The U.S. Army plans to buy 650 advanced long-range surveillance systems, but it says it hasn't decided yet whether to go straight into a full scale development contract or award several study contracts. The Long Range Advanced Scout Surveillance System (LRAS3) is slated to enter engineering and manufacturing development this fiscal year or next and building of production systems would begin in FY '99, according to a Jan. 3 Commerce Business Daily notice.
China is cooperating with Pakistan, Russia and unnamed European countries to develop a cheap, lightweight combat fighter to replace a range of ex-Soviet and Western aircraft at bargain-basement prices, the official China Daily newspaper said during the weekend. The single-engine FC-1 should be ready early in the next decade to replace MiG-21s, Chinese F-7s, Dassault Mirage IIIs and Northrop F-5s, a combined market of thousands of aircraft, the paper quoted a top official of the China National Aero-Technology Import and Export Corp. as saying.
Rockwell International Corporation, Palmdale, California, is being awarded a $18,281,546 face value increase to a fixed price incentive contract for modification of the bomb modules on 40 B-1B aircraft to permit integration of the Cluster Bomb Units 87, 89, and 97. Contract is expected to be completed March 1997. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Headquarters Aeronautical Systems Center Wright- Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-94/C- 0042,P00002).
Loral Federal Systems, Boulder, Colorado, is being awarded a $12,332,040 firm fixed price contract. Contract is expected to be completed August 1996. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Headquarters Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles, California, is the contracting activity (F04701-72-C/0054,P00077).
Boeing Defense and Space Group, Seattle , Washington, is being awarded a $10,570,756 face value increase to a firm fixed price contract For FY1996 flight test support, parts replenishment, test maintenance, and Avionics Laboratory maintenance in support of the Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) program. Contract is expected to be completed September 1996. 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 (F19628-94/C-0047,P00027).
Japan's Defense Agency plans to conduct a series of test firings of its new medium-range air-to-air missile that will replace the country's inventory of AIM-7F Sparrows. The new fire-and-forget missile, dubbed the XAAM-4, has been in development since 1994 by JDA's Technical Research and Development Institute and Mitsubishi Electric Corp. A successful ground test firing was conducted in October.
Spacehab Inc. has announced an initial public offering of 3.75 million shares of common stock to finance research and development and pay down certain debts. Shares will be offered at $12, and the underwriters have been authorized to buy another 562,500 shares to cover overallotments, the Arlington, Va., company said in an announcement Dec. 21. It said CS First Boston, Oppenheimer&Co. and Unterberg Harris will manage the underwriting syndicate.
McDonnell Douglas Corporation, St.Louis, Missouri, is being awarded a $253,044,000 face value increase to a firm fixed price contract for initial components, parts, and materials to support production of the 25 F-15I aircraft. Contract is expected to be completed May 1996. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The solicitation was issued 31 May 1996, Unclassified FMS, Government of Israel (Capt Fary Binder), ASC/VFKA, Bldg 32, 2300 D Street, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio 45433-7249 is the contracting activity (F09603- 966C/0060).
INGALLS SHIPBUILDING will receive $795.4 million to build the LHD 7 amphibious assault ship, the final ship in its class. Its construction was a contract option that was part of the LHD 5 contract Ingalls won in 1991, the Litton subsidiary said. Ingalls is already building LHD 6 for the Navy.
LITTON SYSTEMS' Applied Technology unit, San Jose, Calif., received a $7.3 million contract Dec. 14 from U.S. Naval Air Warfare Weapons Div., China Lake, Calif., for engineering services at Point Mugu, Calif., on AN/ALR- 67E(V)2, AN/ALR-66A(V)3, AN/ALR-66B(V)3, ALR-606(V)2, and ALR-606B(V)2 systems belonging to the U.S. Navy and the governments of Korea, Taiwan, Italy, Finland, and Kuwait.
Pentagon accountants overstated the Advanced Research Projects Agency's fiscal 1994 accounts by billions of dollars, and will probably keep doing it until the office that handles those accounts changes its procedures, the Defense Dept. Inspector General reported. The Defense Accounting Office/Washington Headquarters Services (DAO/WHS), which prepares most of ARPA's financial statements, overstated the agency's assets by $2.2 billion, its liabilities by $25 million, and equity by $2.3 billion, the IG said.
