Lockheed Martin Corp., Marietta, Ga., is being awarded a $259,509,812 modification to cost-plus-award-fee contract F33657-91/C-0006, P00404. This action continues through September 2003, Phase Two of the Diminishing Manufacturing Sources program in support of engineering and manufacturing development of the F-22 aircraft. This effort involves redesign of 18 avionics components to insure continued procurement. Expected contract completion date is September 2003. At this time, $38,261,160 of the contract funds have been obligated.
Comsat Mobile Communications, Bethesda, Md., is being awarded a not-to-exceed $111,951,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for Inmarsat-B High Speed Data Channel leases. This contract will provide Inmarsat-B 64Kbps service to any of the eleven deployed battlegroup and their associated amphibious readiness groups. The contract also includes terrestrial connectivity to Navy points of presence in Norfolk, Va.; Wahiawa, Hawaii; and Naples, Italy. The service will be global, for ship-to-ship, ship-to-shore, and shore-to-ship communications.
Business aircraft manufacturers will produce nearly 4,900 business aircraft worth $62.4 billion between 1999-2008, the Teal Group predicted in its annual World Military and Civil Aircraft Briefing, released yesterday at the Paris Air Show. The forecast marks an 800 aircraft-unit improvement over last year's prediction of 4,100 aircraft valued at $53 billion between 1998-2007.
Airbus Industrie is forecasting growth in worldwide revenue passenger kilometers of 5% a year over the next 20 years, and an average yearly increase in freight tonne kilometers of 5.9%. Airbus said the world's active passenger fleet will nearly double from 10,000 jet aircraft at the end of 1998 to 19,106 at the end of 2018, an increase of about 9,100 aircraft. Dedicated freighters will from 1,450 aircraft to 3,400 aircraft.
United Technologies Corp., West Palm Beach, Fla., is being awarded a $9,111,261 firm-fixed-price contract to provide for 11,673 first-stage blades applicable to the F100 engines on the F-15 aircraft. There was one firm solicited and one proposal received. Expected contract completion date is 1,000 each per month beginning May 31, 2000, and to continue at the rate of 1,000 each per month thereafter until complete. Solicitation issue date was April 9, 1999. Negotiation completion date was May 24, 1999.
Northrop Grumman Corp., Pico Rivera, Calif., is being awarded a $15,400,000 modification to cost-plus-incentive-fee contract F33657-81-C0067-P00740 to provide equitable adjustment for flight-test-related schedule changes in the engineering and manufacturing development effort for the B-2 aircraft. Expected contract completion date is September 2002. Solicitation issue date was April 1998. Negotiation completion date was August 1999. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity.
General Electric Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, is being awarded a $5,168,565 firm-fixed-price contract to provide for 14,895 stage-one low pressure turbine blades applicable to the F110 engines on the F-16 aircraft. There was one firm solicited and one proposal received. Expected contract completion date is July 31, 2000. Solicitation issue date was Aug. 26, 1998. Negotiation completion date was May 28, 1999. Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, Tinker AFB, Okla., is the contracting activity (F34601-97-G-0002-0332).
Lockheed Martin Corp., Federal Systems Owego Co., Owego, N.Y., is being awarded a $154,063,331 modification to previously awarded contract N00019-93-C-0196 to exercise an option for Phase II of the SH-60R multi-mission helicopter upgrade. This phase of the SH-60R multi-mission helicopter upgrade will combine new and modified subsystems to be integrated in the SH-60 aircraft to support offensive and defensive missions. Work will be performed in Owego, N.Y., and is expected to be completed by December 2002.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) has promised to introduce streamlined legislation extending federally backed space launch indemnification for five years and setting up a process to guide longer-term extension after that, meeting a top legislative goal of the U.S. space launch industry this year. Rohrabacher, chairman of the House Science subcommittee on space and aeronautics, has also suggested the Aviation Trust Fund might be tapped as a new source of monies to ease the money crunch at NASA, at least indirectly.
A team of investors, hoping to gain a share of the market for satellite digital radio services focused on automobiles, has pumped $250 million into XM Radio of Washington, D.C. As part of the deal, WorldSpace Inc., which had owned part of XM, sold its shares back to American Mobile Satellite Corp., the company's founder.
A provision in the fiscal year 2000 defense authorization bill passed May 27 by the Senate could give the Defense Dept. the ability to override frequency spectrum decisions of other government agencies including, perhaps, the Federal Communications Commission.
