To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected] July 30 - Aug. 2 -- 2007 Naval S&T Partnership Conference, "The Navy After Next... Powered by Naval Research II -- Power & Energy for the Fleet and Force," Marriott Wardman Park, Washington, D.C. For more information go to www.ndia.org/meetings/7200. Aug. 6 - 9 -- AUVSI's Unmmaned Systems North America 2007, Washington Convention Center, Washington, D.C. For more information go to www.auvsi.org.
UAV SAVINGS: The U.S. Air Force says it can save as much as 10 pecent of the budding unmanned aerial systems (UAS) budget if it becomes the Pentagon's executive agent for UASs, over the objections of its sister services. Savings would come from common training and sustainment processes as well as shared basing, the service says. The Army has been furious over this plan, and the Navy and Marine Corps have expressed reservations.
MONITORING THE GIG: Looking ahead to the maintenance and protection of the future Global Information Grid (GIG), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is looking for new technologies for the monitoring of very large computer networks under its new Scalable Network Monitoring program. "Because the GIG will be the single most important contributor to combat power, it will also be a primary target to our enemies," DARPA says.
NAVY PICKED: The U.S. Navy has been designated the Defense Department's executive agent for Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA). In an Aug. 3 memo, Deputy Secretary Gordon England selected the service to chair a senior advisory group of representatives from the joint chiefs, the military services and the Office of the Secretary of Defense. The Navy has 180 days to come up with a plan defining responsibilities and milestones. An MDA implementation directive is due within one year.
TRAINER UPGRADE: Rockwell Collins has received a $23.8 million contract from the U.S. Army for the Aviation Combined Arms Tactical Trainer (AVCATT) helmet mounted display (HMD) modification and upgrade program. AVCATT is a mobile simulation training system that allows Army aviators to conduct realistic training and mission rehearsals through a networked, combined arms simulation. Rockwell Collins will provide its SimEye SR100A HMD to provide a more compact, lightweight upgrade for another HMD currently in use with AVCATT.
The U.S. Navy's E-2D Hawkeye has completed its first two test flights at Northrop Grumman facilities in St. Augustine, Fla., kicking off a projected 350-flight test program. The first flight, which took place at 11 a.m. Aug. 3 (DAILY, Aug. 7), was a 1.3-hour hop that stayed within sight of the airfield, according to Capt. Randy Mahr, the Navy's program manager for Hawkeye, Advanced Hawkeye and C-2 aircraft. The second flight Aug. 7 continued the check out of basic performance and involved very little envelope expansion.
Proxy Aviation Systems Inc., a start-up company from Germantown, Md., has demonstrated to the U.S. Air Force how its unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can fly autonomously in concert with each other to focus multiple sensors on a possible target. A successful demonstration at Creech Air Force Base, Nev., in early July has led to discussions between the Air Force and Proxy about a more elaborate demonstration. Donald P. Ryan, president and CEO of the company, says these discussions could lead to a deployable system.
BORDER UAVs: The Bush administration plans to acquire four more unmanned aerial vehicles to improve border security by 2009. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says three more Predator B UAVs will be committed to strengthen border security by Dec. 31, 2008. "We will also work to ensure that 1,700 more Border Patrol agents and an additional UAV are added in 2009," Chertoff says. Combined with the four Predators Customs and Border Protection (CPB) plans to have on hand by the end of 2007, the new aircraft would bring the total CPB Predator complement to eight.
LORAL RESULTS: Loral Space & Communications reported a 22 percent increase in revenues to $365 million in the first half of 2007 as its satellite manufacturing and operating units continue to rebound. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) declined to $25 million, from $28 million a year earlier, chiefly due to cancellation of the Connexion by Boeing contract, litigation expenses and higher research and development expenses.
JAPANESE AWACS: The U.S. Air Force is awarding Boeing a $110.2 million contract modification for a software option for the Japan E-767 AWACS Radar System Improvement Program (J-RSIP). This work will be complete in January 2009, the Pentagon said Aug. 8.
VEHICLE UPGRADES: General Dynamics units have been awarded more than $548 million total for system enhancement packages (SEPs) for Abrams M1A2 Tanks and for hull protection kits for the Stryker family of vehicles. In three different late-July awards, all announced Aug. 8, General Dynamics Land Systems received $270.6 million for SEPs for M1A2s, $139.3 million for retrofit of M1A2s to SEP Version 2 configuration and another unspecified $19 million contract modification.
