U.K. Defense Secretary Geoffrey Hoon told reporters yesterday that he was proud of Britain's leading role in changing the whole focus of debate on European military unification. "But I have to say," he added, "I have been disappointed at the sometimes curious misrepresentation of what we are trying to do".
General Electric Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, is being awarded a $105,285,304 modification to a firm-fixed-price contract, F33657-94-D-2000-0099, to provide for 32 F110GE100B engines applicable to the F-16 aircraft. Approximately 47% of this effort (15 engines) supports foreign military sales to Egypt. Expected contract completion date is Dec. 31, 2000. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity.
Northrop Grumman Corp., Rolling Meadows, Ill., is being awarded a $53,214,200 modification to a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract, F41608-93-C-0064-P00075, to extend development and production of the Block II Test Program Sets to October 2001 and March 2002 respectively, in support of the F-15 aircraft Electronic Systems Test Set (ESTS) program. The ESTS will provide an upgraded electronic test capability utilizing off-the-shelf technology. Expected contract completion date is March 2002. Negotiation completion date was Nov. 24, 1999.
Avtel Services Inc., Mojave, Calif., is being awarded $14,510,478 as part of a firm-fixed-price with cost reimbursable line items contract, with a cumulative total of $66,121,697, to provide life cycle contractor support for the U.S. Army Airborne Reconnaissance Low (MRL) DeHavilland DHC-7 Program. Work will be performed at Fort Bliss, Texas (65%), and with the U.S. Forces in Korea (35%), and is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2004. Of the total contract funds, $14,510,478 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
SDS International, Arlington, Va., won a contract to support Phase I of the Air Force's Distributed Mission Training (DMT) Operations and Integration program. The DMT program would provide the Air Force with a high-fidelity, synthetic environment in which to conduct realistic team training and mission rehearsal profiles, the company said. DMT will include about 100 different sets of aircraft and weapons systems forming a single common synthetic battlefield from various global locations.
Raytheon's Brazilian subsidiary, Raytheon Brasil Sistemsas de Integracao, has delivered the first operational equipment for a new system the Brazilian government will use to monitor the Amazon River basin.
Bath Iron Works Corp., Bath, Maine, is being awarded a $324,071,772 modification to its FY98-FY01 DDG 51 class multiyear contract which provides funding for the FY00 multiyear ship (DDG 96). This amount includes incorporation of approved changes to the FY00 baseline. Advance procurement funding in the amount of $27,450,000 was previously provided for this ship in March 98 in combination with award of the FY98-FY01 multiyear contract. Work will be performed in Bath, Maine, and is expected to be completed by April 2005.
McDonnell Douglas Corp., St. Louis, Mo., is being awarded a $15,213,895 firm-fixed-price contract to provide for post-production support for the F-15 aircraft. This program will provide a technical and management infrastructure to respond to operational problems, technology assessments, and maintenance of documentation, data, and centralized configuration control authority. Approximately 15% of this effort supports foreign military sales to Saudi Arabia and Israel. Expected contract completion date is Nov. 30, 2000. Solicitation issue date was Oct. 27, 1999.
The Bell-Boeing Joint Program Office, Patuxent River, Md., has been awarded a $634 million contract modification to definitize the advance acquisition contract for the production of ten MV-22 aircraft, the Pentagon announced. Work on the contract is scheduled to be completed by October 2002. Naval Air Systems Command awarded the contract.
DEBIS AIR FINANCE of Amsterdam has placed a $100 million order for CFM56-5B engines to power 10 firm Airbus A320 family aircraft scheduled for delivery beginning in 2003.
Controllers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center were activating the Terra Earth Observing System (EOS) spacecraft yesterday after its launch Saturday from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. A modified Atlas IIAS rocket lifted the $1.3 billion spacecraft from a newly modified launch pad at 1:57 p.m. EST Saturday, sending it into its proper orbit 14 minutes later. The gallium arsenide solar arrays deployed as scheduled, according to a mission status report.
The Pentagon next month plans a multi-service evaluation of Lockheed Martin's new Theater Battle Management Core System (TBMCS), the company reported. Lockheed Martin and the Dept. of Defense recently completed preliminary tests of the next-generation command and control system and gave the green light for the multi-service test.
The first U.K.-built Hellfire II and Longbow Hellfire missiles were delivered to the U.K. Ministry of Defense in a ceremony outside Belfast, Northern Ireland, Lockheed Martin announced.