JET AIRWAYS of India has ordered 10 737-800s valued at $550 million, Boeing said. The aircraft are to be delivered beginning in 2001. The private airline currently operates 25 Boeing jet aircraft.
From Commerce Business Daily: Posted in CBDNet on June 10, 1999; Printed Issue Date: June 14, 1999; PART: U.S. GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENTS; SUBPART: SUPPLIES, EQUIPMENT AND MATERIAL; CLASSCOD: 18-Space Vehicles; OFFADD: United States Air Force, Air Force Materiel Command, SMC - Space&Missiles System Center, 160 Skynet St, Suite 2315, Los Angeles AFB, CA, 90245-4683 .
Two U.S. Marine Corps F/A-18D Hornets flying from Hungary are using the Advanced Tactical Air Reconnaissance System (ATARS) to scope out bridges, airfields and roads that Marines will use during the initial days of NATO's peacekeeping mission in Kosovo. The system may be used to verify Serbian compliance with NATO's order to withdraw from the province.
General Information Solicitation Number: N/A; NAIS Posted Date: Jun 10, 1999; CBDNet Posted Date: Jun 10, 1999; Response Date: Aug 20, 1999; Classification Code: 18 - Space vehicles; Contracting Office Address: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 214.3, Greenbelt, MD 20771
Crash of a Sukhoi Su-30MKI at the Paris Air Show on Saturday was due to pilot error, said Mikahil Siminov, general designer of the Sukhoi Design Bureau. The two crewmen safely ejected after the jet struck the runway during a demonstration at the show. It crashed about a kilometer from the crowd.
MIR FUND: Veteran Cosmonauts German Titov and Vitaly Sevastyanov, now members of the Russian Duma, have launched a fund raising drive to save the Mir space station. "To sink the station would be a crime against posterity," Sevastyanov tells reporters in Moscow, referring to a Russian Space Agency decision to deorbit Mir next month for lack of funds to run it (DAILY, June 2, 10). The spacefaring lawmakers say some Russian factories already have vowed to contribute toward the $250 million a year it will take to keep Mir flying.
The House passed the fiscal year 2000 defense authorization bill in a 365-58 vote on Thursday, soon after adopting an amendment allowing use of funds to pay for peacekeeping forces in Kosovo. The FY '00 defense bill provides $288.8 billion in defense funds. Some members had sought to prohibit the Administration from using any of the FY '00 funds to cover continuing costs of Kosovo. Moves to reduce troop levels in Europe also failed.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has invested $500,000 in a new flight information computer network to handle an anticipated surge in traffic in October when the Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA) extension opens. A new ground taxi system is in place and seven new Raytheon display terminals will be installed next month. The airport will be able to handle 700 daily flights compared to 480 during peak times currently.
MONEY BACK: Lockheed Martin, faced with penalties for the problems it has encountered with the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile, may be able to recoup some of the money, says Air Force Brig. Gen. Richard Davis, Ballistic Missile Defense Organization deputy for Theater Air and Missile Defense. The company was hit with a $15 million penalty when THAAD failed in a March test, its sixth failure in a row. Last week, THAAD hit a target for the first time. If there are additional problems, Lockheed Martin faces up to $75 million in penalty fees.
An intermittent power-up irregularity that escaped notice during testing may have caused NASA's Wide-field Infrared Explorer (WIRE) to jettison its telescope cover prematurely, scuttling the mission even as the spacecraft otherwise performed well. Engineers at Utah State University's Space Dynamics Laboratory (SDL) discovered a "previously undocumented and intermittent power-up irregularity in the operation of a commercial integrated circuit used in the telescope," according to a news release from the university.
Signal Technology Corp. has signed a multi-year production contract with Lockheed Martin for work on the radar portion of the U.S. Navy's E-2C early warning aircraft. "The signing of this - the third in a series of multi-year agreements with Lockheed Martin - illustrates how both our companies are working to strategically control costs and plan long-term procurements with each other and our respective vendors," said Dan Gallagher, president of STC's Olektron Div.
NASA has selected 23 proposals for new concepts and technology demonstrators for space solar power generation technologies, both for spacecraft and transmission to Earth. The 23 organizations picked will negotiate with Marshall Space Flight Center for a total of $6.4 million.
