Aviation Distributors, Lake Forest, Calif., has purchased a comprehensive parts package for Boeing 737-300/500 aircraft that includes more than 4,400 line items. The package is composed of rotable and non-rotable consumable parts as well as major components the company will market as replacement parts. The company said it will continue to focus on high-demand, Stage 3 parts and components.
Europe's Arianespace launch services consortium has acquired a second cargo ship to transport Ariane 4 and Ariane 5 components to the European Launch Center on the north coast of South America at Kourou, French Guiana. The Merwede shipyard near Rotterdam, the Netherlands, launched the new vessel last week in preparation for its maiden voyage next month, Arianespace reported. Named the MN Colibri, it will join the MN Toucan in the Arianespace fleet.
Raytheon Systems Co., Tucson, Ariz., is being awarded a $1,224,328 increment as part of a $5,080,667 cost-share contract for a 42-month low-cost Precision Kill 2.75 inch Guided Rocket Advanced Technology demonstration. Work will be performed in Tucson, Ariz., and is expected to be completed by May 15, 2003. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There were 19 bids solicited on July 7, 1999, and two bids were received. The U.S. Army Aviation&Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (DAAH01-00-C-R002).
B/E Aerospace said revenues and earnings are expected to be "substantially lower" than anticipated for both fiscal 2000 and 2001. The Wellington, Fla., company said the expected shortfalls are primarily due to major production problems in its Seating Products Group, which will result in lower revenues and higher expenses. The company expects to record a loss for its fiscal third quarter ending Nov. 27 due to "substantial non-recurring charges."
Litton Industries has won a U.S. Air Force contract to repair all Klystron Power Amplifiers (KPAs) used in the radar of the Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) radar. The company said the value of the five-year contract won by its Electron Devices Div., San Carlos, Calif., exceeds $20 million for over 200 KPAs. Deliveries are slated to begin in early 2001. Litton's KPAs are used in the AWACS radar built by Northrop Grumman and flown in Boeing E-3 and E-767 surveillance aircraft.
The U.S. Army said it is teaming with Boeing, Borg-Warner and Lucas Aerospace to correct safety problems in its AH-64 Apache helicopters by early next summer. All of the service's 743 Apaches are being inspected to determine if a specific series of a component, a hanger bearing assembly, is installed, and if so, to replace it. The Army and contractors are working to accelerate production, delivery and installation of the necessary parts, the Army reported.
The Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) Systems Program Office, Eglin AFB, Fla., was named best Program Executive Office (PEO) in the U.S. Air Force for 1999. The office was named winner of the General Bernard A. Schriever Award after evaluation of various categories including customer focus, management and analysis, long-range strategic planning and customer satisfaction. A PEO program is a top priority effort in which the director reports directly to a Program Executive in the Pentagon and bypasses the traditional chain of command.
Northrop Grumman Ryan Aeronautical Company, San Diego, California, is being awarded a $13,600,000 modification to a firm fixed price contract, F08626-99-C-0140 P00004, to provide for 32 BQM-34 sub-scale aerial targets. Expected contract completion date is March 31, 2002. Air Armament Center, Eglin AFB, FL, is the contracting activity.
Teledyne Continental Motors, Toledo, Ohio, is being awarded $43,900,000 cost plus fixed fee contract, F33657-99-D-0057, to provide for technical services in support of the Component Improvement Program from CY 2000-2014 for the J69 engine supporting the T-37 aircraft. Expected contract completion date is December 31, 2000. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH, is the contracting activity.
Raytheon Technical Services Company, Indianapolis, Ind., is being issued a $16,938,677 firm-fixed-price order for two oscillator subassemblies and two signal data converters in support of F-14 aircraft. Work will be performed in Indianapolis, Ind., and is expected to be completed by December 2001. Contract funds will not expire by the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. The Naval Inventory Control Point, Philadelphia, Pa., is the contracting activity (N000383-G-001A) (Order 5226).
TRW Systems and Information Group, Sunnyvale, California, is being awarded a $6,954,754 modification to a cost plus award fee, F33657-97-C-4505, P00010, to provide for development of upgraded configurations for the BUS Interface Module and the Band 1/5 Converter supporting the Joint Signal Intelligence Avionics programs High band Subsystem Demonstration Unit. Expected contract completion date is November 2001. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH, is the contracting activity.
Lockheed Martin Missile and Space, Sunnyvale, Calif., is being awarded a $589,723,705 cost-plus-incentive-fee, cost-plus-fixed-fee, level-of-effort contract to provide funding for the FY 00 TRIDENT II (D5) missile production and deployed system support and related service efforts. The D5 missile production and the deployed system support are contracted on a cost-plus-incentive-fee basis ($552,624,908) and the related services efforts are contracted on a cost-plus-fixed-fee basis ($37,098,797). Work will be performed in Sunnyvale, Calif.
