GENERAL ATOMICS, San Diego, received a $5.5 million contract from the U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division, on June 12 to perform work related to preliminary design, manufacturing and factory test requirements of the Advanced Lightweight Influence Sweep System (ALISS) Superconducting Magnet Susbsystem, Advanced Technology Demonstration (ATD) Model for minesweeping.
Unmanned aerial vehicle programs are getting some contradictory attention in fiscal 1996 budget deliberations on Capitol Hill. The final outcome of Senate actions is predictable, but this doesn't appear to be true on the House side.
E-SYSTEMS INC., St. Petersburg, Fla., on June 12 received an additional $280 million from Naval Sea Systems Command to design and build Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) Common Equipment Set (CES) units.
BOEING CO. said that more than 8,300 of its employees have accepted an early retirement offer, putting it ahead of its goal of reducing workforce by 12,000 this year. Boeing's first-ever retirement incentives were available to 13,000 workers and, along with 3,300 laid off earlier this year, mean it will employ about 105,000 when the retirements are effective July 1. It employed more than 117,000 when the year began.
Eight members of the Congressional Black Caucus with no public record of supporting the B-2 stealth bomber voted for it last week during House action on the fiscal year 1996 defense bill, helping to defeat an amendment to strike out $553 million in extra B-2 money. The amendment-sponsored by Rep. John Kasich (R-Ohio) and strongly advocated by Black Caucus member Rep. Ronald Dellums (Calif.)-failed by a vote of 203-219. If the Black Caucus members had voted the other way, they could have reversed the outcome.
The General Accounting Office has denied McDonnell Douglas' protest of the U.S. Navy's award of a $1.4 billion winner-take-all Tomahawk development and production contract to Hughes Missile Systems, industry officials said yesterday. "We are disappointed with the decision," an MDC spokesman said. "We'll continue to work closely with the Navy to complete a smooth transition."
After several months of soul-searching on how to reshape its hypersonic research program, the U.S. Air Force has decided to invest $20 million a year to pursue a weapon that could tackle today's deep strike and theater missile defense missions, according to James Mattice, AF deputy assistant secretary for research and engineering.
U.S. ARMY'S COMANCHE helicopter will start a day early on its trip to West Palm Beach, Fla., to prepare for first flight in November. The prototype, which has been on display this week at the Pentagon, was supposed to spend today at Capitol Hill. But House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) refused to support a concurrent resolution that would have allowed the armed reconnaissance bird on congressional grounds. Gingrich's office didn't return phone calls asking about the speaker's actions. Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) had approved the Comanche visit.
AEROSPACE INDUSTRIES ASSOCIATION (AIA) James E. Hailer has been appointed manager, legislative affairs. Most recently, Hailer was manager, congressional affairs for the American League for Exports and Security Assistance, Washington, D.C. ALLIANT TECHSYSTEMS INC.
Scarce funding has been identified as a major problem deterring development of advanced space communications systems in Russia and even maintaining the existing systems. At a press conference here last week, officials of the Russian Space Agency (RSA) expressed fears that delays in deployment of innovative domestic satellite systems like Gonets and Signal might result in Russia's space industry losing the vast internal market to Western competitors (DAILY, June 20, page 446).
First test from the B-2 bomber of the GPS-Aided Munition (GAM) was a success, Northrop-Grumman said. The satellite-guided weapon hit its target on the China Lake Ranges in California after being dropped from a B-2 on June 13, the company said.
The U.S. Air Force is said to be evaluating use of U.S. Navy Airborne Self-Protection Jammers on F-16 fighters enforcing the no-fly zone over Bosnia. The move follows the shootdown of an F-16 there on June 2. The F-16, flying without support of electronic warfare aircraft but apparently carrying an AN/ALQ-131 countermeasures pod, was downed by a Bosnian-Serb SA-6 surface-to-air missile. The pilot, Capt. Scott O'Grady, was dramatically rescued on June 8.
A 10-member U.S. Air Force jury yesterday acquitted the senior director aboard the E-3B Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) involved in last year's "friendly fire" incident over Iraq.
