The Export-Import Bank and Korean Air Lines Friday signed agreements under which the Ex-Im Bank will provide $796 million in financing to support KAL's lease of six aircraft from Boeing. The financing covers two 747-400s, one 747-400F and three 777-300s and is the single largest aircraft transaction by the bank. All the aircraft will be powered by Pratt&Whitney engines. The transaction is structured as a full payout finance lease.
The U.S. Air Force is expected to award the integration and operation (I&O) contracts for its Distributed Mission Training (DMT) program within a month. The award has an estimated value of $583 million over 15 years. The Phase 1 awards, to be announced by July 12, will be demonstration contracts given to two companies. A downselect to a single company will be made after six months for the initial five- to seven-year contract. The award could expand to 15 years without a new competition if contractor performance is satisfactory.
ABL LINK: The U.S. Air Force plans to link Airborne Laser (ABL) aircraft to each other in the same way that fighters coordinate their target and shot plans. "We don't know what the link will be, but we know that ABL will have it," says Col. James Hobbs, chief of the ABL division at Air Combat Command. The connection could be in addition to Link-16 and the backup Integrated Battlefield System, both of which will be used to relay warning when ballistic missile launches are detected by ABL.
SPEAK NO CODE: Just as Link-16 is being installed on Boeing F-15 fighters, program officials are struggling with translation problems. The system is meant to open direct communication between assets on the battlefield. However, each message from a platform can have a unique format and, therefore, fail to transmit intact. The Dept. of Defense expects to spend between $100,000 and $1 million to integrate a single type of message, unless it can install basic translation technology up front.
The U.S. Air Force should increase its purchase of Lockheed Martin C-130J airlifters by 150 and remanufacture the rest of the fleet as C-130Xs over the next decade at a cost of several billion dollars, according to a roadmap released by the service.
Congress should reauthorize the Export Administration Act, according to John W. Douglass, president of the Aerospace Industries Association. Douglass, in testimony to the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday, said "American business needs a new structure for its licensing process."
The replacement for the U.S. Navy's P-3 aircraft, expected in the fleet by 2010, will most likely be a military airframe already being manufactured or a refurbishment of the existing airframes, according to Rear Adm. John E. Boyington Jr., commander, U.S. Atlantic Command Patrol Wings. The Lockheed Martin P-3C Orions, which are 35 years old, are not due to leave service until 2015. Navy officials expect the release of the operational requirements document for the replacement this year, with the first replacement aircraft to reach the fleet in 2010.
While air power, specifically precision guided weapons, won the war over Kosovo, the effectiveness of U.S. and NATO air forces was hampered by the lack of a clear plan for the operation, two analysts said yesterday. "No matter how impressive the technology, in the end, the effectiveness of the technology is related to having a clear goal," Dr. Andrew Krepinevich Jr., executive director of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, told an audience in Washington.
British Aerospace will take a pretax charge of $395 million as part of a restructuring and streamlining of its manufacturing operations that will result in the "voluntary" loss of 1,400 jobs, the company said yesterday. Another 800 jobs will be lost with the closure of BAe's historic factory and airfield site at Dunsfold, Surrey, where Harrier and Tornado production recently ended.
NASA'S FUSE SPACECRAFT was launched by a Boeing Delta II rocket at 11:44 a.m. EDT yesterday from Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla. The Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer separated from the second stage about 76 minutes after liftoff. "We're off to a great start," said David Mengers, FUSE mission manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. "The satellite is now in orbit, the solar arrays have deployed and all data indicates we have a healthy satellite." FUSE is in a circular orbit 477 miles above the Earth and will orbit about every 100 minutes.
Lockheed Martin, in an audacious move, said yesterday it plans to put together a private consortium to provide the space segment of FAA's future air navigation system. The company filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission for broadcast spectrum and satellite orbital slots for an "affordable" Regional Positioning System (RPS) to supplement the FAA's troubled Wide Area Augmentation System.
Lockheed Martin has won a U.S. Air Force competition for a $176 million contract to build F-16 Mission Training Centers. The company said yesterday it will initially build two of the centers for delivery to two sites in mid-2002. Each MTC will simulate typical F-16 tactical formations and operations, Lockheed Martin said. "The win reinforces our position as a world-class tactical aircraft simulation and training provider," said James W. Dunn, president of Lockheed Martin Tactical Defense Systems Div., Akron, Ohio.
