Managers of the STS-99 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) said yesterday there are no plans to either curtail global mapping operations or return the Endeavour orbiter to Earth early because of the failure of a small nitrogen gas thruster on the end of the flight's 197-ft. radar boom. Landing is scheduled for Feb. 22.
Admonishing anti-trade opponents, House Republicans yesterday appeared primed to take the floor to support free trade and promote American trade interests abroad. "This anti-trade movement, abetted as it is by some in Congress, is the single greatest threat to America's continued prosperity," House Majority Leader Dick Armey said at a press conference on Capitol Hill.
The future military operating environment will be characterized by the "power of information," which will "redefine the perspective of what the globe is all about," according to U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Norton Schwartz, Deputy Commander in Chief of U.S. Special Operations Command.
The Flight Safety Foundation has developed a tool to help reduce the risk of approach and landing accidents, which account for the greatest number of fatalities in commercial air transport operations. The Risk Awareness Tool is a list of risk factors that can be integrated into the approach briefing a crew must conduct before beginning a descent, FSF said. It "will heighten the crew's awareness of risk factors that it is likely to encounter during the approach and landing," said FSF Chairman Stuart Matthews.
Supplies were the name of the game for the companies winning the most U.S. defense contracts in fiscal year 1999, beating out research and development for the big bucks by more than two to one in some cases. Supply contracts accounted for nearly half of top finisher Lockheed Martin's $12.7 billion in prime Pentagon contract awards last year, according to a Dept. of Defense report released yesterday. The report listed the companies receiving the most prime contract awards for FY 1999.
Harris Corp. has been tapped by Raytheon Systems Co. to perform engineering work on the U.S. Air Force's fleet of UU-2 reconnaissance aircraft. Raytheon won a $43.8 million contract from the USAF's Warner Robins Air Logistics Center to oversee field support of the aircraft in fiscal 2000, and has now parceled out some of the duties for the weapon system data links to Harris for an initial one-year term.
Vulnerability of U.S. computer systems to hackers and others is a result of shortcomings in funding, policy, doctrine, procedure and training, information security officials said at a conference here. "We are not adequately resourced," said Mike Jacobs, the National Security Agency's deputy director for information systems security. He said a major portion of the $2 billion that President Clinton has identified for information security improvement has already been programmed and is not new money.
The F/A-18E/F Super Hornet is "operationally effective and operationally suitable," the U.S. Navy said yesterday in announcing results of the jet's six-month-long operational evaluation, or opeval. "The CNO [Chief of Naval Operations] received the operational report yesterday [and] the results were the best we could hope for," Rear Adm. John Nathman told reporters at the Pentagon. "The airplane was rated operationally effective and operationally suitable. This is the highest rating the airframe could receive."
Lockheed Martin Air Traffic Management, London, said it has won an $80 million contract for development of the New Scottish Center (NSC) air traffic control system to be installed at Prestwick. NSC will replace an aging system and address the growing U.K. air traffic situation over the next two decades, the company said. NSC will provide advanced en route air traffic control services for the Scottish Flight Information Region, which covers Scotland and Northern Ireland. It will also provide interfaces for oceanic air traffic control.
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Floyd Spence (R-S.C.) has informed committee members that the U.S. military services are $84.2 billion short of funding requirements for the fiscal year 2001-05 period. "Unfortunately, the magnitude of these figures provides ample evidence that quality of life, readiness and modernization shortfalls are getting worse," Spence said in a Feb. 11 letter to members of HASC.
Raytheon Aerospace Co., Madison, Miss., is being awarded a $7,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract to provide for contractor logistics support from April - September 2000 for the C-12 aircraft. There was one proposal received. The work is expected to be completed September 2000. Solicitation issue date was October 1999; negotiations were completed January 2000. Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, Tinker AFB, Okla., is the contracting activity (F34601-00/C-0111).
