A U.S. Navy-led team has completed a series of flight tests of the Tactical Aircraft Directional Infrared Countermeasures (TADIRCM) system, Lockheed Martin Sanders reported yesterday. Developed by Sanders for the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) as an Advanced Technology Demonstration (ATD) program, the tests were to demonstrate the application of directed IR countermeasure technologies to tactical, fixed wing aircraft.
Raytheon Co. has won a five-year contract from the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command to provide support, maintenance and enhancements for the Extended Air Defense Testbed (EADTB) program, the company reported yesterday. The basic effort is valued at $42.5 million and includes a $57.5 million surge option. There is also a five-year $100 million extension option which would bring the total potential value of the contract to $200 million over 10 years.
Vision Systems International (VSI), a partnership between Elbit Systems and Kaiser Electronics, was selected to make the advanced helmet-mounted display for Lockheed Martin's Joint Strike Fighter (JSF, Lockheed Martin reported. VSI currently is developing the joint helmet-mounted cueing system (JHMCS) under a separate contract for use in U.S. frontline aircraft, including the F-16, F-22, F-15 and F/A-18. The JHMCS has passed critical safety of flight qualification tests and has entered the flight test phase for these aircraft.
Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said he is prepared to recommend a presidential veto for the House version of the defense appropriations bill, which sets Congress up as the budget authority for his department.
The first two Apache Longbow pilots from the U.K. have completed training at Boeing Co.'s Mesa, Ariz., facility. The aviators, who graduated last week, are the first of 21 British Army Air Corps pilots to be trained by Boeing over the next nine months, the company said yesterday. The pilots spent three months learning to fly the WAH-64, the U.K.'s version of the AH-64D Apache Longbow.
An independent team that reports to NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin has concluded cost estimates for a Space Shuttle reusable first stage (RFS) prepared by Marshall Space Flight Center are too low because they rely on immature rocket engine technology.
Precision Castparts Corp. has extended the expiration date of its tender offer for Wyman-Gordon stock until midnight EDT, Aug. 27. The new expiration date depends on the applicable waiting period, and any extension, under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act. If the waiting period is terminated before Aug. 13, the companies said, the expiration date will be ten business days immediately following public disclosure of the expiration or termination of the waiting period under the HSR Act.
The contractor team developing the Airborne Laser system accepted delivery of the largest optical quality domed window ever manufactured, taking what it said was a major step in production of the turret window for the ABL aircraft, a modified Boeing 747-400 whose mission will be to shoot down ballistic missiles in their boost phase.
LOCKHEED MARTIN Information Systems has been selected by Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems as a teammate for the design, development and delivery of F-16 training systems and support equipment.
Raytheon Co. won a $112.6 million U.S. Navy contract to provide operation and maintenance services for the Relocatable-Over-The-Horizon-Radar (ROTHR) systems in Virginia, Texas and Puerto Rico. Raytheon said yesterday that it also will provide engineering and training services in support of the sites. The five-year award includes a base year and four one-year options.
High-resolution imagery from the Mars Global Surveyor is helping planners pick a landing site near the Red Planet's south pole for the Mars '98 lander set to touch down there Dec. 3, while Mars Climate Orbiter controllers will use the data to calculate the aerobraking trajectories they will use this fall.
The U.K. Ministry of Defense reported that increased efficiency led to savings of almost 600 million pounds ($967.9 million), about 90 million pounds ($145.2 million) more than the target during 1998-99.
A federal grand jury is investigating Lockheed Martin over possible sales kickbacks related to a 1990 international sale of area defense radar systems. On July 15, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California issued a subpoena, seeking documents relating to the sale by Lockheed Martin Sanders and the compensation of an international sales consultant relating to the sale, Lockheed Martin reported in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Monday.
Compass Aerospace Corp., Long Beach, Calif., has acquired U.K-based Trim Engineering Ltd., which makes aerospace structural parts, Compass reported. The Trim Engineering Group is comprised of six businesses: Trim Engineering, Trefn Engineering, Trefn Metal Treatments, Diac, Maybrey, and Trefn Fabrications. Trim's customers include British Aerospace-Airbus, Shorts Brothers, Boeing, de Havilland and Canadair. The company reports annual revenues of about $40 million.
The German federal court confirmed that two Germans have been arrested on charges of selling military high-technology secrets to Russia, according to news reports from Berlin. One of the men arrested was an engineer working for DASA and the other was a businessman who made frequent trips to Moscow. A spokeswoman for the court said the pair was arrested in late July and authorities seized a large number of documents, including ones on tank defense systems. Another report said the two also sold documents on the Eurofighter's new missile system.
CAROL DiBATTISTE was confirmed Aug. 5 as the under secretary of the U.S. Air Force. She replaces F. Whitten Peters, who became Secretary of the AF earlier this month. DiBattiste has served as deputy in the U.S. Attorney's Miami office since January 1998 and retired from the AF judge advocate corps in 1991.
The U.S. Navy and Bombardier have delayed flight demonstrations of Bombardier's VL 327 vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) unmanned aerial vehicle until next month in order to work the flights into the deployment schedule of a U.S. Coast Guard cutter and allow time for the company to finish land-based tests. Shipboard flight tests of the concept demonstrator had been slated for August, but ship availability and integration of an automatic recovery system necessitated scheduling the later date, said a Navy spokesperson.
Legislation NASA has sent to Capitol Hill would let the agency's administrator waive some or all of the costs associated with a new commercial activity on the International Space Station as a way to promote startup businesses on the orbiting facility.
The Central Intelligence Agency has been tasked to form an intelligence community advisory group to monitor licensing for overseas launch of commercial satellites. The House and Senate defense authorization conferees call for the new advisory group in the report accompanying their fiscal year 2000 defense bill.
The deadline for completing Japan's F-2 fighter will be extended another three months until March 2000, following discovery of flaws in a prototype. The delay, according to press reports from Japan, was caused by cracks found on a left wing. In mid-May 1998, a crack developed in the right wing of one of the prototypes during static testing.
The U.S. Dept. of Defense should incubate advanced technology projects within the protective science and technology (S&T) environment longer, prototyping the systems before making them part of a mainstream acquisition program, according to the General Accounting Office. The military tends to move untested technology into major programs before the new systems have been adequately tested, GAO said in a report that urged the Pentagon to adopt commercial best practices, which allow new products to mature before becoming part of a major program.
Israel Aircraft Industries' MLM Div. and BVR Systems (1998) Ltd. agreed to end all commercial disputes and litigation, the companies reported yesterday. Under the agreement, BVR and IAI\MLM will both market EHUD ACMI products in various territories. They will work together to maintain interoperability between their communication protocols in order to enable users of either of the systems to communicate with each other.
The U.S. Air Force is conducting a shoot-off of two warheads at Eglin AFB, Fla., for the new AGM-86D penetrator variant of the Conventional Air Launched Cruise Missile (CALCM). The tests, to gather performance and cost-benefit data, are comparing the Advanced Unitary Penetrator (AUP) 3M from Lockheed Martin and the Multiple Warhead System (MWS) from British Aerospace and Matra of France.
DeCrane Aircraft Holdings Inc., a maker of avionics components and cabin management products, and a systems integrator for the commercial and corporate aircraft industry, acquired Custom Woodwork&Plastics Inc. (CWP). Details of the cash transaction were not released. CWP, headquartered in Savannah, Ga., makes interior furniture components for corporate aircraft. One of its biggest customers is Gulfstream. CWP has furnished interior components for about 200 Gulfstream jets over a 12-year period.
