CHINOOK ENGINE AWARD: The U.S. Army this week expects to award the engine production contract for the Boeing CH-47F Chinook helicopter. AlliedSignal, the sole source contractor, is expected to build T55-GA-714A engines for 300 Chinooks to be modernized by Boeing. The first CH-47F will enter service in 2003. It will be fitted with a removable aft pylon and transmission for deployment overseas aboard large transport aircraft. Special operations forces recently disconnected and reinstalled the parts in just over five hours, using an enhanced air transportability kit.
Moody's Investors Service confirmed its debt ratings for Newport News Shipbuilding Inc. following the announcement that Newport will not increase the value of its bid for Avondale Industries, effectively ending its interests in acquiring Avondale. The confirmation concludes a review for upgrade which began on Jan. 20, when Newport and Avondale announced a proposed stock-for-stock merger valued at $470 million. Avondale ended the Newport News offer and accepted a $529 million cash offer from Litton Industries (DAILY, June 4).
The U.S. Navy plans to request an additional $21 million for research and development in its Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) program, according to Capt. L.D. Whitmer, who heads the program office.
F-22 RECON: With cancellation of DarkStar UAV and the retirement of the SR-71 Blackbird, Lockheed Martin is pitching the F-22 Raptor as a reconnaissance asset. The U.S. Air Force doesn't have a requirement for the capability on the F-22, but there's plenty of growth room on the stealthy aircraft, says A.L. Pruden, program manager for advanced product development at Lockheed Martin. The fighter is designed to penetrate deep into enemy territory and will operate beyond the range of AWACS and Joint STARS, even with the Link-16 datalink, he says.
Boeing Airplane Services will perform maintenance and modification work on five 747s for Kitty Hawk International, Boeing reported Friday. The work - pylon modification for Pratt&Whitney engines, Service Bulletin updates and scheduled heavy maintenance - will be performed by the Boeing Modification Center in Wichita, Kan.
NASA's QuikSCAT ocean scatterometer is set for launch June 18, six months late because of concerns over the reliability of its Titan launch vehicle but still early enough to turn its specialized radar on the Atlantic before the 1999 hurricane season ends.
TOWER OF BABEL: NASA and the Russian Space Agency are setting up a sort of space-talk academy to ensure there is a one-for-one correlation between English and Russian nomenclature for systems on the International Space Station. While English is to be the official language on the orbiting facility, the situation at the two Mission Control Centers - Houston and Moscow - may be another story.
The European Council has adopted a report calling for an independent European defense capability, separate from NATO, that would include a European Union military staff and dedicated forces to go with it. According to a declaration issued last Thursday at the European Union summit in Cologne, Germany, the Council accepted a report on European defense prepared by the body's German Presidency that calls for "development of a common European policy on security and defense."
DUAL-USE NAVIGATION: While some European military officials believe the time has come for their taxpayers to buy them a new spysat, they are less anxious to field the Galileo satellite navigation system being pushed by the European Commission, says Brachet of CNES. The European Space Agency recently agreed to go in on development costs (DAILY, May 13), despite the prohibition on ESA participation in military systems.
GROWING CONTRACTOR BASE: The National Reconnaissance Office wants to concentrate on using technology it has in hand rather than developing new technology in house. "We are getting out of the technology business and handing it over to others in industry and government labs," says Sean Roche, director of Advanced Technology Strategy at NRO. In three years, NRO has nearly tripled the number of contracts it awards and the number of companies it works with. In 1999, 168 contracts are slated to go to 66 companies.
EUROPEAN SPYSAT: NATO's Yugoslavia campaign has renewed talk of the need for a European reconnaissance satellite capability independent of the U.S., says Gerard Brachet, head of the French space agency CNES. Germany in particular has expressed an interest in gaining space intelligence capability, and particularly a radar satellite that can operate through the sort of bad weather that has hampered operations over Kosovo and Belgrade, and at night. But Brachet says a better use of Europe's intelligence money might be spent on airborne systems.
Veridian announced two additions to its board of directors - Joel S. Birnbaum, former chief scientist of Hewlett-Packard, and Sally K. Ride, the first American woman in space. The Alexandria, Va., information technology company said they join 12 other board members who include Paul G. Kaminski, former under secretary of defense for acquisition and technology; former astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, and Steven C. Beering, president of Purdue University.
