Phillip Farmer, president and chief operating officer was elected to the additional posts of chairman and chief executive. Farmer succeeds John Hartley, who will retire June 30.
Val P. Peline, who recently retired from an executive position with Lockheed Corp., will join the company as president and chief executive officer effective June 1. He had been president of Lockheed Electronic Systems Group.
The Defense Dept. yesterday unveiled new acquisition rules to cut down lengthy program review times and documentation by having contractors and DOD officials work more closely earlier in major program developments, and by making oversight and review processes more flexible. A May 10 memorandum signed by Secretary of Defense William Perry laid out the following three DOD rules to take "immediate" effect: - Perform as many acquisition functions as possible, including oversight and review, using IPTs (Integrated Product Teams).
Jim Burgess, an engineer at Systems Research Labs, was awarded a patent for his invention of brake control system that prevents the skidding of a wheel on a surface.
U.S. AIR FORCE'S F-16 System Program Office will choose between Loral Systems Manufacturing Co. and Litton Systems' Applied Technology Div. for Lot VII production of the AN/ALR-56M(V) advanced radar warning receiver line replaceable units. "This will be the final purchase of system components and spare parts," the USAF's Aeronautical Systems Center said in a May 15 Commerce Business Daily notice. Proposals were solicited for 269 of the systems. The Lot VII buy includes options for Lots VIII and XI.
CFM International said its CFM56-7, which will power the Boeing 737- 600/700/800 series aircraft, has met "all pre-test predictions" in the seven hours it has accumulated since testing began April 28. The engine has achieved its rated thrust and completed power calibration and preliminary performance runs, CFMI said. It is scheduled for first flights on a modified Boeing 747 next January and on the 737-700 in early 1997 before entering service with Southwest that fall.
Theodore E. Martin has been elected to the board of directors of Unisys Corp. Effective July 1, 1995, Martin will be president and chief executive officer of Barnes Group, Inc.
Despite the predictions of some in the financial community, Boeing Chairman Frank Shrontz doesn't expect his competition in the worldwide market for long-haul widebody jetliners to drop out, telling reporters yesterday that "it's possible that all three [airframers] in this circumstance will survive."
Richard C. Ernst, Pratt&Whitney's (P&W) RL10E-1 project manager in the Atlas Reliability Enhancement Program, received NASA's Public Service Medal, the highest honor awarded by NASA to a non-government employee.
House Science Committee Chairman Robert S. Walker (R-Pa.) is ready to rumble with NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin over the size of the space agency's budget in the next five years, but he doesn't expect much disagreement with Goldin over the way NASA plans to downsize. Walker told reporters yesterday that while he had not been briefed on the details of the NASA restructuring plan hammered out within the agency over the past few months, NASA's apparent approach matches his own priorities.
GTE Government Systems Corporation, El Segundo, California, is being awarded a $44,965,974 face value increase to a firm fixed price contract for contractor logistics support for the AN/GYQ-50(V) Intelligence Hose Processing System. Contrct is expected to be completed May 1998. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, is the contracting activity (F09603-93/D-640-P00003).
Martin Marietta Electronics and Missiles, Orlando, Florida, is being awarded a $33,000,000 face value increase firm fixed price contract extends long lead funding for 18 Sharpshooter pods and 18 Navigation pods applicable to the Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night (LANTIRN) system for the F-16 aircraft, along with associated spares and support equipment. Contract is expected to be completed October 1995. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This effort supports foreign military sales to Egypt.
McDonnell Douglas Aerospace, McDonnell Douglas Corporation, St. Louis, Missouri, is being awarded a $4,760,1290 firm fixed price (base-year) contract for the FY 95/96 foreign comparative testing of Russian M-31 Aerial Targets to fulfill the mission requirements of the Supersonic Sea Skimming Target (SSST). This contract contains options, which if exercised, will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured under full and open competition and one offer was received.
Lockheed Martin is monitoring Air National Guard evaluations of an F-16 fighter equipped with an electro-optical reconnaissance pod. The company is providing the pod, sensor suite and ground station equipment to the Guard at no cost as one of several off-the-shelf options for replacement of the RF-4C reconnaissance aircraft. Lockheed Martin said the options take advantage of F-16 reconnaissance developments dating back to the 1980s.
Texas Instruments, Dallas, Texas, is being awarded a $5,293,632 face value increase to a Firm Fixed Price contract for 96 Aircraft Launcher Interface Computers applicable to the launcher for the AGM-88 High Speed Antiradiation Missile (HARM). Contract is expected to be completed May 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-0043-P00008).
Listen to the talk going around the U.S. remote sensing industry these days, and you'll likely hear about technical advances and political decisions that are allowing the emergence of new, high-resolution commercial imaging systems. But if remote sensing is to successfully follow the computer industry in making the leap from a limited domain used by scientists and government into a high-volume, mass-market business, quality will have to be a paramount concern, says one senior remote sensing executive.
Even though the Army needs $14 billion annually for modernization, it can get by with $12 billion, according to the service's R&D and acquisition chief, but he warned that the $10.5 billion currently in the fiscal 1996 request is "dangerously low." Gilbert Decker, assistant secretary for research, development and acquisition, told a National Security Industrial Association conference in Arlington, Va., Friday that "to really fix a 10-division force with all its supporting structure we really ought to have about $14 billion in modernization."
The European Union needs to radically overhaul its industrial policy to promote the growth of pan-European aeronautics companies, according to Manfred Bischoff, soon to be the chief executive officer of Germany's largest aerospace group. He said that both civilian and military aerospace production are riddled with overcapacity and waste limited national resources, and that Europe's aeronautics sector faces a growing disadvantage against the U.S. unless it is restructured.
Westinghouse Electronic Systems Group, Baltimore, Maryland, is being awarded an $8,142,000 Firm Fixed Price contract for upgrade of four Radar Test Benches applicable to the B-1B aircraft. Contract is expected to be completed May 1999. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. One firm solicited; one proposal received. The solicitation was issued in July 1994 and negotiations were completed in March 1995. Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, Tinker Air Force Base, Ohio is the contracting activity (F34601-95/C-0222).
NASA is replacing the panel at Johnson Space Center that oversees the protocols for medical research involving human subjects in the wake of an incident last fall when an astronaut suffered a severe allergic reaction to a tracer chemical. Administrator Daniel S. Goldin told The DAILY the space agency is also setting up a medical ethics task force to review the whole question of medical experiments on humans "tops to bottom."
Martin Marietta Technologies, Incorporated, Electronics and Missiles, Orlando, Florida, is being awarded a $750,000 increment as part of a not- to-exceed $7,850,000 cost plus fixed fee contract for a study to reduce the cost of manufacturing millimeter wave transceivers (flexible manufacturing environment for millimeter wave transceivers, Manufacturing Science and Technology Project #2051). Work will be performed in Orlando, Florida, and is expected to be completed by September 30, 2001. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
