Lockheed Martin has demonstrated in flight tests a new reconnaissance and mapping camera that it says offers significantly sharper images even when the aircraft is flying at high speed.
RAYTHEON CO. has been awarded a $117.9 million contract for 75 Standard Missile-2 (SM-2) Block IIIB all-up rounds (AURs); 74 SM-2 Block IIIB Ordnance Alteration kits to upgrade SM-2 Block II/III missiles to SM-2 Block IIIB; 142 AN/DKT-71A telemetric data transmitting sets; 89 SM-2 Block III/IIIA AURs, and section level spares, the Pentagon announced. The contract combines purchases for the U.S. Navy (61.1%), Spain (14.9%), the Netherlands (10.5%), Japan (7%), and Germany (6.5%) under the Foreign Military Sales Program.
EUROPEAN COMMISSION is expected to authorize creation of the European Aeronautic, Defense and Space Company (EADS) by May 11, when the deadline for the current examination of the case expires. The consortium set up by Germany's DaimlerChrysler Aerospace (DASA), France's Aerospatiale Matra and Spain's Construcciones Aeronauticas (CASA) was asked to review its position on some minor segments of the satellite launcher component market, where it would hold a quasi-monopoly in Europe.
Northrop Grumman Corp., Linthicum Heights, Md., is being awarded a $99,156,144 cost-plus-award-fee contract to provide for support and services through November 2004 to upgrade, prepare, sustain, integrate, and operate 13 sensors applicable to the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program. Expected contract completion date is November 2004. Solicitation issue date was Aug. 23, 1999. Negotiation completion date was April 14, 2000. Space and Missile System Center, Los Angeles AFB, Calif., is the contracting activity (F04701-00-C-0001).
Michael M. Sears, most recently president of Boeing Co.'s $13 billion Military Aircraft and Missile Systems unit, has been named to replace Deborah Hopkins as chief financial officer of the company, Boeing chairman and CEO Phil Condit said yesterday. Hopkins went to telecommunications giant Lucent Technologies to become CFO of a new Enterprise Network group (DAILY, April 25).
Testers of the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet have rated its operational effectiveness "essentially the same" as that of the F/A-18C, a draft General Accounting Office report obtained by The DAILY yesterday concluded. The report said, "...Congress should consider directing the Navy to defer the award" of the multi-year procurement contract for full-rate production to prime contractor Boeing "until corrections of [a wing] problem have been made, tested and funded."
Sikorsky Aircraft Co., Stratford, Conn., is being awarded a $20,262,236 modification to firm-fixed-price contract DAAJ09-97-C-0005, for 13 Black Hawk helicopters (Navy CH-60S). Work will be performed in Stratford, Conn., and is expected to be completed by Nov. 30, 2001. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on Jan. 13, 2000. The U.S. Army Aviation&Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity.
Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Electronic Sensors and Systems Sector (ES3) has completed a $42 million, four-year government funded demonstration of the Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar system for the Joint Strike Fighter, the company reported. The project, officially known as the Multifunction Integrated RF System/Multifunction Array (MIRFS/MFA), was designed to assist the government and the JSF prime weapon system contractors in reducing cost and technical risks associated with the radar system, Northrop Grumman said.
McDonnell Douglas Corp., St. Louis, Mo., was awarded on May 3, 2000 a $227,000,000 (not-to-exceed) firm-fixed-price contract to provide for three F-15E aircraft and options for up to two additional aircraft. Expected contract completion date is Nov. 30, 2002. Solicitation issue date was Feb 23, 2000. Negotiation completion date was April 28, 2000. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-00-C-0013).
Lockheed Martin Tactical Defense Systems, Archbald, Pa., is being awarded a $5,552,222 modification to previously awarded firm fixed price contract N00019-99-C-1648 for the procurement of 2,327 laser guided training rounds, a low cost round that simulates the guidance and flight characteristics of the PAVEWAY II laser guided bomb. Work will be performed in Archbald, Pa., and is expected to be completed by October 2001. Contract funds would not have expired at the end of the current fiscal year.
China will more than double its current force of about 20 ICBMs by 2015, according to CIA estimates. 10 Robert Walpole, the CIA's national intelligence officer for strategic and nuclear programs, said China is projected to add several tens of ICBMs to the 20 CSS-4s it now has. These will include some mobile sea and land-based types using smaller warheads, "influenced by U.S. technology gained from espionage," Walpole said last week at a conference here.
