With many defense industry analysts predicting that contract protests will be as common to military acquisition as contract awards themselves, the concern now is whether the protests indicate a deeper problem in Pentagon purchasing -- and what needs to be done about it. For now, some analysts say, the Pentagon and contractors may need to include the protest timeframe as part of the overall contract schedule.
The Bush administration has bungled budgeting for long-term U.S. security needs and the government should cut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security spending to pay for back-logged national security growth, said a panel of American Enterprise Institute and Goldman Sachs analysts June 26. Otherwise, the country should prepare for a major "squeeze" in defense spending and potentially weakened status abroad, said the conservative-leaning commentators.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Boeing, lead contractor on the SBInet border security program, are in trouble with lawmakers for not keeping them up to date on deployment slips for a virtual fence in Arizona.
Italy's Elettronica and Israel's Elbit Systems have teamed to jointly develop another contender in the directed infrared countermeasures (DIRCM) market. At the core of the effort is the "Music" laser-based DIRCM system Elbit has been working on. The work is carried out by Elbit's Elop unit. The combined effort targets both helicopter and large aircraft applications. In a joint statement, the two companies said they have already begun a marketing effort and could deliver the first countermeasures device by the end of next year.
Shuttle prime contractor United Space Alliance (USA) says the ongoing strike of roughly 570 shuttle workers that began June 14 has not yet had any impact on the scheduled launch of Endeavour on STS-118 Aug. 9. Endeavour is scheduled to roll out from its hangar to the Vehicle Assembly Building on July 2, three days ahead of schedule, according to USA spokeswoman Tracy Yates. "We continue to operate under our strike contingency plan," Yates told The DAILY. "So far things are going safely, smoothly and on schedule."
The U.S. Air Force is awarding Raytheon Technical Services a $75 million contract to rework the old GBU-15/AGM-130 family of weapons after the federal government last year sold off 90 MHz of radio spectrum for the mobile phone industry to use for so-called third-generation products and services. The Air Force has to vacate the 1710-1755 MHz frequency bands used for the training frequency for all weapons that are flown in the continental United States within four years, the Defense Department explained in its June 22 contract announcement.
Former House Space and Aeronautics subcommittee chairman Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) is calling on current chairman Mark Udall (D-Colo.) to convene a hearing on NASA's Spaceguard program, which is cataloging potentially dangerous Near Earth Objects (NEOs).
SUCCESSFUL AEGIS: Aegis ballistic missile defense system program officials and supporters have declared an apparently successful "hit-to-kill" intercept test June 22. The latest Aegis BMD test boosted system confidence because the medium-range target missile separated from its booster before the Aegis system's Standard Missile 3 Block IA slammed into it more than 100 miles above the Pacific Ocean and 250 miles northwest of Kauai, Hawaii. The test also entailed the first intercept launch of an SM-3 from a U.S.
Northrop Grumman has completed the critical design review and entered the integration and test phase for the Joint High Power Solid State Laser (JHPSSL) Phase 3 program after exceeding all demonstration requirements for the first gain module, or building block, forming the core of its 100-kilowatt solid-state laser system, the company announced June 25.
RELIABLE REVIEW: Democratic-led Senate energy appropriators will start weighing in on the future of the U.S. nuclear weapons regime June 26 when the Senate Appropriations energy subcommittee is scheduled to mark up its fiscal 2008 spending bill.
The Pentagon is unable to keep track of how often it has awarded special speedy contracts that allow work to begin before the details are ironed out, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) says. Called undefinitized contract actions (UCA), the awards authorize contractors to begin work before reaching a final agreement on contract terms. "The contractor has little incentive to control costs during this period, creating a potential for wasted taxpayer dollars," GAO says.
RAID ON: Raytheon said June 25 that the U.S. Army awarded it $10.4 million for whole-life engineering support for the company's Rapid Aerostat Initial Deployment (RAID) systems. The support award alone is worth a little bit more than just the last RAID order from the Army for 16 systems, but the services contract will cover more than 150 potential RAID systems (DAILY, May 21). The persistent-surveillance systems were designed for Iraq and Afghanistan combat operations in particular, although the Army two years ago bought 15 systems for peacekeeping use in Kosovo, Serbia.
The Lockheed Martin/Northrop Grumman Transformational Satellite Communications (TSAT) space segment team has reached Technology Readiness Level 6 (TRL-6) - a key milestone for the TSAT program, the team announced July 25. The Pentagon considers TSAT to be its most vital future communications network. The laser-linked orbital router is meant to provide worldwide connectivity for platforms and people across the services.
DEADLY FISH: The U.S. Navy is completing MH-60S helicopter integration testing of its Airborne Mine Neutralization System (AMNS) and program officials expect to reach Milestone C by the end of the summer. Officials have scheduled developmental testing for September with operational and live-fire testing planned for July 2008. At the same time, the Navy is looking for further uses for the system's Archerfish, a 41-by-5 inch, 35 pound expendable unmanned vehicle that seeks out mines and fires a shaped-charge warhead to destroy them.
Once the International Space Station (ISS) is up and running after 2010 with a six-person crew, as much as half of the experiment space and other resources on-board could be available to commercial users at essentially no charge.
Raytheon is challenging the U.S. Army's award of the Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA) program to a team led by L-3 Communications, Alenia North America and Boeing, putting the June 13 contract on hold possibly through September. Raytheon filed the protest June 22 with the congressional Government Accountability Office, triggering a review period lasting as long as 100 days. The company, which was teamed with EADS, has not commented yet on why it protested the award.
