NASA HAS PICKED 103 different projects, covering such diverse topics as flight-path management software that "learn," an imaging probe designed to look for "bioparticles, and a composite ion thruster for spacecraft, in the latest round of its Small Business Innovation Research Program. Worth about $62 million total, the Phase II winners will continue development of projects that have already proved promising in an earlier phase. A total of 319 proposals was winnowed to the 103 selected. Ninety different small, high-tech firms in 27 states were the winners.
Delaying initial production of the Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) will force the U.S. Air Force to reprogram $53 million in the weapon's $2 billion budget, according to Terry Little, AF program director.
HAINAN AIRLINES of China yesterday announced an order for 19 Fairchild 328JETS valued at $226 million and placed options for another 20. Deliveries are slated to begin before the end of the year. Hainan Chairman Chen Feng said that the "next phase of China's air transportation evolution will emphasize regional service. The 328JET will play a major role in this development." The carrier now operates nine Metroliners, 16 Boeing 737s, one Lear 60, One Hawker 800 and one Beech Jet 400. The 32-seat 328JET will be joined in 2002 with the 44-seat 428JET.
From Commerce Business Daily: Posted in CBDNet on August 26, 1999 ... PART: U.S. GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENTS; SUBPART: SERVICES; CLASSCOD: A-Research and Development; OFFADD: U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command, ATTN: SMDC-CM-CN, P.O. Box 1500, Huntsville, AL 35807-3801/106 Wynn Drive, Huntsville, AL 35805-1990 ... SOL BAA DASG60-99-000; POC Gladys Erskine, Contract Specialist, SMDC-CM-CN, (256)955-4056
From Commerce Business Daily: Posted in CBDNet on August 24, 1999 ... PART: U.S. GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENTS; SUBPART: SUPPLIES, EQUIPMENT AND MATERIAL; CLASSCOD: 36-Special Industry Machinery-Potential Sources Sought; OFFADD: Department of the Air Force, Air Education and Training Command, Specialized Contracting Squadron, 2021 First Street West, Randolph AFB, TX, 78150-4302 ...
The Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) program will delay a production decision for one year while work is completed on the engine, missile casing and air data system, the U.S. Air Force announced Friday. Production of the $487,000 guided missiles was scheduled to begin in fiscal year 2001, but will be postponed until 2002 after two extra development flights are made to calibrate the air data system for the flight control and autopilot systems.
T-6A TEXAN II primary trainer aircraft for the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy has received FAA Type Certification, Raytheon Aircraft said. The event paves the way for deliveries to the USAF, which will begin this fall with two production planes for the Multi-service Operational Test and Evaluation.
While plenty of work remains as U.S. defense consolidation enters its fourth phase, analysts said the moves have worked in keeping the industry healthy.
Tiltrotors will go prime time next week when Secretary of Defense William Cohen buckles in to take the Bell HV-15 for a short flight around the Pentagon. Cohen's journey will be part of a Tiltrotor Day scheduled for September 8 in Washington. It will showcase the HV-15 and the Bell Boeing MV-22 Osprey. Bell has been pitching the HV-15 to the Coast Guard as a replacement for its deep-water aviation assets. The U.S. Marine Corps V-22 variant begins operational evaluation in October.
Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), chair of the House Armed Services Committee's panel on research and development, is pushing the Pentagon to keep the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) as a higher priority. And, perhaps there should be added participants in addition to the U.S./Italian/German team, Weldon suggests. "I want to see if we can bring in others in the Gulf States to fund a continued MEADS," he says. Army and BMDO officials insist they will continue to fund the program adequately in the next president's budget request for FY '01.
U.S. ARMY CH-47D CHINOOKS returned to limited flight status Friday after Boeing determined they were unaffected by a manufacturing defect that had grounded the entire U.S. and U.K. fleet following the discovery of a cracked transmission gear in a Royal Air Force Chinook. Half of the 466-aircraft Army fleet remains grounded until their gears can be inspected.
Boeing is working on a top secret program in the middle of the Palmdale, Calif., hangar where the Joint Strike Fighter X-32 aircraft are being manufactured. The company had to move the X-32A out of the front of the hangar and around to the back door in order to advance it from assembly to stress tests because the "black program" sits in between the two work stations.
ICO Global Communications Holdings Ltd. filed for Chapter 11-bankruptcy protection Friday after failing repeatedly to raise the additional financing it needed for its satellite telephone constellation. ICO faced a particularly difficult time securing financing as Iridium, another company offering satellite telephony, struggled to meet its lending covenants causing investors to sour on satellite projects. Iridium filed for bankruptcy two weeks ago (DAILY, Aug. 13, 16, 17).
The Pentagon will have to review and possibly revise its profit provisions for contractors that make large investments in technology if President Clinton signs the Defense Authorization Act.
DIA has developed a methodology to provide strategic warning of attacks against computer networks, says the Central Intelligence Agency in its annual report. The procedures will be used to alert the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the warfighting commands of potential threats to their automated systems.
NASA experiments in propellant densification with a test-article X-33 oxygen tank may increase the performance of its proposed VentureStar commercial follow-on. Cleon Lacefield, who heads the X-33 program for Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, says tests at Glenn Research Center with extra-cold liquid oxygen will help engineers better understand how to handle the fluid and how it will stratify in tankage.
As many as 20 countries could have cruise missiles within the next decade, according to intelligence officials from the Army's Space and Missile Defense Command. The number of foreign countries producing cruise missiles is projected to increase from two to nine in the next decade, says Col. James Ward, an Army intelligence official. Russia's AS-15 and submarine-launched S-N-21 are long-range, nuclear land attack cruise missiles specifically designed to target the U.S., he says.
Egypt has selected General Electric for the fourth consecutive time to build F110 engines for the Lockheed Martin F-16C/D the nation has on order. The 24-engine contract is worth $100 million, and deliveries are slated to begin in early 2001. Israel announced last week that it had selected GE's competitor, Pratt&Whitney, to manufacture engines for its fleet of F-16s.
Lockheed Martin and its industry teammates on NASA's X-33 program may come out better than expected with overruns on the reusable launch vehicle testbed. The General Accounting Office, in a report noting delays in X-33 may impact NASA decision-making on Shuttle upgrades (DAILY, Aug. 26), notes industry can charge X-33 overruns it must pay under their cooperative agreement with NASA to other federal programs as independent research and development overhead.
