United Technologies Corp. acquired all the shares of Great Lakes Turbines, the Muskegon, Mich., company that supplies and services components for small gas turbine engines. The business, which includes a parts distribution operation, will be integrated into the operations of Pratt&Whitney Canada's Service Centers.
Lockheed Martin Missiles&Space and TRW Space and Electronics Group will prepare preliminary designs for the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) under separate $20.65 million contracts awarded by the tri-agency integrated program office (IPO) established to manage the project. A downselect in 2002 could mean a multi-billion contract to build the next generation of U.S. weather satellites for one of the two companies.
SAS ordered four A330-300 and six A340-300 aircraft yesterday to replace its Boeing 767 fleet on intercontinental routes. The aircraft will be delivered between 2001-2004 and the airline holds options on seven additional Airbus aircraft.
Lockheed Martin has been awarded a $58.5 million contract to produce 25 Low Altitude Navigation Targeting Infrared for Night (LANTIRN) navigation pods for U.S. F-16s, the Pentagon announced. The Air Force's Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, awarded the contract, which is expected to be completed by Sept. 2001.
ALLIANT TECHSYSTEMS said it expects sales from a new U.S. Army contract to help boost revenues for its fiscal year 2001 by 5%. Under the contract, awarded in July, Alliant Techsystems will operate the Lake City Ammunition Plant in Independence, Mo. The contract is expected to generate total sales of about $1 billion over the next 10 years. Olin Corp. filed a protest in August to overturn the award, but on Nov. 15, the General Accounting Office upheld the award. Olin filed an appeal, but Alliant Techsystems said it believes the appeal is without merit.
Halter Maritime in Pascagoula, Miss., is scheduled to launch a 312-foot-long transport vessel today that was specially designed to carry Boeing's Delta IV Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) from its factory in Alabama to Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., and Vandenberg AFB, Calif. The M/V Delta Mariner, built for Foss Marine of Seattle, was designed as a seagoing vessel with a draft shallow enough to navigate the Tennessee River and other inland waterways connecting the Delta IV factory in Decatur, Ala., with the launch sites.
BOEING has received another contract from the government of Spain to modernize five of the country's 414 International Chinook helicopters to the Spanish Army's CH-47D configuration. "We are very pleased to have another demonstration of confidence from Spain," said Charles Vehlow, vice president and general manager for Boeing's Military Rotorcraft.
NASA has opened what it calls the first full-scale virtual airport control tower at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. The $10 million, two-story "Future Flight Central" facility, jointly funded with FAA, is designed to test, under realistic airport conditions, ways to solve potential air and ground traffic problems at commercial airports.
Northrop Grumman said it is moving B-2 bomber weapons support laboratories from southern California by early next year to the Weapons Systems Support Center (WSSC) at Tinker AFB, Okla. The WSSC is a teaming between the Air Force's B-2 System Program Office and Northrop Grumman's Integrated Systems and Aerostructures sector to maintain and upgrade B-2 software over the life of the program.
Raytheon Co. won a $158 million U.S. Air Force contract to provide E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) training and simulation services at Tinker AFB, Okla. The effort starts in January, with options to extend work through 2014, the company said. Under the contract, Raytheon will supply three new training devices, develop new courseware, provide student instruction, perform logistics and maintenance services and maintain the training system configuration.
PEMBROKE, an aircraft financing, leasing and management group, based in Dublin, has ordered 15 Boeing 717s plus 15 options, Boeing said. This brings Pembroke's order for 717s to 25, plus 25 options. First delivery is scheduled for next August. Alan Mulally, Boeing Commercial president, said the 717 is 17,000 pounds lighter than the Airbus A318 "and its trip costs are 10% lower.
Hughes Space and Communications plans to launch the first of its new HS 702 line of high-powered satellites on Dec. 21 aboard an Ariane 4 rocket. Built for PanAmSat, the Galaxy XI satellite will carry 40 Ku-band and 24 C-band transponders and have a service life of more than 15 years. Weighing 9,886 pounds at launch, the satellite will be 102 feet long and almost 30 feet wide when fully deployed.