Lockheed Martin is paying back the Pentagon about five years' worth of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) award fees totaling $265 million the company erroneously charged because of a computer glitch in its billing system, company spokesman Thomas Jurkowsky said Aug. 9. The company expects to repay the government "within several days" the overpaid award fees, plus interest that's still being determined, Jurkowsky said.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER - The U.S./Canadian crew of STS-118 performed inspections of their re-entry protection systems Aug. 9 following a flawless countdown and launch Aug. 8 that has returned the orbiter Endeavour to space after a nearly five-year absence, but with the addition of 194 major modifications.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has chosen the 36 semi-finalists that will compete in a qualification event this October as a final prelude to the Urban Challenge robot race on Nov. 3. The selected teams include the Stanford Racing Team, whose "Stanley" vehicle won the second DARPA Grand Challenge in 2005. Other participants include MIT, Princeton University, Caltech, and Team Oshkosh Truck. A complete list of qualifiers can be found at www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge.
MRAP ORDER: U.S. Marine Corps Systems Command has placed a $338.7 million delivery order with General Dynamics Land Systems Canada for 600 Category II Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles, according to the Pentagon. The 600 RG-31s will be manufactured by Demmer in Lansing, Mich., with additional production by BAE OMC of Benoni, South Africa, to meet the "urgent" production schedule, General Dynamics said Aug. 8. Deliveries will be completed by March 2008.
SES is raising its outlook for full-year 2007 revenues by 1.7 percent to 1.58-1.61 billion euros and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) 2.1 percent to 1.06-1.08 billion euros following a somewhat higher than expected first half performance, despite the deteriorating dollar. The Luxembourg-based company reported an 11 percent rise in revenues to 789.1 million euros in the first half and a 10 percent improvement in EBITDA to 548.2 million, as the transponder fill rate rose one point to 75 percent.
Democratic efforts on Capitol Hill to scale back cluster bomb use continue to inch along with related bills in the House and Senate picking up a few more co-sponsors. On Aug. 1, Rep. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) signed on to H.R. 1755 while Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) on July 19 added her name to S. 594. The latest co-sponsors bring the supporting casts to at least 15 representatives for H.R. 1755 and 12 senators for S.594.
THAI RADAR: Lockheed Martin said Aug. 9 that it will provide a TPS-77 long-range air surveillance radar to the Royal Thai Air Force, finalizing a multiphase national air defense system there. The radar, made in Syracuse, N.Y., will be installed and operational in 2009. This is Lockheed Martin's first direct commercial sale to the government of Thailand. The transportable radar provides continuous 3-D surveillance on aircraft targets at ranges out to 250 nautical miles.
Warning that the two upcoming X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS-D) demonstrators are not an operational design, Northrop Grumman and Navy officials say that much of the stealth technology eventually intended for them will have to wait for future iterations. The two air vehicles will be identical, so to keep costs down much of the low-observable technology has not been included. For example, a stealthy, S-shaped exhaust will not be there unless Northrop Grumman pays for its inclusion. The intake will be in its curved stealth form, however.
SCOUT SYSTEM: The U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command is signing a major award to Raytheon for Long Range Advanced Scout Surveillance Systems (LRAS). The $116.1 million firm-fixed-price contract, awarded July 25 but announced Aug. 8, is expected to be completed by Feb. 1, 2013, according to the Defense Department.
The U.S. Coast Guard has awarded a $337 million contract to Integrated Coast Guard Systems (ICGS) to begin work on the third National Security Cutter (NSC). Northrop Grumman will receive the lion's share of the funds, $285.5 million, for ship construction. The first cutter, Bertholf, is 90 percent complete, and Waesche is approximately 30 percent complete. The new cutter will be 418 feet long with a 4,300-ton displacement at full load. ICGS partner Lockheed Martin is responsible for shipboard command and control systems aboard the NSCs.
PREDATOR UPGRADE: The U.S. Air Force is awarding General Atomics a $7.3 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for two "pre-production" YMQ-1C Block X unmanned aircraft. The contracted work should be finished in January 2009, the Pentagon said in an Aug. 6 contract announcement. According to a January article in the authorized newspaper serving Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, which contracted for the Block Xs, the "Predator upgrade" is expected to increase loiter time, payload capability, weapons capacity and reliability while reducing overall lifecycle costs.
