Geoffrey Livingston has joined the company's Public Affairs Department as a writer, publications and media. Previously, Livingston was editorial assistant of Consumer Electronic Network News (CENN), the EIA/Consumer Electronic Group's (CEG) monthly magazine.
Installation of electronics in the U.S. Air Force's first production Joint STARS aircraft is slated to begin at Northrop Grumman's Melbourne, Fla., facility. The company said the plane arrived at Melbourne Tuesday from another Northrop Grumman facility at Lake Charles, La., where it was converted from a commercial 707. At Melbourne, the aircraft will receive radar, operations and control, and communications systems.
Lockheed Martin and McDonnell Douglas have received contracts totaling about $113 million for technology maturation under the Joint Aircraft Strike Technology (JAST) program. In the JAST Integrated Subsystem Technology (JIST) effort, the companies will carry out research and development "to integrate advanced power generation, distribution and utilization hardware for an integrated ground and flight test program," the Dept. of Defense said Sept. 25 in announcing the contracts.
Pratt&Whitney's F119 engine for the F-22 fighter requires half as many pieces of support equipment as current fighter engines, the company said yesterday. It said that 200 pieces are needed instead of 400, and that the resulting weight and quantity reduction lowers the cost to support powerplants deployed for combat. P&W estimated that 75% fewer loads of equipment would have to be moved by C-141 airlifter to support the F119 in combat for 30 days.
Procurement managers at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center used streamlined procedures to pick an engineering and technical services contractor for its flight test program. Analytical Services and Materials, Inc., was picked for the $32.1 million fixed-price requirements plus award-fee contract, which will run from Oct. 2 through the end of fiscal 2000. The contract covers aerodynamics, flight dynamics, flight instrumentation, aircraft maintenance and mechanical fabrication on research aircraft, NASA said.
Richard Y. Lyons was named vice president of Houston Operations Programs for the Group's Engineering and Science Services business. The company named the following business vice presidents:
Lockheed Martin said its Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser has completed its first captive-carry flight test. The two-hour, eighteen-minute flight test aboard an F-16 fighter took place at Eglin AFB, Fla., on Sept. 6., three months ahead of schedule, the company said. The test was conducted under a $9.5 million contract. Lockheed Martin and Alliant Techsystems are set to compete for follow-on production of the WCND. Data from the test will "significantly reduce WCMD design risk," said Grover Niles, Air Force chief engineer for WCMD.
The U.S. and The Netherlands on Friday will sign a letter of acceptance (LOA) on the sale of AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAMs), according to a U.S. Air Force officer. The agreement will mark the first AMRAAM sale to The Netherlands, an official at the Dutch embassy in Washington said. The buy will cover about 200 missiles, which "will be used for F-16s we have in our inventory," he said.
The company has announced the following appointments. Francis W. Gerlach, director of product analysis and performance evaluation. Robert H. Iwai, vice president of systems development and operations. Phillip Keener, director, product planning. Scott Smith, director of the space segment. James L. Snow, director of the ground segment. Gene Steiger, director of systems engineering. Tish Vajta-Williams, vice president of product research and production.
George David, president and chief executive officer of United Technologies Corp., has become chairman of the U.S.-ASEAN Council. He succeeds M.R. Greenberg, chairman and CEO of American International Group Inc., who has been chairman of the council for six years. The 300-member council represents U.S. business interests in ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, comprising Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The relatively low level of the East Central European arms market over the next several years-only about $4 billion-makes it "hard to see how" countries there would "be in a position to make major [weapons] purchases," Hugh G. Hamilton, director of Arms Transfer and Export Control Policy for the State Dept. said yesterday in Alexandria, Va.
House-Senate defense appropriations conferees have agreed to slash the National Reconnaissance Office's fiscal 1996 budget further than originally planned because of reports that the agency has accumulated on the order of $1 billion in unspent appropriations.
Rockwell International has formed a new aerospace and defense business unit under John A. McLuckey, who was named president and chief operating officer of the new organization. Rockwell said yesterday that the unit, called Aerospace and Defense, is comprised of the former Defense Systems organization headed by McLuckey, and includes the Rocketdyne and Space Systems divisions.
Senators yesterday rejected a measure that would have killed funding for the International Space Station, voting 35-64 against an amendment to the fiscal 1996 NASA appropriation that would have cut all but $500 million of the $1.833 billion Station appropriation and used the funds for termination costs.
China flexes is economic muscles by making a number of small international aircraft deals rather than a few big ones, Condit says. CHINA is becoming more sophisticated about exercising the economic power inherent in aircraft orders, making more small deals rather than fewer big ones in order to maximize leverage, Boeing President Philip Condit told the Aero Club of Washington yesterday.
NASA plans to follow a parallel negotiating procedure with future procurements that it developed to inject "cost realism" into the bidding for the Earth Observing System (EOS) common spacecraft bus, boosting the score given for accurate cost estimates in deciding which bidder gets a contract.
The Design Bureau of General Machine-building (KBOM), which developed launch complexes for the Soyuz/Molniya and Proton launchers, will take full responsibility for operating the facilities when their transfer from Russia's Space Forces is completed by Jan. 1, 1997. The Moscow-based company has already established test centers at the Baikonur Cosmodrome for Soyuz/Molniya and Proton operations. Transfer of launch facilities at Baikonur to support non-military operations was ordered by the Russian government in late 1994 (DAILY, Oct. 27, 1994, page 142).
The long-awaited creation of a Joint Space Management Board to integrate the space programs of the Defense Dept. and the intelligence community should be at hand very soon, the new deputy under secretary of defense for space (DUSD) said yesterday. Bob Davis, in his first public address since assuming the new DUSD position Aug. 6, said most of the issues in a draft charter for the new space management board have been settled.
Congressional defense appropriations conferees, trying to avoid a veto by President Clinton, approved $243 billion for the Pentagon in fiscal 1996, coming out closer to the Senate's recommendation of $242.7 billion than the House's number of $244.1 billion. Although the House had the higher number, it surrendered all but $300 million of that in conference.
Lockheed Martin's share of McDonnell Douglas' win of the Dutch attack helicopter competition last summer is potentially worth $98 million. Lockheed Martin on Sept. 19 received a contract to supply targeting systems for the 31 AH-64D Longbow Apaches that McDonnell Douglas will build for the Dutch. Lockheed Martin's award could double in value from the initial figure of $49.4 million.
European cosmonaut/researcher Thomas Reiter has successfully run an Italian robotics experiment on Russia's Mir space station that could lead to a free-flying robot able to inspect and repair spacecraft like the International Space Station. Italy's Tecnospazio consortium said the experiment was conducted last Wednesday as part of Reiter's EuroMir mission to the Russian space station. The European cosmonaut is spending four an a half months on Mir in the second mission sponsored by the European Space Agency (DAILY, Sept. 6, page 356).
Telstar 402R, the replacement for an identical Lockheed Martin Astro Space communications satellite that failed shortly after launch a year ago, was working well and deploying on schedule after a Saturday launch aboard an Ariane 42L. A spokesman for satellite-owner AT&T, which assumed control of the platform shortly after its launch at 8:06 p.m. EDT, said Monday that the deployment was going "smoothly and quietly." "We have no reason to believe this one won't be 100% successful," he said.
