The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has invited three alternate teams to the Grand Challenge 2005 National Qualification Event to be held Sept. 28-Oct. 6 at the California Speedway in Fontana, Calif. In June, DARPA chose 40 robotic ground vehicle teams out of 118 hopefuls to participate in the NQE. The three alternate teams that will compete are Austin Robot Technology of Austin, Texas, Princeton University of Princeton, N.J., and Team Underdawg of San Jose, Calif.
BREATHING EASIER: The U.S. Navy has tapped Treadwell Corp. of Thomaston, Conn., for $12.3 million in auxiliary cubicles and microprocessor controller components for Model 6L16 Electrolytic Oxygen Generators, the primary oxygen producer aboard SSN-688- and SSBN-726-class submarines. The Navy said late Aug. 23 that the follow-on acquisition is part of a program to upgrade the Treadwell generators for extended life, increased reliability and reduced life cycle costs. Treadwell is supposed to finish by September 2007.
The independent Base Closure and Realignment Commission voted 7-1 on Aug. 24 to reject the Defense Department's recommendation to close the Naval Submarine Base New London, Conn., saying it was too special to lose, partly because of General Dynamics' work there. The commission said DOD's May 13 recommendation to close the base "deviated" from almost all of the military value criteria under which 2005 BRAC decisions are to be made, as well as the force structure plan for probable threats to national security over the next 20 years.
CHECKING BATTERIES: This week Boeing expects to finish testing the batteries used in the flight termination systems of the company's Delta II and Delta IV rockets to ensure they will work properly. Located in the rocket's second stage, the batteries power the avionics that command the rocket to destroy itself if it veers off course. Verification of the batteries has delayed the launch of the first GPS IIR-M spacecraft on a Delta II from Cape Canaveral, Fla. (DAILY, Aug. 24).
Raytheon has delivered an experimental Distributed Common Ground System to Langley Air Force Base, Va., for additional Air Force and company testing, the company said Aug. 24. The delivery completes the first phase of the company's DCGS contract.
Space Shuttle Discovery's wheels are lowered to the ground at NASA Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility. Discovery, which landed at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., returned to KSC Aug. 21 after a two-day trip home atop a modified Boeing 747. Photo courtesy NASA/KSC.
The U.S. Defense Department has approved an accelerated full-rate production run of Lockheed Martin's thermobaric Hellfire (AGM-114N) missile, allowing the company to fill a $90 million order from the U.S. Army. A government-industry team successfully completed the production readiness review of the metal augmented charge (MAC), or thermobaric warhead, prompting approval of the new version of the Hellfire II missile, the company said.
Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) has proposed requiring the U.S. Army to find a second domestic source for Stryker tires, after an internal Army report said the extra weight of slat armor added to the vehicles has led to worn-out tires. Michelin XML 12.00R20 tires are used on the combat vehicles, according to the Pentagon's Defense Technical Information Center. Voinovich submitted the legislation in late July as a possible amendment to the fiscal 2006 defense authorization bill.
LOCAL INTEREST: The National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining, a two-year-old trade group championed by Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), has been awarded a five-year, $24.3 million contract by the U.S. Army. The award allows the Defense Department and other government organizations to use the manufacturing expertise of the Latrobe, Pa., center, according to a statement. The center said it was established through Murtha's efforts, and he helped announce the Army contract Aug. 19 at the annual Johnstown, Pa., Showcase of Commerce and Industry.
Outlays for national defense will total $493 billion in 2005, the Congressional Budget Office has estimated, 8.6% more than last year but down from 12.1% growth in 2004 and 16% in 2003.
FUZE WORK: Alliant Techsystems (ATK) has been awarded a $15 million contract by U.S. Army Field Command to produce M-228 Practice Grenade Fuzes. If all options are exercised, the work could be worth up to $57 million, ATK said Aug. 23. Production will begin in March 2006 on a new manufacturing line in the companyís Allegany Ballistics Laboratory in Rocket Center, W.Va.
The Navy hopes in the coming months to award a contract for outsourced medium- and heavy-lift helicopters to fly throughout the Pacific Missile Range Facility off Hawaii for weapons recovery, visual surveillance, range clearance, firefighting and transport missions.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Aug. 23 that he has no immediate plans to concentrate the Defense Department's cruise missile defense efforts in a single agency, even though the idea recently surfaced as a possibility.
MINE COUNTERMEASURES SHIPS: Anteon International Corp. of Fairfax, Va., said Aug. 23 that the U.S. Navy's Naval Sea Systems Command awarded it a five-year, $25.7 million contract to support mine countermeasures ships based in Ingleside, Texas, and forward-deployed to Bahrain and Japan. Last September, congressional auditors sided with competitor Gulf Copper Ship Repair Inc. over an award to Anteon and another company for the repair and maintenance of mine countermeasures and coastal minehunter ships (DAILY, June 21).
DELIVERED: EADS Defence & Security Systems Ltd. of the United Kingdom and its Kiel, Germany-based subsidiary Hagenuk Marinekommunikation have delivered three external communications systems for the U.K.'s first Astute-class nuclear submarine. EADS now is competing to supply similar systems for the next two Astute-class subs.
ADVANCED DISPLAYS: A Lockheed Martin Corp. unit has received $48.3 million from the Naval Sea Systems Command for new or modified variants of AN/UYQ-70 products, a family of display, processor and network systems currently fielded on the U.S. Navy's new Aegis destroyers, cruisers and other surface ships, as well as E-2C Hawkeye aircraft and attack submarines. The contract, awarded Aug. 19 but not announced until late Aug. 22, was not competitively procured, the Navy said. In May, Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems & Sensors Tactical Systems awarded DRS Technologies Inc.
The launch of the Global Positioning System IIR-M1 spacecraft aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket is being delayed until mid-September at the earliest as Boeing tries to diagnose recent problems with the batteries used in the Delta rocket family's flight termination systems. The batteries power the avionics that command the rocket to destroy itself if it veers off course. GPS IIR-M1 will not launch until engineers are certain the batteries will perform as needed, according to Boeing spokesman Robert Villanueva.
Israeli Aircraft Industries (IAI) delivered its 100th F-16 wing box to Lockheed Martin Corp. last week, the company said Aug. 22. Lockheed Martin has ordered more than $100 million worth of wing boxes from IAI's Lahav Division since the company was awarded a contract for 120 pairs of wing boxes for $52 million in 1999. The Lahav Division currently is the sole manufacturer of F-16 wing boxes for Lockheed Martin's F-16 customers, the company said.
Pratt & Whitney started assembling the first flight-test engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter on Aug. 23, a company spokesman said. Plans call for assembly to be completed by about October, according to Matthew Perra. Then, he said, the engine will be tested and shipped in December to Lockheed Martin's Fort Worth, Texas, plant. "In January 2006, the F135 program will achieve Initial Flight Release and the F135 will power the F-35's first flight in third quarter 2006," P&W said.
Estonia is starting a procurement program for a new air defense system following a year and a half long analysis by the ministry of defense and the military. It has invited MBDA Systems and Raytheon to compete.
General Electric and Rolls-Royce plan to pick a site in mid-2006 to assemble F136 engines for the U.S. Defense Department's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, a representative of the industry team said Aug. 23.
