Senate Foreign Relations Chair Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) favors some sort of two-track satellite export control process that would hasten approval for exports to NATO and non-NATO allied nations, but he will block a Defense Dept. move to streamline export review - probably for the remainder of the Clinton Administration, a top Helms aide said yesterday.
Metric Systems Corp., Fort Walton Beach, Fla., said it has completed deliveries to the U.S. Air Force of an air combat training system. The U.S. Air Forces in Europe Rangeless Interim Training System (URITS) is now being used by all USAF F-15, F-16 and A-10 squadrons based in Europe, Metric said yesterday.
Boeing said it has completed talks with the U.S. Army for purchase of seven new Boeing CH-47D helicopters that will be delivered to Greece under a $200 million foreign military sale program.
FIRST U.S. AIR FORCE flight test of the Aviation Weather Information (AWIN) real-time graphical weather portrayal system has been conducted. The system was flown on the AF Flight Standards Agency's NC-21 aircraft at Edwards AFB, Calif. Other aircraft to be included in user interface studies are the Air Force's C-135C Speckled Trout and a Federal Express MD-11. All three planes are expected to be conducting flight evaluations of the system this month.
NASA's Inspector General and its general counsel are at odds over the agency's procedures for matching payments to contractors and the congressional appropriations that fund those payments, with the IG charging NASA disbursement procedures "may have resulted in violations of fiscal law" in the 36 cases reviewed.
FAIRCHILD AEROSPACE said Italian lessor Locat spA of Milan, Italy, has ordered a 328JET valued at $11.9 million. It said the 32-passenger aircraft will be delivered next April to Air Vallee, Aosta, Italy, and will be used in regular airline service between Aosta and Rome.
U.S. Air Force and Navy officials said they have roadmaps and plans in place to replenish inventories of precision guided munitions in the wake of Operation Allied Force against Yugoslavia, but admit those plans are long- range and leave shortfalls for some time. House Armed Services Procurement Subcommittee Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) said roadmaps and plans aren't enough, and blasted service officials who were testifying before his panel yesterday for not asking Congress for funding earlier.
A federal grand jury in Washington yesterday returned a 16-count indictment against Boeing's McDonnell Douglas unit and the China National Aero Technology Import and Export Corp. (CATIC) for allegedly exporting machine tools to China in violation of U.S. export laws.
L-3 Communications, which earned $17.3 million on 31% higher sales of $382.4 million in its 1999 third quarter. A year ago, L-3 earned $10.5 million on sales of $291.3 million. Over the same period, operating earnings improved 43% to $42.8 million. "We met our third quarter goals for internal and external growth primarily due to strong results from our secure data links, security systems, naval products, telemetry and instrumentation, and space components," Frank Lanza, chairman and CEO said.
The U.S. Air Force awarded four contracts to support the Advanced Range Telemetry Program at Edwards AFB, Calif., the service reported last week. The contracts are for telemetry transmitters and demodulators to increase data rates and improve spectral capacity for open air testing of aircraft and missiles. The contracts, which are part of a multiple award acquisition process, were awarded to: -- Aydin Telemetry, Newton, Pa. - $5 million. -- Microdyne Communications Technology Inc., Ocala, Fla. - $4.8 million.
Reports of a shortfall in development funding at Fairchild Aerospace has raised concerns in recent months, but top officials of the manufacturer say they expect to have a financial package in place by yearend that will see the company through certification of the 428JET and 728JET aircraft.
Northrop Grumman Corp., having acquired unmanned aerial vehicle maker Ryan Aeronautical, said yesterday that it has established a new integrated product team to manage current contracts and capture new business in the UAV market.
Italy's Alenia Aerospazio has contracted to launch a large telecommunications satellite aboard a Chinese Long March 3A rocket, according to Western press accounts from Beijing. Launch of the "Satelcom" platform in the first half of 2001 would mark the first use of a Chinese launch vehicle by an Italian company. The satellite, which is not listed on Alenia Aerospazio's English-language web site, reportedly weighs 2,600 kilograms (5,720 pounds), and would be the first international commercial payload for the three-stage rocket.
