Space Imaging released a high-resolution image of Washington's Reagan National Airport yesterday, marking the first look at the one-meter-resolution product that will be available from the Ikonos satellite launched less than a month ago. The image, one of several closeups from a larger scene stretching from the airport to the White House, clearly shows a jetliner on a taxiway and ground vehicles on an airport service road, as well as structures and runways.
Boeing, in an about-face, has hired the U.S. Air Force's Air Logistics Center (ALC) at Warner Robins AFB, Ga., to do depot maintenance work on the C-17 airlifter. The contract, signed Sept. 27, is part of the AF's Flexible Sustainment strategy for maintaining the C-17. Under the plan, Boeing has overall responsibility for supporting the aircraft.
Lockheed Martin Corp., Sunnyvale, Calif., is being awarded a modification to a $37,000,000 cost-plus-award-fee contract, F04701-95-C-0017-P00079, to provide for System-of-Systems engineering support for the Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) High Component engineering and manufacturing development effort. This effort will provide design and system evaluations required to insure effective integration of SBIRS High and Low components. Expected contract completion date is September 2006.
ROCKWELL COLLINS was selected by Boeing to supply a new digital flight control system with Category IIIb autoland capability for the next-generation 737. The system also features an integrated autothrottle function and new mode control panel. The company supplies digital flight control systems for 757, 767, 777 and 747-400 aircraft. Deliveries for the 737 are to begin mid-year 2002.
Georgia Tech Applied Research Corp., Atlanta, Ga., is being awarded a $5,000,000 cost-no-fee contract for advanced research and development for the conformal acoustic velocity sensor (CAVES) sonar program. Work will be performed in Atlanta, Ga., and is expected to be completed by October 2004. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via a Broad Agency Announcement and five offers were received. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Arlington, Va., is the contracting activity (N00024-99-C-6333).
BRITISH AIRWAYS said it will acquire up to 24 A318 jets from Airbus Industrie, including 12 firm orders and 12 options. Airbus said BA chose the A318 after evaluating other 100-seat types, "some of which offered much earlier availability on the market."
A software package that lowers overall cost and cycle time for integration of newer weapons on the B-2 bomber and increases the capability of the fleet is expected to be delivered to the U.S. Air Force beginning in mid-November, Northrop Grumman said yesterday.
British Aerospace said yesterday that it expects to close its $11.6 billion deal to acquire GEC's Marconi Electronic Systems business by the end of November. The U.S. Dept. of Justice, however, has not yet granted clearance, and this could delay the plans, Bae said. BAe shareholders are slated to vote on the deal Nov. 8. The deal, announced in January, would create the world's third largest aerospace and defense company, according to BAe.
The U.S. Navy within the next three weeks expects to award Boeing the first of a series of contracts to convert supersonic sea skimming Russian air-to-surface missiles into target drones. Each of the annual contracts, for modification of 20 AS-17 missiles to a drone the Navy calls MA-31, will be worth about $10 million. The work will be done at Boeing's St. Louis facility.
Harris Corp., Government Communications Systems Division, Palm Bay, Fla., is being awarded a $1,388,000 increment of a $15,438,000 modification to a section 845 prototype agreement for additional Tactical Common Data Link prototype terminals, Sensor Interface Definition tasking and development of the LAMPS Hawklink Ku-band prototype. The Government is funding $12,438,000 of the modification; the balance is cost-shared with Harris. Work will be performed in Palm Bay, Fla., and is expected to be completed by October 2001. Funds will expire at the end of the fiscal year.
Andersen Consulting, Chicago, Ill., is being awarded a modification to an $8,968,625 cost-plus-award-fee contract, F19628-96-C-0127-P00041, to provide for continued development of Increment Three software of the Integrated Maintenance Data System (IMDS). Expected contract completion date is June 30, 2000. Solicitation issue date was July 12, 1999. Negotiation completion date was Oct. 8, 1999. Headquarters Standard Systems Group, Maxwell AFB-Gunter Annex, Ala., is the contracting activity.