Science Applications International Corp., King of Prussia, Pa., is being awarded a $1,600,000 increment as part of a $6,300,000 cost-plus-fixed-fee/level-of-effort, letter contract with a cumulative total of $9,000,000 if all options are exercised for a Wide Bandwidth Information Infrastructure. The program thrust is to connect distributed assets and hardware-in-the-loop facilities to enhance technical flexibility and speed development of system level Ballistic Missile Defense programs.
Loral Space&Communications' chairman and CEO Bernard Schwartz says he isn't willing "to bet the farm" on success of the company's Globalstar venture, but Loral took it on the chin in the first quarter of 2000 largely because of costs "spurred" by depreciation charges, goodwill amortization and interest expense at the mobile telephony business.
Logica Carnegie Group, Pittsburgh, Pa., is being awarded $1,887,942 as part of a $7,951,492 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for system architectural support for the Joint Forces Air Component Commander to include design engineering, experimentation, technological advocacy and program information and project management. Work will be performed in Pittsburgh, Pa., and is expected to be completed by March 31, 2001. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on Feb. 29, 2000.
RANDY SIMONS, chief financial officer (CFO) for Airplane Programs at Boeing's Commercial Airplanes division, is headed to St. Louis in a new role as vice president and general manager of Business Management and CFO for Boeing's Military Aircraft and Missile System unit. Simons will replace Roger Krone, who is taking over as VP and general manager of Boeing's Army program.
LTU of Germany plans to acquire 18 A320 family aircraft and seven A330-200s as part of a fleet renewal program, Airbus Industrie said yesterday. The carrier signed an initial contract to buy six A320 family aircraft. The new aircraft mean LTU will have an all-Airbus fleet by the end of 2003.
An Air Force Titan IVB rocket lifted a new Defense Support Program (DSP) early warning satellite toward its geostationary orbit yesterday noon, and by late afternoon a Boeing Inertial Upper Stage had completed the first of two scheduled burns needed to send the satellite on its way.
Kazan Gorbunov Aviation Production Association has delivered the first strategic bomber manufactured in Russia since 1995 to the Russian Long Range Aviation force's Engels Air Force Base in the Saratov region. The Tu-160 Blackjack strategic bomber, designed to carry cruise missiles, made its first flight from the Kazan plant to the base on May 4. Named "Alexandr Molodchii" after the famous World War II pilot, it became the 15th aircraft at Engels.
Lockheed Martin Millimeter Technologies Inc., Orlando, Fla., is being awarded $13,089,888 as part of a $94,046,819 (total if all options are exercised) firm-fixed-price and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for 250 Longbow Hellfire Launchers (FY00 requirement). The contractor will provide related engineering services; M272 launcher disassembly/refurbishment; contractor depot level support with options for FYS 01-03 for launchers, related services and spares. Work will be performed in Orlando, Fla., and is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2003.
Raytheon Sensors and Electronic Systems, El Segundo, Calif., is being issued an $8,851,788 firm-fixed-price order for nine AN/APG-73 radar receivers used on the F/A-18 aircraft. This procurement is for the Royal Australian Air Force (100%) under the Foreign Military Sales Program. Work will be performed in El Segundo, Calif., and is expected to be completed by December 2002. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitive procured.
NASA's Space Shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to dock with the International Space Station early on the morning of Sunday, May 21, in the third visit to the nascent orbital facility since it was launched late in 1998.
While the tenets of U.S. Army transformation include interoperability and commonality, the service won't be able to do much to current systems "without spending vast amounts of money," according to Brig. Gen. John Urias, air and missile defense program executive officer. "So the systems of the future are what we are really focused on in terms of Army transformation," Urias said, "and [this is why] MEADS is our program of choice in terms of being the poster program for this."
Northrop Grumman Corp., Melbourne, Fla., is being awarded a $7,999,990 (not-to-exceed) modification to a fixed-price-incentive contract which extends advanced procurement of long lead items in support of one E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) aircraft. Expected contract completion date will be determined during contract definitization. Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom AFB, Mass., is the contracting activity (F19628-98-C-0003-P00013).
