The F-22 test program is within congressional cost caps and is on schedule to meet a Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) decision this winter and proceed into low rate initial production, according to a senior U.S. Air Force official. Assistant Secretary of the Air Force Lawrence J. Delaney said the program, now underway at Edwards AFB, Calif., is accomplishing things that "are really trailblazing" in terms of the sophistication of the test procedures, technology integration and demonstration, program management and test schedules.
Fairchild Corp. plans to spin off its Bermuda-based company, Fairchild (Bermuda) Ltd., and then swap 95% of the shares for a 100% stake in Global Sources, a business-to-business (B2B) venture and traditional marketer based in Asia.
International Space Station managers at NASA believe Russia remains on track to launch the long-awaited Service Module to the orbiting facility in July, clearing a logjam that will allow Station assembly to resume and the first crew to arrive late in October. But if the critical module should suffer another long-term delay or launch failure, the U.S. space agency is prepared to fall back on U.S. hardware to get the Station built in the relative near term but left unoccupied except when Space Shuttles are docked to it.
The European Union's hushkit regulation "will enter into force on 4 May as planned, the spokesman of European Transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio said yesterday. However, he said, the EU is "willing to discuss" the aspects of the ban that are most damaging to non-European nations.
Lockheed Martin's conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) Joint Strike Fighter variant completed a First Flight Readiness Review (FFRR), meeting U.S. U.S. Air Force requirements, the company reported. Engineering teams, an independent review team and a safety review board from the U.S. government's JSF program office certified the Lockheed Martin X-35A CTOL design as "safe and ready for flight," following completion of remaining ground testing, according to the company.
Boeing Defense&Space Group, Philadelphia, Pa., is being awarded $5,571,600 as part of a $9,549,900 firm-fixed-price contract, for the maintenance and repair of 100 Chinook Helicopter (CH-47) rotor blades, forward and aft. Work will be performed in Philadelphia, Pa., and is expected to be completed by May 30, 2002. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is sole source contract initiated on Jan. 6, 1999. The U.S. Army Aviation&Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (DAAH23-99-D-0095).
McDonnell Douglas Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of The Boeing Company, St. Louis, Mo., is being awarded a $41,000,000 modification to previously awarded contract N00019-99-C-1226 to provide economic order quantity funding on the existing advanced acquisition contract to preserve the 7.4% savings for a 222 F/A-18E/F aircraft multiyear procurement. The multiyear contract is anticipated to be executed in March 2000 assuming Milestone III decision approval and the appropriate certifications to Congress in accordance with Section 121 of the Authorization Act.
General Dynamics Information Systems Inc., Bloomington, Minn., is being awarded a $9,996,162 fixed-price delivery order against a previously awarded requirements contract for 66 AN/AYK-14(V) standard airborne computers for the F/A-18E/F program. Work will be performed in Bloomington, Minn., and is expected to be completed by February 2002. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity (N00163-96-D-0014).
Fairchild Aerospace has decided to proceed with several changes in the design of its 728JET. The changes will cause the program to slip by six months but the company says it will be back on schedule with the eighth delivery. The slippage earlier was understood to be associated only with the relocation of the rear door. But Fairchild now says that it intends to reduce drag, improve wing aerodynamics, increase gross weight and relocate the rear door to allow for another seat row to be installed.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN'S Xetron subsidiary, Cincinnati, has won a subcontract from ITT Industries' Aerospace/Communications Div., Fort Wayne, Ind., for work on the U.K.'s Bowman tactical radio program. "This program represents more than $50 million in sales over the next several years...," said Bob Watson, president of Xetron.
Science Applications International Corp., San Diego, Calif., is being awarded a $1,675,000 increment of a $7,146,792 delivery order amount as part of an $11,994,761 indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract. The contractor will provide support for Federal, Military, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the Technical Cooperation Program customers, for tailored consequence analyses and regional products for planning and reaction to natural and man-made disasters. Work will be performed in San Diego, Calif. (50%); McLean, Va.
