ARMY Oshkosh Corp., Oshkosh, Wis., was awarded on Nov. 10, 2009, a $438,440,000 firm-fixed-price contract for 1,000 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected All Terrain Vehicles (M-ATVs) and associated basic items of issue (BII) with an option for 400 M-ATVs and BII. The work is to be performed in Oshkosh, with an estimated completion date of May 31, 2012. Five bids were solicited with five bids received. U.S. Army TACOM Contracting Center AMSTA-TAC-ATBC, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (W56HZV-09-D-0111). AIR FORCE
Date: November 18, 2009 Time: 2:00 P.M. – 3:15 P.M. EDT Fee: Free With today’s technology advancements, reliable and immediate information access has become an expectation. Yet, major federal agencies, including the DoD, NASA and TSA, have all suffered major cyber-attacks. How do we prevent exposure and vulnerability to cyber-attacks and keep our critical infrastructures safe? Find out this November!
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The United Arab Emirates air force is hoping to cut its pilot training costs as much as 30 percent by the time its new training system is fielded starting around 2012, says Brig. Gen. Ibrahim Naser Al Alawi, the service’s deputy commander.
AIR FORCE Booz Allen & Hamilton Inc., of Herndon, Va., was awarded a $108,771,191 contract which will provide for the operation of a survivability/vulnerability information analysis center for a three-year option period. At this time, no money has been obligated. The contracting activity is 55 CONS/LGCD, Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., (SP0700-03-D-1380). NAVY
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The U.S. Air Force will likely make adjustments to the training for unmanned aircraft pilots, largely drawing on observations from the first two graduating classes, service chief of staff Gen. Norton Schwartz said at the Dubai Airshow. The first class of the new remotely piloted aircraft operator training system graduated in September and the students are now being qualified. They are expected to start flying combat missions early next year, Schwartz says. The second class graduates in January.
CHINA MOON: China has opened what it calls an especially important facility in its lunar exploration program. The 7,000-square-meter plant in Beijing will be used for the design of exploration systems and all critical subsystems and for in-orbit management of spacecraft and fault analysis. China is laying the groundwork to land astronauts on the moon, which would follow an ambitious lunar robotic precursor program that also could pave the way for the country’s first unmanned probe to Mars.
The Chilean government could buy up to $665 million worth of U.S. radar and missile systems under a Foreign Military Sale (FMS) deal, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) announced Nov. 12. DSCA notified Congress Nov. 10 of the possible sale of 6 AN/MPQ-64F1 Sentinel radar systems, 6 AN/VRC-92E Vehicular dual long-range single channel airborne and ground radio systems and associated parts and support worth approximately $65 million.
Date: November 18, 2009 Time: 2:00 P.M. – 3:15 P.M. EDT Fee: Free With today’s technology advancements, reliable and immediate information access has become an expectation. Yet, major federal agencies, including the DoD, NASA and TSA, have all suffered major cyber-attacks. How do we prevent exposure and vulnerability to cyber-attacks and keep our critical infrastructures safe? Find out this November!
CHECKING CONFLICTS: The aerospace and defense industry continues to get fired up in response to recent lawmaking that seeks to better delineate potential conflicts of interest within industry over advising and providing U.S. national security programs. Section 841(a) of the Fiscal 2009 defense authorization act requires Washington rulemakers to craft new policies and regulations to prevent personal conflicts by contractor employees performing acquisition functions closely associated with inherently governmental functions for or on behalf of a federal agency.
LEAN TIMES: Industry will be trying to figure out where the British Defense Ministry intends to trim its future defense research program. Quentin Davies, the minister for defense equipment and support, says that while there are “no plans” to cut existing contracts “the scope of future research programs in…maritime, land, air, weapons C4Istar, and ballistic missile defense will be reduced compared to previous plans.”
PLEA BARGAIN: Former NASA astronaut Lisa Nowak drew a year’s probation in a plea bargain on charges growing out of a bizarre incident in which she was arrested at Orlando (Fla.) International Airport after threatening a rival for the affections of fellow astronaut William Oefelein. The 46-year-old U.S. Navy officer pleaded guilty to third-degree burglary of a vehicle and misdemeanor battery, escaping more serious charges that including attempted kidnapping and burglary with assault. The judge sentenced her to two days in jail, with credit for time served.
TENDER SITUATION: While Australian defense officials look to replace a “number” of distributed computing and terrestrial communications contracts expiring from November 2010 to July 2011, leaders there are warning about consolidation to come. Officials last week released their Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Strategy, developed to address shortcomings in governance, planning and control frameworks for ICT (Aerospace DAILY, Nov. 11).