The Space Shuttle Endeavour's crew managed to extend a 200-foot mast and begin interferometric radar mapping of the earth's surface over the weekend, but a glitch with a tiny thruster at the end of the mast may force mission managers to shorten the mapping activity even more than it has already been trimmed.
United Technologies Corp., West Palm Beach, Fla., is being awarded a $16,916,843 basic-ordering-agreement-order to provide for 12,701 Second Stage Turbine Stator Vane Assemblies in support of the F100-PW-200 engine on the F-16 aircraft. Approximately 2 percent of this effort supports foreign military sales to the Netherlands, Norway, and Saudi Arabia. There were seven firms solicited and one proposal received. Solicitation issue date was June 1998; negotiations were completed January 2000. The work is expected to be completed March 2001.
Boeing Co., Long Beach, Calif., is being awarded a $12,285,602 modification to a time-and-materials contract to provide for retrofit of fifteen C-17 aircraft with the Global Air Traffic Management (GATM) system. The work is expected to be completed November 1999. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-97/C-0008, P00087).
DRS Technologies reported record performance in revenues and operating income for the third quarter and the first nine month of fiscal 2000, putting the company on track to meet its $400 million revenue goal for the year. "The progress achieved to date bodes well for a strong fourth quarter and another record fiscal year," said Mark S. Newman DRS Technologies chairman, president and CEO.
Japan's Nissan Corp. said yesterday it plans to sell its Aerospace Div. to Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co., as published reports had suggested. As part of its revival strategy announced last year, Nissan had been expected to divest non-core assets to streamline operations and concentrate on its automotive competencies. Terms of the deal with IHI will reportedly be finalized this summer.
Marconi Flight Systems, Mojave, Calif., is being awarded a $9,104,252 modification to a firm-fixed-price contract to provide for twelve QF-4 Full Scale Aerial Targets. The work is expected to be completed May 2002. Air Armament Center, Eglin AFB, Fla., is the contracting activity F08626-98/C-0012.
Pacific Aerospace&Electronics said its European aerospace unit has won two supplier contracts, estimated at approximately $40 million, with Aermacchi of Italy. "These contract awards are an important step in advancing our strategies to increase sales of new technologies, and to expand our international business," said Don Wright Pacific Aerospace&Electronics CEO.
The European Aeronautics Defense and Space Co. (EADS) yesterday nominated a management team to work under two earlier-announced chief executive officers, Philippe Camus and Rainer Hertrich.
U.S. AIRLINES reported finding 23 Douglas twinjets with jackscrew problems by the FAA's 10 a.m. EST deadline yesterday for inspecting the 1,100 aircraft in the fleet.
Logicon Information Solutions, Herndon, Va., is being awarded a $4,613,201 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, multiple awardee contract with cost-plus-fixed-fee pricing arrangement for engineering services for life-cycle support of surveillance programs/systems and tactical data communications, including automated radio communication systems and satellite terminal systems. Contract requirements support development, test, and integration of Navy command, control, communication, computer, intelligence and ocean surveillance systems.
A Boeing spokesman said yesterday that there "may be some slippage" in airliner delivery schedules due to the strike by engineers and technicians, but that "we still remain well within the contract delivery month." The strike by the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace began last Wednesday and a union spokesman said yesterday that "to our knowledge, no airplane has been delivered since this started."
Boeing expects the first mission avionics test and development system for the AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopter to make life easier for operators. The test and development system, a complete avionics integration laboratory, was delivered to GKN Westland Helicopters in Yeovil, England, at the end of last year and has been christened the Mission Avionics System Rig (MASR), Boeing said.
Titan Linkabit Wireless, San Diego, Calif., is being awarded a $5,970,608 firm-fixed-price order for the purchase of 16 single-channel communications sets and seven dual-channel communications sets used on various aircraft for the country of Germany (100%) under the Foreign Military Sales Program. Work will be performed in San Diego, Calif., and is expected to be completed by February 2001. Contract funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured.
