SHIP REPAIR: Todd Shipyards Corp. said Feb. 14 that the U.S. Navy awarded a company subsidiary a $28.7 million contract modification for work on the USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier (CVN-74), including alteration and repair of the ship's systems, shipboard equipment and ship hull preservation. The Navy also awarded Todd Pacific a $15.8 million modification for overhaul of the USS Ford (FFG-54). Todd built the Ford and delivered it to the Navy in 1985.
NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., has awarded a $13.4 million contract to Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. to build a photometer for the Kepler planet-hunting mission. Scheduled to launch in 2007, the Kepler mission is the first space mission specifically designed to detect Earth-size planets orbiting in the habitable zone of other stars. Ball also will build the spacecraft, under a separate contract.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI) is expanding into a new production facility in the Sabre Springs area of San Diego to meet increased demand for its MQ-1 Predator A and MQ-9 Predator B unmanned aerial vehicles, the company said Feb. 14.
EADS Military Aircraft delivered the first single-seat Eurofighter from German series production to the German air force, the company said Feb. 14. "Alongside the eight twin-seaters for pilot training that have already been delivered, the Luftwaffe now has the first single-seater Eurofighter destined for flight operations, ..." Johann Heitzmann, CEO of the company, said in a ceremony in Manching when the aircraft was delivered.
Tel-Instrument Electronics Corp. said Feb. 15 that its quarterly net income dropped from $137,187 in 2003 to $42,046 for the quarter ended Dec. 31. The drop was due to a delay in deliveries for existing contracts, as well as losses for the company's marine division. Tel-Instrument designs and builds avionics testing equipment and its marine division, Innerspace Technology, builds shipboard and underwater instruments.
RT Logic has delivered satellite equipment to Raytheon Co. for use on the National Polar-orbiting Operational Envionmental Satellite System's command, control and communications segment, the Colorado Springs, Colo.-based company said Feb. 14. The company shipped six payload pre-processor systems to process the NPOESS data downlink, and five telemetry and command modems, which are being installed at NASA's satellite ground station in Norway to process command, control and mission data.
Northrop Grumman has no plans to close any of its shipyards, according to company president and CEO Ron Sugar, despite the cuts in ship production outlined in the Navy's fiscal year 2006 budget. Northrop Grumman's Ship Systems division has four major shipyards - three along the Gulf Coast and one in Newport News, Va. For the time being, "we've got a significant backlog of orders in all of those yards," Sugar said during a press briefing in Washington Feb. 15.
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has found a new class of rock that appears to have been shaped by water, bolstering the case for the Gusev Crater region having a watery past.
WARRIOR: General Atomics has controlled its Warrior UAV demonstrator from the Army's "One System" Ground Control Station (GCS), the company said Feb. 14. General Atomics and partner AAI Corp., which developed the One System GCS, began the flights in early January using their own funds. Control of the Warrior was handed off to the One System GCS in flight. A modified Predator UAV, the Warrior is competing with Northrop Grumman's Hunter II in the Army's Extended Range/Multipurpose UAV program.
United Defense Industries Inc. of York, Pa., has been awarded two contracts worth $68.2 million for the Bradley Fighting Vehicle program, the company said Feb. 14. The contracts were awarded by the U.S. Army's Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM).
NASA is developing a self-contained flight termination system for rockets and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that the agency thinks could greatly reduce the ground infrastructure, turnaround time, and cost of future launches.
Sales for Ballistic Recovery Systems Inc. of South St. Paul, Minn., were up 25.3% in the first quarter of fiscal 2005 compared with the same period a year ago, the company said Feb. 14. Sales in the first quarter of FY '05, which ended Dec. 31, were $1.8 million, compared with $1.4 million in the first quarter of FY '04. Strong sales in Europe and more units shipped to Cirrus Design were the main contributors to the increase, the company said.
TANK AMMO: Minneapolis-based Alliant Techsystems (ATK) will continue to produce 120mm training ammunition used by the Army's M1A1/A2 Abrams main battle tank and provide ammo logistics support under $54 million in orders, the company said. The orders were awarded by the U.S. Army Joint Munitions Command, Rock Island, Ill. This is the second annual procurement under a four-year contract. The potential total value is $220 million. Deliveries are set to start in December 2005.
The United Kingdom's Joint Rapid Reaction Force (JRRF) has a new EADS-built communications network to provide increased command and control capability for its army, navy and air force, the U.K. Ministry of Defence said Feb. 11. The Cormorant system can be transported by air and set up quickly to allow communications between units and back to the U.K. "as soon as the JRRF arrives in a foreign trouble spot," the MOD said.
ON TRACK: The joint venture responsible for the U.S. Coast Guard's Deepwater recapitalization program sees "robust" presidential support in the 33% proposed budget increase for fiscal 2006, a spokeswoman told The DAILY Feb. 14. While Integrated Coast Guard Systems (ICGS) has not seen details of President Bush's Deepwater-related proposal, released Feb. 7, it does not expect any schedule or program changes, spokeswoman Margaret Mitchell-Jones said. ICGS is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp.
SUB WORK: The U.S. Navy awarded General Dynamics Electric Boat a contract modification for $60.9 million for nuclear-submarine work, the company announced late Feb. 11. The contract initially was awarded last March and is potentially worth more than $1.1 billion over five years if fully exercised (DAILY, May 7, 2004).
FALCON CONTRACTS: Harris Corp. of Rochester, N.Y., has been awarded $12 million in contracts to provide Falcon(R) II tactical radios to the Danish Ministry of Defence, the company said Feb. 14. Harris has provided Falcons to the Danish Army Material Command (DAMC) for United Nations, NATO and Partnership for Peace missions.
TUAV: AAI Corp. will provide the U.S. Army with an additional Shadow Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (TUAV) system and support equipment under a $14.4 million contract, AAI's subsidiary, United Industrial Corp., said Feb. 14. The system will be produced along with eight TUAV systems that were ordered in December 2004 under the fiscal 2005 full-rate production contract. Three mobile maintenance facility (MMF) units were also added to the contract. The work will be done at AAI's manufacturing facility in Hunt Valley, Md.
