BAE Systems Applied Technologies Inc., Rockville, Md., is being awarded a $5,868,856 modification to a previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (N00421-01-C-0077) to exercise an option for technical and engineering support services for the development, procurement, integration, testing, installation and certification of shipboard communication systems; the development and integration of like systems at shore sites associated with the deployment of, or fleet support to, surface combatants; and the development, testing and integration of mobile and airborne communicat
AIM ARRIVES: NASA's Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) spacecraft arrived March 10 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., in anticipation of its April 25 launch aboard a Pegasus XL rocket. The spacecraft features three instruments designed to study polar mesospheric clouds located at the edge of space. The mission will help explain why these clouds form and what has caused them to become brighter and more numerous, as well as appear at lower latitudes, in recent years.
MISSILE BATTERIES: Kuwait has contracted with MBDA to upgrade its Aspide air defense missile batteries. Under the award, MBDA will modernize the Kuwaiti batteries to the Apside 2000 configuration, which can engage highly maneuverable targets flying at low level in dense electronic countermeasures environments, with greater range.
Putting the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system on extended alert status last year in response to North Korea's ballistic missile tests provided an effective shakedown of the system and allowed the team to work out bugs that could not have been discovered any other way, according to GMD prime Boeing. "Quite frankly, the system is much more robust than we hoped for," said Scott Fancher, Boeing's GMD program director "Its performance exceeded our expectations."
Through a series of innovative design and contracting moves over the past three years, the U.S. Navy has been able to shave about $600 million off the initial estimated cost for its next class of aircraft carrier, the CVN 21, or Gerard R. Ford, according to Capt. Michael Schwartz, service program manager for future carriers.
DATA LINK: The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory has selected Rockwell Collins for Phase 1 of the Miniature Common Data Link program to develop a miniature Ku-band link to serve small Unmanned Air Systems. Cubic Defense Applications is teamed with Rockwell Collins on the effort.
ARMY PAC-3: Raytheon Co. said March 12 that it received a $38.6 million U.S. Army contract for test equipment upgrades and engineering as the first step in the upgrade of three Patriot battalions (12 fire units) from Patriot Advanced Capability-2 to the PAC-3 configuration. The deal stems from the Army's worldwide requirements to upgrade all fielded units to PAC-3 following a February 2006 decision to upgrade additional tactical Patriot fire units.
AIRCRAFT EQUIPMENT: L-3 Communications' Link Simulation and Training Division will support F/A-18C/D and E/F pilot and maintenance training equipment for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps under a five-year contract from Naval Air Systems Command. The contract includes four one-year options.
CEC ENGINEERING: The U.S. Navy has awarded Raytheon another $16 million for the Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) program, this time for fiscal 2007 engineering services and design agent requirements. Earlier this month, the Naval Sea Systems Command extended Raytheon's Network Centric Systems a $32 million contract modification for FY '06 add-on requirements and FY '07 option requirements (DAILY, March 2).
The U.S. Air Force, Boeing and the National Reconnais-sance Office (NRO) are assessing the schedule and hardware implications of potentially significant damage at Cape Canaveral's Launch Complex 37, and perhaps even the Delta IV Heavy rocket on that launch pad, following a dangerous liquid oxygen leak that occurred during a countdown dress rehearsal with the massive vehicle loaded with tons of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen.
LUNAR CUTS: NASA says it will deliver its fiscal 2007 operating plan to Capitol Hill "soon," and a couple of big shoes will drop once it does. The plan will detail how the agency intends to absorb a $545 million cut in its budget this year, and a lot of that money will come from sending robotic scouts to the surface of the moon in advance of a human return there by 2020. The top lunar-robotic priority is mapping, to be handled by NASA's 2008 Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and upcoming orbiter missions by India, Japan and perhaps China.
COUNTERDRUG OPS: The U.S. Air Force's chief of staff, Air Combat Command chief and 12th Air Force commander have determined that forward-operating base support functions shall be contracted to the maximum extent possible for counterdrug surveillance in the Caribbean and Central and South American theaters, according to a March 8 contract announcement from the Pentagon. In turn, ITT Industries is being awarded a $7.8 million contract for all support operations for U.S.
NAS PATUXENT RIVER, Md. - An operational evaluation of the Super Hornet's new radar says it is "not effective and not suitable for combat operations," but it praised the design as a "quantum leap" in air-to-air capability. Navy officials say it will be fine-tuned for war in time for the first operational deployment in 2008.
OSPREY FATIGUE TEST: The Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey's airframe fatigue test program passed 20,000 effective flight hours in late February. The testing, which involves a full-size V-22, began in June 1998 and is the first ever for a tiltrotor design. The program has so for included 60,000 simulated flights and 20,000 hours of low cycle load testing, which is considered the equivalent of two lifetimes on control surfaces and aft fuselage structures. It will soon start a block of high cycle loading equivalent to 30,000 flight hours.
LONGER MARCH: Entry into service for China's long-planned Long March 5 launcher, comparable to the U.S. Atlas V, has slipped until the middle of next decade. Originally expected to enter service next year, the rocket still needs another seven to eight years of development, Huang Chunping, a former space program manager, tells Xinhua news agency. Engine designs are complete and the first engine test was made last year, he says, describing the rocket's lift capacity as ranging from 9 to 25 metric tons, presumably to low orbit.
The U.S. Air Force's Directed Energy Directorate at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., is working on a new type of solid-state laser system that uses thin discs of material as the lasing medium rather than solid blocks. "The advantage there is in the capability to keep the laser cool, so when you can keep it cooler that's helpful from a thermal/power management standpoint," Directed Energy Directorate head Susan Thornton told The DAILY in an interview.
EBITDA UP: Inmarsat reported a 5 percent hike in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) in 2006, to $332 million, driven by a 4 percent surge in mobile satellite service revenues. The company's new Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN), which started up last year, contributed $9.5 million of revenue, as the number of active terminals increased 28 percent to 7,119 units in the fourth quarter.
CSAR-X REVIEW: Some industry insiders were buzzing March 9 about a potential new Defense Department review of the U.S. Air Force's combat, search and rescue (CSAR-X) helicopter procurement in the aftershocks of a Government Accountability Office (GAO) bid protest decision (DAILY, March 5). Officials are mulling how to reapproach the acquisition after the GAO chastised it over several concerns. Some in Congress are pressing for defense officials to rebid the program.
WEAPONIZATION INEVITABLE: Curtailing the "weaponization" of space and preserving it as a peaceful sanctuary will prove impossible given the ever-growing importance of space to military operations, according to Sen.
HELO ACCORD: Lockheed Martin and Kaman Aerospace Corp. have agreed to join forces and market advanced manned and unmanned helicopter systems for civil and military applications. Plans call for the two companies to jointly develop an unmanned version of Kaman's workhorse K-MAX helicopter that would have useful payload of up to 6,000 pounds.
BUYERS BEWARE: U.S. Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne says Russia and China are doing some false advertising as nations around the globe contemplate fighter aircraft buys. "There are some pretenders out there," he says, adding that "Russians and Chinese - both independently by the way - are talking about fifth-generation fighters." This term, coined by F-22 and F-35 developer Lockheed Martin, refers to a combination of stealth, speed and sensor technology. But Wynne doesn't want the consumer to be confused. "It is just like branding.
