EXPLOSIVE RELATIONSHIP: The Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security recently signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) covering a variety of projects. The JIEDDO hopes the MOA will increase its access to the nation’s industrial base, and perhaps help identify high-potential, near-ready technologies to conquer IEDs.
Pilatus has secured a €22.5 million order to sell six PC-12NG aircraft to the Finnish air force. The deal is the first for the PC-12 to a European air force. The single-engine turboprop business aircraft is to serve as a liaison aircraft. Deliveries are slated for the end of 2010. It will replace Piper PA-31-350 Chieftains, which have been in service in the Finnish military since 1983. Pilatus says it prevailed in a year-long competition, with flight trials in Switzerland and Canada.
G/ATOR MILESTONE: The U.S. Marine Corps’ Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar (G/ATOR) concluded its formal Critical Design Review (CDR) recently. The CDR verified that the G/ATOR system’s design and development are proceeding, the detailed hardware and software designs are mature and the system meets Marine Corps requirements, according to manufacturer Lockheed Martin.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s (MDA) Space Tracking and Surveillance System Advanced Technology Risk Reduction (STSS ATRR) mission is set for launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., on March 5. Liftoff is slated for a launch window of 1:24 p.m. to 1:52 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time, aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta II 7920-10C rocket from Space Launch Complex-2 West.
PARIS — Europe’s Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission, intended to measure concentrations of moisture in soil and salt in the oceans, has been scheduled for a September 9 launch aboard a Rockot booster. The mission — the second in the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Earth Explorer series — had been expected to lift off in July, but the slot was apparently needed for an unidentified Russian government launch.
Lockheed Martin will build the prototype of a high-flying radar-equipped airship for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Air Force under a contract valued at almost $400 million. Northrop Grumman was the losing bidder on the program. Scheduled to be flown in fiscal 2013 under DARPA’s Integrated Sensor Is Structure (ISIS) program, the unmanned airship will have Raytheon-developed X- and UHF-band active electronically scanned arrays (AESA) built into its structure.
Despite a growing drumbeat from some lawmakers to split the $35 billion U.S. Air Force replacement refueling tanker contract between Boeing and Northrop Grumman/EADS, three key senators are not persuaded so far. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and E. Benjamin Nelson (D-Neb.) said they were not taking a position on the idea raised by two powerful subcommittee chairmen in the House.
NEW DELHI — Lockheed Martin is in talks with public and private sector companies about partnering on manufacturing in India. The company expects to announce a partnership “in the near future,” an otherwise tight-lipped Richard Kirkland, Lockheed Martin Global’s president for South Asia, told Aerospace DAILY here. The project may be part of an offset commitment and the production would be “program specific,” Kirkland added.
AIR FORCE The Air Force is awarding an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract to BAE Systems of Herndon, Va., for a maximum of $49,900,000. This action will provide systems engineering and evaluation, systems analysis for Worldwide five. This work will provide life cycle software development engineering to the Department of Defense Intelligence Information System and the US Intelligence Community worldwide. At this time, $120,000 has been obligated. AFRL/RIKF, Rome, New York is the contracting activity (FA8750-09-D-0214).
At a gathering April 27 discussing the U.S./Saudi strategic relationship and the geopolitics of the Middle East, a variety of speakers all drove home the same point: that politics, economics, and security are intimately connected. The the realm of international politics currently finds itself at a particularly critical moment, the speakers said.
SWINE FLU: While the Department of Health and Human Services leads the U.S. response to the swine flu outbreak, the Defense Department is focusing on force protection. The military is posturing itself to respond if required, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said April 27. “We obviously have plans and take measures to ensure that we can preserve the fighting strength of the military in the event that there should be a greater crisis with respect to a health situation like this,” Whitman said.
MOSCOW — The third prototype of Sukhoi Su-35 multirole fighter intended for flight trials — side number 904 — was lost during taxi tests prior to first flight April 26. Test pilot Evgeny Frolov ejected safely. The aircraft was lost in a fire, industry sources said. The accident occurred at the airfield of the Sukhoi’s Komsomolsk-on-Amur manufacturing facility. The reason for the accident was not yet clear. An official statement of the investigation body was expected to follow.
President Obama told the nation’s scientists April 27 that the Cold War space race offers a model for meeting his goals of developing sustainable energy sources while minimizing the effect on global climate.
AIR FORCE The Air Force is awarding a firm fixed price contract to Pratt & Whitney Military Aftermarket Services of San Antonio, Texas for $22,915,389. This action will provide Overhaul of Core Module applicable to the F100 and F220 engines of F-15 and F-16 aircraft. At this time, the entire amount has been obligated. 448 SCMB/PKBB, Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., is the contracting activity. (FA8104-04-D-0004-0136) NAVY
COBRA COMMANDER: DOD and the program executive office for littoral and mine warfare (PEO LMW) have bestowed Milestone C approval on Northrop Grumman’s Coastal Battlefield Reconnaissance and Analysis (COBRA) system, which was designed to support the U.S. Marine Corps amphibious assault breaching operations aboard the Littoral Combat Ship. Following Milestone C, PEO LMW will move the COBRA system toward Low-Rate Initial Production.
Though the U.S. Navy has canceled development of the Harpoon Block III designed to target surface ships in cluttered littoral environments, the service is proceeding with funding to support its Block IC missile stockpile.
DRACO QUALIFICATION: Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has completed qualification of its Draco spacecraft thruster and propulsion tank at the company’s test site in McGregor, Texas. SpaceX says tests included 42 firings with more than 4,600 pulses of varying lengths and were performed in a vacuum test chamber to simulate the space environment. “The series resulted in a total firing time of over 50 minutes on a single thruster,” the company adds.
ARMY L-3 Communications Corp EOS Division, Garland, Texas was awarded on Apr. 20, 2009 a $6,657,200 firm-fixed-price contract for 2200 each 22MM Gen II Image Intensifier Tube AN/PVS-4 NVS 700, P/N 510-3882-300 Foreign Military Sales, sole source directed by Egypt for L-3 Communications, EOS Division, Garland, Texas. Work is to be performed in Garland, Texas with an estimated completion date of Jan. 31, 2011. One sole source bid solicited and one bid received. CECOM Acquisition Center, Fort Monmouth, N.J., is the contracting activity (W15P7T-09-P-D018).
Departing Pentagon acquisitions czar John Young expressed numerous frustrations with the Defense Department and the defense acquisition process April 27 in a farewell roundtable with reporters. “I leave here as an unemployed individual,” Young said, describing his existence during his tenure as that of a monk. “You get all kinds of restrictions on you” for trying to help your country. “I don’t get to participate in the economy like a normal citizen,” he added, referring to conflict-of-interest rules that prohibit him from buying stocks, for example.