The No. 1 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle completed a 13-hour round-trip flight June 19 from Edwards AFB, Calif., to northern New Mexico to participate in the Roving Sands 99 exercise.
The U.S. Air Force plans to keep stealth as one of its cornerstones, but realizes it can't continue to neglect electronic countermeasures, Maj. Gen. Dennis G. Haines, director of combat weapons systems at Air Combat Command said yesterday. "Stealth reduces the signature of an aircraft but it does not make it invisible," Haines said at a conference in Reston, Va. "We have really neglected [electronic warfare]. There are a lot of capabilities out there that we don't have."
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed a preliminary injunction delaying the merger of BFGoodrich and Coltec Industries, BFGoodrich reported yesterday. The injunction was issued by the U.S. District Court in Indiana on April 30. But BFGoodrich said it "remains confident" that a lawsuit delaying the completion of the merger will be found without merit. U.S. District Court Judge Allen Sharp has scheduled a hearing on the merits of the case for July 12.
U.S. AIR FORCE is halting its "Stop-Loss" program, initiated June 15 to retain critical personnel for Operation Allied Force. But on June 22, two days after the operation was declared officially over, the Air Force started a phased termination of the program.
NORMAN HIRSH, who supervised development of the Apache helicopter for McDonnell Douglas, died June 8 at the age of 64. As a vice president and general manager at McDonnell Douglas, Hirsh oversaw the sale of more than 200 Apaches. He left McDonnell Douglas in 1990 and spent three years as president of the Rogerson Hiller Corp. and the Rogerson Aircraft Corp. before retiring in 1993.
The U.S. Air Force plans to ask Congress for $800 million to refurbish its fleet of Lockheed Martin F-16 fighters, an amount that would be in addition to $100 million already needed for engine fixes.
Raytheon Co. and the U.S. Air Force have begun prototype test flights of the improved Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar System-2 (ASARS-2) for the U-2 aircraft. The tests, at Palmdale, Calif., mark the second phase of the ASARS-2 Improvement Program (AIP), which is designed to validate the improvement modes for the radar, Raytheon said. The radar now uses a Power PC-based onboard processor to do tasks previously performed on the ground.
Dynamic Materials Corp. (DMC), Lafayette, Colo., will sell certain assets of its Clad Metal Bonding Div. to Ametek Inc. for $17 million, the companies reported. The deal should close later this year. DMC's products include bonded clad metal plates and other metal fabrications for the petrochemical, chemical processing, satellite/launch vehicle, commercial aircraft, defense and a variety of other industries. Ametek, headquartered in Paoli, Pa., makes electric products.
CUBIC DEFENSE SYSTEMS INC., San Diego, has been awarded a $3 million contract by Australia for a study prior to entering negotiations for the Australian Air Combat Training System prime contract. The study is intended to reduce financial and schedule risks associated with ACTS, according to Stephen R. Horowitz, vice president in charge of the program for Cubic.
The airborne early warning market holds several international contracts for the Northrop Grumman in the near term, according to Gary O'Loughlin, the company's director of international business development for AEW programs. Last week, the Pentagon approved a request from Egypt for five Northrop Grumman E-2C update kits worth $210 million. The Group II Mission Suite kits, including the Lockheed Martin AN/APS-145 radar, will be retrofitted to Egypt's current fleet of Group 0+ Hawkeyes.
BFGOODRICH AEROSPACE said it was selected by Airbus Industrie to supply a new heated composite structural floor panel for new A340-500/600 long range aircraft. The panel provides cost and weight savings by integrating the heat unit and structural composite floor panel and by eliminating the need for a bolt-on heating system.
Boeing and Aviation Partners are forming a joint venture to offer blended winglet technology for in-service Boeing jet transports. The new company, Aviation Partners Boeing, will design, develop, certify, fabricate, market, sell and install winglets. It is based in Seattle. Boeing has not yet decided to offer winglet technology for new production airplanes but both companies said they see an "excellent potential" for retrofitting the 10,500 commercial Boeing airplanes currently in service.
