Loral awarded $10.9 million in contracts from McDonnell Douglas for JDAM program.Loral Defense Systems-Eagan, divisions of Loral Corporation Loral Corporation was a small Bronx defense contractor on the verge of bankruptcy when in 1972 it was acquired by Bernard Schwartz, who over the course of the next two decades built it into a major player in the global aerospace and defense industry, acquiring sixteen other defense (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :LOR LOR Letter Of Reprimand (military) LoR Lord of the Rings (J.R.R. Tolkien) LOR Learning Object Repository LOR Linux.Org. ), have been awarded $10.9 million in contracts from McDonnell Douglas Aerospace to supply hardware, design engineering and program support for the Joint Direct Attack Munition Noun 1. Joint Direct Attack Munition - a pinpoint bomb guidance device that can be strapped to a gravity bomb thus converting dumb bombs into smart bombs JDAM (JDAM Noun 1. JDAM - a pinpoint bomb guidance device that can be strapped to a gravity bomb thus converting dumb bombs into smart bombs Joint Direct Attack Munition ) program. The Department of Defense plans to buy 74,000 JDAMs under a production program that is expected to continue well into the next century with an estimated value of up to $2 billion. Loral's portion of this contract, including foreign sales, will exceed $400 million. JDAM production is scheduled to begin in 1997. Under an $8.6 million contract, Loral Conic-TerraCom, San Diego, will deliver 300 sets of flight termination receivers, transmitters and encoders for the munition guidance kits. Loral is using non-developmental items as well as commercial-off-the- shelf equipment specifically configured to follow the data from the system's mission computer. The equipment will provide telemetry telemetry Highly automated communications process by which data are collected from instruments located at remote or inaccessible points and transmitted to receiving equipment for measurement, monitoring, display, and recording. and flight termination capability during development testing to provide information on the munition's performance. Under a separate $2.4 million contract, Loral Defense Systems-Eagan will produce 600 mission computers for use in the guidance control unit and will supply design engineering and program support. The computers take input from the global positioning system Global Positioning System: see navigation satellite. Global Positioning System (GPS) Precise satellite-based navigation and location system originally developed for U.S. military use. receiver to guide the munition accurately to its target. In following the Department of Defense's acquisition reform measures, Loral will use a single processor board and the Motorola 68040 processor to keep procurement costs down. Program support and design engineering for the mission computer will be provided in Eagan, Minn., while manufacturing will be performed at the division's Clearwater, Fla., facility. Production units will be shipped starting in April 1996. Loral foresees the opportunity for growth well beyond these initial program awards. Loral sees the potential in excess of $160 million from the domestic sales of the guidance systems. The opportunity for foreign sales and the conversion of additional smaller munitions mu·ni·tion n. War materiel, especially weapons and ammunition. Often used in the plural. tr.v. mu·ni·tioned, mu·ni·tion·ing, mu·ni·tions To supply with munitions. would significantly increase the lifetime value of the program. The JDAM program is a joint Air Force and Navy program to convert existing unguided general purpose 1,000 and 2,000 pound bombs into smart bombs. Tailfin guidance kits will be produced to provide accurate munitions guidance capability in all weather conditions through the use of global positioning system receivers and aided inertial navigation systems. These contracts are part of the second phase engineering and manufacturing development. Under this phase, the first deployable capability is planned for late fiscal year 1997 with initial operational capability The first attainment of the capability to employ effectively a weapon, item of equipment, or system of approved specific characteristics that is manned or operated by an adequately trained, equipped, and supported military unit or force. Also called IOC. planned for 1998. The first operational system will be used on the B-52 and the F/A-18, to be followed by the F-15E, F-16C/D, F-14, B-1B, AV-8B, and F-22. The joint munition program is critical to the Defense Department in testing its methods of streamlining weapons acquisition. This program received a waiver from a variety of acquisition regulations in order to rapidly advance development and emphasize the use of commercial practices and technologies, like COTS and non-developmental items, that help lower costs. Loral Conic-TerraCom, located in San Diego, specializes in the design and manufacture of airborne telemetry, flight termination, receivers and systems, spaceborne space·borne adj. Operating in or involving equipment operating in outer space: a spaceborne satellite. products, ground station command and control, range instrumentation and telecommunications products and systems. Loral Defense Systems-Eagan, headquartered in Eagan, Minn., has more than a 30-year history designing and manufacturing computers for the armed forces of the U.S. and its allies and is a leader in information management systems used in defense, postal, air traffic control and environmental applications. Loral Corporation, headquartered in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. , is high- technology company that primarily concentrates in defense electronics, communications, space and systems integration. CONTACT: Loral Corp. Joseph Tedino (703) 416-5540 |
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