The U.S. Air Force is about six weeks away from the first space mission of a satellite launcher based on the Minuteman II intercontinental ballistic missile, according to officials at the service's Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) here. The four-stage Orbital/Suborbital Program (OSP) vehicle is a combination of the Minuteman II and the Pegasus rocket. It will be launched from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., and final avionics testing is underway.
Hughes Space and Communications is offering more powerful versions of its HS 601 and HS 702 spacecraft, drawing on new triple-junction gallium arsenide solar cells manufactured by its Spectrolab subsidiary to build satellites will as much as 25 kilowatts of power on board. The company said yesterday the new spacecraft - designated HS 601+ and HS 702+ - "will enable HSC to offer the full range of power from 2 kw to 25 kw."
France's Alcatel Space has signed a $90 million prime contract with DBS Industries Inc., Mill Valley, Calif., to build a six-satellite low-Earth orbit messaging system for the U.S. company. Alcatel Space will invest $5 million in the project, the two companies announced yesterday. Alcatel Space will be responsible for all system elements, including satellites, ground communications and user terminals.
General Electric Aircraft Engines, Lynn, Mass., is being awarded a $5,486,580 requirements contract for 306 A/B flameholders for the F404 engine used on the F/A-18C/D aircraft. Work will be performed in Lynn, Mass., and is expected to be completed by June 2000. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured with two proposals solicited and two offers received. The Naval Inventory Control Point, Philadelphia, Pa., is the contracting activity (N00393-97-D-005M).
Preliminary planning is underway for a joint services land-sea-air test and training range that would build on space now used by Florida's Eglin and Tyndall AFBs. The effort is a "work in progress" that has not received command or Air Staff approval, said AF Col. Rosanne Bailey, Armament Group Manager at the Air Force's Air Armament Center at Eglin, the sponsor of the planning.
J.A. Jones Management Services, North Charleston, S.C., is being awarded an $8,554,856 task order under a multiple awardee design build order contract for four projects. Project 1 is the design and construction of a two-story administration building for operations support for F/A-18 aircraft. Project 2 is the design and construction of a maintenance and restroom building to support the functions associated with the Mobile Facilities (Van Pad). Project 3 is the design and construction of 35,953 square meters of concrete pavement for 450 tactical support vans.
Non-U.S. Air Force radio transmissions that could disrupt flight operations and result in the loss of drones have led the commander of the 53rd Weapons Systems Evaluation Group at Tyndall AFB, Fla., to ask his superiors to seek a change in the frequency now being used to control the vehicles.
Handheld and fixed telephones for the Globalstar "Big LEO" satellite communications network have won regulatory approval from authorities in North America and Europe, as well as from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), paving the way for a "progressive, regional rollout" of the service beginning next week.
Boeing North American, Heath, Ohio, is being awarded a $450,000,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract, F42610-99-D-0006, to provide for depot level repair through September 2004 of inertial navigation systems on various aircraft, the Advanced Cruise Missile, the Navy Dual Miniature Navigation System, the Minuteman and Peacekeeper missile systems, and other electronic systems. There was one firm solicited and one proposal received. Expected contract completion date is Sept. 30, 2004. Solicitation issue date was Feb. 8, 1999.
The Boeing-led Sea Launch venture notched its first commercial launch late Saturday, orbiting the DirecTV 1-R spacecraft from its floating launch pad on the Equator in the Pacific.
Britain's Racal Electronics PLC has entered an agreement to sell its Racal Telecom unit to U.S. fiber optics operator Global Cross for $1.6 billion, according to reports from London. Under the deal, which must be approved by regulators and Racal stockholders, Global Cross would gain access to the Racal Telecom's fiber optic network in the U.K. The Bermuda-based company overmatched a reported $1.32 billion bid from Britain's Energis for the Racal unit.
ITT Industries Systems Division, Colorado Springs, Colo., was awarded a $5,903,691 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for scientific engineering, technical, and analytical support for Naval Research Laboratory research in information technology, including voice/data integration, high performance networks, the coupling of massively parallel processing with progressive motion imagery, development of secure information systems, and protocol development for automated relaying networks.