Lockheed Martin Corp., Federal Systems Owego Company, Owego, N.Y., is being awarded a $7,500,000 fixed obligation modification to provide additional funds to a previously executed 845 Other Transaction Agreement. This modification provides for additional efforts associated with the development of the H-60 Common Cockpit. Work will be performed in Owego, N.Y., and is expected to be completed by May 2000. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured.
CORRECTION: The DAILY, in an article in the March 24 issue (page 458), misidentified the PAC-3 prime contractor. It is Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control-Dallas.
Litton Systems Inc., Guidance&Control Systems Division, Woodland Hills, Calif., is being awarded a delivery order amount of $2,068,800 as part of a firm-fixed-price 5-year requirements contract with a potential value of $8,228,757. This is a repair contract for the Inertial Measurement Unit in support of the Position&Azimuth Determining System. Work will be performed in Salt Lake City, Utah, and is expected to be completed by Feb. 28, 2005. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on Aug.
Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics&Surveillance Systems, St. Paul, Minn., is being awarded a $15,000,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity delivery order contract to provide technical and engineering services in support of the P-3 Sensor Integration Data Fusion Efforts. Work will be performed in Eagan, Minn., and is expected to be completed in March 2001. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured.
New orders for U.S. manufactured goods, mostly transportation equipment, decreased $4.9 billion, or 2.3%, to $208.4 billion, according to the U.S. Dept. of Commerce's Advance Report of Durable Good manufacturers' Shipment and Orders, released Friday. Leading the transportation category were aircraft and parts, down 8.7%, or $4.5 billion, to $47.1 billion. This represents the largest decrease since April 1999. The report also signaled a decline in new defense orders of 0.6% to $6.8 billion in February.
Lockheed Martin Information Systems, Orlando, Fla., is being awarded an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with a not-to-exceed ceiling amount of $300,000,000 for the Marine Corps Simulator Master Plan which will allow for the acquisition of U.S. Marine Corps assets to include aircrew procedures trainers for the EA-6B, AH-1W, UH-1N, CH-46E, CH-53E, F/A-18C/D, AV-8B and KC-130 aircraft. Work will be performed in Orlando, Fla., and is expected to be completed by March 2007. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
Bombardier Inc. reported increases in its consolidated and segment financial results for the year-ended January 31, 2000, attributing much of gains to strong aerospace operations.
A National Research Council panel has recommended that the U.S. Air Force close its space launch tracking stations on the islands of Antigua and Ascension in the Atlantic as a cost-saving measure, part of a larger effort to reorient U.S. range safety practices from "risk avoidance" to "risk management."
HOT FIRE: NASA's Stennis Space Center is gearing up for a 250-second hot fire test April 3 of the XRS-2200 linear aerospike engine for the X-33 suborbital testbed, following a complete 220-second test last Wednesday. An earlier attempt to hot-fire the inside-out rocket engine for 220-seconds fell short when software problems cut it off after about 75 seconds (DAILY, March 16).
Space Systems Loral said it has won a contract to build MTSAT-1R, an advanced multi-functional satellite for air traffic control and weather observation for Japan's Ministry of Transport. When delivered in 2002, the satellite will provide communications and navigation services for aircraft and gather weather data for users throughout the entire Asia-Pacific region as far south as Australia and New Zealand.
The Senate Budget Committee may move this week to mark up its version of the fiscal year 2001 budget resolution, Hill sources say. The House last week passed its resolution providing $306.3 billion in budget authority for national defense, an increase of about $1 billion over the president's request. The Senate budgeteers are not expected to propose any increase above that level, leaving a small pot of funds available for the authorizers and appropriators to support the Pentagon's unfunded requirements.
LOCKHEED MARTIN'S Sanders unit has been selected to design and develop flight line test equipment to support 80 F-16 fighters being produced for the United Arab Emirates.
