RADIO DAYS: Northrop Grumman has received a 56-month, $240 million contract from Lockheed Martin to provide critical technologies for the Airborne and Maritime/Fixed Station (AMF) Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS). An initial $186.7 million subcontract has been awarded that focuses on the software-defined radio development for the AMF JTRS.
AMERICA: The Navy’s newest class of large-deck amphibious assault ship, LHA 6, will bear the name USS America – the fourth ship to be so named. The new ship will follow the Vietnam War-era Kitty Hawk class aircraft carrier (CV 66) which served from 1965 to 1996. Secretary of the Navy Donald C. Winter told members of the USS America Carrier Veterans Association about the decision at its reunion in Jacksonville, Fla., on June 27. The first America was a 74-gun ship-of-the-line built for the Continental Navy in the Revolutionary War.
Along with Raytheon’s announcement of the delivery of its 100th Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar system for Boeing’s F/A-18 Super Hornet, Boeing announced plans for future upgrades to the Block II Hornet.
PODSEIDON ADVENTURES: The U.S. Navy’s first Boeing P-8A Poseidon followed up its wing-to-body join and “power on” milestones with the installation of two CFM56-7B. Initial engine runs will follow final functional checks, and the first test aircraft is expected to be delivered to the Navy in 2009. The service anticipates purchasing 108 P-8As to replace its aging P-3C fleet. Initial operating capability is slated for 2013.
Boeing has completed environmental testing of the first of 12 Global Positioning System (GPS) IIF satellites, confirming its ability to withstand the stresses of launch. Acoustic tests simulating the noise of launch were performed under the supervision of the U.S. Air Force, the Aerospace Corporation and the Boeing GPS IIF team at the company’s satellite factory in El Segundo, Calif. Boeing says it is on track to deliver the first satellite to the U.S. Air Force this year.
The U.K. is bolstering its AgustaWestland Merlin fleet with additional aircraft and capabilities as the triple-turbine medium helicopter continues to support coalition operations in southeast Iraq and the northern Arabian Gulf.
The U.S. Coast Guard would get $135 million above the Bush administration’s budget request for fiscal 2009, but the Deepwater recapitalization program would get $56.7 million less than requested, under a spending measure approved by the House Appropriations Committee. The Coast Guard funding was included in a $40 billion homeland security spending measure approved by the full committee June 24. That measure is $2.3 billion higher than the administration requested.
Smiths Detection has a new hand-held vapor detector that can screen for volatile chemicals like peroxide that are often used in homemade bombs, the Pine Brook, N.J. company says. The SABRE EXV (for explosives vapor detector) uses ion mobility spectrometry technology to detect and identify explosive substances – including peroxide-based chemicals – in as little as 10 seconds.
David Joyce, 51, a 28-year veteran of General Electric’s (GE) aviation business, has been named president and chief executive of GE Aviation. He succeeds Scott C. Donnelly, who was named June 30 as executive vice president and chief operating officer of Textron, effective immediately.
BAE Systems has completed its purchase of the defense business of Australia’s Tenix at an estimated price of A$775 million ($740 million). The sale more than doubles BAE’s business in Australia and makes it the country’s largest defense supplier. Tenix Defense brings one of Australia’s two main naval shipyards into BAE’s portfolio. The Australian government raised no objection to the transfer of the locally owned arms-making operation to BAE Systems. Defense Minister Joel Fitzgibbon went as far as congratulating BAE on the deal.
The Proton Breeze M rocket is slated to return to flight Aug. 14 carrying the Inmarsat-4 F3 satellite, following the vehicle’s recent recertification for operations by the Russian State Commission and a failure investigation board led by International Launch Services (ILS).
No C-5 missions have been lost due to a failure uncovered in May when a massive transport’s hydraulic accumulator ruptured due to internal abrasions, according to U.S. Air Mobility Command (AMC).
Israeli defense and aerospace contractor Elbit Systems is continuing its acquisition spree, with no end in sight. The company on June 30 announced the purchase of another small Israeli defense high-tech firm, Haifa-based Electro Optic Research and Development Company. The price for the purchase, from Technion Research & Development Foundation and Bynet Electronics, was not disclosed.
Work to refine concepts for a large cargo rotorcraft is moving ahead under the U.S. Army-led Joint Heavy Lift (JHL) technology effort. JHL is the vertical take-off and landing candidate for the U.S. Air Force/Army Joint Future Theater Lift (JFTL) requirement.The first of three contracts to extend previous concept definition and analysis (CDA) work for another two years has been awarded, with the others to follow over the next week or two, says the Army’s Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD).
A Canadian government contract for a technology demonstrator intended to verify the ability of microsatellites to reliably monitor navigation and identification signals from ships navigating Canadian waters will propel Com Dev into the growing ranks of companies developing multimission microsat buses.
Lockheed Martin Space Systems expects to receive a fourth Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite contract valued at about $120 million late this month, about the time the first AEHF leaves thermal vacuum tests at its Dual Entry Large Thermal Altitude changer in Sunnyvale, Calif. Congress ordered a fourth AEHF for the U.S. Air Force’s Military Satellite Communications Systems Wing/Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles Air Force Base. The system’s first launch is set for early 2009 aboard an Atlas V from Cape Canaveral.
The U.S. must avoid “backing” into a military conflict with Iran, and instead should seek “direct, comprehensive and unconditional talks with the Iranian government,” Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) said. During a policy speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington on June 26, Hagel called for developing something short of diplomatic relations with Iran, by basing a U.S. Interest Section in Tehran, the Iranian capital.
The Constellation program’s Orion project office is defining a formal Relative Navigation Sensor’s Development Test (RNSDT) to operate Orion navigation sensors and software on a shuttle flight in 2009 or 2010 before the planned end of the shuttle program in September 2010.
Two independent peer reviews gave high marks to the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) methodology June 30, validating the agency’s quality assurance framework through its final reports. An international team comprising Australia, the Netherlands and the U.K., led by the office of the Auditor General of Canada, examined GAO’s performance audit work. U.S. accounting firm KPMG focused on GAO’s financial audit work and attestation engagements.