Motorola, Incorporated, Scottsdale, Arizona, is being awarded a $7,576,290 face value increase to a firm fixed price contract for 4863 33 A/B Proximity purpose bombs and to the Joint Direct Attack Munition. Contract is expected to be completed July 1996. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Aeronautical Systems Center, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida is the contracting activity (F08626-93/C-0004, P00011). December 20, 1995
BOEING DEFENSE AND SPACE GROUP, Seattle, was awarded a $32.5 million increase to an earlier contract for nine electronic security measures passive detection systems for the E-3 AWACS aircraft. The contract was awarded Dec. 14 by the U.S. Air Force's Electronic Systems Center.
SMITHS INDUSTRIES, Florham Park, N.J., is in line to produce 43 Airborne Self Protection Jammer equipment racks for the F-14D aircraft. Naval Air Systems Command said in a Dec. 20 Commerce Business Daily notice that it plans to contract with the company for the work on a sole source basis. "This procurement includes a basic requirement for 21 ASPJ equipment racks and one option for 22 additional racks and associated spares," the notice said.
Martin Marietta Corporation, Orlando, Florida, is being awarded a $9,200,000 face value increase to a Undefinitized Contractual Action contract for four Navigation Pods applicable to the Low Altitude Navigation Targeting Infrared for Night (LANTIRN) system for the F-15I aircraft. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This effort supports foreign military sales to Israel. Aeronautical Systems center Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio is the contracting activity (F33657-94/C-0043,P00011).
Prospects for the B-2 bomber program took a turn for the better last week when President Clinton vetoed the fiscal 1996 defense authorization conference report. Clinton's veto meant that restrictive language on future B-2 funding in the defense authorization conference report was no longer in force.
Congress can quickly resolve President Clinton's veto of the $264.7 billion fiscal 1996 defense authorization conference by softening the offending provisions or it could dig in its heels, lessening the likelihood that there will be a defense authorization for FY '96.
Deferring delivery of the SPP, which would use six Russian launches early in the assembly sequence, will require a substitute for the attitude control gyrodynes the first SPP segment is to carry. But it won't hamper power delivery to the U.S. laboratory module originally set for delivery on the flight following the first SPP delivery. That's because NASA decided early on that the SPP couldn't give the U.S. lab all the juice it needed, and shuffled the assembly sequence to place a U.S. solar array on the Station before the lab goes up (DAILY, July 15, 1994).
RUSSIA AND CHINA orbited U.S. and Indian satellites Thursday in separate launches from their respective national launch centers. A Chinese Long March 2E lifted the U.S. Echostar-1 direct broadcast platform from Xichang, while a Russian Molniya-M boosted India's IRS-1C from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with a 550-pound Ballistic Missile Defense Organization spacecraft dubbed "Skipper" riding piggyback. Skipper was designed to study reentry vehicle performance for the U.S.
Senate consideration of the START II Treaty has been put in limbo by President Clinton's veto of the fiscal 1996 defense authorization conference report. Senators took up the treaty on Dec. 22, but GOP leaders held up a final vote in hopes of putting pressure on Clinton to sign the defense authorization bill. With the veto, pressure to speed ratification has eased.
Russian space officials are pleased at NASA's response to their plea for help saving money on the International Space Station, even though their plan to build the new Station around the old Mir was rejected (DAILY, Dec. 26). Engineers at the Russian Space Agency and its top domestic contractors are studying the NASA counterproposal presented in Houston last month, and looking forward to another session with U.S. Station officials, probably in Moscow next week or the week after.
Philippine Airlines is close to finalizing a $3 billion aircraft order from Airbus Industrie and Boeing, although only Airbus has confirmed the details of its share. An executive with the airline was quoted in Paris press reports early last week as saying that they were nearly finished working out details of a buy of eight Boeing 747-400s and 24 Airbus aircraft - a mix of long-range transports, big twins and medium-haul aircraft. Boeing officials were unavailable to confirm their portion of the order.
Japan's parliament is expected to sign off on government spending levels for the fiscal year beginning in April, which includes $47.5 billion for defense, an increase of 2.58% of the current fiscal year. Under the budget plan finalized last week, funding for procurement will be $8.19 billion, or 1.2% more than this year.
Following the approval of the Tactical UAV by Pentagon acquisition chief Paul Kaminski, contractors can expect a first draft of the request for proposal January 10. A Dec. 28 Commerce Business Daily announcement said the formal RFP will follow January 24, with proposals due March 11.
To help Russia save money and launch vehicles, NASA is willing to ferry Russian crews to and from the Station once it is inhabited, and to defer construction and delivery of the Science Power Platform (SPP) and the three Russian laboratory modules it was to have served. But the complex and expensive Russian Service Module is still set to be the third Station element launched under NASA's plan, and that could cause heartburn in Moscow.
