Globalstar majority shareholder Loral Space&Communications, Germany's Daimler-Benz Aerospace and Brasilstar agreed last week to form a joint venture to bring Globalstar communications satellite services to Brazil in 1998, Globalstar reported last week.
Boeing Information Services, Inc., Vienna, Va. is being awarded a time and materials indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract with a ceiling price of $2,000,000,000 for the Defense Information Systems Network Support Services-Global requirement. The amount of $10,217,299 is being obligated today for eight delivery order requirements. The contract will be for a base year with four one year options to extend.
RAYTHEON closed last week on its $475 million deal to buy Chrysler's aerospace and defense units, which will merge with Raytheon's E-Systems subsidiary acquired last year. Raytheon didn't disclose terms, but said earlier this year that it expected to pay about $475 million (DAILY, April 9). Chrysler said last week Raytheon agreed to pay $455 million in cash and a $20 million dividend to acquire two units - Chrysler Technologies Airborne Systems (CTAS) and Electrospace Systems, Inc. - which will shore up the modification and systems integration side of E-Systems.
ROY MCNULTY has been named Chairman of Short Brothers Plc. He takes the title from Laurent Beaudoin who is chairman and chief executive officer of Short's parent, Bombardier. McNulty became managing director of Shorts in 1988 and has been president of Shorts since it was acquired by Bombardier in 1989. The company also announced changes in executive responsibilities for two of its main business units, naming Ken Brundle VP and general manger for aerospace activities and Jim Gilmore VP and general manager of the support services group.
Pelorus Navigation Systems Inc. said it will supply distance measuring equipment (DME) systems to the People's Republic of China. The systems will be installed later this year at Zhujiajian International Airport now under construction in the Zhoushan Archipelago, 160 kilometers south of Shanghai, Pelorus said.
Motorola, Incorporated, Scottsdale, Arizona, is being awarded a $9,178,192 face value increase to a firm fixed price contract to provide for 1,000 Hook 112 field locator radios. Contract is expected to be completed September 1998. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, California, is the contracting activity (F42600-94/G-7581, TB02).
Bell Helicopter Textron decided to power its new light twin Bell 427 helicopter with 600 shaft-horsepower Pratt&Whitney PW206D turboshafts, making the aircraft the fourth application for the PW200 engine series. PW200 series engines also power McDonnell Douglas Helicopter's no- tail-rotor Explorer helo, the Eurcopter EC135 and Agusta's A109.
Rockwell International Corporation, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is being awarded a $6,695,694 face value increase to a firm fixed price contract to provide for installation of Block 10 radar and display upgrade kits on 45 C/KC-135 aircraft. Contract is expected to be completed March 1997. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, is the contracting activity (F34601-96/C-0001, P00007).
Boeing offered the U.S. Air Force yesterday the chance to re-engine its 94 remaining B-52H bombers with 40,000-lbst.-class Rolls-Royce RB211- 535 turbofans built by Rolls' newly acquired U.S. subsidiary, Allison Engine Co., in a five-year program beginning in the year 2000. An AF team is already at work reviewing the unsolicited proposal, top program executives told The DAILY yesterday. The service hopes to wrap up technical evaluations early next month; contractual and financial arrangements may take a little longer.
Few Republican senators are jumping at the chance to take a newly opened seat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, SASC aides said yesterday. Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) last week announced that he would relinquish the position as he replaces Bob Dole as majority leader (DAILY, June 14). Lott, under Senate rules, didn't have to leave the seat, but opted for the more prestigious Finance Committee.
Chrysler Technologies Airborne Systems, Incorporated, Waco, Texas, is being awarded a $14,800,731 face value increase to a fixed price incentive successive targets contract to provide for advance materials to support upgrade of the Automatic Flight Control System, the Control Display System, and the Ground Collision Avoidance System on 33 C-141 aircraft. Contract is expected to be completed. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
Spain, committed to buy 87 Eurofighter 2000s, may pull out of the program's production phase altogether due to budget constraints, program sources confirmed to The DAILY. A final decision on participation is "some weeks away," one source said, quickly adding that published reports in Europe that Spain was considering leaving Eurofighter were misleading. "They remain committed to finishing the development phase," the source said, but are instead "now considering their options as they look at production."
Loral Corporation, Federal Systems Division, Owego, New York, is being awarded a $5,489,000 face value increase to a firm fixed price contract to provide for redesign to open systems architecture of the Digital Multiplexer applicable to the CC-2E mainframe computer on the E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft. Contract is expected to be completed March 2001. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts, is the contracting activity (F19628-C/0012, P00007).
