Airbus Industrie said that the list price of its projected A3XX-100 superjumbo airliner will be $212 million and that it will have a 15% cheaper direct operating cost per seat than that of the Boeing 747-400. To date, Airbus has invested nearly $600 million in the 555-seat aircraft, and Senior VP of Commercial John Leahy said the consortium hopes to secure launch customers by yearend. "We are talking with carriers around the world to see if this is the right time to launch," he said last week in Washington.
Boeing programs took a lot of hits in the Pentagon's $98.2 billion Fiscal 2001 procurement and research and development request, while Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin apparently fared better.
Veridian Engineering Inc., New York, N.Y., is being awarded a $14,032,000 (Not-to-Exceed) indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to provide for Elector-Optic Threat Warning Development program. This effort will develop passive countermeasures covering the visible, infrared, and ultraviolet electromagnetic spectrum, concentrating on threat detection, identification, and warning. Funds will be obligated as individual delivery orders are issued.
The U.S. Air Force's fiscal year 2001 space budget includes a request for three Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles for $288 million, up from one EELV for $68.1 million in FY '00. Also included is $332.9 million for EELV research, development, test and evaluation, up from FY 2000's $318 million. The new EELV request is thus $620.9 million, compared to $386.1 million for FY '00. The EELV is slated to replace Delta, Atlas and Titan rockets for medium and heavy space lift. The first EELV launch is set for FY '02.
Republican leaders of the House and Senate budget committees yesterday vowed to increase defense spending above the Administration's $305.4 billion fiscal year 2001 request. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) and House Budget Committee Chairman John Kasich (R-Ohio) said they will press for the increase.
Motorola Inc., Space and Systems Technology Group, Scottsdale, Ariz., is being awarded a not-to-exceed $47,743,264 delivery order under a previously awarded firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity delivery order contract to exercise an option to build the U.S. Navy's digital modular radio (DMR).
Rolls Royce Allison Engine Co., Indianapolis, Ind., is being awarded a $26,181,454 requirements contract for 98,713 turbine vanes in support of the T-56 engine used on C-130, E-2, and C-2 aircraft. This contract contains options which, if exercised, would bring the total cumulative value of this contract to $43,384,364. Work will be performed in Indianapolis, Ind., and is expected to be completed by January 2003. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
Fiscal year 2001 NASA budget estimates for the next five years 1999 *2000 2001 OPLAN OPLAN PRES 12/23/99 REVISED BUDGET HUMAN SPACE FLIGHT 5,480. 0 5.467.7 5.499.9 INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION 2,299.7 2,323.1 2,114.50 SPACE FLIGHT OPERATIONS
The ability of the U.S. to fight two major theater wars (MTW) at the same time is "bankrupt," according to retired Maj. Gen. Hugh Cox, speaking at a symposium in Washington last week.
AlliedSignal Engines, Phoenix, Ariz., was awarded on Jan. 24, 2000, a $23,346,000 firm-fixed-price contract for 18 engines (55-L-714A) for CH-47D and Super-D Chinook aircraft for Taiwan. Work will be performed in Phoenix, Ariz. and is expected to be completed by Jan. 8, 2001. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on March 26, 1999. The U.S. Army Aviation&Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (DAAH23-00-C-0043).
HONEYWELL CORP. completed its tender offer for Pittway Corp.'s Common and Class A stock. The tender offer, priced at $45.50, consisted of about 7.7 million shares of Pittway common stock and 34.5 million Class A shares, about 98% of Pittway's total outstanding shares.
Raytheon Co., Missile System Division, Bedford, Mass., is being awarded $11,016,884 as part of a $14,497,885 (base year total) firm-fixed-price multi-year contract with a cumulative total of $28,997,885 if all options are exercised. This acquisition is for the Continuous Technology Refreshment of 34 PATRIOT Guided Enhanced Missiles (GEM) to GEM + Frequency Generator Upgrade. Work will be performed in Bedford, Mass., and is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2003. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
NASA is withholding some $7 million in funds allocated to Russia for the old Shuttle/Mir program as leverage in negotiations to recover hardware it bought for the International Space Station that the Russians are using to reactivate the Mir orbital station.
