L-3 Communications' Electrodynamics business unit won a five-year technology and production contract from Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control for advanced safety equipment for all future Longbow and Hellfire II missiles, L-3 reported. The contract, a follow-on award, is valued at $7.5 million, with a potential value of more than $17 million over the next five years.
Rolls-Royce reported a pre-tax profit increase of 18% to $252.5 million from $214.4 million for the same period last year. Sales increased by 6% to $3.3 billion from $3.2 billion. The company's firm orders were up by 3% to $6.7 billion and a further $930 million has been announced but not yet included.
Lockheed Martin's Atlas launch vehicle will return to flight on Sept. 10 to launch the Echostar V commercial communications satellite, and Pratt&Whitney RL-10 engines on Atlases set to launch NASA's EOS AM-1 and the U.S. Navy's UHF F10 satellites have also been given a clean bill of health.
Raytheon's Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV), built for the National Missile Defense (NMD) program, will fly in its first hit-to-kill test in late September under "contrived" circumstances that are intended to help insure the success of the system in the long run, an NMD program official said yesterday.
Lockheed Martin has reversed a cost overrun projection on its Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) demonstrator program and will end the concept phase on time and within budget, according to company officials. The company had predicted an overrun of more than $100 million in February. Military program officials restructured the program in May to help Lockheed Martin from busting its budget, and to allow for major design changes on competitor Boeing's JSF aircraft.
A DELAY of at least 16 months in the first flight of the NASA/Lockheed Martin X-33 reusable launch vehicle prototype could impact NASA's decision on whether to replace or upgrade the Space Shuttle fleet, the General Accounting Office said yesterday. In "Space Transportation: Status of X-33 Reusable Launch Vehicle Program" (GAO/NSIAD 99-176), the congressional watchdog agency also found government incentives probably will be needed before Lockheed Martin builds its VentureStar commercial RLV based on X-33 technology.
Lockheed Martin Sanders, Nashua, N.H., received a $43 million contract for continued production of millimeter wave transceivers for the Longbow Hellfire Missile System. Sanders will build 4,200 transceivers for Lockheed Martin Millimeterwave Technologies Inc. (LMMTI), of Orlando, Fla. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in April 2000 and will be completed in February 2002. Sanders already had made more than 1,000 Longbow Hellfire transceivers under earlier contracts.
ISRAEL'S MINISTRY OF DEFENSE announced yesterday that it had selected the Pratt&Whitney F100-PW-229 engine rather than its General Electric counterpart to power its fleet of up to 110 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D fighters. First deliveries are planned for 2002. "This is a very significant strategic order from a valued and long-time customer," said Louis Chenevert, Pratt&Whitney president. "Winning a head-to-head international competition with General Electric sends an important message to all those who will be purchasing the F-16C/D versions.
The final crew of Russia's Mir orbital station is scheduled to leave for Earth tomorrow, bringing down the curtain on a 13-year space saga that saw the Soviet Union's most ambitious space achievement evolve into a testing ground for the International Space Station.
NASA scientists and engineers have picked a landing site for the Mars Polar Lander that offers a safe touchdown in an area that could hold clues to past climate changes on the planet, and will make the necessary trajectory adjustments next Wednesday to set up a landing there on Dec. 3.
The U.S. Army wants to implement a phased block upgrade approach to the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile to accelerate fielding of the system by at least year, government and industry officials said here at an Army Space and Missile Defense Command symposium. Under the plan, an initial Block I of the THAAD missile system would be fielded a year earlier than envisioned, and a Block II version with more complex software would follow as available.
EDAC TECHNOLOGIES CORP., Farmington, Conn., said that Edward McNerney, president and chief executive has resigned to pursue other interests. John DiFrancesco, 73, chairman of EDAC, will assume the position of interim CEO and president while the board conducts a search for a successor.
Boeing and Sikorsky presented a $3.1 billion plan to the U.S. Army detailing how they propose to carry out the engineering and manufacturing development stage of the RAH-66 Comanche program through 2006. The proposal, written through a contracting agreement that allowed Army representatives to serve as advisers, is expected to be accepted with few if any changes, a company spokesman said. It continues the program on its current track with "no surprises."
COMPTEK RESEARCH INC., Buffalo, N.Y., has won a $2.1 million contract extension from the U.S. Navy to build and deliver a Mobile Remote Emitter Simulator (MRES) system. It is the second MRES system to be built by Comptek, and is an increase to the initial contract for $4.9 million, with options to build up to four systems totaling about $17.8 million.
NASA and Orbital Sciences Corp. have decided to upgrade the mockup built to test how the X-34 reusable launch vehicle testbed will ride beneath OSC's L-1011 carrier aircraft so it can handle high-speed tow tests on the ground and unpowered flights to test control software.
Raytheon Systems Limited (RSL) will finalize selection of a site for a software development center in Londonerry, Northern Ireland, and begin staffing the center immediately, the company reported yesterday. The center will support a variety of Raytheon's electronics programs, including air traffic control systems for European and other airports.
The new Joint Mission Planning System (JMPS) promises to bring the U.S. military significant cost and time savings, according to military officials associated with the project. "From the Navy's perspective, JMPS will do what is currently done by a series of stovepipe systems," Capt. Richard Moebius said during a press briefing in Washington yesterday. "We're taking the functionality of many systems into one system. We expect that from the open system architecture we can achieve significant life cycle cost benefits."
NASA's Galileo space probe was bombarded with an unexpectedly high radiation dose as it dipped close to the cloudtops of Jupiter earlier this month, but its systems apparently survived unharmed, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory reported.
U.S. forces and their coalition allies patrolling the Northern and Southern No-Fly Zones over Iraq have been engaged almost daily for the past two weeks by hostile fire or radar as the nearly decade-old air campaign continues with no end in sight.
KENNETH J. LUCZAJ has been named vice president and general manager of Chandler Evans Control Systems, acquired by BFGoodrich as part of its July 12 merger with Coltec Industries. Luczaj, 52, will report to John Grisik, president of the Sensors and Integrated Systems Group of BFGoodrich Aerospace. He replaces David Terricciano, who resigned from the company to pursue other business opportunities. Luczaj joined Coltec in 1994 as VP and general manager of the Lewis Engineering group in Naugatuck, Conn.
Mitre Corp. is making available for license production the Self-Managed Arrival Resequencing Tool (SMART), which allows airlines and other users to manage their own arrivals. Using flight plan and air traffic data, the device displays the relationship between demand and capacity at both an airport and the airport arrival fixes, enabling airlines to prioritize and expedite flights.
Boeing expects to have time and money to spare on its Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) demonstration program, according to Frank D. Statkus, vice president and general manager of the Boeing program.
