Scientists using the radio telescope at Aricebo, Puerto Rico, as a radar transmitter have tracked the lost U.S./European Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft spinning slowly near its original position at the L-1 Lagrangian point, raising new hopes it can be recovered.
C&S Antenna Inc., Sterling, Va., is being awarded a firm-fixed-price contract (appropriation number and dollar value will be issued with each delivery order) with a cumulative total of $7,252, 850, for up to 400 ANA/RC-100 antenna systems, and key antennas up to 50 of major components of this antenna. Work will be performed in Sterling, Va., and is expected to be completed by July 31, 2002. This is a sole source contract initiated on July 16, 1998. The contracting activity is the U.S. Army Communications&Electronics Command, Ft. Monmouth, N.J.
TAIWAN'S Ministry of Economic Affairs has begun running advertisements announcing the sale of shares in the Aerospace Industrial Development Corp., the state-owned prime contractor. The move is in accordance with an announced plan to privatize the operation. AIDC, based in Taichung, produces various helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, primarily under license agreements.
Raytheon Co., doing business as Raytheon Systems Co., Mukilteo, Wash., is being awarded a $8,660,878 firm-fixed-price contract for 40 Mk. 48 ADCAP Mods Torpedoes including the following: first article units, proofing support, turnaround kits, engineering services as necessary, provisioned item orders as necessary and engineering change proposals as necessary. Work will be performed in Mukilteo, Wash., and is expected to be completed by December 1999. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
The U.S. Air Force has decided to schedule its next major deployment of the B-2 bomber concurrent with the Expeditionary Force Experiment this September. The service will deploy B-2s to MacDill AFB, Fla., under operation "Buccaneer Spirit," an AF spokesman said Friday. The deployment will start Sept. 15 and run about 10 days. The B-2s, based at Whiteman AFB, Mo., are expected to participate in the live-fly portion of EFX '98, which will take place at the Hurlburt/Eglin AFB range complex.
Lockheed Martin Corp., Marietta, Ga., is being awarded a $22,400,000 face value increase to a firm-fixed-price-contract to provide for conversion of five C-130J aircraft to the KC-130J tanker configuration for the Marine Corps. Expected contract completion date is December 31, 2000. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-95-C-2055-P00012).
Egypt should buy a tactical command and control system and a forward area air defense system used by the U.S. Army to maximize cooperation between the countries during combined exercises and in wartime, according to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
LT. GEN. DAVID J. MCCLOUD, commander of U.S. Air Force Alaskan Command, died Saturday in a crash of his Yak-54 aircraft. McCloud, 53, took off from Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, and crashed shortly thereafter at nearbuy Ft. Richardson. A passenger, Lewis Cathrow of Alexandria, Va., was also killed. McCloud took the post as commander 11th Air Force in December after a stint as director for force structure, resources and assessment at the Joint Staff, where he was heavily involved in the Quadrennial Defense Review.
AT&T Communications Services, Greensboro, N.C., is being awarded an $11,500,000 face value increase to a firm-fixed-price-contract to provide equitable adjustment for extended rock clearance associated with installation of the Peace Shield Communication System. This effort supports foreign military sales to Saudi Arabia. Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom AFB, Mass., is the contracting activity, (F19628-96-C-0044, P00001).
BOEING CO. and the U.S. Navy have signed a $21.9 million agreement to develop a replacement for the F/A-18E/F's mission computer and displays that would lay the foundation for growth in the strike fighter. The Advanced Mission Computer and Displays (AMCD) system is intended to provide long-term growth at lower operations and support costs. The upgrade is being planned even as the first Super Hornets are about to come off the production line. Boeing will develop a prototype system. AMDC would use an open system architecture and commercial-off-the-shelf systems.
Boeing Co. has begun a series of demonstrations to show the U.S. government how it is progressing on its Joint Strike Fighter preferred weapon system (PWS) concept. Boeing plans to run the demonstrations until mid-2000, when the government will decide between it and Lockheed Martin to develop and produce the multi-role, multi-service fighter.
Russia and India are settling terms for sale to India of the aircraft-carrying cruiser Admiral as the commander of the Indian Navy, Adm. Vishnu Bhagavata, visits Russia this week. Although the contract for the sale has not yet been signed, the principal decision to do so has already been made. The main issue to be resolved is what kind of weaponry the cruiser will carry and, hence, its price.
