U.S. SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND L-3 Global Communications Solutions, Victor, N.Y., was awarded a single-award indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the special operation forces deployable node family of terminals. The contract minimum guarantee is $7,551,735 and maximum ceiling is $500,000,000. The anticipated period of performance is not to exceed five years. The place of performance is Victor, N.Y. U.S. Special Operations Command, MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity (H92222-12-D-0020). NAVY
BEIJING — Chinese astronauts who manually docked their spacecraft with an orbital laboratory on June 24 have proven a technology crucial for the nation’s proposed space station program. Astronaut Liu Wang, helped by his two colleagues on board Shenzhou 9, took 7 min. to bring the spacecraft into contact with the laboratory, Tiangong 1, from a range of 400 meters (1,300 ft.). That was 3 min. faster than the performance of the automatic system that Shenzhou 9 had used on June 18 and Shenzhou 8 had used last year in China’s first space docking exercise.
Congress has a number of issues to consider as it ponders the U.S. Coast Guard’s proposed shipbuilding plan for its National Security Cutters, according to the Congressional Research Service. “One potential oversight issue for Congress for FY2013 concerns the absence of funding in the Coast Guard’s fiscal 2013 five-year (fiscal 2013-2017) capital investment plan for the seventh and eighth National Security Cutters,” CRS says in a report released earlier this month.
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Commercial remote sensing provider GeoEye says it has no plans to delay the launch of its upcoming GeoEye-2 imagery satellite, despite recent moves by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) to cut funding support for the company.
The U.S. Army failed to implement cost-control procedures on a cost-reimbursable service contract with General Dynamics Land Systems for logistic support for the Stryker vehicle family, a recent Pentagon Inspector General (IG) report says.
It’s House appropriators who are leaving the biggest mark on the 2013 Pentagon budget request so far this year, changing more lines than House or Senate authorizers, and plussing programs that authorizers in both chambers left unchanged.
Continued flaws with a program designed to track the cost of the military’s largest weapon system are eating into Lockheed Martin’s bottom line. Late last week, Lockheed learned the military is halting an ongoing review of its internal audit program, the earned value management system (EVMS). Along with that decision, the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) will withhold 5% of the price of the fifth lot of fighter jets — the maximum penalty.
ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy is eyeing technology that could reduce wear and increase the performance of certain towed-array components through the development of shape-changing polymers being referred to as “metal rubber” by their manufacturer. NanoSonic, a Virginia-based company, is spearheading the effort through Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding. The morph-on-demand towed array outer hosewall for sonar arrays can temporarily and repeatedly change its shape, the company says.
NEW DELHI — India plans to build another indigenous aircraft carrier in addition to the INS Vikrant, which is expected to join the country’s navy in 2016. “The indigenous aircraft carrier [IAC] program is planned to be [a] continuing process over the next decade-plus, with the Indian navy’s medium-term aim being to have at least two fully operational and combat worthy carriers available at any given time,” says Chief of Naval Staff Adm. Nirmal Verma. The second planned IAC could weigh about 65,000 tons and is likely to be christened INS Vishal.
ARMY Harris Corp., Government Communications Systems Division, Palm Bay, Fla., was awarded a $47,050,513 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract. The award will provide for the sustainment and support services for the AN/GSC-52 modernization program’s family of satellite communications earth terminals and associated equipment. The work will be performed in Palm Bay, with an estimated completion date of March 11, 2014. One bid was solicited, with one bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Alexandria, Va., is the contracting activity (W91QUZ-12-C-0013).
FORT WORTH — Lockheed Martin plans to conduct intercept flight tests with its Extended Area Protection and Survivability (EAPS) counter-rocket, artillery and mortar system in the second half of this year, says Jonathan Crawford, international business development analyst for Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. Lockheed Martin is under contract with the U.S. Army to develop EAPS as part of a competitive program. Northrop Grumman also is working on a concept.
EDWARDS AFB, Calif. — A heavily modified version of the Boeing X-48 blended wing body (BWB) remotely piloted research aircraft is set to begin a six-month flight-test program next week at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif. The X-48C is a rebuilt, twin-engine derivative of the three-engine X-48B tested between 2007 and 2011. In this new configuration the engines are mounted farther forward from the trailing edge and shielded between vertical tails that are moved inboard and replace wingtip-mounted tails.
EDWARDS AFB, Calif. — Boeing and its X-51A team partners are ready to attempt a third test of the scramjet-powered hypersonic demonstrator following modifications to avoid problems that cut short the last flight in June 2011. The missile-like vehicle is being prepared at Boeing’s Palmdale, Calif., facility and will be transferred to nearby Edwards AFB for the flight, which will take place over the Pacific test range after launch from a B-52H carrier aircraft. “The vehicle is nearly ready for shipping,” says Boeing X-51A Program Manager Joe Vogel.
DARK MATTERS: European scientists finally have agreed to start the $1 billion Euclid project, devoted to the study of dark energy. After months of delay in securing approval, Euclid still proved too compelling to set aside, despite far exceeding the funding allocated for what the European Space Agency calls its medium-class missions. The 2,160-kg (4,750-lb.) satellite is scheduled to launch to the L2 Lagrangian point in the second quarter of 2020 aboard a European variant of the Soyuz rocket from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
ICY MOON: Mapping the floor of the Moon’s Shackleton Crater in what NASA describes as unprecedented detail, agency scientists and university researchers have calculated that unusually bright laser returns from the crater floor may be caused by ice mixed in with other material there. As much as 22% of the surface material in Shackleton could be ice, according to a paper published in the journal Nature, based on laser-mapping data from NASA’s Lunar Reconnnaisance Orbiter.
NEW DELHI — India’s government on June 22 approved acquisition projects for its armed forces worth $4 billion, ranging from aircraft and missiles to guns and command-and-control systems. The Defense Acquisition Council (DAC), chaired by Defense Minister A.K. Antony, authorized the Indian army to receive 14 Dornier reconnaissance aircraft from Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., and eight regiments of Quick Reaction Surface-to-Air Missiles (QRSAMs), a ministry official says. The Dornier aircraft order is worth around $200 million, he adds.