ROCKWELL's Collins Avionics and Communications Div., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, will supply 31 AN/GRC-171D(V)4 radios for the South Korean Navy's KDX Destroyer program under terms of a Foreign Military Sales effort, according to a June 12 Commerce Business Daily notice.
The U.S. Navy has ordered a third Magic Lantern laser-based airborne mine countermeasures system from Kaman Aerospace Corp. under a $6.5 million contract. The system, along with two other Magic Lanterns currently in the Navy's inventory, will be incorporated into the SH-2G Super Seasprite helicopter, Kaman reported Friday. Magic Lantern is scheduled for initial fleet introduction this fall, with battle group deployments planned for next spring.
Lockheed Martin and McDonnell Douglas were chosen yesterday by the U.S. Air Force to compete in the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile pre- engineering and manufacturing development phase, beating out three other contractors for a program that could ultimately be worth $3 billion. Lockheed Martin got $110.9 million and McDonnell Douglas received $126.5 million. They beat Hughes, Raytheon-Northrop Grumman, and Texas Instruments.
STANDARD Missile Company, McLean, Virginia, is being awarded a $52,494,390 not-to-exceed letter contract for STANDARD Missile - 2 Block IIIB Low Rate Initial Production. Work will be performed in McLean, Virginia (11%), Tucson, Arizona (27%), Bristol, Tennessee (23%), Andover, Massachusetts (37%), and Chattanooga, Tennessee (2%), and is expected to be completed by September 1999. Contract funds would not have expired at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured.
Lockheed Martin Vought Systems Corporation (previously Loral Vought Systems Corporation), is being awarded a $47,875,265 modification to a firm fixed price contract for Exercise FY 96 Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) as an Unpriced Contractual Action (UCA) quantity of 70 Army Tactical Missile System Block IA Guided Missile and Launching Assemblies and Warranty, and 72 Block Missile Variants in support of Foreign Military Sales (FMS). Requirement (amount obligated is 50% of option value).
O'Neill says DOD leaders tell him not to beat around the bush when it comes to helping Congress decide where to give BMDO a budget boost."Both [former Deputy Defense Secretary John] Deutch and [Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition Paul] Kaminski have told me, 'Don't be a fool; if they want to put in added money tell them where to put it." Lawmakers interested in increasing BMDO's budget seem to think a second integrated NMD test makes sense, he says.
The Swedish navy has opted not to deploy missiles on its submarines, largely because of concerns about giving away the location of these high-value assets, but that may be changing. Vice Adm. Peter Nordbeck tells reporters that a policy change is possible around 2010, depending on the developments in missile technology. "Perhaps in the future you can develop a missile that is more stealthy," he says.
With some additional dollars, the Air Force could give several more B-1B bombers an interim precision guided munition (PGM) capability until more sophisticated PGMs come online, Rockwell officials tell the DAILY. If the $25 million increase for the B-1B bomber virtual umbilical device (BVUD) proposed by House Appropriators in their FY '97 budget package is left unscathed, the service could buy 800 tail kits to upgrade six more B-1Bs with an early PGM capability, they say.
The full House Appropriations Committee cut $558 million for out-year replenishment of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) from NASA's fiscal 1997 budget, leaving the U.S. space agency with a $13.6 billion spending figure for the coming year.
Former Director of Central Intelligence R. James Woolsey notes that in the midst of the cutback in weapons production, the Russians are still producing Typhoon class subs and a new version of the SS-25 ICBM, which he calls "a moderate feast." Woolsey tells reporters at a House National Security Committee hearing on the outlook in Russia that the new version of the SS-25 is the more accurate Mod 2.
O'Neill says he's concerned with the "packaging" of the Air Force's Airborne Laser (ABL) technology. "It's an engineering issue...we have some technical challenges," he says. "I can't tell you today it works." Problems could surface when sophisticated countermeasures are used against an ABL, he says. There also is a question about how many ABL- equipped aircraft would be needed to defend a given area. If it is a "limited" geographical region, maybe five ABL platforms would be enough, he says. But, "if it's something large like China you have a problem."
The Swedish navy is mulling whether to buy helicopters to fly from the stealthy Corvette-type ships it is buying now, Sweden's top naval officer said. Vice Adm. Peter Norbeck, Sweden's chief of naval command, told reporters here that the stealthy ships are capable of carrying one helicopter each. The helicopter would land aft of the bridge.
