ARMY BAE Systems, Ground Systems Division, York, Pa., was awarded on May 23, 2008, a $525,298,032 firm-fixed price contract for remanufacturing of M2A3 and A3 Bradley Fire Support Team Vehicles. The work will be performed in York, Pa., and is expected to be completed by Oct. 31, 2011. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. One bid was solicited on Sept. 14, 2007. TACOM, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (W56HZV-05-G-0005).
AIR FORCE Booz-Allen and Hamilton Inc. of Herndon, Va., is being awarded a cost plus fixed fee contract for $50,534,488 (estimated). The action will provide Naval Network Warfare Command Survivability Analysis. At this time $1,000,152 has been obligated. The 55th Contracting Squadron, Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., is the contracting activity (SP0700-03-D-1380, DO 0254).
Harris Corp. announced June 2 that it plans to remain independent, quashing weeks of speculation that it could be sold off or merged with another defense contractor. The Melbourne, Fla.-based electronics and communications company said in a statement that it “is not pursuing a merger or a sale” but acknowledged that it had been approached by other companies interested in “various types of transactions.”
EADS and Thales will jointly develop, manufacture, market and sell passive radars on the international market, especially to French, German and other NATO armed forces, under an “exclusive agreement” finalized May 27. The agreement was signed at the ILA 2008 aerospace show in Berlin. It was forged to allow EADS Defence Electronics of Ulm, Germany, and Thales Air Systems of Limours, France, to “capitalize on their knowledge and experience acquired” so they can offer competitive products to customers, a statement by the two firms says.
SEOUL – South Korea may buy surplus Boeing AH-64D Block I Apaches, which first entered service with the U.S. Army in 1999, at an estimated cost of about 1 trillion won ($970 million). The South Korean army has had a longstanding requirement for heavy attack helicopters under the project AH-X since 1990. The project went ahead slowly, entering the candidate evaluation phase only in 2001. Contenders were the AH-64D, Bell AH-1Z and Kamov Ka-52K at that time, when parliament cancelled it.
The industrial consortium behind the NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) system still hopes NATO states will give the program a formal go-ahead this year. A proposal is to be ready soon for the next phase of the program, which should lead to the fielding of four Global Hawks starting in 2012, Northrop Grumman officials say. The AGS system is based on the Block 40 Global Hawk.
SEOUL – South Korea’s KFX stealth fighter project faces a strong risk of being scaled down at a policy review planned for later this month. The Agency for Defense Development, a research and development body, is lobbying hard for the project to survive at least in an exploratory development phase if the government refuses to pay for a costly prototype or technology demonstrator. Without the KFX, the agency’s air system development division would be left with little to do.
ROYAL TRAINING: The U.K. Armed Forces signed a contract with a Lockheed Martin-VT Group joint venture called Ascent that will provide the services with military flight training for the next 25 years. The initial contract is worth $1.26 billion, and may reach $11.9 billion over the life of the contract. Ascent will be responsible for running the U.K. Military Flying Training System program, providing comprehensive training to flight crews in the Royal Navy, Royal Air Force and the Army Air Corps.
LAUNCH DELAY: Arianespace has again delayed the launch of the third U.K. Skynet military communications satellite because of a launcher software mismatch. A new date has not yet been set. The mission, which includes the commercial telecom satellite Turksat 3A, had initially been scheduled for May 23 but was pushed back to the night of May 30-31 because of the need for unspecified launch vehicle checks.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicated new calendar listing.) June 2 - 4 — The 2008 Navy Opportunity Forum, “Transitioning Technology to the Fleet,” Hyatt Regency, Crystal City, Va. For more information go to www.navyopportunityforum.com
MKV MATH: The U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s (MDA) Multiple Kill Vehicle-L (MKV-L) carrier vehicle will employ engagement management algorithms to perform tracking and discrimination, guidance and control and battle management functions. Lockheed Martin announced it has successfully demonstrated those algorithms in a software test bed environment, opening the door to further development and real-time demonstrations in a prototype flight computer with complex threat scenarios.
LUNAR STUDIES: NASA plans to issue a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) on June 6 for Lunar Surface System concept studies. The agency is seeking innovative ideas for tackling anticipated lunar exploration challenges including moving regolith, energy storage, minimum functionality habitats, consumables packaging, avionics and software. NASA will conduct a briefing on the BAA on the day of its release at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington. Responses will be due July 7, and NASA expects to award study contracts by mid-August.
