NASA should be very careful if it decides to advance Lockheed Martin X-33 funds linked to flight tests before the experimental space launch vehicle gets off the ground to ensure the company doesn't just take the money and run, the head of the House Science space and aeronautics subcommittee warned yesterday.
DaimlerChrysler Aerospace will spend $1.2 million to standardize its Defense and Civil Systems business unit on I-DEAS software and ExperTeam services created by SDRC, a provider of e-business products like e-Design Automation and Collaborative Product Commerce.
Rocket propulsion engineers at NASA, Aerojet and Rocketdyne are moving into the second phase of a long-term effort to perfect a Rocket Based Combined Cycle (RBCC) engine that would use atmospheric oxygen on the way to orbit, saving weight at liftoff.
McDonnell Douglas Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Boeing Company, St. Louis, Mo., is being awarded a $7,250,000 modification to previously awarded contract N00019-99-C-1226 for the design work for the production incorporation of advance mission computers and displays into the F/A-18E/F aircraft. Work will be performed in St. Louis, Mo., and is expected to be completed by October 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.
Shorts Missile Systems, Ltd., Castlereagh, Belfast, Northern Ireland, (and major subcontractors Boeing Mesa, McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Systems, Mesa, Ariz., and Lockheed Martin Electronics&Missiles, Orlando, Fla.) is being awarded a $13,000,000 increment of a $23,999,989 modification to cost-plus-fixed-fee contract DAAJ02-97-C-0001, for Air-to-Air Starstreak (ATASK) Technical Demonstration Program (S4 Preparation).
Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics&Surveillance Systems (NE&SS), Akron, Ohio, announced it has received a $22 million contract from the Israeli Ministry of Defense for an F-15 Flight and System Trainer (FST).
EchoStar Communications has joined the Gilat-To-Home satellite Internet services partnership with a $50 million investment, and will use its 23,000 U.S. retailers to distribute the hardware necessary to connect users with the system when it debuts later this year.
Longbow Limited Liability Co., Orlando, Fla., is being awarded a $10,400,780 modification to firm-fixed-price contract DAAH01-99-C-0088, for the manufacture and delivery of 130 Longbow Hellfire Modular Missiles for Singapore and Israel. Work will be performed in Orlando, Fla. (50%), and Baltimore, Md. (50%), and is expected to be completed by Aug. 31, 2005. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on July 7, 1998. The U.S.
The Dept. of Defense said yesterday that it has chosen seven projects to receive fiscal year 2000 out-of-cycle funding under the Foreign Comparative Testing (FCT) program. The FCT program, authorized by Congress in 1989 and administered by the office of the under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, is designed to support the U.S. warfighter by leveraging non-developmental items from allied and friendly nations to meet U.S. defense needs more quickly and economically.
Ozone depletion over the Arctic this winter was one of the worst ever measured, raising fears that efforts to halt the production of ozone-depleting chemicals have failed to stop depletion of the life-shielding gas in the stratosphere. A major international effort to measure Arctic ozone levels over the winter found a 60% loss at 60,000 feet above the North Pole, according to NASA, which supplied a high altitude ER-2 aircraft for sampling (DAILY, Jan. 31).
HARRIS CORP., an avionics supplier to the Lockheed Martin Joint Strike Fighter team, recently completed virtual prototyping of the mission system mechanical design suite for the fighter's integrated avionics racks and electronic module components, Lockheed Martin said.
Job security, no bonuses, and wages are the main issues raised by striking members of the International Association of Machinists who have "totally shut down" operations at the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. plant in Fort Worth, Tex., said Pat Lane, district president of Local 766. Both sides said no new talks are planned.
Jet Propulsion Laboratory veteran Firouz Naderi, who has been head of NASA's Origins Program since 1996, has been named to manage the new Mars Program at JPL. An electrical engineer, Naderi will head the Mars Program Office created at the Pasadena, Calif., facility in the wake of last year's failure of both Mars '98 space probes. Failure review panels blamed the failures in part on lax management at JPL and at NASA headquarters (DAILY, March 14, 29).