Companies fielding new space launch vehicles may compete for a share of NASA's expected $5 billion in launch business over the next decade under provisions of the U.S. space agency's latest launch services request for proposals. The NASA Launch Services RFP issued Monday includes an "on-ramp" clause that will allow vehicles not available when the first contracts are awarded to compete for subsequent opportunities in the Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) portion of the procurement.
DynCorp Technical Services, Fort Worth, Tex., won a U.S. Army contract for logistics support services at Fort Hood, Texas, DynCorp reported. The contract, won in recompetition, allows DTS to continue work it has performed for the past 4 1/2 years. Under the terms of the contract, DTS will provide all resources and management necessary for logistics support services at Fort Hood and other locations in support of III Corps units, including: -- Unit, intermediate and limited depot maintenance support on rotary wing aircraft at Fort Hood.
An Ariane 44LP launch vehicle orbited the Orion 2 communications satellite for Loral Space&Communications early yesterday, expanding the company's Skynet capacity over the Atlantic region. Liftoff of the big rocket, with two liquid-fuel and two solid-fuel strap-on boosters, came at 2:22 a.m. EDT from the Guiana Space Center near Kourou. The Space Systems/Loral FS-1300 spacecraft weighed 8,391 pounds (3,814 kilograms) at launch.
MARCONI AEROSPACE's ASD Div., a unit of Marconi North America, has been chosen by Boeing to be part of its team for Project Wedgetail, the Royal Australian Air Force's airborne early warning and control system aircraft. Boeing, as preferred tenderer, is in line to supply seven of the aircraft, all modified Boeing 737s. ASD said yesterday that it will supply cockpit tactical mission displays, command and control consoles, and mission computers.
U.S. DEPT. OF COMMERCE official said yesterday that Europe should make it clear that its law banning hushkitted airliners "will never be enforced" if it wants to work with the rest of the aviation community on a Chapter 4 noise limit for turbofan engines. "This regulation has cast a pall over the whole industry" and has already cost U.S. industry $2 billion, David Aaron, under secretary for international trade, said at the European Institute's annual transatlantic seminar on trade and investment in Washington.
BOEING CO.'s Electronic Systems and Missile Defense unit, Huntsville, Ala., has won an initial $3.2 million U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command contract to continue providing engineering services in support of the Avenger and Bradley-Linebacker air defense systems. Boeing said yesterday that additional options, if exercised, would bring the total amount to $45 million-plus through fiscal year 2003.
Long-term Italian air force requirements to arm its Tornadoes and Eurofighters with long-range stand-off missiles will be met by procurement of the Anglo-French Storm Shadow, the U.K. Ministry of Defense reported yesterday.
United Technologies Corp. earned $436 million in its 1999 third quarter before restructuring charges and related costs, the company reported yesterday. Including the charges, UTC earned $90 million on sales of sales of $6.13 billion during the quarter. The company recorded $550 million in pretax restructuring charges but said that the charges taken during the year should be largely offset by the $650 million after-tax one-time gain associated with the sale of the automotive unit earlier this year.
TRW Systems and Information Technology Group, Fairfax, Va., is being awarded a modification to a $115,071,724 cost-plus-award-fee contract, F42610-98-C-0001, to provide for low rate initial production for the Guidance Replacement Program supporting the Minuteman III missile. This effort is part of the Minuteman II Prime Integration Contract. Expected contract completion date is Aug. 31, 2001. Solicitation issue date was July 22, 1999. Negotiation completion date was Sept. 24, 1999. Ogden Air Logistics Center, Hill AFB, Utah, is the contracting activity.
IATA Director General Pierre J. Jeanniot said the airline industry needs "more efficient engines, cleaner fuels and new ways of off-setting the impact of our fuel consumption on the atmosphere." Speaking in Dubai on Oct. 12 at the IATA Fuel Trade Forum, Jeanniot said that "if we are to avoid the limiting of future airline capacity on environmental grounds, we must engage in a broader debate for concerted action by regulators, airports, manufacturers and fuel suppliers.... We all have to do our share, and we have to be seen to be doing better."
Aerospatiale Matra of France, Germany's DaimlerChrysler Aerospace AG (DASA) and the U.K.'s Marconi Electronic Systems have signed an agreement to form the first tri-national European space company, to be called Astrium, the companies reported yesterday.
