Members of the House Science Committee voted 41-0 yesterday for a measure that links any future payments to the Russian Space Agency for work on the International Space Station to a presidential certification the RSA hasn't transferred technology for ballistic missiles or weapons of mass destruction to Iran.
Lockheed Martin Space Operations, prime contractor on NASA's big Consolidated Space Operations Contract (CSOC), is offering excess capacity on the U.S. space agency's Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) as a commercial proposition, the company announced.
The Pentagon must aggressively regenerate stocks of precision guided weapons and acquire new versions like the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) that were used against Yugoslavia, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Henry H. Shelton told the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday. The Dept. of Defense in the next few weeks is slated to provide lawmakers with a more detailed assessment of assets used in Operation Allied Force.
DaimlerChrysler Aerospace AG (DASA) is talking with several western countries about procurement of the Taurus precision guided air-to-surface missile, the company reported yesterday. It said the project could bring sales of about a billion deutsche marks for Taurus Systems GmbH, a subsidiary of DASA and Sweden's Bofors. The Taurus is being developed for the Tornado and the Eurofighter and will be supplied to German armed forces beginning in 2002. DASA expects orders from other countries to follow.
Kitty Hawk, Inc., has closed the previously announced sale of its Oscoda, Mich.-based JT8D engine and Boeing 727 maintenance operations to Aviation Sales Co., the companies report. Kitty Hawk says it took home about $21.4 million, including $3.5 million in purchase credits, when it wrapped up the deal late last month. Aviation Sales's TIMCO division has assumed management of the Oscoda facilities and will provide maintenance services for Kitty Hawk's 727s and JT8Ds under exclusive agreements.
The Royal Australian Air Force plans to keep its fleet of 35 F-111s in service for twenty more years, and is working with Lockheed Martin to do so, the company reported. The RAAF, which received 24 F-111Cs in 1973, is the sole remaining operator of the aircraft. The U.S. Air Force retired its fleet of F-111Fs in 1996 and its EF-111As in 1998. Australia's F-111s are a mix of F/RF-111Cs and F-111G models. Australia also flies F/A-18s, C-130Js and P-3s.
Advanced Communication Systems Inc. (ACS) of Fairfax, Va., has acquired the outstanding shares of Program Support Associates Inc. of Charlottesville, Va., which develops, installs and supports online, real-time financial management information systems to the Dept. of Defense. ACS, a provider of communication, information systems and avionics services and solutions, said the acquisition was made for $2.5 million in cash and additional payments based on achieving certain financial goals in the next 16 months.
Pratt&Whitney Senior VP Stephen N. Finger was named interim head of P&W's Large Military Engine business in West Palm Beach, Fla., to replace Hansel E. Tookes II, who left the company to become president and COO of Wichita, Kan.-based Raytheon Aircraft Co.
The proposed British Aerospace acquisition of Marconi Electronic Systems does not need to be investigated by a full-scale Competition Commission probe, but the U.K. government will ask BAe for several "undertakings" to address concerns arising from the merger, a government official said yesterday.
The battle to restore some $900 million to NASA's fiscal 2000 appropriation moves to the U.S. Senate, after the House endorsed the cut in the Administration's funding request for the space agency adopted by its Appropriations Committee. The $92 billion VA, HUD and independent agencies funding bill included $12.7 billion for NASA in the coming fiscal year. That is about $900 million less than the $13.6 billion Administration request for FY '00.
FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION will recommend that Precision Cast Part's proposed acquisition of Wyman-Gordon be allowed to proceed if the companies agree to divest certain Wyman-Gordon investment casting operations, PCC reported. As a result, PCC, Portland, Ore., again has extended its cash tender offer for Wyman-Gordon to provide additional time to reach an agreement with the FTC. Wyman-Gordon and PCC are negotiating the terms of the proposed divestiture with the FTC and are seeking potential buyers for the assets.
Looking to capitalize on NATO's increasing membership and the organization's equipment requirements for new members, DaimlerChrysler Aerospace (DASA) is offering NATO-required MiG-29 upgrades that the German company says are "a far cheaper alternative" than replacing the fighters.