DETERRENCE DIFFERENCE: President Barack Obama says he hopes to work toward a world free of nuclear weapons. But U.S. Air Force Gen. Kevin Chilton, overseer of U.S. Strategic Command and the U.S. nuclear arsenal, sees his nukes as here to stay — at least for the next 40 years or so. While noting that his view is “not inconsistent” with that of his commander in chief, he makes the case for continuing to fund the programs needed to keep the U.S. arsenal functional and safe until mid-century.
SPENDING WISELY: A commission created to recommend how to proceed with a special bond issue intended as a stimulus to the French economy says the issue should cover initiatives to develop greener and more fuel-efficient aircraft and helicopters, as well as endeavors such as bridging the digital divide and smart-energy grids, which could favor the space industry. But it recommends against targeting traditional industries and infrastructure projects, or undertakings of an operational nature. The commission envisions an amount of around €35 billion ($52 billion).
The U.S. Navy has taken delivery of the first of five H-72A training helicopters for its Test Pilot School at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. The EADS-built H-72A is already flying for the Army (as the UH-72A Lakota), which has committed to buying 345 aircraft. The National Guard will eventually operate 210 Lakotas, 86 of which have been delivered so far (Aerospace DAILY, Oct. 6).
MANTIS FLIES: The U.K.’s Mantis medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) demonstrator has completed a series of test flights using the range at Woomera in Australia. The first flight was made Oct. 21, but was only revealed Nov. 13. Several mission-representative trials have since been carried out, marking the culmination of phase one of the Mantis program, which has now been concluded. The BAE Systems-led effort is being jointly funded by the U.K.
Sen. John McCain, who singlehandedly started investigations that led the U.S. Air Force to scuttle plans to lease Boeing 767 tankers in 2002, is now raising questions about the service’s source selection methodology for yet another attempt to procure replacements for aging KC-135 refuelers. The questions from McCain, the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, are outlined in an Oct. 29 letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates that was also sent to Pentagon acquisition czar Ashton Carter and Air Force Secretary Michael Donley.
MERLIN CRASH: U.K. Royal Air Force crash investigators are in El Centro, Calif., examining the wreckage of an AW101 Merlin HC3 medium helicopter that crashed at a nearby airfield being used for night landing exercises. Three of the crew sustained injuries in the mishap, which occurred early on Nov. 9 at Holtville, Calif. The aircraft, which fell on its side after a hard landing, was one of four Merlins deployed to El Centro for Exercise Merlin Vortex, a four-month pre-Afghanistan-deployment training program that is due to be completed this month.
TECH SHARING: The U.S. Air Force’s Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) is renewing its technology-sharing agreement with Onera, the French national aerospace research facility. AEDC also has an official data exchange agreement with HEG of the German Aerospace Center, one of Europe’s major hypersonic test facilities.
The AW149 medium twin-engine military helicopter program is proceeding following the successful first flight of an initial risk reduction/demonstrator aircraft that combines the airframe and the avionics of the 149 and the dynamic train and engines of the AW139. The flight took place in manufacturer AgustaWestland’s Italian Vergiate plant Nov. 13. During the 20-minute flight, the basic systems and general handling of the helicopter were evaluated.
HOSTING BOLDEN: Look for some kind of endorsement for space cooperation in the joint statement issued at the end of President Obama’s meeting this week with Chinese President Hu Jintao, including an invitation to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden to visit his counterpart in Beijing next year. But just who that counterpart will be remains to be seen. In negotiations with U.S.
UNPACKING: International Space Station (ISS) crew members are unloading Russia’s Poisk mini-research module, which docked permanently to the zenith side of the Zvezda service module Nov. 12 after an automatic rendezvous. The combination airlock/docking port carried some 1,800 pounds of supplies, and also will serve as a mount for space-exposure experiments. The space shuttle Atlantis will carry a second Russian mini-research module to the ISS on its final mission in May 2010.
PARIS — Arianespace says workers have begun installing a mobile gantry at the new Soyuz launch pad being constructed at its Kourou, French Guiana, spaceport to give the European launch provider a medium-lift launch capability.
MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. — NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) has provided such a dramatic affirmation of decades of speculation that there might be abundant water trapped in the Moon’s polar craters that there is already talk that the space agency should return for more detailed exploration, perhaps by lunar rovers.
