VariComm, of Washington, D.C., and Baltimore; DiscoverNet, based in Wisconsin; Sensory Perceptions Internet, Inc., of Kansas, and CTSnet, also in San Diego.
Advanced Interactive Systems, Seattle, Wash.; Cubic Defense Systems, San Diego, Calif.; PULAU Electronics Corp., Orlando, Fla.; SIGCOM, Inc., Greensboro, N.C.; and TRW, Inc., Albuquerque, N.M., are each being awarded an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity multiple award contract. The total contract amount is not to exceed $28,000,000 across all five contracts with a guaranteed $50,000 to each at time of award.
DEFENSE SECRETARY William S. Cohen warned a key senator that his department's budget will suffer if Congress passes a supplemental appropriations bill containing Kosovo-related language that the Clinton Administration strongly opposes. In a May 11 letter to Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), Cohen said he is "deeply troubled" by a provision on peace-keeping operations in Kosovo and will recommend a presidential veto if the language stays in the bill.
SPACE IMAGING has purchased six satellite ground systems that use SGI Origin 2000 computer servers to capture and process high-resolution imagery transmitted to Earth by the Ikonos commercial remote sensing satellite. Developed by Raytheon Co., the ground stations will be deployed at new Space Imaging regional affiliates overseas. The SGI Origin 2000 servers, marketed by SGI of Mountain View, Calif., already are in place in Space Imaging ground stations in Denver and Greece.
Raytheon Co., Falls Church, Va., is being awarded a $10,876,000 increment of a $15,176,000 other transaction to develop advanced technologies for Phase II of the Airborne Communications Node. Work will be performed in Falls Church, Va., and is expected to be completed by October 2001. Funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There were three bids solicited on February 4, 2000, and three bids received. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is the contracting activity (MDA972-00-9-0010).
CONTROLLERS SCRUBBED yesterday's planned first launch of an Atlas IIIA rocket powered by Russian RD-180 engines because of problems on the Eastern Test Range.
A decision by the House Appropriations defense subcommittee to zero out the budget for Discoverer II "was a serious mistake," Secretary of the Air Force F. Whitten Peters said Friday as he explained the U.S. need for an asset that can look deep into another country.
Last-minute attempts by the U.S. to persuade the British government to select Raytheon's AMRAAM-based submission for its next-generation beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile to arm RAF Eurofighters have been revealed in the British weekend press. Reproducing a partial copy of a personal letter, dated April 26, from Defense Secretary William S. Cohen to Geoffrey Hoon, his British opposite number, the Sunday Telegraph claimed that it urges Hoon to change reported British preference for the MATRA BAeD Meteor to the cheaper U.S. alternative.
There is no current agreement to reduce the size of nuclear warhead arsenals below the 2,000-to-2,500 START III range that President Clinton and then-President of Russia Boris Yeltsin agreed to in March 1997 at Helsinki, the Pentagon's chief spokesman said last week. "I'm not aware that there's any administration proposal to go below 2,000 at this stage," Ken Bacon, Pentagon spokesman told reporters.
Russia's space industry plans to use the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia more actively, as the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan continues to present problems for Russian space launch. According to Oleg Roskin, Khrunichev Space Center deputy department chief for strategic planning, ground facilities for the advanced Khrunichev Angara launcher in Plesetsk are 40% complete. The Angara launch complex at Plesetsk is based on the abandoned Zenit facilities there.
ALLIEDSIGNAL TECHNICAL SERVICES won a $9.6 million contract from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to support NOAA's environmental satellites. The engineering support contract covers an initial one-year period, with options for three more one-year periods. The Honeywell subsidiary's work will cover both NOAA's geostationary satellites and its polar orbiting satellites under the contract.
A broken bearing on the "shaker" used to vibration-test spacecraft at the Jet Propulsion Lab caused the mishap that left NASA's High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (HESSI) with structural damage and a launch delay of undetermined duration, an agency mishap board reported.
General Dynamics said it has entered into an agreement to acquire Saco Defense Corp., based in Saco Maine, for an undisclosed amount of cash. The transaction, expected to be completed this summer, is subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions.
ASSURESAT, which is buying two Space Systems/Loral satellites that will serve as on-orbit "backup protection" for satellite operators (DAILY, May 4), has signed an agreement through SS/L to launch its two spacecraft on Sea Launch Zenit rockets. The two specially designed high-power satellites will be launched from the Sea Launch floating pad in 2002, the company said.
Lockheed Martin, Missiles&Fire Control-Dallas, Grand Prairie, Texas, is being awarded a $7,700,000 modification to cost-no-fee contract DAAH01-98-C-0138, for the restructure of the Multiple Launch Rocket System Launcher Program (M270A1), and the path to operational testing. Work will be performed in Grand Prairie, Texas, and is expected to be completed by Jan. 28, 2001. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on Jan. 27, 2000. The U.S.
