General Dynamics, Partner Appear to Have Won Big Pact

The team of General Dynamics’ San Diego-based Space Systems division and Pittsburgh-based Westinghouse Electric appear to have won a $200-million contract to build more than 500 massive, high-tech magnets for the Superconducting Super Collider particle accelerator that the U.S. Dept. of Energy is building in Texas, the companies said Tuesday.

The partnership beat out a half dozen competitors for the right to negotiate a contract for the project. That means it has won the competition--unless a contract cannot be negotiated.

Subsequent awards could boost the contract’s value to about $1 billion, General Dynamics spokesman Jack Isabel said Tuesday. The SSC hopes to conclude negotiations on the initial $200-million contract by February, SSC spokesman Russ Wylie said Tuesday.

The value of General Dynamics’ share of the contract will be determined in the negotiations.

Scientists have described the SSC, which is being constructed 30 miles south of Dallas, as the largest scientific instrument ever designed. The accelerator, a circle measuring more than 50 miles around, will propel minute particles at the speed of light, giving scientists a rare opportunity to study fundamental principles of energy and matter.

The magnets, weighing 12 1/2 tons and measuring 52 feet in length, are an “essential part” of the massive SSC, Wylie said.

The SSC contract represents “a significant order for the Space Systems division, given global events and (overall) belt tightening” in the defense contracting industry, Isabel said. General Dynamics expects to add 40 employees at a Hammond, La., manufacturing plant, but the contract would not create new jobs in San Diego, where as many as 160 existing employees would design the massive magnets, Isabel said.

If the contract is completed, engineers at General Dynamics and the SSC would initially design and test 15 prototype magnets. General Dynamics and Westinghouse would then build 502 additional magnets. At a later date, the two companies would compete for portions of the $1-billion contract to build nearly 8,000 more magnets, Isabel said.

Universities Research Association, a nonprofit consortium that includes 77 research universities in the United States and Canada, is designing and building the facility near Dallas. It is scheduled to open in 1999, Wylie said.

While General Dynamics’ Space Systems division is best known for its Atlas rockets, the company has won several similar magnet contracts in the past 15 years, Isabel said. The division has captured more than half the orders nationwide for the large superconducting magnets used in particle acceleration devices, Isabel said.