Russia has fired 15 SS-21 short-range ballistic missiles at Georgian military targets since Aug. 8, Washington-based U.S. officials have told Aviation Week, although the missiles’ effectiveness has not been assessed. The officials also say a mix of Su-25, Su-27 and Su-24 strike aircraft and Tu-22M3 bombers have established “air superiority, but not air supremacy over Georgia” – referring to the effectiveness of Georgian air defenses. (See related story p. 1.)
PULSE PRODUCTION: Boeing is adopting a new “pulse line” process for satellite manufacturing at its El Segundo, Calif., plant that the company says will shorten the assembly process for its upcoming GPS IIF spacecraft for the U.S. Air Force. The length of the assembly line is being cut from 12,000 to 10,000 feet, and parts will be moved through 13 “pulse stations” featuring new work cells, tooling, and lean manufacturing processes. All of the company’s satellite production lines eventually will adopt the new process.
While competing teams wait for a decision to be made on the U.S. Army’s Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) competition, the Northrop Grumman—Oshkosh team is forging ahead testing the suspension on its diesel-electric drive-powered vehicle. The companies’ JLTV prototype underwent performance testing of its independent suspension at Oshkosh’s facilities in Wisconsin, Northrop Grumman announced August 11. According to Northrop Grumman, the suspension demonstrated higher performance than any such system currently available in the industry.
AIR FORCE Accenture National Security Systems LLC of Reston, Va., is being awarded a cost plus fixed fee contract for $22,263,000. This action will provide a wide set of services and capabilities for leveraging net-centric tools across a wide variety of domains and environments which include expanding network services, developing workflows, developing best practices and target deployments to warfighter environments. At this time $9,718,358 has been obligated. 753 ELSG/PK, Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., is the contracting activity (FA8731-08-C-0002).
Energy company Rentech has begun producing synthetic Jet A fuel at its demonstration plant in Commerce City, Colo., primarily for testing by the U.S. Air Force, but also for airline users. Rentech is using natural gas as the source of fuel, but the new $80-million Colorado facility is equipped to produce fuel from a variety of materials, including waste, said Jim McVaney, vice president of government affairs for the Los Angeles-based company.
The Italian navy has finalized a contract with Fincantieri, worth about 915 million euros ($1.36 billion), for two more Todaro-class submarines. The first is to be laid down in 2010, since the Fincantieri military shipyards are filled up with shipbuilding for Italian and foreign navies, as well as with a series of special commercial ships. The two new ships will be delivered in 2015 and 2016, replacing two late-1980s Sauro-class boats.
South Korea says it will launch its first rocket in the second quarter of next year, slipping the schedule from December after officials decided that preflight checks should be more comprehensive. Delayed delivery of parts for the launch pad also contributed to the decision to delay the first flight of the KSLV 1 rocket, 80 percent of whose parts are being supplied by Russia. The launch pad – at the Naro Space Center in Goheung in the province South Jeolla – also is being built with Russian help.
The United States will supply Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawks to South Korea, despite earlier refusal and doubts that such a sale was allowable under the Missile Technology Control Regime. Washington has worked out a way of supplying the surveillance drones that does not breach the regime, says the Choson Ilbo newspaper, without giving details. The regime is an international agreement intended to restrict the proliferation of potential systems that could deliver weapons of mass destruction.
ARMY Schutt Industries Inc., Clintonville, Wis., was awarded on Aug. 5, 2008, a $16,027,200.00 firm fixed price contract for the procurement of light tactical trailers. The work will be performed in Clintonville, Wis., and is expected to be completed by Aug. 4, 2013. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Fifteen bids were received on Nov. 8, 2007. TACOM, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (W56HZV-08-D-0107). NAVY
BAMS DECISION: A decision from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) on the protest from Lockheed Martin/General Atomics Aeronautical Systems of the U.S. Navy’s selection of a Northrop Grumman design for the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) aircraft is due out this week. Lockheed Martin cited its Predator-based design’s lower cost as a basis for its protest. The Navy chose a Global Hawk Block 40-based design.
TIGER TOUCHDOWN: The initial three Australian Tiger armed reconnaissance helicopters are settling in after their recent arrival at Darwin, the Australian army’s main operating location for the system. The army plans to base 17 of 22 of the rotorcraft at Darwin, to be operational with the 1st Aviation Regiment (either the 161st or 162nd Reconnaissance Squadron). The units are co-located with the army’s 1st Brigade, partly to ensure close air-ground integration, Australian defense officials suggest.
GPS BOOST: Boeing will demonstrate new concepts to make the Global Positioning System (GPS) signal more jam resistant under a $153 million contract from the Naval Research Laboratory. The High Integrity Global Positioning System demonstration is expected to run through 2010 and will combine signals from the Iridium telecommunications system in low-Earth orbit with signals from the GPS constellation in medium-Earth orbit. Boeing boasts that the combination of the two constellations will be the first “combined navigation and communication system of systems.”