Exigent International Inc., holding company for satellite control software house Software Technology Inc., has "paused" work on the Teledesic "Internet in the sky" satellite constellation in the wake of a similar action by Motorola Inc. "We view this delay as temporary," B.R. Smedley, Exigent chairman and chief executive, said in a statement Friday. "The principal result of our action is that we have refocused a small group of our employees in Arizona pending Motorola's next-phase decision on its involvement in Teledesic."
FAA SCHEDULED job recruitment fairs June 9 and 10 in the Chicago area at which it plans to hire 250 to 300 electronic technicians for its Airways Facilities Div., which installs and maintains air traffic control equipment. FAA said electronic specialists are needed to support a number of areas including radar, navigational aids, telecommunications, automation and environmental systems and equipment.
BRITTEN-NORMAN has received an order valued at $4.8 million from China Northern Airlines for three 16-passenger Trislanders. Meanwhile, Fortis Prop Jet announced delivery of a second ATR42-300 to Eagle Aviation of Mombasa, Kenya.
Litton Industries reported earnings of $50.9 million on sales of $1.26 billion in its 1999 third quarter, up from earnings of $46.8 million on sales of $1.14 billion a year ago. Michael Brown, president and chief executive officer, credited the earnings gains to improved margins in the Advanced Electronics Group, improved revenues and margins in the Marine Engineering Group, and revenue growth in the Electronic Components and Materials Group.
Computer Sciences Corp. has won a U.S. Navy contract to provide engineering and technical support for Aegis tactical computer programs at Dahlgren, Va. Under the $3.8 million contract from the Naval Surface Warfare Systems, Dahlgren Div. - which could be worth up to $127.3 million if all options are exercised during a five-year period - CSC will work on computer program code and documentation to support land-based Aegis sites, ships, shipyards, contractor facilities and foreign military sales.
VIRTUAL AEF TRAINING: The U.S. Air Force plans to add another node in its Distributed Mission Training network next month. The network links flight simulators across the country for real-time mission training. Pilots from the Boeing F-15C fighter wing at Eglin AFB, Fla., will join aircrews from the Boeing E-3 Airborne Warning And Control System (AWACS) unit at Tinker AFB, Okla., and F-15s at Langley AFB, Va., in a virtual mission in July, says an AF spokesman.
Consumers who depend on the Global Positioning System to navigate in the air, at sea or on land may experience problems on two dates - Aug. 22, 1999, and Jan. 1, 2000, the U.S. Dept. of Transportation reported Friday. The Dept. of Defense, according to DOT, says the date changes aren't likely to affect either the operation of GPS satellites or DOD's GPS ground control center. But, it said, GPS receivers used by consumers could be affected.
PRESIDENT CLINTON has nominated F. Whitten Peters to be secretary of the Air Force. Peters has been under secretary of the Air Force since November 1997.
Because the entire U.S. fleet of U-2 reconnaissance aircraft is busy covering contingencies around the world, including the NATO air campaign against Yugoslavia, the U.S. Air Force plans to rely on ground tests and computer models to qualify most of a series of upgrades being developed for the plane, according to an AF program official. The prohibitive cost per flight hour is also a reason to limit the amount of flight time dedicated to integration testing, the official said.
Lockheed Martin Vought Systems won a $54.9 million foreign military sales contract from the U.S. Army for 18 Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS) launchers for Greece. The U.S. Army Aviation&Missile Command is the contracting agency. The order will bring the total number of MLRS launchers in the Greek Army to 27, Lockheed Martin reported. Greece also has fielded the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS), and is procuring the MLRS Extended Range rocket.
TASC Inc., a division of Litton Industries, won a prime contract from the U.S. Air Force's Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center at Tinker AFB to provide technology insertion and engineering services. The contract, valued at up to $65 million, is a continuation of the OC-ALC Technology Task Order Engineering Services (TTOES) program.
LONG RANGE APACHE: The U.S. Army is buying a limited number of extended range internal fuel tanks for Boeing AH-64A Apaches deployed in support of contingency operations, says Lt. Col. Don Huff, product manager for Apache modernization. The tanks, made by Robertson Aviation of Tempe, Ariz., add more than an hour of flight time without taking away pylons for weapons. The tanks will also be added AH-64D Longbows as they come off the production line, once software integration and fuel probes are qualified.