CRYOGENIC MAIN STAGE of Europe's new Ariane V booster "performed satisfactorily" in its first long-duration firing, exceeding its normal operating time by 20 seconds in a test at the Kourou, French Guiana, spaceport, the European Space Agency reported yesterday. ESA said both the Vulcain engine, built by France's SEP, and the Aerospatiale main stage performed as expected based on preliminary analysis. The June 16 test lasted 590 seconds, compared with the nominal in-flight operating time of 570 seconds.
Commercializing the ground-based Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) could help cover the difference between the Clinton Administration and House Republicans on NASA spending over the next five years, Rep. Robert Walker (R-Pa.), chairman of the House Science Committee, said yesterday.
Coltec Industries will acquire AlliedSignal's aircraft landing gear business, and Coltec's Menasco unit will form a strategic alliance with AlliedSignal to develop integrated landing systems. The companies announced the deal yesterday, but didn't disclose its terms. They said Coltec's acquisition will include development and production of landing gears for the new F/A-18E/F fighter and production and support of such existing programs as the F-14 and F-15 fighters.
Joshua Gotbaum, assistant secretary of defense for economic security, yesterday defended the Defense Dept.'s industrial base policy that favors the preservation of submarine makers, but doesn't save B-2 builder Northrop Grumman from being pushed out of the airplane-making business. "The B-2 is not the only bomber in the fleet or the only aircraft in the Air Force," Gotbaum told reporters during a breakfast meeting in Washington. "...We need submarines and we need aircraft. But with submarines, we are the market. It is defense-unique. We define it."
TRACOR AEROSPACE, Austin, Tex., has received four contracts totaling $10 million for production of expendable electronic countermeasures devices. The company, a subsidiary of Tracor Inc., said it got $8.4 million from the U.S. Air Force's Hill AFB, Utah, for engineering development and production of the BBU-48 Dual Impuse Cartridge, used as the initiation device for the RR-180 chaff cartridge. Tracor also received three contracts from an international customer for $1.6 million. The first, for $1.2 million, is for an infrared countermeasures flare.
Lucas Industries yesterday said it has sold its Lucas Aerospace Communications&Electronics business to Sierra Technologies of Buffalo, N.Y. The price wasn't disclosed. The deal was consummated in two parts. In one, Sierra Technologies is acquiring the Aul business of Lucas. In the other, Sierra Networks Inc., a new company, acquires the Epsco, Weinschel and Zeta units of Lucas. The four units together employ about 500 workers and have a combined value of about $40 million.
Information systems owned and operated by U.S. intelligence agencies may be headed down the same privatization road that's seen for the Defense Dept.'s information systems, intelligence officials said in Washington.
In an apparent concession to Northrop Grumman's design team, the McDonnell Douglas-led team competing in the Joint Advanced Strike Technology contest last week internally revealed a family of aircraft that uses the Pratt&Whitney F119 engine-not General Electric's competing F120.
Litton Systems, Incorporated, Guidance Control System Division, Woodland Hills, California, is being awarded an $853,617 increment as part of a $5,369,181 (with 5 options, cumulative total is $18,224,058) cost plus fixed fee contract for research for the development of a miniature guidance package for missiles and other airborne vehicles under the Global Positioning System Guidance Package, Phase A. Work will be performed in Woodland Hills, California, and is expected to be completed by June 30, 1999. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
With the blessings of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission and Congress, the U.S. Army and Air Force hope to embark on a plan that would lead to the joint acquisition of ground-based command, control, communications, computers and intelligence (C4I) systems and eventually to airborne and space-based C4I equipment, according to a top Air Force official.
The U.S. Air Force wants to continue operating at least 12 EF-111 electronic combat aircraft through fiscal 1999, when the Navy's funding begins for additional EA-6B Prowler upgrades, according to service officials. Under the current plan, the AF will retire all 40 EF-111s in its inventory by the end of FY '97. But this leaves what the AF calls a "bathtub" until funding for 20 more EA-6Bs starts two years later.
Raytheon Company, Lowell, Massachusetts, is being awarded a $6,639,271 face value increase to a Firm Fixed Price contract for a Value Engineering Incentive Payment for Lot IX of the Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM). Contract is expected to be completed February 1996. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Approximately 51% of this effort supports foreign military sales to Korea, Norway, Turkey, Denmark and Switzerland.
