The U.S. Army needs better scrutiny of its Future Combat Systems (FCS) program lead systems integrator (LSI) structure, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) says in a recent report. The GAO says the Pentagon needs to see if the LSI setup - for its multiple new systems linked by a first-of-a-kind information network - will affect other acquisitions. The Army contract for FCS gives the LSI a more expansive role than that of a typical prime contractor.
Richard J. Boak has been named vice president and controller for the company's Information Technology (IT) sector. Carl Johnson has been appointed to vice president of Programs-Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) within the company's Integrated Systems sector.
B-2 COMMS: Northrop Grumman Corporation has begun work on a 62-month, $171 million system development and demonstration (SDD) contract for the first increment of a new extremely high frequency (EHF) satellite communications system for the U.S. Air Force's B-2 stealth bomber, the company announced June 11. Under a planned three-increment upgrade program, the new EHF system will eventually allow the B-2 to send and receive information up to 100 times faster than its current ultra-high frequency (UHF) satellite communications system, the company said.
CAD RESPONSE: As U.S. defense officials combat the traditional sovereignty that contractors have exhibited over the designs of their products and services, leaving them struggling years later to modernize or replicate parts and platforms, one low-profile Coast Guard acquisition is taking the unique step of trying to computerize a whole new class of boats. A special provision in Marinette Marine's $600 million, year-old contract requires each of the Response Boat-Medium's 5,000 parts to be fully modeled in CAD [computer-aided design] software.
RESELLER: Iridium Satellite announced June 11 that Astrium Services, a subsidiary of EADS Astrium, has signed an agreement to become a value-added reseller (VAR) of Iridium satellite communication equipment and services. Under the VAR agreement, Astrium Services is authorized to package Iridium-based satellite voice and data services for international defense and commercial customers.
European transport ministers on June 8 agreed that the public sector will take over financing the deployment of Galileo, Europe's future satellite navigation system. "We have succeeded in outlining certain solutions," German Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee said. One possibility is to fund the system through the European Space Agency (ESA), Tiefensee confirmed. The European Commission is now scheduled to table detailed alternative proposals by September 2007, and the Council of Ministers said it will make a choice "in early autumn 2007."
Abigail D. Harper has been named the new deputy assistant administrator for systems. Harper fills a newly created position and will be responsible for the overall policy direction, coordination and management of NOAA's satellite acquisitions
Dr. Marv Sambur has been appointed to the board of directors. Sambur serves on the Air Force Science Advisory Board and the National Academy of Science Studies Board.
MARITIME GROWTH: Iridium Satellite reported June 11 that its mobile satellite services business in the maritime sector continues to show steady growth, with the number of subscribers up 17 percent over the same time last year. Maritime traffic through the satellite network is growing at an annual rate of 12 percent, according to the company.
Steve Schneps has been named vice president of operations for its Electronics & Integrated Solutions (E&IS) operating group. Schneps previously served as director of operations for several of the unit's major lines of business - Information Warfare, and most recently Electronic Warfare.
The board has appointed Antoine Bouvier, formerly Chief Executive Officer of EADS Astrium Satellites, as Chief Executive Officer of MBDA, replacing Marwan Lahoud, who is expected to move to EADS. Bouvier has been CEO of EADS Astrium Satellites since 2002. Prior to 2002, he was with Eurocopter, ATR and Aerospatiale.
Astronauts Jim Reilly and John (Danny) Olivas were busy attaching cables and unlatching launch restraints on the evening of June 11, after the crews of the International Space Station (ISS) and the space shuttle Atlantis used both spacecraft's robot arms to attach another section of the ISS truss.
NASA managers are likely to recommend a repair in space to the thermal protection blanket that was torn on space shuttle Atlantis during the STS-117 launch June 8. As Atlantis was closing in for a docking June 10 with the International Space Station (ISS) 210 statute miles above the east coast of Australia, engineers in Houston continued to assess imagery of the 4 x 6-inch tear in a thermal blanket on the left Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) Pod.
ARMY AECOM Government Services, Fort Worth, Texas, was awarded a delivery order amount of $47,444,298 as part of a $253,446,296 cost-plus-fixed-fee and cost-reimbursable contract for Iraqi army maintenance support services. The work will be performed in Iraq and is expected to be completed by May 31, 2009. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This was a sole source contract initiated on Feb. 1, 2007. The U.S. Army Sustainment Command, Rock Island, Ill., is the contracting activity (W52P1J-05-D-0004). AIR FORCE
Lockheed Martin filed another protest June 8 in the award of the U.S. Air Force combat, search and rescue (CSAR-X) helicopter fleet to Boeing, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) acknowledged June 11.
IRAQI AIR: Raytheon has tapped General Atomics Aeronautical Systems to provide an initial lot of five integrated intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) suites for Raytheon's Beechcraft King Air 350ER (Extended Range) aircraft and related ground stations to be supplied to the Iraqi air force under the U.S. Government's Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program.
U.S. Army Col. Charles R. Mehle II has taken over command of Joint Transformation Command - Intelligence (JTC-I). He replaces outgoing commander Navy Capt. Susan M. Chiaravalle.
Col. Kevin McLaughlin has assumed leadership as the first Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) Office director. McLaughlin will be dual-hatted in his new role as director of the joint ORS Office and as the Space and Missile Systems Center's Space Development and Test Wing commander at Kirtland Air Force Base.
