The U.S. Defense Department's Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate (JNLWD) has received more than 130 proposals responding to its request for ideas for new nonlethal weapons, a JNLWD official said June 28. The JNLWD published the solicitation in December and is accepting submissions until November.
CLEANER CLEARANCE: President Bush on June 27 signed an executive order to streamline application procedures for granting national security clearances across federal agencies. The new process is led by the White House Office of Management and Budget and is supposed to lead to "uniform, centralized, efficient, effective, timely and reciprocal" processes across departments such as Defense, Homeland Security, State and Energy, the White House said June 28.
NEW CUTTER: The U.S. Coast Guard expects to have the final National Security Cutter operational requirements document, a high-level test and strategies plan, complete within two months, according to the U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command. Then, NAVSEA's Warfare Center Port Hueneme Division will offer recommendations to the Coast Guard for finalizing the document, and together they will craft the test evaluation master plan for the cutter. The Warfare Center should begin conducting combat system ship qualification trials aboard the new class of cutters in 2007, NAVSEA said.
STRENGTHENED: BAE Systems has been awarded a contract modification worth $143.1 million from the U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command to remake and upgrade 59 M88A2 Hercules Improved Recovery vehicles, as well as provide system technical support and spares. The deal calls for 53 vehicles for the Army and six for the Marine Corps, the company said June 28. BAE Systems will deliver the renewed vehicles from August 2006 through November 2007.
EDO Corp. will continue to produce acoustic modules for the Light Weight Aperture Array sonar system on Virginia-class submarines under a $4 million contract from Northrop Grumman. The New York-based company will take fiber-optic acoustic sensor assemblies supplied by Northrop Grumman and integrate them into large multisensor acoustic modules that conform to the hull of the submarine, the company said June 28. The use of fiber optics provides noise-free data transmission and reduces weight significantly, EDO said.
A detachment of Belgium's unmanned aerial vehicle unit will help maintain stability in Bosnia-Herzegovina during its first operational deployment, the Belgian defense ministry said June 27. An 80th UAV Flight detachment and its Hunter-B UAV began arriving at Tuzla Eagle Base on June 22 and will be ready to fly reconnaissance missions by July 4. The detachment will provide reconnaissance and air-surveillance support in anti-trafficking and organized crime operations during its four-month mission, the ministry said.
ARMOR KITS: AM General of South Bend, Ind., has been awarded a $19.6 million contract modification for the purchase and installation of armor kits for M1151 Humvees, the Defense Department said June 27. The work will be done in South Bend and is expected to be finished by Jan. 31, 2006. The contract was awarded by the U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command, Warren, Mich.
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said he is confident that the shuttle will return to flight as early as July 13, although the agency he recently took over was not able to implement all the recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, including solving the issue of debris damage on the orbiter.
Raytheon Co. will produce Excalibur 155mm precision-guided artillery rounds for early fielding in Iraq under a $22.1 million contract awarded by the U.S. Army, the company said June 28. Developed by Raytheon Missile Systems and Bofors Defence of Sweden, Excalibur uses Global Positioning System and Inertial Measurement Unit technology to provide greater range and accuracy than traditional artillery.
PREDATOR ISR: BAE Systems Advanced Information Technologies will provide a "multi-sensor, multi-look exploitation system" to give the Predator unmanned aerial vehicle persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance under a $5.4 million contract modification, the Defense Department said June 28. The Air Force Research Laboratory awarded the contract.
DRS Technologies Inc. said June 28 that options on a previously awarded U.S. Navy contract to develop advanced shaftless propulsion technology for future nuclear-powered submarine designs under the Tango Bravo program could bring the contract total to $30 million.
Unmanned aerial vehicle builder AeroVironment is flight-testing a subscale prototype UAV featuring a new long-endurance liquid hydrogen fuel system at Yuma, Ariz., according to company officials. The company-funded vehicle flew for the first time on May 27 and then again on June 2 for roughly an hour each time, marking what the company believes is the first time a UAV has flown on liquid hydrogen. The aircraft flew in racetrack patterns, both under manual control and autonomously through waypoints. Global Observer
Like a meteor shower of reports, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin on June 28 promised the House Science Committee several updates to Congress by September, including the research agenda for the International Space Station (ISS), space shuttle flight plans, a launch vehicle for the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), an architecture for lunar missions and other exploration and astronomy projects.
ORDERS: CFM International said it logged orders for 218 new CFM56 engines, worth $1.3 billion, at the recent Paris Air Show. CFM International is a joint venture of France's Snecma and General Electric of the U.S. The engines have been selected to power several Airbus and Boeing aircraft, the company said.
V-22 FORMATION: Eight V-22 Ospreys fly in formation June 18 after leaving the USS Bataan in the Atlantic Ocean, where the U.S. multiservice aircraft program concluded the flight-test portion of its operational evaluation (DAILY, June 28). Tests results are now under review. OPEVAL is supposed to lead to full-rate production approval of the Bell-Boeing tiltrotor transport this fall. Photo by Photographer's Mate 1st Class Ken Riley, courtesy U.S. Navy.
The U.S. Army has awarded Raytheon Co. a $69.7 million contract modification for TOW bunker buster missiles, the Defense Department said June 27. The work will be done in Tucson, Ariz., and is expected to be finished by Nov. 30, 2008. The contract was awarded by the U.S. Army Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala.
BALTIMORE - After conducting a series of failed experiments last year, the Air Force's Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Battlelab is seeking industry's help to develop sense-and-avoid systems for small UAVs. The Battlelab wants to develop an inexpensive system for small UAVs to sense and avoid other aircraft, allowing them to conduct routine file-and-fly operations in joint airspace. The scheme the Battlelab had settled on involved a series of electro-optic cameras installed on the aircraft.
Europe's MBDA Missile Systems says it is pushing ahead with developing two new missiles that might compete with U.S. weapons, but questions remain as to whether either project will bear fruit. During the recent Paris Air Show, MBDA revealed that Meteor, which six European nations are pursuing as a beyond-visual-range, air-to-air missile, is slated to begin flight-testing near the end of 2005.
The U.S. Army has awarded General Dynamics C4 Systems a $30 million contract to integrate up to 500 Land Warrior Systems and Stryker integration kits into a Stryker experimental battalion, the company said June 28. The delivery of assessment versions of the Land Warrior Systems and integration kits is scheduled for March through May of 2006.
MOSCOW - Russia's Federal Space Agency and Space Forces have banned Soyuz and Molniya launches following the June 21 launch failure of a Molniya M booster carrying a military communications satellite (DAILY, June 22). Both Soyuz and Molniya use the same third stage that presumably failed in the attempt. According to media reports, the failure probably was caused by a fire in one of the third-stage RD-0110 engines, manufactured in Voronezh.
A400M EQUIPMENT: AAR Corp.'s Cargo Systems business unit of Livonia, Mich., will provide cargo handling systems for Airbus' A400M military transport, the company announced at the recent Paris Air Show. AAR Cargo systems is teaming with Pfalt Flugteugwerke of Speyer, Germany, on the program, and will develop and build the floor-based cargo loading system and aerial delivery system. PFW will develop and build the structural floor and drainage system. AAR Corp. expects its share of the work to be worth $300 million for the company through fiscal 2015.
