SUB WORK: The Defense Department said that the Naval Sea Systems Command is awarding a $42.8 million contract modification to General Dynamics Corp.'s Electric Boat Corp. in Groton, Conn., for consolidated planning yard, engineering and technical support for nuclear submarines. Work includes material aspects of submarine design/configuration change programs and submarine research, development, test and evaluation. It runs through December 2009.
Any potential "savings" from withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq and reducing combat operations there should be reinvested back in the U.S. military because of burgeoning bills, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said Jan. 9.
DEFENSE OUTLAYS: The Congressional Budget Office said Defense Department spending was 11 percent higher through December than the same period last year. Much of that growth was due to increased outlays for procurement and for research and development. Defense outlays reached $143 billion versus $129 billion in 2005.
ARES CONTRACT: NASA has awarded ATK Thiokol of Brigham City, Utah, a $48 million contract option to continue design and development of the first stage of the Ares I rocket. The first stage is a modified five-segment version of ATK's space shuttle solid rocket booster (SRB). Made under an existing shuttle contract, the award brings the total value of ATK's work on the Ares I so far to $111 million.
The Planetary Society is offering a $50,000 prize for the best design for a mission to rendezvous with and "tag" a potentially dangerous near-Earth asteroid. The objective of the Apophis Mission Design Competition will be to develop a concept to plant a tracking beacon on a 400-meter diameter asteroid that will fly within about 20,000 miles of Earth in 2029. Deflection mission
The Air Force's acquisition plan to replace its aging tanker fleet - a program that could cost between $100 billion and about $200 billion according to the RAND Corp. - could be facing delays due to contractor woes and bureaucratic hang-ups, industry sources say.
The Homeland Security and Transportation departments are seeking public input on the fate and future of the four-decade-old, low-frequency hyperbolic radionavigation Long Range Aids to Navigation (LORAN) system, including whether to simply cancel it altogether, maintain the current system or spend funds to jump to a high-technology "enhanced" version.
STARTEGIC AWARD: BAE Systems said Jan. 8 that it was awarded a potentially $165.6 million U.S. Navy contract to provide system integration support for the Trident II (D5) Fleet Ballistic Missile Strategic Weapon System (SWS) program and the nuclear-powered guided missile submarines attack weapon system program. BAE also will provide technical services for Tomahawk Land Attack Missile-nuclear support and advanced systems studies, SWS underwater launch technology sustainment, D5 life-extension systems engineering and Trident sub operation and employment studies.
Aerospace metals supplier Precision Castparts Corp. has agreed to pay a private equity firm $300 million to acquire the aerospace operations of the Fastening Systems business sold off by Textron last summer.
The Democratic-led House Armed Services Committee, across party lines, is increasingly calling for expanded military capabilities and forces without cutting back on high-technology or big-ticket acquisitions, possibly setting the stage for greater defense spending just as previous plans projected flatlining.
The U.S. Army is soliciting proposals from industry for the next phase of the Threat Agent Cloud Tactical Intercept & Countermeasure (TACTIC) program, which is developing technologies to pro-actively identify and neutralize chem/bio agent clouds and reduce the need for troops to carry heavy protective gear.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is seeking information from industry about components for future spacecraft systems that have yet to be tested in space. "As the space industry has matured, the frequency and availability of secondary payload launches to support space component R&D [research and development] has been significantly reduced," DARPA says in its request for information (RFI). "The resulting reduction in the rate of space component qualification can have a negative impact on the development of future spacecraft systems."
OVERSHADOWED: After years of discussions at the Pentagon about a common system, the Marine Corps has decided to shift from its Pioneer unmanned aerial vehicles to the Shadow, a newer system also used by the Army, for future short-range reconnaissance. The Pioneer, jointly developed by Israel Aerospace Industries and AAI, has been a Navy and Marine Corps mainstay.
With its unusual profile, characterized by the distinctive Advanced Enclosed Mast/Sensor System masts, the USS New Orleans (LPD 18) will look like no other warship when it arrives in San Diego this spring, Navy officials say. LPD 18, second in the LPD 17 San Antonio-class of amphibious transport dock ships, will be the first to be based on the West Coast. The Navy will commission New Orleans in March in its namesake city (DAILY, Nov. 6, 2006). This year the Navy also is scheduled to commission the Mesa Verde (LPD 19), while Northrop Grumman Corp.
U.S. military officials are worried that recent attempts by the Chinese to blind or jam U.S. satellite signals may be part of a larger attempt to cut or curtail global communication networks, said Loren Thompson, an analyst at the Lexington Institute think tank. Military officials inside and outside the Pentagon have acknowledged that the Chinese have attempted to blind or disrupt signals of a U.S. satellite flying over Chinese territory, apparently using a ground-based laser gun.
FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES: Defense officials from Germany and Italy apparently have managed to curb cuts to their cooperative development of the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS), which includes the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 interceptor and sensor systems for a theater defense capability. During the Pentagon's fiscal 2008 budget talks, the Army was considering a $250 million MEADS cut from fiscal 2008-13, which would delay deliveries of the system.
John Negroponte will leave as director of National Intelligence (DNI) and Linton Brooks will depart as head of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). President Bush nominated Negroponte on Jan. 5 to become deputy secretary of state. Bush also nominated retired Navy Vice Admiral Mike McConnell, a former National Security Agency director, to be DNI director. Thomas D'Agostino, deputy NNSA administrator for defense programs, will take on the acting director position there, Bush said. Meanwhile, it was widely reported that Navy Adm.
Raytheon Co. said Jan. 4 that its $32.7 million subcontract to provide sustainment support for the X-Band Radar (XBR) portion of the Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX) signals that the XBR is entering a new phase as it takes its place in the U.S. ballistic missile defense system (BMDS). Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems designed and built the XBR for the BMDS. The award was made by Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, the prime contractor for the Ground Based Midcourse Defense element of the BMDS.
Air Force experience with the F-22 Raptor has been favorable, but the service's acquisition program is an "excellent example" of what can go wrong in a program that fails to match requirements with resources and takes on "a number of new and unproven technologies," Government Accountability Office chief David Walker says. Walker pinpoints a failure to "capture the appropriate technology, design and manufacturing knowledge" at the right time during development as the cause of a 10-year delay in getting the new aircraft to the warfighter.
MPA INTEGRATION: The HC-144A, the official U.S. Air Force designation for the Coast Guard's new medium-range maritime patrol aircraft, this month begins its command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance pallet and other mission-specific technologies integrated at the Coast Guard Aviation Repair and Supply Center in Elizabeth City, N.C. Once fully configured, it will be flown to the Coast Guard's Aviation Training Center in Mobile, Ala., for operational tests and evaluation.
ICBM LEP: Northrop Grumman will continue refurbishment activities on U.S. Air Force intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) under a 22-month, $15 million contract awarded by the service in late November, the company says. The Propulsion System Rocket Engine (PSRE) Life Extension Program (LEP) involves refurbishing and replacing aged flight hardware and ordnance to maintain the alert-readiness of the missiles. The contract is the second of six options under the 13-year PSRE LEP contract.
