Originalartikel zu finden unter: http://www.aviationnow.com/avnow/news/channel_aerospacedaily_story.jsp?id=news/ACS01136.xmlJefferson Morris von Aviation Now wrote:Army Cancels Lockheed Martin's Aerial Common Sensor Contract
01/13/2006 09:54:31 AM
The Army has chosen to cancel Lockheed Martin's $879 million Aerial Common Sensor development contract rather than switch aircraft platforms to Bombardier's Global Express business jet, the service announced Jan. 12.
"We decided that the prudent course of action at this time was to terminate the contract and bring the various players - industry, the acquisition and user communities, the Navy and Air Force - back to the drawing board to make sure we all have a firm understanding of what the requirements are and the various challenges we need to overcome to make this program succeed," Assistant Secretary of the Army Claude Bolton said in a statement. The program itself has not been terminated, Bolton said.
Under Lockheed Martin's original system design and development (SDD) contract, awarded in August 2004 and set to expire in 2010, the Army would have bought five ACS aircraft and the Navy two aircraft. The total estimated production value of the ACS program was $8 billion.
The Army issued a stop-work order to Lockheed in September 2005 after learning that the company's chosen platform for ACS, the Embraer ERJ-145 business jet, was too small to carry the multiple intelligence-gathering payloads intended for it. Lockheed Martin was given 60 days to propose alternatives, and came back to the Army with the recommendation to switch to the Global Express.
"Since the aircraft was an integral part of the overall program and a consequential discriminator in the original contract competition, and given our increasingly better understanding of the system's overall requirements, the Army ultimately decided on termination," the service said.
After investing significant funds in research and development, the long-term costs for continuing ACS in its current form "would not have fallen within acceptable parameters," said Army ACS Product Manager Lt. Col. Steven Drake.
ACS is intended to replace the Army's Guardrail Common Sensor and Airborne Reconnaissance Low (ARL), as well as the Navy's EP-3E Aries.
Originalartikel zu finden unter: http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_3397669Andy Vuong von der Denver Post wrote:01/13/2006
Army axes Lockheed contract
The U.S. Army said Thursday it is canceling Lockheed Martin Corp.'s $879 million contract to build a new spy plane after the company hit problems with costs and aircraft size.
The Army, however, said it was not terminating the spy- plane program, called Aerial Common Sensor.
Lockheed's surveillance and reconnaissance systems division in Jefferson County had been leading the work on the contract, which could have led to billions more in additional work.
Army officials will go "back to the drawing board to make sure we all have a firm understanding of what the requirements are and the various challenges we need to overcome to make this program succeed," said Claude Bolton, assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition logistics and technology.
About 250 Lockheed employees in Jefferson County had been working on the spy plane, and hundreds more jobs could have been added over the course of the project.
The cancellation will likely lead to layoffs, but a company spokeswoman has said the majority of those employees will transfer to other projects.
"We're deeply disappointed," said Preston Gibson, president of the Jefferson Economic Council. "This is a bump in the road for Lockheed Martin and a bump in the road for our economy."
Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed is Jefferson County's largest private employer.
The Army awarded Lockheed the initial contract in August 2004 to develop and build five spy planes by 2010. The Army had planned to order up to 33 additional planes, and the Navy was to purchase up to 19 planes. In total, the contract had a potential value of $6 billion to $8 billion over 20 years.
But in September, the Army ordered the company to stop working on the project after it determined that the aircraft Lockheed planned to use was too small to carry the required equipment.
Lockheed said Thursday it discovered the problem early in development and in November presented the Army with four options, which included using a different aircraft.
The Army decided it had to cancel the contract because the aircraft was an integral part of the overall program and a key factor in awarding the initial contract to Lockheed.
Northrop Grumman, Lockheed's primary competitor on the initial contract, had threatened to protest had the Army allowed Lockheed to continue with the contract while using a different craft.
"Despite this disappointing outcome, Lockheed Martin maintains a strong partnership and a track record of success with the Army," said Judy Gan, a Lockheed spokeswoman.
Staff writer Andy Vuong can be reached at 303-820-1209 or avuong@denverpost.com
Originalbeitrag zu finden unter: http://news.airwise.com/story/view/1137189597.htmlAirwise wrote:Embraer Suspends Plans For US Factory
January 13, 2006
Brazilian jet maker Embraer said on Friday it had suspended plans to build a factory in Jacksonville, Florida, after the US Army canceled a contract for a new spy-plane program.
Embraer, short for Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica, was a key member of a consortium led by defense contractor Lockheed Martin that in August 2004 won an USD$879 million contract to develop the new spy plane, known as the Aerial Common Sensor.
But the program's future was thrown into question in September, when the army determined that the Embraer jet -- a modified version of its 50 seat commuter plane -- was too small to carry all the required technology.
To salvage the contract, Lockheed offered four alternative aircraft, including a larger regional jet made by Embraer that has yet to be tested by the military. But on Thursday the army terminated the contract, which was potentially worth USD$8 billion over several years.
The decision was a blow to Embraer's plans to break into the lucrative US defense market. The company had planned to assemble the planes in Jacksonville where it was preparing to turn a disused military base into a factory.
Embraer said it would now put those plans on hold, at least until it obtains another Pentagon or Homeland Security contract in the United States.
"Embraer still considers the Cecil Commerce Center, in Jacksonville, Florida, as the chosen site for its defense initiatives in North America," the company said in a statement.
The cancellation of the Pentagon contract comes as Embraer finds itself in an unwanted spotlight over the potential sale of surveillance planes to Venezuela. The Venezuelan government has expressed interest in buying Super Tucano patrol planes from Embraer, the same model that the Colombian military recently agreed to purchase.
But Brazilian officials and Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez have said that the United States was trying to block the sale since the planes included US technology. Chavez, a former paratrooper who staged a failed coup in 1992, has tense relations with the George W. Bush administration.
The United States also tried to stop Spain from selling military planes to Venezuela on similar grounds. But on Friday the Spanish government said it intended to go ahead with the deal without Washington's support and would sell 12 transport and maritime surveillance planes to Venezuela.
Chavez said this week he would wait to see if Brazil could solve the problem over the Embraer planes. If not, he suggested Venezuela could buy similar aircraft from China.
Embraer, the world's fourth-largest producer of commercial aircraft, has declined to comment on the potential deal with Venezuela.