Northrop Grumman Corp., Baltimore, Md., is being awarded a $39,023,382 firm-fixed-price contract to provide for 49 upgrade kits applicable to the AN/ALQ-131 electronic countermeasures system on the F-16 aircraft. These kits will upgrade the system from the Block I to Block II configuration. This effort supports foreign military sales to Egypt. Expected contract completion date is December 2001. Solicitation issue date was July 1, 1999. Negotiation completion date is Nov. 18, 1999.
Northrop Grumman said its Integrated Systems and Aerostructures division will begin depot airframe maintenance on the B-2 bomber at the company's Palmdale, Calif., facility. The programmed depot maintenance (PDM) contract falls under a $47 million delivery order as part of a U.S. Air Force B-2 overall support contract. PDM is maintenance work that cannot be performed at Whiteman AFB, Mo., the home base of the B-2.
Boeing North American, Long Beach, Calif., has been awarded a $10.6 million contract to provide for 36 Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM)/1760 Launcher Conversion Kits in support of the conventional mission upgrade program for the B-1B aircraft, the Pentagon announced. The kits will allow the JDAM to be launched from the B-1B. The contract was awarded by the U.S. Air Force's Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. The contract is expected to be completed by March, 2002.
Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Electronic&Missile Division, Orlando, Fla., is being awarded a $31,645,292 firm-fixed-price contract for 8 Target Acquisition Designation Sensor/Pilot Night Vision Sight (TADS/PNVS) Systems, spare parts and associated support for the Apache Helicopter (AH64), for the country of Singapore. Work will be performed in Orlando, Fla., and is expected to be completed by May 31, 2001. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on June 1, 1999. The U.S.
NASA's Space Shuttle Discovery is scheduled to grapple the ailing Hubble Space Telescope today, setting the stage for a truncated mission to replace all six of its critical gyros and upgrade other spacecraft systems. Discovery thundered aloft in a picture-perfect launch Sunday night after two months of delays for inspections, repairs, safety-related paperwork checks and weather. Liftoff came at 7:50 p.m. EST as the last launch window of the year opened.
Boeing has received an $18.8 million U.S. Navy contract for 34 MA-31 target vehicles. The targets, converted from Russian X-31 supersonic anti-ship missiles, will be used by the U.S. Navy to simulate sea-skimming missiles attacking the fleet.
General Atomics of San Diego received a $49.4 million U.S. Air Force contract for 12 more Predator unmanned aerial reconnaissance vehicles, the Pentagon reported. The new contract brings to 72 the number of Predators the Air Force has ordered, 44 of which have already been built. The company said the new contract is an add-on to a previous contract of $47 million, bringing the total to $96.4 million.
AIRPORT SLOWDOWN: U.S. air travelers are likely to face "hublock" at the nation's airports if present traffic growth rates are maintained. That's the word Spence M. Armstrong, associate NASA administrator for aero-space technology, uses to describe what will happen when the traffic exceeds the capability of the big hub airports to handle it, even with new control technology and infrastructure.
FALLOUT FEARS: Loss of the Mars Polar Lander to still-undetermined causes, and the earlier loss of its companion Mars Climate Orbiter to a mixup over metric and English measurement units, has dampened morale at JPL to the soaking point. Rumors abound, but in a buck-up speech last Wednesday JPL Director Edward Stone tells his staff what won't happen as NASA reviews the twin failures. "The Mars program is not being canceled," he says. "The Mars program is not moving somewhere else.
EXPORT CONTROL: International Space Station managers aren't the only civil space officials chafing under strict new U.S. export control regulations (DAILY, Dec. 16). The Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission tentatively planned for launch in 2005 aboard Europe's Ariane 5 rocket is also bogged down in State Dept. red tape, according to Cornell's Steven W. Squyres, a planetary scientist who serves on the NASA Advisory Council.
Airbus confirmed that deliveries of its A320 family aircraft will be a "couple of weeks late" next year. A spokeswoman told The DAILY that the problem lies with BAE Systems, which produces wings for Airbus narrowbodies. Despite the delay, the problem will not affect Airbus' increased production rate, and all airlines will receive 2000 deliveries. "We have implemented an all-encompassing recovery program to absolutely minimize the delays," the spokeswoman said.
The Dept. of Defense is ready for the Year 2000 computer rollover, according to Deputy Secretary of Defense John J. Hamre. DOD, he said, has monitored the fixing, testing and certification of essential computerized systems, totaling 2,101 mission critical systems and 5,488 mission support systems.
