PARIS — NATO has awarded a contract worth €2.5 million ($3.36 million) to a U.S.-led industry team to define the first steps of a plan that would expand NATO’s theater missile defense system to form a broader shield over the alliance’s territory and population in Europe, as well as for deployed forces.
Boeing has completed development testing of an aerial delivery system that would enable any ramp-equipped military airlifter to be used for aerial firefighting without modification. Flight tests of the Precision Container Aerial Delivery System (Pcads) were conducted at Collidge, Ariz., during which the water-carrying cardboard containers were air-dropped from a C-130 Hercules at 500-1,000 ft.
LONDON — Delays in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and a slowdown in Eurofighter Typhoon production are among the reasons BAE Systems is shedding another 3,000 positions. The job cuts are the latest in a series of layoffs at BAE to deal with a reduction in defense spending. The bulk of the cuts hit the facilities at Brough (899 positions), Warton and Preston (843 positions), and Samlesbury (565 positions). BAE also cut jobs in 2009 and 2010.
FUSING INTEL: The U.S. Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) is pursuing a multiyear research effort to produce a new capability to data-mine scientific research, with an eye toward identifying and prioritizing emerging, global technologies. The Foresight and Understanding from Scientific Exposition (FUSE) Program looks to develop automated methods for a “systematic, continuous and comprehensive” assessment of new technologies as they are written about.
Cyber 3.0: Without Borders Wednesday, October 19, 2011 10:00-11:00 am ET How do we ensure prosperity, security and openness in a networked world through international partnerships. Learn how the US is building a coalition to secure cyberspace and ensure its benefits flow uninterrupted. Hear how cybersecurity units are collaborating on a global scale to secure network defense.
LONDON — The Dutch defense ministry is asking for parliamentary approval to press ahead with developing a ship-based missile defense capability. The system would expand the air defense capabilities of the Thales Smart-L radar on Dutch frigates, to take on ballistic missile defense roles. The program is estimated at €100-250 million ($125-340 million), including logistics support and spares. Other European navies using the sensor may follow the Dutch lead.
LONDON — The U.K. may be at risk of losing 20,000-30,000 more jobs in the defense sector, according to the Aerospace, Defense and Security lobby group. ADS Chairman Ian Godden warns of “real concern in the industry that recent news of potential job losses is only the tip of the iceberg.”
BEIJING — Boeing is trumpeting industrial opportunities in its bid for Japan’s F-X combat aircraft requirement, a day before the country stops making fighters for the first time in 56 years. Coincidentally or not, proposals for the F-X program were due on Sept. 26, while the last two of 94 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries F-2 strike fighters are scheduled to be completed on Sept. 27.
AIR FORCE Teletronics Technology Corp., Newton, Pa., is being awarded a $60,000,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for commercial supplies and services in sustainment of high-speed data acquisition systems specifically designed for flight test users. The work will be performed at Newtown, Pa. The Air Force Flight Test Center Directorate of Contracting, Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., is the contracting activity (FA9302-11-D-0004).
AERO STREAMLINING: Lockheed Martin plans to lay off roughly 540 employees across its Aeronautics division by the end of the year, with the brunt of the cuts to be felt at the company’s sites in Forth Worth, Marietta, Ga., and Palmdale, Calif. In June, the company announced an overall target of 1,500 positions eliminated by year’s end. In August, 450 employees volunteered and were approved for buyouts. In addition, 300 open positions were eliminated, and 300 positions in the company’s Sustainment Services organization are due to be cut.
The U.S. Navy’s DDG-1000 Zumwalt-class destroyer jumped another hurdle this month with the completion of two live-fire tests of the ship’s Long Range Land Attack Projectile (LRLAP) designed for the vessel’s Advanced Gun System, at White Sands Missile Range, N.M.
TACSAT-4: The Pentagon’s Tactical Satellite-4 (TacSat-4) is scheduled to launch Sept. 27 at 8:49 a.m. PDT from Kodiak Launch Complex, Alaska, aboard a Minotaur IV+ launch vehicle. Developed by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory for the Office of Naval Research and the Operationally Responsive Space Office, TacSat-4 is designed to provide responsive UHF Comms-On-The-Move, including to manpacks and handheld receivers.
CARRIER OPS: Joint Strike Fighter officials are preparing to shift the F-35B short-takeoff-and-vertical landing variant for the U.S. Marine Corps to the Wasp amphibious ship in the first week of October. There, test experts will study the integration of the aircraft with the ship; this will include studies on the effects of the aircraft’s exhaust on the ship deck. Some skeptics claim the heat will be a problem for deck operations. “There are a lot of urban legends about this airplane,” says Tom Burbage, executive vice president of F-35 integration at Lockheed Martin.
NEW DELHI — India has put on hold the joint venture between state-run shipbuilder Mazagon Dock Ltd. and Pipavav Defense and Offshore Engineering Co. after receiving complaints from other commercial shipyards that were passed over for the deal. The Indian defense ministry is now forming a new policy for public-private business partnerships to establish greater transparency, according to Defense Minister A.K. Antony.
Sea Launch AG lofted Eutelsat’s Atlantic Bird-7 satellite to orbit atop a Zenit-3SL rocket from a floating platform in the Pacific Ocean Sept. 24, the first launch for the Bern, Switzerland-based company since it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June 2009. The rocket delivered the EADS Astrium-built communications satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit and Eutelsat reported partial deployment of Atlantic Bird-7’s solar array within 3 hr. of separation.
Rather than touting an array of new, whiz-bang proprietary technologies, many ground vehicle purveyors are instead bragging about the nondevelopmental aspect of their new offerings in a money-saving “out with the new and in with the old” strategy that seems to be taking hold across the defense industry. This is another sign that in the new age of austerity, the technological advances forged during the previous decade’s acquisition spending spree will be leveraged to the hilt, both on new builds and on reset and refit programs.
HOUSTON — Bolstered by the mid-September agreement between the White House and Congress to rev up development of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), Lockheed Martin is moving out with development, test and production of the Orion/Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) that would lift off atop the evolvable mega-rocket for piloted deep-space missions.
DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Western Diesel Services Inc., St. Louis, was awarded a firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, long-term contract for a maximum $23,127,146 for procurement of engine parts. There are no other locations of performance. Using service is the Army. The date of performance completion is Sept. 20, 2016. The Defense Logistics Agency Land, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., is the contracting activity (SPRBL1-11-D-0030). NAVY
LONDON — In a further sign that aerospace and defense companies are shifting their focus in hot growth markets, Thales has taken full ownership of Omnisys, a Brazilian electronics firm it already had a stake in. The goal is to use Sao Bernardo do Campo-based Omnisys as a broader route into the potentially lucrative Brazilian market.
F-35 program officials are awaiting a clearance from the procurement community to begin local flight operations at Eglin AFB, Fla., a step closer to pilot training for the developmental stealthy aircraft there. Air Force officials at the U.S. Air Force’s Aeronautical Systems Center in Ohio, which oversees procurement of service aircraft, are reviewing data collected during a period of “maturity flights” using two conventional-takeoff-and-landing F-35As (AF-6 and AF-7) at the Edwards AFB, Calif., test center.