The Clinton Administration has selected Alaska as the first site for deployment of a national missile defense (NMD) system - a move that violates the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in its current form. State Dept. Spokesman James Rubin reported the decision Wednesday, acknowledging that the ABM Treaty signed with the former Soviet Union in 1972 does not permit a missile defense system to be based in Alaska.
Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems has received the first increment of a $108 million contract to begin kit production for the upgrade of 64 U.S. Air Force Block 50/52 F-16 fighters. The contract, awarded Sept. 3, is part of a $1.6 billion program to configure nearly 700 USAF Block 50/52 and Block 40/42 F-16s with common avionics.
REAR ADM. JOHN G. MORGAN, former director of the anti-submarine warfare division at Navy operations, will become the next deputy for Theater Air and Missile Defense at the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization.
ARMY BRIG. GEN. LARRY J. DODGEN will step up from deputy director to become the director of Joint Theater Air Missile Defense Organization for the Joint Staff.
Raytheon Co. said it has finished upgrading and installing 28 close air support maintenance trainers for F-16 Block 40 fighters of the U.S. Air Force. Seven U.S. Air Force bases have each received four of the trainers, Raytheon said: Luke AFB, Ariz.; Sheppard AFB, Tex.; Cannon AFB, N.M.; Moody AFB, Ga.; Shaw AFB, S.C.; Nellis AFB, Nev., and a site in Aviano, Italy.
Primex Technologies Inc., St. Petersburg, Fla., won a shared-source multi-year ammunition contract from the U.S. Army's Armament, Munitions&Chemical Command at Rock Island, Ill., to make two types of 25mm medium caliber training ammunition, the company reported. The contract, for M793 and M901 rounds for the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, is valued at $28 million during the first year of production and will exceed $109 million over the five-year contract period, if all options are exercised. Work will be done at Primex's Downey, Calif., facility.
Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Embraer are negotiating the possible participation of the Japanese manufacturer in the Brazilian company's 70-seat-class ERJ-170 regional jetliner. The talks will take more than a month, according to KHI, which apparently would be responsible for design and assembly of the wing. Sharing percentage is not yet known. Development of the aircraft will cost about $750 million.
Aesys, a joint venture formed last year by Lockheed Martin and Woodward, has begun maintenance on fuel systems for C-5 Galaxy transport aircraft at Kelly AFB, Tex., as part of the privatization of the base, the company reported yesterday.
While finding it difficult to gain a foothold with the Pentagon, the head of American Eurocopter Co. feels that his company will be able to improve its position in U.S. commercial markets. "We want a strong position in commercial helicopters," Christian Gras, president and chief executive officer, told Aviation Week editors in Washington, yesterday. "We want to create more recognition," and the way to do that, he said, is by looking at all sectors of the commercial marketplace.
An interagency working group chaired by the Dept. of Defense is seeking comments and recommendations from industry and end-users for a report to Congress on a national strategy to protect the radionavigation spectrum used by the Global Positioning System. The spectrum is under assault from rapidly growing commercial interests such as the telecommunications industry, but the Dept. of Transportation's Federal Radionavigation Plan has virtually ignored the problem, with the 1998 edition still to be issued.
TRW Inc. won a contract from Boeing to design a new external rescue hoist for the Royal Singapore Air Force's CH-47 helicopters, TRW reported. Aircraft deliveries are expected to begin in summer 2000, but the contract value was not disclosed.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) yesterday denied that he is requiring that the House's $1.9 billion cut in the F-22 fighter program be restored as a pre-condition to going to a House-Senate conference on the fiscal 2000 defense appropriations bill. Stevens chairs the defense subcommittee as well, and thus would be a lead conferee along with Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, who initiated the F-22 cut.
FAA has awarded ARINC a five-year contract to support development and initial operational capability of controller-pilot data link communications (CPDLC). This program will reduce air travel delays and improve safety as air traffic increases by providing a more efficient means of communications between ground controllers and pilots, the company said.