Engineers and managers in NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) are taking a “snapshot” of progress in developing the Orion and Ares I vehicles so they will know how much the expected continuing resolution (CR) for agency funding pending on Capitol Hill will stretch the “gap” in U.S. human space access after the shuttle fleet retires in 2010.
TARGETING ACQUISITION: Contracting provisions in House and Senate defense authorization legislation this year would have significant and unintended consequences, trade associations are claiming. The most alarming provisions to industry address mandatory reporting of suspected criminal activity, public disclosure of executive compensation, a contractor “integrity” database, contracting with foreign subsidiaries of U.S.
LISBON BOUND: AgustaWestland is setting up a Portuguese subsidiary to provide support services, including for the 12 AW101 helicopters operated by the Portuguese air force. The company is also hopeful that it can convert interest from the Portuguese Defense Ministry in the Future Lynx into an order. The navy already operates the Lynx.
COUNTERMINE: Boeing will design the U.S. Navy’s new Countermine System (CMS) for the Naval Warfare Center in Panama City, Fla., under a $153 million contract awarded late last week. The CMS is part of the Navy’s effort to field a comprehensive Assault Breaching System, which will help minimize mine-related combat losses during amphibious landings. The CMS uses the Joint Direct Attack Munition guidance set to position the weapon above the mines.
HAWK SUPPORT: Northrop Grumman will provide engineering and technical services for NASA’s two Global Hawk aircraft over the next five years under a $25 million contract. The contractor will support the aircraft, based at Dryden Flight Research Center, Calif., in operations, associated ground control station and relay systems. Technical assistance will include analysis, design support for unique systems, simulations, software development and engineering and operational and manufacturing support as needed.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicated new calendar listing.) Aug. 12 - 14 — 2008 ONR Naval S&T Partnership Conference, “Sustaining the Edge, Serving Next Generation Warfighter ... Now,” Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, Washington, D.C. For more information go to www.ndia.org/meetings/8200
PARIS – By year’s end the French military plans to start fielding the SAMP/T air and missile defense system, the first western European-developed system with the ability to intercept ballistic missiles. The first technical and operational test shot of the land-based system took place last month at the Biscarosse missile test facility run by French armaments agency, DGA. The successful firing clears the way for the start of deliveries to the five air defense squadrons due to receive the weapon.
The last week in July saw a flurry of requests for Foreign Military Sales (FMS) to Iraq, totaling $10.9 billion and covering a wide range of equipment, from munitions to aircraft. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) on July 25 released a notice for a $1.5 billion contract for C-130J-30 aircraft and associated equipment and services. Iraq requested 6 of the Air Force aircraft, 24 Rolls Royce AE 2100D3 engines with 4 spares, six missile warning systems and two spares, six countermeasures dispensing systems and two spares.
Word that Boeing is strongly considering a “no bid” position for the next round of the U.S. Air Force refueling tanker competition is spreading only two days after the Pentagon released the revised KC-X draft request for proposals (RFP). Multiple sources familiar with Boeing’s internal discussions say company officials are strongly considering the option of not submitting a proposal as the company’s Integrated Defense Systems sector tries to respond to the draft RFP within the government’s speedy timeline. Comments are due this week.
Tests by the Phoenix Mars lander are being reoriented toward verification that Martian soil contains totally unexpected salts like those consumed on Earth by extreme life forms. The salts, called perchlorates, have been discovered in back-to-back wet chemistry runs by the Phoenix MECA (Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer) instrument. The team now hopes to obtain perchlorate data using the TEGA (Thermal Evolved Gas Analyzer) instrument that has been tuned using commands from Earth to help it find perchlorate
EQUAL OPPORTUNITY: Contractors who’ve battled to win a spot on a task order contract vehicle only to be shut out of task order competition will be interested in recent changes to federal acquisition guidelines. According to consultancy Input’s reading of the May 26 rulemaking, which was mandated by Section 843 of the 2088 defense authorization bill, these changes are likely to have some significant ramifications, both good and bad.
POWER PLAY: How do you avoid restricting the competition to build a hypersonic powerplant around an in-production fighter engine to just General Electric and Pratt & Whitney, the only U.S. makers of fighter engines? The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) solution for its new Vulcan program is to get the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory to supply “generic” engine data to any interested bidder who isn’t GE or Pratt.
Congressional reaction was swift to the Pentagon’s latest request for proposals (RFP) in the U.S. Air Force aerial refueling tanker competition Lawmakers’ comments broke along predictable partisan lines: pro-Boeing and pro-Northrop Grumman/EADS.