Boeing says it plans to explore proposals for the U.S. Air Force’s forthcoming Next-Generation Unmanned Aerial System (NG-UAS) program, which aims to field a new combat drone by 2015. Once a competition begins, bids are likely to also come from General Atomics Aeronautical Systems and Northrop Grumman.
CARRIER DEFERRED: France’s decision on whether to build a second aircraft carrier to complement the Charles de Gaulle is likely to be pushed back until 2011 or 2012, when the government will have a better idea of cost savings expected from a defense ministry streamlining plan also in preparation. French President Nicolas Sarkozy had been expected to announce a decision in June. The defense ministry had hoped to free up money for the carrier by cutting back other naval programs such as the Fremm multimission frigate.
ROCKOT READY: Khrunichev-Astrium joint venture Eurockot says its Rockot light launcher is ready to return to service. The Rockot had been sidelined since early April by the failure of a Proton M launch vehicle that left its payload in a useless orbit. The Breeze KM upper stage on Rockot and the Breeze M kick stage on Proton share some technology. Flight clearance followed issuance of a Russian State Commission report confirming the cause of the incident — a ruptured exhaust gas duct — and corrective measures to be applied before return to flight (Aerospace DAILY, May 15).
MODERN MINUTEMAN: While nuclear deterrence is not front and center in the headlines today as it was in the Cold War, U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Thomas Deppe argues it remains relevant in today’s threat environment. As vice commander of Air Force Space Command, he says the Minuteman III fleet needs upgrades to keep the missile system viable through 2030, a 10-year extension from earlier plans. A new guidance system that can be repaired or replaced through a side access panel is needed.
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a measure tucked into its fiscal 2009 defense authorization bill that could lead to a permanent freezing of classified Pentagon satellite funding to foreign companies that are developing or producing ITAR-free satellite technology for China. The measure is aimed at European defense electronics giant Thales, and in particular its Thales Alenia Space joint venture with Finmeccanica.
Phoenix Mars Lander mission controllers say the latest images from the spacecraft show that it could have blown away top soil when it landed to reveal ice. Pictures from the robotic arm camera show flat, smooth surfaces exposed beneath the lander that NASA officials say “could be an exposure of ice or rock. We’re pushing for ice, though we don’t know if that’s the case yet — it’s pretty exciting stuff.”
BERLIN – Hispasat will buy and operate the first of a new family of spacecraft intended to give the European satellite industry a foothold in the growing market for advanced small telecom satellites. The satellite, Hispasat AG1, will allow the Spanish operator to extend its Ku-band coverage over the Iberian peninsula and the Americas while testing a new on-board processing package and active antenna designed to permit a more flexible allocation of Ka-band broadband data capacity.
To help the German army close some operational gaps in its CH53G fleet, Eurocopter will retrofit six more of the transport helicopters with ballistic self-protection and special mission equipment. The German Federal Office for Defense Technology and Procurement awarded the 24 million euro ($37 million) contract to Eurocopter Deutschland on May 28.
A coalition of researchers is partnering with NASA to perform research aboard the International Space Station (ISS) that they hope will lead to a vaccine against salmonella poisoning. A leading cause of food poisoning and diarrhea, salmonella is not just an inconvenience but “a major killer of children” worldwide, according to Timothy Hammond, associate chief of staff for research and development at the Durham Veterans Administration (VA) Medical Center in North Carolina.
STOVL FLIGHT: Lockheed Martin’s first short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) F-35B could fly for the first time this week. Aircraft BF-1 completed hover pit tests of the propulsion system on May 25, and test pilot Graham Tomlinson subsequently flew the first F-35, aircraft AA-1, twice to familiarize himself with the aircraft. Taxi tests were planned for the weekend. The F-35B initially will fly in conventional take-off and landing mode, with STOVL tests now expected to begin early in 2009.
JAGM SHOWDOWN: Raytheon and Lockheed Martin are the only two companies proposing options to the U.S. Army for its Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM), which is to eventually replace the Maverick and Hellfire systems. JAGM emerged after the Army abruptly cancelled Lockheed Martin’s Joint Common Missile program for financial reasons. Proposals were due last month, and a contract award is expected in mid-August, according to an industry official.
