DOD's electronic mall (EMALL) and Standard Procurement System (SPS), intended to help streamline the Department of Defense's procurement process, are gaining speed, DOD officials said March 23 at FOSE 2004 in Washington. DOD EMALL, which started in 1998 and "hit its stride" in mid-2001, currently has 18 million line items to choose from, said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Jack Stem, deputy program manager for business development for the DOD EMALL. In 2002, the services spent $14.7 million on DOD EMALL, which has increased to $233 million, he said.
U.S. Coast Guard equipment is failing at a higher rate than when the Integrated Deepwater System recapitalization project was conceived, forcing the service to keep repairing older, legacy ships, helicopters and cutters while buying new platforms, Commandant Adm. Thomas H. Collins told senators March 23.
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has found evidence that the rocks at its landing site formed in a "shallow, salty sea," according to Associate Administrator for Space Science Ed Weiler. "This is a profound discovery," Weiler said in a press conference at NASA headquarters in Washington March 23. "It has profound implications for astrobiology, and I'd like to say if you have an interest in searching for fossils on Mars, this is the first place you want to go."
JSF ANTENNAS: EDO Corp. will design and develop landing-aid antennas for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter under a $2 million, multi-year contract from Northrop Grumman, the company said. The contract covers the JSF's system development and demonstration and low-rate initial production phases. The contract includes the design and manufacture of antennas for aircraft-carrier and runway landings and the development of a network to transfer information from external sensors to on-board communications systems.
Northrop Grumman announced March 22 that it has added BAE Systems to its team competing to be the prime contractor for the U.S. Army-led Aerial Common Sensor (ACS) intelligence-gathering aircraft.
DYNCORP TECHNICAL SERVICES of Fort Worth, Texas, will provide maintenance and modification services for part of NASA's aircraft fleet under a contract that could be worth up to $200 million. The Aircraft Maintenance and Modification Program Services contract includes support for Johnson Space Center operations at Ellington Field and other facilities, NASA said. The award is a follow-on to an existing services contract. Major subcontractors include Qualified Technical Services Inc., Muniz Engineering Inc., Avpol International and Lockheed Martin Space Operations.
SURVEILLANCE: DRS Technologies will provide major electro-optical subsystems for the U.S. Army's Long Range Advanced Scout Surveillance System (LRAS3) under a $24.3 million subcontract from Raytheon's Network Centric Systems, the company said March 22. LRAS3 enables Army troops and Stryker Brigade Combat Teams to conduct surveillance and reconnaissance missions from safe distances, the company said. The work will be done by DRS Technologies' DRS Optronics unit, of Palm Bay, Fla.
A joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Raytheon announced March 22 that it has been awarded a $1.1 billion contract to develop the Non-Line-of-Sight-Launch Space system (NLOS-LS) for the U.S. Army. The sole-source contract, whose award had been expected (DAILY, Oct. 13, 2003), is for a six-year system development and demonstration (SDD) phase. Lockheed Martin and Raytheon are expected to split the contract funding evenly.
Enigma Inc., which provides equipment maintenance software for U.S. defense systems, such as the Marine Corps' Light Armored Vehicle (LAV) and the Navy Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC), will announce a "significant" Army contract as early as this week, John Snow, the company's vice president of marketing and business development, told The DAILY. Enigma's 3C Platform software allows the warfighter in the field and mechanics and engineers back at bases to quickly assess what is wrong with military equipment and fix it, Snow said.
A problem with some space shuttle components probably won't hurt the return-to-flight schedule as much as agency officials feared last week, program manager William Parsons said March 22.
The Air Force successfully launched the 50th Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite, GPS IIR-11, aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla., March 20. The three-stage rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 17B at 12:53 p.m. EST, according to Boeing. The spacecraft was deployed to a transfer orbit 68 minutes later. Lockheed Martin built GPS IIR-11, which features a number of upgrades including an advanced antenna panel that will provide greater power and performance for GPS receivers, according to the company.
A Boeing/Sikorsky industry team has received instructions from the U.S. Army on what components to continue manufacturing from the canceled Army RAH-66 Comanche program, an Army official said. "The Army issued a partial termination for convenience March 18 to stop all work, make no further shipments, and place no further orders relating to the contract, except for the following efforts through September 30," Bob Hunt, a spokesman at the Army Aviation and Missile Command, told The DAILY March 22. Work is to continue on:
Senate appropriators are being asked to restore funding to the National Institutes of Standards and Technology's Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) after an attempt to do that was defeated last week by the House Budget Committee. The White House cut funding for MEP, which assists defense contractors and others with technical and business support, in an effort to eventually eliminate the program. The Administration wants to avoid subsidizing competition, according to budget documents.
TRAINING SYSTEMS: Bombardier Aerospace's Military Aviation Training business has been awarded the CF-18 Distributed Combat Training System contract by the government of Canada. The $202.5 million, eight-year contract is to provide Canadian CF-18 pilots with simulator training, the company said.
The U.S. Navy plans to begin deploying an Aegis destroyer in the Sea of Japan in September to provide a forward-based sensor for the Army-operated Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system, officials said March 22.
An active protection system for ground vehicles that is a leading candidate for inclusion in the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) will resume testing in the third quarter of this year, according to Mark Middione, program manager at United Defense.
Defense technology company DRS Technologies Inc. realigned its businesses into two operating groups in the wake of its acquisition of Integrated Defense Technologies (IDT), which was completed late last year. IDT designs and develops a range of electronics and technology products for the defense industry.
READY FOR LAUNCH: Space Systems/Loral said March 19 that it has completed the integration and testing of the MTSAT-1R satellite and has shipped it to Japan's space center in Tanegashima, where is to be launched on an H-IIA rocket. The satellite was built for the Japanese Civil Aviation Bureau and the Japanese Meteorological Agency.
EUROPEAN CONSOLIDATION: The recent announcement of General Dynamics' plan to buy Alvis-Vickers of the United Kingdom underlines that European military vehicle manufacturers must consolidate, says Ben Moores, an industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan. Alvis, the leading armored vehicle manufacturer in the U.K. and Scandinavia, complements General Dynamics' European armored vehicle business, Moores says. Acquiring Alvis gives the company the Nordic and Middle Eastern market, he says.
March 22 - 23 -- 12th Annual Conference on Quality in the Space and Defense Industries, Radisson At The Port Hotel & Conference Center, Cape Canaveral, Fla. For information contact Lester Lemay at (254) 776-3550 or go to www.asdnet.org/cqsdi. March 25 - 26 -- Aviation Week presents Defense Budget Conference, Hyatt Regency Crystal City, Arlington, Va. To register go to http://www.aviationweek.com/conferences.