Boeing Military Aircraft and Missile Systems Group, Seattle, Washington, is being awarded a $14,800,000 modification to a firm fixed price contract, F34601-99-C-0096-P00008, to provide for design, warhead selection, and long lead procurement in support of fifty AGM-86D Conventional Air Launched Cruise Missiles. Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, Tinker AFB, Oklahoma, is the contracting activity.
Marconi Aerospace Defense Systems Inc., Austin, Texas, is being awarded a $1,399,782 increment as part of a $6,909,808 cost-share contract for a 42-month low-cost Precision Kill 2.75 inch Guided Rocket Advanced Technology demonstration. Work will be performed in Austin, Texas, and is expected to be completed by May 15, 2003. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There were 19 bids solicited on July 7, 1999, and two bids were received. The U.S.
Boeing has been awarded a contract modification by the U.S. Air Force to add a penetrating warhead capability to 50 of its Conventional Air-Launched Cruise Missiles (CALCMs), the company announced yesterday. Boeing is currently under contract to convert 322 nuclear Air Launched Cruise Missiles (ALCMs) to non-nuclear CALCM AGM-86C Block 1 and Block 1A configurations. The new contract modification, valued at about $40 million over three years, is to convert the last 50 CALCMs to the new AGM-86D hard-target penetrating warhead configuration.
Bugs in the air traffic control system at JFK, LaGuardia and Philadelphia airports last week angered the union representing safety technicians when a modernized air traffic control system had to be taken off line after sending out error messages and causing delays at the airports.
A major step towards formation of a European Union rapid reaction force for intervention in local crises without reliance on U.S. support took place last week with an agreement between Britain and France to pool certain military resources. U.K. Defense Secretary Geoffrey Hoon said that the logistic agreement signed with France's Alain Richard to share vital resources was of mutual benefit.
Marconi Actuation Systems Inc., Rockville, Md., has won a contract from Lockheed Martin with a potential value of over $15 million. The contract, from Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control-Dallas, is for control actuator systems for the Powered Low Cost Autonomous Attack System (P-LOCAAS), intended to attack ground mobile targets.
Rolls-Royce said it is expanding maintenance and overhaul services to the South American aero engine market with a $20 million expansion at its Motores Rolls-Royce facility in Sao Paulo. The expansion will increase the capability to service and test engines for the South American civil and military markets and will accommodate work on contracts involving the engines for the Embraer RJ145 regional jet.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has picked Ball Aerospace&Technologies to negotiate a contract to build low-cost, lightweight Mars missions that would be launched piggyback on Europe's big new Ariane 5 rocket. JPL said yesterday a final contract award will be contingent upon a NASA decision to fund the Mars Micromission Project, expected by the time the fiscal 2001 NASA budget is released in February 2000. GenCorp Aerojet also bid on the project (DAILY, July 29).
British Aerospace's acquisition of GEC's Marconi Electronic Systems became effective yesterday, as planned, BAe announced. It also said it expected to reach an agreement with British government regulators on requirements for their approval of the deal before Feb. 9, 2000. The deal's last major hurdle was cleared last week when U.S. regulatory approval was granted.
Raytheon received an order from Continental Express for fiber-optic networked digital flight data acquisition units for 33 ATR 42 and 72 aircraft. Raytheon said the control-by-light system will give the carrier the lead among regionals in meeting FAA requirements to expand flight data recording capacity on existing aircraft.
Precision Castparts said it has completed its tender offer for shares of common stock of Wyman-Gordon Co. PCC, a Portland, Ore.-based manufacturer of metal components and products, announced the proposed acquisition on May 17 and started a cash tender offer on May 21. Wyman-Gordon, of Grafton, Mass., makes forgings, investment castings and composite structures.
NASA's Mars Polar Lander is headed for a Friday afternoon encounter with the planet's surface, attempting to brake with an untried system of 12 retrorocket thrusters for a soft touchdown on frozen polar terrain 11 months to the day after lifting off from the warm sands of Cape Canaveral, Fla.
The DD 21 Alliance, comprised of Bath Iron Works Corp., Bath, Maine, and Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Miss., is being awarded a $238,000,000 modification to previously awarded contract N00024-98-9-2300. The total obligated amount for this action is $112,000,000. This modification is for the DD 21 Phase II effort, which includes the development of two competitive DD 21 initial systems designs with accompanying DD 21 virtual prototypes. Work will be performed in Bath, Maine (21%); Moorestown, N.J. (21%); Pascagoula, Miss. (21%); Falls Church, Va.
