Concurrent Computer Corp., Atlanta, received a $1.3 million contract from Sensis Corp. of New York City for five Power Hawk 640 integrated real-time computer systems and related software. The contract will support Sensis efforts' to upgrade five AN/TPS-59 battlefield radars for the Egyptian Air Defense Program. Sensis, a provider of air defense and air traffic management radar systems, is working under a subcontract from Lockheed Martin to upgrade the radars. Concurrent said it was picked by Sensis because of its previous experience with the company on the U.S.
An independent panel set up by the National Research Council has endorsed the scientific goals of NASA's Triana spacecraft, an Earth-observing probe at the L1 Lagrangian point originally proposed by Vice President Gore as a way to interest school children in science and derided by congressional Republicans as an overpriced "screensaver."
The U.S. Coast Guard's $10 billion Deepwater project, a system of systems approach for the replacement of aging assets, is a "near-term national priority," an interagency panel has told President Clinton. The Interagency Task Force on U.S. Coast Guard Roles and Missions, established by the president last September and charged with providing advice and recommendations through 2020, concluded that the service's missions should continue and probably even increase, according to a spokesman for the service.
Hi-Shear Corp., Torrance, Calif., was picked by the U.S Army to provide the electronic firing system for the Patriot Advance Capability (PAC-3) anti-missile system. The PAC-3 missile, expected to transition from low-rate to full production over the next two years, is designed to intercept and destroy aircraft as well as tactical ballistic missiles. Hi-Shear will begin to manufacture the firing systems immediately, in line with the Army's production schedule.
Greece plans to buy 60 Eurofighters for $6 billion, a development that marks the first sale of the jet outside the four-nation European consortium that builds it. Hellenic Defense Minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos announced the deal, which includes options for 30 more Typhoons, as the export version of the plane is known. Deliveries would take place "in the area of 2005 to 2007," said a spokesman for the Eurofighter consortium, which consists of Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain.
FAA's Aircraft Wiring and Inert Gas Generator Working Group, which meets today in Washington, will host a presentation from Device Technologies Inc. (DTi) on new hardware designed to prevent wire chafing. The working group has been concentrating on the insulation of wiring to prevent possible electrical fires in aircraft. DTi, a vendor for several industries based in Marlborough, Mass., has developed composite grommet edging which can fitted around the structural openings inside an aircraft through which run miles of wires linking electrical systems.
BREEZE-EASTERN, a unit of TransTechnology Corp. based in Union, N.J., received a contract from Boeing to develop a weapons loading system for the Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV), which could increase the survivability and effectiveness of manned aircraft. The company was also selected by NASA's Johnson Space Center to create a winch system to control the parafoil of the X-38 Crew Recovery Vehicle (CRV). The CRV will be deployed on the International Space Station for emergency retreats by the astronauts. The NASA contract from is worth about $1 million.
An article in The DAILY of March 8 incorrectly stated the lift capability of Beal Aerospace's planned BA-2 rocket. The rocket is designed to put 13,200 pounds in geostationary transfer orbit, not low-Earth orbit.
Raytheon Co. announced receipt of two contracts totaling $667.4 million for production of AN/APG-73 radars for F/A-18 aircraft of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corp, and Royal Australian Air Force. One contract, from Boeing for about $467.2 million, is to support F/A-18E/F Super Hornet production in fiscal years 2000 through 2004. The other contract, from U.S. Naval Air Systems Command for about $200.2 million, is for production of radar and retrofit kits to upgrade existing F/A-18s of the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and RAAF.
U.S. Air Force Secretary F. Whitten Peters said "there really is no question" that a winner-take-all approach to the Joint Strike Fighter program would force the loser out of the fighter business. An examination of alternatives to such an approach by a senior government group and independent advisors at the request of Jacques Gansler, Pentagon acquisition chief, should allow Gansler to make some decisions by the end of the month, Peters told a congressional subcommittee yesterday.
Lockheed Martin will join a team spearheaded by Spanish shipbuilder Empresa Nacional Bazan E.N. (Bazan) to provide a new frigate for Norway. Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics and Surveillance Systems (NE&SS), working with several Norwegian business partners, will provide the ship's Integrated Weapon System (IWS), which is based on the U.S Navy's Aegis combat system. It includes the SPY-1 radar and the Mk. 41 Vertical Launching System for missile launches.
