Findings from the Sept. 2 Swissair MD-11 accident off Nova Scotia in which all 228 aboard were killed prompted the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board yesterday to recommend that FAA require, "on an expedited basis," inspection of the cockpit wiring in the Boeing trijets (DAILY, Jan. 11). The board said that Canadian investigators had found signs of electrical arcing in the wiring of the aircraft.
January 8, 1999 GTE Government Systems Corp., Mountain View, Calif., is being awarded a $9,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract to provide for software required to field the Theater Battle Management Core Systems. Expected contract completion date is Dec. 01, 2000. Solicitation issue date was Oct. 30, 1998. Negotiation completion date was Nov. 18, 1998. Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom AFB, Mass., is the contracting activity (F19628-99-D-0002).
Exide Electronics, Raleigh, N.C., plans to close its manufacturing operations in Leland, N.C., with the movement of manufacturing processes to other facilities beginning immediately. The Leland plant is one of five Exide sites and contract facilities that make uninterruptible power systems (UPS's). The 170,000-square foot plant opened in September 1990 and employs 161 full-time workers. Exide, which provides power management solutions, said no jobs will be affected until the summer, with phase-out of the facility completed by early fall.
U.S. warplanes patrolling the northern "no-fly" zone over Iraq attacked two surface-to-air missile sites after the planes were illuminated by fire-control radar in separate but almost simultaneous incidents early yesterday, according to Defense Dept. spokesmen.
Gores Technology Group (GTG), Los Angeles, has completed the acquisition of the real-time business of Encore Computer Corp., Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The business consists of developing and marketing real-time data systems used in military aircraft simulators and other applications. Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and most major airlines are among Encore's customers. GTG has been operating the business since signing a definitive agreement to acquire it on June 1.
January 8, 1999 Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Stratford, Conn., is being awarded an $11,000,000 cost-plus-fixed-fee letter contract to provide for CH-60S airborne mine counter measures towing demonstration. Work will be performed in Stratford, Conn., and is expected to be completed by Jan. 2000. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Div., Coast Systems Station, Panama City. Fla., is the contracting activity (N61331-99-D-0005).
Airbus Industrie set a record in 1998 with 556 firm orders for aircraft worth $39 billion, the European consortium reported yesterday. It said that in 1997, it received 460 orders valued at $29.6 billion, making 1998's performance 30% better in terms of sales and 20% better in terms of aircraft units. Airbus said that in addition to the firm orders for 556 aircraft, it received 174 announced commitments in 1998, bringing the total to 730.
Lockheed Martin's Joint Strike Fighter avionics team has demonstrated the company's JSF Integrated In-Flight Planner (IIFP) in a full-mission simulation. The company said the IIFP went through 32 simulations during the third Virtual Strike Warfare Environment exercise, hosted by the U.S. government at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, in November.
Congressional defense budget watchers have raised questions about whether the $12 billion increase in the fiscal year 2000 budget, which goes to Congress next month, is an increase at all. In fact, they can make a good argument that the new defense budget may actually amount to a slight decrease. The Administration's proposed $12 billion increase for FY 2000 would provide $4 billion to $4.5 billion in new money with the balance an increase in purchasing power.
Researchers working with bacteria taken from watery cracks in basalt 1,640 feet below the Columbia River basin in Washington state have produced structures that mimic those found in a Martian meteorite that some NASA scientists believe suggests evidence of ancient life on the Red Planet.
Prudential Securities is lowering its 1999 earnings estimate for Lockheed Martin. "The key issue here is that we have very little confidence in the precision of these numbers at this time, as we believe Lockheed Martin's financial performance is likely to be highly fluid - significantly reducing earnings visibility for 1999," Prudential said, pointing out that the company has not yet completed its 1999 strategic plan.
Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee's panel on military research and development, is hoping to get a seat on the House Intelligence Committee. The committee still has a number of open seats, but should soon have the roster filled. Weldon, one of the House's top advocates of ballistic missile defense, has been highly critical of the intelligence community's ability to provide adequate national intelligence estimates.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) is joining the Senate Armed Services Committee in the 106th Congress, not Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Tex.), as reported in The DAILY of Dec. 23.
The Royal Thai Air Force declared its first AN/FPS-130X air defense radar site fully operational, and did so ahead of schedule, according to Northrop Grumman, prime contractor for the system. Installation of 42 of the radars in the U.S. was completed recently. It is used for both air defense and air traffic control.
The Senate Commerce Committee's agenda for early this year includes an examination of the U.S. commercial space launch industry with consideration of removing obstacles to domestic launch capability. The initiative responds to congressional hearings into the possibility that sensitive technology may have been transferred as the result of Chinese launches of U.S. satellites.
Gen. Anthony Zinni, commander of the U.S. Central Command, said he is asking for eight more F-16CJ fighters and additional tanker aircraft to beef up forces opposing Iraq. "I've made a request for additional F-16CJs, eight of them, and additional tankers which obviously gives us the ability to stay up longer and react," he told reporters at a Pentagon briefing Friday.
The U.S. Air Force is combining various intelligence broadcast systems into one service that should eliminate possible confusion arising from having different and conflicting sources of information. The Pentagon has operated several different intelligence broadcast systems that provide warfighters with tactical intelligence, such as the Tactical Related Applications Data Dissemination System (TRAPS), Tactical Information Broadcast Service (TIBS), and the National Security Agency's Near Real-Time Dissemination system.
NASA contractors on the agency's Space Transportation Architecture study will present interim reports over the next three weeks as the agency grapples with the question of long-term human access to space. Boeing, Kelly Space and Technology, Lockheed Martin, Orbital Sciences and Space Access all will give updates on their analysis of the various scenarios for human spaceflight, including an upgraded Space Shuttle and a next-generation replacement, before homing in on specific elements of the scenarios (DAILY, Sept. 8, 1998).