Boeing Aerospace Operations, Inc., Midwest City, Okla., is being awarded an $11,941,054 modification to a cost-plus-award-fee contract to provide for Phase 1A engineering and manufacturing development of a modernization modification kit in support of the E-4B aircraft. Expected contract completion date is Jan. 31, 2001. Solicitation issue date was Dec. 22, 1999. Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, Tinker AFB, Okla., is the contracting activity (F34601-97-C-0211-P00114).
The AIM-9X Sidewinder missile completed its fourth guided launch March 31 at the China Lake, Calif., test site, intercepting a QF-4 drone after launch from a U.S. Navy F/A-18C fighter, according to Raytheon Co., the missile's developer.
Rockwell Collins will install AN/ARC-210 radios on new and existing U.S. military aircraft helicopters under a $30.2 million contract from the U.S. Navy. With priced options the contract could be worth another $85 million to the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, company. The radios will be installed on U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force aircraft and helicopters, Rockwell Collins said. The AN/ARC-210 provides normal and secure two-way voice and data links in the 30 to 400 MHz frequency range.
The crash Saturday in Arizona of a U.S. Marine Corps MV-22 that claimed the lives of all 19 people aboard has prompted a temporary halt in flights of the remaining three Ospreys in operational evaluation. "This is an unofficial operational pause," said a Marine Corps spokesman at the Pentagon. "We are temporarily suspending OPEVAL until we can figure out what happened."
TRW Inc., San Diego, Calif., is being awarded a $7,500,000 (maximum) indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to provide for engineering services through April 2005 for the ALR-62 Radar Warning Receiver on the F-111 aircraft. This effort includes problem resolution, system integration, support equipment, and other services as requires. This effort supports foreign military sales to Australia. Expected contract completion date is April 2005. Solicitation issue date was Jan. 20, 2000. Negotiation completion date was March 17, 2000.
Raytheon Systems Company, Tucson, Ariz., is being awarded a $29,307,221 modification to previously awarded contract N00024-99-C-5375 to provide production engineering and technical services to support the Standard missile program. Work will be performed in Tucson, Ariz., and is expected to be completed by September 2001. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Arlington, Va., is the Contracting Activity.
Signal Technology Corp., Danvers, Mass., has won a $3.6 million contract from Raytheon Systems, Greenville, Tex., for audio/video switches. The contract not only procures additional Switch Matrices, but also provides funding for system enhancements, Signal Technology said. "This contract continues our longstanding relationship as a supplier to Raytheon Systems," said George Hreczuck, president of Signal Technology's Systems Operation in Webster, Mass.
Creative Technology Inc., Reston, Va., and Booz Allen&Hamilton, McLean, Va., are each being awarded an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity task order contract, NMA201-00-D-0001 and NMA201-00-D-0002 respectively, each valued at a not-to-exceed amount of $250,000,000 over five years. An appropriation number and dollar value will be issued with each delivery order.
CFM International's "Project Tech56" swept wide chord fan blade has successfully completed full-scale blade-out rig testing with "outstanding results," according to the company. Project Tech56 is a three-year technology acquisition program to study potential new and derivative engines, and to provide upgrades to existing CFM56 engines.
Bell Helicopter Textron Inc., Fort Worth, Texas, is being awarded a $13,440,001 modification to firm-fixed-price contract DAAH23-98-C-0058, for Lot 3 of the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior safety enhancement program for 22 aircraft. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas, and is expected to be completed by Dec. 30, 2001. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on Aug. 20, 1999. The U.S. Army Aviation&Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity.
Promulgation of Stage 4 noise regulations will be a major uncertainty facing the airline industry in the next few years, according to Morten Beyer&Agnew, which is sponsoring a conference on the issue and on the continued operation and values of existing jet aircraft. The conference is scheduled April 19 at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Pentagon City, Arlington Va.
