The Navy may find a single contractor to support an open systems architecture approach to engineering across various missions for Naval Sea Systems Command (NSSC), according to an Aug. 28 announcement in Federal Business Opportunities. The announcement is a request for information, meaning no funds have been obligated, although the Navy may use industry responses to help formulate the system's requirements.
The Boeing Co. said Aug. 29 it won't resume negotiations with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) next week, as the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service had requested. "At the end of the scheduled talks, both sides had presented their final proposals and the process was ready to move to a vote," Boeing said in a statement released Aug. 29. "There is nothing left to negotiate."
Integrated Coast Guard Systems issued a broad industry announcement Aug. 29 for new technologies and product capabilities in support of the Coast Guard's Integrated Deepwater Program. The Coast Guard in June awarded ICGS - a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Naval Electronic Systems and Northrop Grumman Ship Systems sector - a contract worth $11 billion to modernize the service's cutters, fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters and command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) systems (DAILY, June 26).
After Northrop Grumman's decision to withdraw a protest it launched earlier this year, the Air Force is set to move ahead with a contract to TRW Inc. for management and sustainment services to the Air Force Weather Agency. The contract, potentially worth $119 million, is set to kick off in September, according to TRW. "We are just about to start performing on the contract, hopefully next week," Al Ronn, TRW's program manager, told The DAILY Aug. 29.
The X-31A thrust-vectoring aircraft program will provide crucial data for the Navy in its assessment of whether extremely short takeoff and landing (ESTOL) will be feasible on aircraft carriers, according to X-31 A VECTOR Program Manager Jennifer Young. Using thrust vectoring to allow ESTOL, future aircraft could land on carriers at significantly slower speeds, lessening fatigue on their airframes and landing gear.
NEW DELHI - Indian officials are disputing statements from Rosoboronexport, the Russian arms export agency, that they have bought substandard spares for the Indian air force's fleet of MiG-21 aircraft, which could be a factor in the aircraft's high accident rate in India. Rosoboronexport Director General Andrei Belyaninov said in Moscow Aug. 27 that India has been buying numerous secondhand MiG spares and equipment from the former Soviet republics, parts he said are passed off as new.
The Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Aug. 29 were awarded more money as part of their ongoing work leading ballistic missile defense "national teams." Boeing received an additional $125 million for systems engineering and integration work, and Lockheed Martin got another $108 million for battle management, according to the Department of Defense. The national teams provide the Missile Defense Agency with independent analysis and technical assistance with the architecture of the ballistic missile defense system.
DOUBLE LAUNCH: An Arianespace Ariane 5 launcher successfully carried two satellites to orbit on Aug. 28 from Kourou, French Guiana. Flight 155 carried the Atlantic Bird 1 telecommunications satellite and the MSG-1 weather satellite. Arianespace's next launch is set for Sept. 6, when an Ariane 44L is scheduled to launch an Intelsat 906 telecommunications satellite.
ENGINE WORK: GE Aircraft Engines (GEAE) has begun a study of a jet engine that could power reusable flyback rocket boosters for a second-generation reusable launch vehicle. The study is being done under NASA's Space Launch Initiative program. Current shuttle solid rocket boosters parachute into the sea after launch and are retrieved. Flyback boosters could return to a designated landing site, using jet engines for power once the booster engines have shut down.
THE AEROSPACE CORP, El Segundo, Calif. David R. Walker has joined the corporation as vice president, National Space Systems Engineering. BII, Los Alamitos, Calif. Scott Radcliffe has been promoted to vice president of operations. CUBIC CORP., San Diego, Calif. John Minteer has been named vice president of Information Technology. ENGINEERED SUPPORT SYSTEMS, INC., St. Louis, Mo. Joseph H. Creaghead has been named president of its Keco Industries business unit.
C-17 WORK: Spirent Systems will supply Military Flight Operations Quality Assurance software to the Air Force to support C-17 Globemaster III operations, the company said Aug. 28.
Northrop Grumman Corp. has won a $23.3 million Air Force contract for low-rate initial production of the Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures (LAIRCM) system, intended to protect transports from shoulder-fired, heat-seeking missiles. The contract, awarded Aug. 27, followed Air Force approval to begin low-rate production. Four of the systems will be built for the C-17 Globemaster III airlifter this year, and nine more will be built in 2003. The first LAIRCM-protected C-17 would be delivered to Air Mobility Command in early 2004.
NASA's Ultra Long Duration Balloon (ULDB) will take another crack at circumnavigating the Earth this December, now that engineers believe they've solved a number of problems that plagued two previous attempts last year.
Arianespace Flight 155 was postponed for a day after a faulty computer connection between the control center and the launch vehicle caused the flight to miss its launch window. The Ariane 5 heavy-lift rocket is carrying a dual-payload - Eutelsat's Atlantic Bird 1 telecommunications satellite and Europe's Meteosat Second Generation 1 (MSG-1) meteorological satellite. Atlantic Bird 1 is riding in the upper payload position and will be deployed first.
A White House advisory panel is recommending the federal government dramatically increase science and technology spending and improve interagency coordination of nanotechnology and other research efforts.
Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.) is urging the Boeing Co. to stop threatening to shut down its commercial airplane operations if workers go on strike, saying such "inflammatory rhetoric" could sour efforts to produce a new labor contract. Boeing's threats are "irresponsible and certainly not in the best interests of contract negotiations," Tiahrt wrote in an Aug. 23 letter to Boeing Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Phil Condit. "I am hopeful that cooler heads will prevail and that an equitable agreement will be achieved."
EH-101 COMMUNICATIONS: Telephonics Corp. will deliver a configuration of its Secure Digital Intercommunications (SDI) system for use in EH-101 helicopters bound for Portugal and Denmark. The work will be done under a $3 million contract from Westland Helicopters.
The military response to the Sept. 11 attacks should sustain the upward trend of defense spending and may improve the profitability of some defense companies in the intermediate term, according to a report released Aug. 28 by Standard & Poor's.
BEARINGS: NASA workers are replacing cracked bearings on Space Shuttle Crawler Transporter No. 2, NASA said. Problems with the transporters have helped delay the mission of Atlantis, which now won't fly before Oct. 2.
Northrop Grumman's earnings would be hurt less if TRW Inc.'s Automotive unit is sold rather than being spun off to shareholders, according to a report from Deutsche Bank. Media reports have said TRW is close to reaching an agreement with the Blackstone and Carlyle groups to sell its Automotive unit for a reported $5 billion. TRW would not comment on those reports.
