DETROIT — Although fiscal belt-tightening is leaving little money for the U.S. military to purchase replacements for worn-out combat and utility ground vehicles, this could mean a post-conflict boom for the secondary market of suppliers and refurbishing shops as aging vehicles are reset.
The U.S. Air Force has restarted the competition to replace its TPS-75 transportable air defense radars by awarding pre-development contracts to Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon. Lockheed Martin and Sensis demonstrated prototypes of the Three-Dimensional Expeditionary Long-Range Radar (3DELRR) in late 2010, under technology development (TD)-phase contracts awarded in May 2009, but budget cuts forced the Air Force to restructure the program.
SINGAPORE — Singapore Technologies Aerospace (ST Aero) has posted a 15% rise in net profit for the second quarter due to an increase in aircraft maintenance and modification work.
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The U.S. Army has descoped its ambitious plan for a missile with a single, sophisticated tri-mode seeker, marking the latest chapter in the long path for the service to replace the Hellfire, Maverick and Tow missiles with a single weapon.
JSOW TARGETS: The U.S. Navy and Raytheon have begun integrated flight testing of the Joint Standoff Weapon C-1 at the Point Mugu Sea Test Range in California, the company announced Aug. 21. The first flight of the test phase saw the JSOW C-1 retargeted to strike a moving ship target. Before weapon release, an F/A-18F Super Hornet targeted the smaller of two potential target ships, then handed off weapon control to a second Super Hornet, which retargeted the weapon to the other ship in flight. Initial operational capability for the weapon is scheduled for 2013.
TEL AVIV — Airborne intelligence gathering in Israel involves a technical complex of space-based sensors and strategic-range unmanned aircraft for watching its neighbors. There is much activity to keep tabs on. In Syria, a civil war rages; in Iran, a ballistic missile force and nuclear weapons are being designed; and in Egypt, the Sinai Peninsula has turned into a largely ungoverned area that is home to stateless militant groups and smugglers of weapons, drugs and humans. They thrive there with the approval of some of the region’s larger Bedouin tribes.
The University of North Dakota (UND) is getting ready to launch an unusual joint program with the Grand Forks County Sheriff’s Department that it hopes will establish a template for law enforcement use of small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). Planned to begin in early October, pending FAA approvals, the program will see UND Department of Aviation personnel operating up to four small fixed- and rotary-wing UAS in support of the police anywhere within 16 counties in northeast North Dakota.
The U.S. Army is asking industry to present concepts for an Iron Dome-like system that can counter rocket, artillery and mortar threats. The request for information issued last week follows months of Obama administration and congressional support for helping Israel and Rafael to further develop the technology, which has helped to protect Israeli civilians against attacks.
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) has awarded the Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) a contract to develop an unmanned vessel that can shadow a submerged submarine throughout its patrol. The contract follows disputed reports that a Russian submarine cruised around the Gulf of Mexico undetected for a month (Aerospace DAILY, Aug. 20).
NAVY W.M. Robots, L.L.C., Colmar, Pa., is being awarded a $11,479,743 modification to previously awarded firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (N00174-11-D-0015) for the procurement of Vallon mine detectors and consumable spares. Work will be performed in Colmar and is expected to be completed by September 2012. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Indian Head Division, Indian Head, Md., is the contracting activity.
Click here to view the pdf Fiscal 2013 Senate Defense Appropriations Markup:Air Force Procurement ($ in thousands) Fiscal 2013 Senate Defense Appropriations Markup: Air Force Procurement ($ in thousands) Description Request S
Sen. James Inhofe (Okla.), a senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, sees many of President Obama’s defense choices as a threat to U.S. security. With every budget, Inhofe tells Aviation Week in a recent interview, the president is disarming America. “In the first budget he took away our only fifth-generation fighter, our C-17 lift capacity, the Future Combat Systems and the ground-based interceptor in Poland. That was just the first year, and then it got worse,” Inhofe says.
ARMY BAE Systems, York, Pa., was awarded a $306,171,558 firm-fixed-price contract. The award will provide for the modification of an existing contract to convert Operation Desert Storm (ODS) vehicles into the ODS situational awareness configuration. The work will be performed in Lemont Furnace, Pa.; Aiken, S.C.; Texarkana, Texas; and York, with an estimated completion date of May 30, 2014. One bid was solicited, with one bid received. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (W56HZV-10-G-0003). AIR FORCE
ARMY Thales Raytheon Systems, Fullerton, Calif., was awarded a $21,668,448 firm-fixed-price contract. The award will provide for the modification of an existing contract to procure Improved Sentinel Kits. The work will be performed in Fullerton, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2014. The bid was solicited through the Internet, with one bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (W31P4Q-11-C-0314).
NEXT MISSION: As NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory rover prepares for its first moves, the agency is looking ahead to its next mission on the surface of the red planet. To launch in 2016, InSight will place instruments on the Martian surface to investigate whether the planet has a solid or liquid core, and why the planet’s crust is not divided into tectonic plates, like that of the Earth. The French and German space agencies are contributing instruments to InSight, which will land in September 2016 to begin a two-year mission.
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