AIR FORCE General Atomics-Aeronautical Systems, San Diego, Calif., is being awarded a $36,940,499 fixed price incentive firm contract to provide for four MQ-9A Air Vehicles. At this time, $27,705, 374 of the funds have been obligated. This work will be complete by December 2006. Solicitation began March 2004 and negotiations were completed July 2004. Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-02-G-4035).
Some aerospace and defense companies are expected to meet or exceed second quarter earnings expectations, Stephens Inc. Investment Bankers said July 12. Second quarter earnings results, which are just starting to emerge, will continue to be released through July and August.
SIRENZA MICRODEVICES, INC. has announced the introduction of a variety of radio frequency (RF) components. They include: DC-20 GHz InP HBT Gain Blocks; DC-3500 MHz Mixer family; Frequency Multipliers and Dividers; Narrow Band and Broadband VCOs operating up to X Band; 20-100 GHz Double Balanced Schottky Diode Mixer family; and 2-16 GHz, 1/4 Watt Distributed Amplifier. The new products were showcased at the IEEE-MTTS Symposium and Exhibition earlier this month.
July 11 - 14 - AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE 40th Joint Propulsion Conference, Broward County Convention Center, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Call (703) 264-7500, fax (703) 264-7657 or go to www.aiaa.org. July 17 -- National Aviation Hall of Fame Enshrinement Ceremony, Dayton Convention Center, Dayton, Ohio. For information contact Ron Kaplan at (937) 256-0944, email [email protected] or go to www.nationalaviation.org.
AIR FORCE Abacus Technology Corp., Chevy Chase, Md., is being awarded a $7,093,453.17 firm fixed price contract to provide for Command, Control, Communications, Computer (C4) contract. Location of performance is Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M. Total funds have been obligated. Solicitation began March 2004 and negotiations were completed July 2004. The 377th Contracting Squadron, Albuquerque, N.M., is the contracting activity (FA9401-04-R-0004).
ELEVATOR RACE: The nonprofit Spaceward Foundation of Mountain View, Calif., is collecting pledges to fund an X Prize-like competition intended to spur the development of space elevator technology, according to Spaceward Foundation Manager Metzada Shelef. The "Space Elevator Challenge" prize will be awarded to the first team that can haul 550 pounds (250 kilograms) of payload moving at 22.5 miles per hour (10 meters per second) up a 10-mile (16 kilometer) tether using a beamed power system.
SYPRIS DATA SYSTEMS, San Dimas, Calif. Col. Tom Newberry (USA-Ret.), chief operating officer for 3D Research Corp., Capt. Rasler Smith (USMC-Ret.), senior scientist for the New Mexico State University Physical Science Laboratory in the Information Operations Laboratory and Maj. Gen. Chuck Thomas (USA-Ret.), a vice president with BAE Systems, Analytical Solutions, have been named to the company's new board of advisers.
JSF ASSEMBLY: Production of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is starting to snowball. Assembly of the forward fuselage for the first flight-test jet is scheduled to get under way July 12 at Lockheed Martin facilities in Fort Worth, Texas, less than two months after Northrop Grumman announced it had begun building the center fuselage in Palmdale, Calif. (DAILY, May 20). In just a few weeks, Lockheed Martin expects to kick off wing production in Fort Worth. Within a few months, BAE Systems plans to start assembling the aft fuselage and tails in Samlesbury, England.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - A new push to begin work toward establishment of a separate military "space corps" may be getting under way, according to industry officials. Such a corps was advocated in the Space Commission Report of January 2001, but little has been said publicly about it since then. Sources now say a new effort may be coalescing to take advantage of what probably will be a new tier of civilian leaders at the Pentagon next year, no matter who wins the presidential election in November.
JACOBS SVERDRUP will be awarded a contract worth more than $48 million by NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., to provide support services for facilities maintenance and operations and aerospace testing. The contract covers ARC's wind tunnels, thermophysics testing complex, and other aerospace testing complexes. Jacobs Sverdrup, an advanced technology company based in Tullahoma, Tenn., will provide testing services for NASA programs such as space science initiatives, the Crew Exploration Vehicle, the X-37, and the space shuttle return to flight effort.
ARMY Tower Industries Inc., Ontario, Calif., was awarded on July 13, 2004, a $22,310,000 firm-fixed-price contract for 28,750 BDU-50C/B 500 pound practice bombs. Work will be performed in Ontario, Calif., and is expected to be completed by Oct. 31, 2005. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There were 73 bids solicited on Oct. 10, 2003, and four bids were received. The U.S. Army Field Support Command, Rock Island, Ill., is the contracting activity (W52P1J-04-C-0077).