Raytheon Missile Systems Co., Tucson, Ariz., is being awarded a $19,114,485 modification to previously awarded contract N00019-98-C-0177 to exercise an option for the procurement of 12 flight test configured Tactical Tomahawk all up round missiles to support operational test flights. Work will be performed in Tucson, Ariz. (63%), Walled Lake, Mich. (15%), Gainesville, Va. (12%), and St. Petersburg, Fla. (10%), and is expected to be completed in December 2002. Contract funds would not have expired at the end of the current fiscal year.
GLOBALSTAR TELECOMMUNICATIONS LTD. announced completion of an 8,050,000 share secondary offering, including the exercise of the 1,050,000 share overallotment. The deal, priced at $35 a share, generated about $268.5 million for the company.
Lockheed Martin Corp., Marietta, Ga., is being awarded a $28,579,076 modification to a firm-fixed-price contract, F33657-95-C-2055-P00036, to provide for conversion of one C-130J aircraft to the C-130J-30 configuration, and associated spares, test support, and data. Expected contract completion date is Dec. 31, 2001. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity.
NAVY Lockheed Martin Corp., Federal Systems, Owego, N.Y., is being awarded a $12,578,158 modification to previously awarded contract N00019-93-C-0196 to exercise an option for Phase II of the SH-60R multi-mission helicopter upgrade. This phase of the upgrade will combine new and modified subsystems to be integrated in the SH-60 aircraft to support offensive and defensive missions. Work will be performed in Owego, N.Y. (61%) and Sylmar, Calif. (39%), and is expected to be completed by November 2001. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
The Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missile hit a ballistic missile target in a test Saturday at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., the Army and Ballistic Missile Defense Organization reported. Preliminary data indicated the test, conducted at 7:09 a.m. MST, was successful, they said. It was the third successful intercept by the PAC-3. In remaining tests, 14 PAC-3 missiles are slated to intercept various classes of targets, the Army and BMDO said.
SAP AG, Walldorf, Germany, said an updated version of its mySAP.com for the aerospace and defense industry will include e-commerce applications to buy and sell aircraft parts. The applications are based on the Air Transport Association (ATA) SPEC 2000 standard which is delivered via the Extensible Markup Language (XML).
In a quick about-face from last year's budget request, U.S. Navy aircraft procurement under the future years defense plan (FYDP) is now set to decline from a total of 979 aircraft to 911, despite an increase of 11 aircraft for fiscal 2000 over the service's request for that year.
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) said he will push for adoption of a two-year federal budget cycle. "Congress now spends more than half of its time each year voting on the government's annual budget," he said last week. "Biennial budgeting would be a dramatic improvement in the way Congress does business."
Supplementary military budget allocations of nearly 600 million pounds ($960 million) were announced in Parliament Thursday by Defense Secretary Geoffrey Hoon. The additions followed recent criticism of the adverse effect on U.K. armed forces' efficiency from funding shortages caused by operations in Bosnia and Kosovo. According to Ministry of Defense figures, the additional cost of these operations to the U.K. in the current financial year amounted to just under 112 million pounds for Bosnia and 400 million pounds for Kosovo.
DOD program acquisition costs by weapon system Combined procurement and RDT&E costs of major programs in the U.S. Dept. of Defense's fiscal year 2001 budget request are listed in the following table, released by the Pentagon. All figures are in millions. Army AIRCRAFT FY 1999 FY2000 FY2001 AH-64D Longbow Apache 633.2 826.6 775.0 RAH-66 Comanche Helicopter 352.2 463.1 614.0
The Aviation Weather Information (AWIN) system performed well in its first flight test, according to the crew of a FedEx MD-11 in which the system was installed. AWIN, an avionics application that provides real-time graphic weather information to pilots, was developed under an agreement with the NASA Aviation Safety program to provide more and better weather information to pilots fling in the U.S. and on North and West Pacific routes.