Alliant Techsystems Inc., Janesville, Wis., is being awarded a $7,275,864 firm-fixed-price-contract to provide for 5,152 DSU-33B/B proximity sensors applicable to the Joint Direct Attack Munition and various general purpose bombs. There were 12 firms solicited and 4 proposals received. Expected contract completion date is September, 2000. Solicitation issue date was March 17, 1998. Aeronautical Systems Center, Eglin AFB, Fla., is the contracting activity (F08626-98-C-0001).
The Aerospace Industries Association and the Satellite Industry Association say they will oppose the fiscal 1999 defense authorization bill if it retains language transferring control of commercial communications satellite exports back to the State Dept. from the Dept. of Commerce.
LB&B ASSOCIATES INC., Columbia, Md., will provide test operations support to the Science and Engineering Directorate at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center under a contract worth as much as $30 million if all four one-year options are exercised. The small, minority, woman-owned business will provide technicians to operate and maintain test facilities in the propulsion laboratory at MSFC, NASA said. Consolidated Industries Inc., of Huntsville, Ala., previously held the contract.
NASA has asked teams headed by Lockheed Martin and Boeing to extend their bids in the Consolidated Space Operations Contract (CSOC) competition for at least 90 days to give source selection officials time to gather more information. A space agency Source Evaluation Board faxed the request on Thursday, and the contractor teams were reviewing their internal arrangements Friday to see what actions would be necessary to honor it.
Russia's government still believes it is on track to meet the latest revision of the International Space Station assembly schedule, and the head of the Russian Space Agency tells Vice President Al Gore as much in Moscow. Yuri Koptiev says he gave Gore the good news during the first meeting of the Gore-Kiriyenko Commission, which replaces the Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission that set up Russia's involvement in the Station program.
HENRI ZIEGLER, founding father of Airbus Industrie, died July 23 at age 92, the company reported Friday. He was the principle inspiration behind the Airbus A300B program, launched in 1969, as well as the driver of the consortium's integrated management and sales structure, the GIE, created in 1970. Ziegler subsequently became Airbus Industrie's managing director until his retirement in 1975.
The Russian Ministry of Defense and the Zvezda-Strela State Science and Production Center continue to disagree over delivery to the U.S. Navy of supersonic targets based on the SS-N-22 Sunburn anti-ship missile. Boeing Co. won a tender to deliver MA-31 targets to the U.S. Navy, which envisioned getting 20-40 a year.
The U.S. Air Force and Boeing have begun talking about the costs of shutting down the F-15 production line. Unless Boeing can book some new foreign military sales for the F-15E, the line will shut down after delivery of the last Air Force F-15E in February 2000. Greece and Turkey have shown interest in the interdiction aircraft, and Israel is considering a second buy of F-15Is. An AF official says the cost of shutting down the line is estimated at $20 million-$30 million.
KISTLER AEROSPACE has started work on its planned commercial spaceport in South Australia, to support the first test flights of its K-1 reusable launch vehicle. "Spaceport Woomera," scheduled for completion in the fourth quarter of 1998, will be the first of two launch facilities Kistler will use to process, fly and retrieve its two-stage-to-orbit satellite launcher. A second spaceport is planned in Nevada, pending U.S. government approval, with construction to begin "in the 1999-2000 time frame," Kistler said.
First run of a BMW Rolls-Royce engine modified for Britain's Nimrod MRA4 aircraft has been completed on schedule, the company announced. It said the BR710 ran successfully at BMW Rolls-Royce's Development and Assembly Center at Dahlewitz, near Berlin.
ECHOSTAR COMMUNICATIONS CORP. has completed primary testing of its EchoStar IV direct-broadcast satellite and is moving it into position at 148 degrees West longitude. From that vantage point it will provide such niche services as foreign language, educational and data in the Western U.S. Launched May 8, the satellite was originally intended for 119 degrees West longitude, with EchoStar I to be moved to 148 degrees. But one of the solar arrays on EchoStar IV didn't deploy properly, cutting power to some of its transponders.
The Pentagon's Defense Science Board will spend the next year looking at the effect of the "Revolution in Military Affairs" on coalition warfare. Pentagon acquisition chief Jacques Gansler has chartered the study. Allied and NATO military officials have expressed concern in the last couple of years that they may not be able to fight side-by-side with the U.S. as it fields increasingly advanced systems.