House appropriators today are slated to mark up the Administration's fiscal year 2000 supplemental request, boosting it to $9 billion. The appropriators are working with the Administration's $5.5 billion supplemental request and raising that to $9 billion, a committee aide told The DAILY. Most of the additional funding will be aimed at shoring up dollars needed for increased fuel costs, the aide said.
National Reconnaissance Office Director Keith R. Hall said the U.S. Air Force's budget for space control technologies should be increased. The AF's fiscal year 2001 request of $9.7 million for space control is modest and must increase in the out-years, Hall -- who also serves as assistant secretary of the Air Force for Space -- told the Senate Armed Services Committee's panel on strategic forces.
BFGoodrich Co. announced completion of its buy of IBP Aerospace Group Inc., a move that it said puts it in a position to offer the K-36/3.5A ejection seats, originally developed in Russia, for U.S. aircraft.
COMMON SHARES of BAE Systems Canada, formerly Canadian Marconi Company (CMW), will trade under the symbol BAE on both the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges beginning March 7, 2000.
SIRIUS SATELLITE RADIO has formed a marketing and technology alliance with ATX Technologies Inc. that will advance Sirius' e-commerce goal of enabling consumers to purchase music, books, videos and other products and services promoted on Sirius directly from their cars. The "telematics" applications provided by ATX would also allow Sirius users to give their feedback on programming. Other possible applications include remote vehicle diagnostics, navigation and traffic reporting, the companies said.
Smiths Industries said John Ferrie will succeed Norman Barber as head of Smiths Industries Aerospace. Ferrie, 53, will join the company as an executive director on April 10 and will assume his new role on July 31, following Barber's retirement. Ferrie joins the London-based company from Rolls-Royce where he has been executive vice president of business operations for Rolls-Royce Allison since 1998. He joined Rolls-Royce in 1964.
UNTESTED SPACE LAUNCH VEHICLES may win NASA contracts to launch university and small technology payloads under a NASA program to be put out for bid this summer. According to the March 6 Commerce Business Daily, Marshall Space Flight Center plans to issue a draft request for proposals in May for "Category 1" launch vehicles - defined as those which "have demonstrated no prior flight history." Successful flights under the program may qualify new launchers for "Category 2" contracts, awarded to vehicles with at least one successful flight behind them (DAILY, Sept. 10, 1999).
The FAA broke ground Monday for the Potomac Tracon, a regional air traffic control facility to serve the Baltimore-Washington area. The facility, at Vint Hill in Fauquier County, Va., will consolidate terminal radar control facilities at four airports -- Baltimore-Washington, Dulles, Reagan National and Andrews AFB. Each of the four airports will continue to be served by its existing control tower.
NASA WILL NEED more time to study a review by an independent panel of the failure last year of both of the agency's new Red Planet probes, a NASA spokesperson said. The report of the panel, headed by retired Lockheed Martin Executive Vice President A. Thomas Young, probably won't be released until the end of the month, the spokesperson said.
SPOT IMAGE CORP. and the U.S. Geological Survey's EROS Data Center (EDC) have entered an agreement under which the EDC will archive and distribute historical SPOT satellite imagery to government users. Some 700,000 SPOT scenes collected over the U.S. between 1986 and 1998 will go into the USGS archive, filling gaps and increasing the number of low-cloud images. SPOT Image Corp. will get a royalty on use of the data, and will continue to work separately with U.S. government agencies for post-1998 imagery.
COMPUTER SCIENCES CORP. has teamed with QSS Group Inc. on a five-year, $128.3 million contract won by QSS to support NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif. Under the cost-plus-award-fee NASA contract CSC will provide services in such areas as automated learning, knowledge management systems, artificial intelligence, autonomous systems and model-based reasoning. CSC said it values its share of the award at about $26 million.
The Defense Dept.'s spokesman yesterday denied a published report that the Pentagon has overstated test results in a program to develop an exoatmospheric kill vehicle (EKV) for national missile defense.