Northrop Grumman said it has expanded its team competing to provide electro-optical systems for the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program. The addition is The Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research's (TNO) Physics and Electronics Laboratory. It signed an agreement with Northrop Grumman's Electronic Sensors and Systems Sector to collaborate on the development of advanced digital signal conditioning algorithms for the JSF distributed aperture infrared sensor (DAIRS) system.
The U.S. Defense Dept. faces average annual budget shortfalls of almost $100 billion if modernization plans called for in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) remain in place, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) reported yesterday. Office of Management and Budget projections show defense spending will fall below requirements to sustain the force outlined in the QDR, said former Secretary of Defense and CSIS Counselor James R. Schlesinger, who contributed to the new CSIS report.
Boeing unveiled its X-32A Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) in a special ceremony in Palmdale, Calif., yesterday, and in a surprise to many onlooking military officials and media, its X-32B alongside it. The X-32B was started three months after work began on the X-32A. Both will be used to demonstrate certain requirements for the operational JSF.
Daniel R. Mulville, NASA's chief engineer since 1995, will take over day-to-day management of the agency Jan. 1 with his appointment as associate deputy administrator, the agency announced yesterday. Mulville will replace retired Marine Gen. John R. Dailey, who is leaving to become director of the National Air and Space Museum (DAILY, Nov. 29).
Commercial launches of Japan's planned new H-2A rocket will slip at least two years while the National Space Development Agency (NASDA) conducts extra tests to ensure its reliability in the wake of back-to-back failures of the basic H-2. NASDA has decided to procure a second H-2A prototype for an extra flight test beyond the one previously planned. Although a final schedule has not been set, prototype flights are likely early in 2001 and again in the summer of that year.
United Defense LP said it has acquired a 30% equity investment in Omnitech Robotics Inc., a specialist in modular control components for converting any mobile vehicle to unmanned operation. Omnitech develops robotic systems for military and commercial applications, including mine-clearing operations in Bosnia. Its customers include the U.S. Army, Marine Corps and Air Force, NASA, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and several companies.
AMERICAN EAGLE has taken delivery of its 44th Embraer ERJ-145 and the 200th regional jet off the Brazilian manufacturer's assembly line. The carrier has 145 ERJs on firm order - 50 ERJ-145s and 95 ERJ-135s - and holds options on another 132. American Eagle and its wholly owned Business Express Airlines unit have a combined fleet of more than 265 jet and turboprop aircraft and offer more than 1,700 daily flights to 138 cities in the U.S., Canada, the Bahamas and the Caribbean.
Rockwell Collins said it has conducted a demonstration of the first application of a Global Positioning System receiver navigating by use of an airborne pseudolite. Psuedolites broadcast at the same frequency as signals from GPS satellites, and on an airborne platform are much closer to the user, yielding a stronger signal that is less susceptible to jamming.
The Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is scheduled to fly over Canada next month, to demonstrate interoperability with one of the United States' closest allies, the U.S. Air Force said. "During the next two scheduled missions, on Jan. 14 and 18, 2000, we will disseminate imagery to exploitation ground stations belonging to both the Canadians and the British," said Lt. Col. Mike Trundy, chief of international programs in the Global Hawk System Program Office at the Air Force's Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.
ITT INDUSTRIES completed its acquisition of the space and defense communications business of Stanford Telecommunications Inc. for $191 million in cash. Travis Engen, chairman and chief executive of ITT Industries, said the deal "strengthens our position in the growing communications and satellite end-use markets. In addition, Stanford Telecommunications brings a set of contracts, skills and technologies to our company that can be applied across other business units and serve as a catalyst for growth for our entire defense segment.
Pentagon Acquisition Chief Jacques Gansler has signed off on the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization's restructured acquisition strategy for upper tier theater missile defense (TMD) programs, congressional and Pentagon officials reported. Defense Secretary John Hamre also is in favor of the strategy, officials said. Under the plan, the Army's Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system would be fielded in 2007 with the Navy Theater Wide (NTW) system following in the 2008-10 timeframe.
