SAT CHAT: Boeing has proclaimed that it reconfigured an on-orbit U.S. Navy satellite, adding 30 percent more communications capability. The satellite, the 11th in the Ultra-High Frequency Follow-On (UFO) series built by Boeing, was launched in 2003 and supports the Navy’s global communications network, serving ships at sea and a variety of other U.S. military fixed and mobile terminals. According to Boeing, UFO 11 has the most sophisticated digital signal processor in the constellation.
The head of the U.S. State Department’s counterterrorism office says Leon Panetta, President-elect Barack Obama’s reported pick to head the CIA, “comes with the right skills.” While Obama has yet to officially announce his choices for top intelligence positions, Democratic officials have been widely reported as saying Panetta, a former California congressman, White House chief of staff and head of the Office of Management and Budget in the Clinton administration, will get the director of central intelligence position.
Boeing has responded to a U.S. Army call for sources sought for its restarted Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) program with two alternatives: Boeing’s newly named AH-6S Phoenix and an aircraft the company has loosely nicknamed an Apache “Lite.”
Nuclear terrorism poses a “growing threat” to the United States, according to initial findings from a congressionally chartered commission examining the nation’s strategic posture. In an interim report, the 12-member panel also cautions that if Iran and North Korea continue unchecked in developing nuclear arsenals, it could lead to a “tipping point” in nuclear weapons proliferation.
U.S. Air Force Secretary Michael Donley has signed into effect a document the service says will function as the blueprint for its energy initiatives, especially for cutting demand, boosting supply and changing the air service’s energy usage habits.
DAGR SHOT: Lockheed Martin announced Jan. 6 it has successfully conducted the first live warhead ground test launch of the Direct Attack Guided Rocket (DAGR) guidance kit for the 2.75-inch rocket. The test, conducted at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., demonstrated DAGR’s vehicle penetration and time-delayed fuzing feature, according to the company. The DAGR-equipped rocket, armed with a live warhead, was fired at a stationary vehicle, penetrating the vehicle before detonating inside.
SATCOM SOLUTION: The U.S. Army has awarded DataPath $100 million to manufacture and integrate Ka-band conversion kits and provide spares kits that will enable satellite transportable terminals (STTs) and other systems on the battlefield to operate using the Wideband Global SatCom (WGS) system. The satellite communications terminals being converted were designed and built by DataPath and deployed by the Army for the Joint Network Node (JNN)/Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) program.
PARIS – Arianespace says it finished with 13 launch contracts in 2008, including a multi-launch award for one spacecraft plus four options from Intelsat announced on Dec. 30.
COLD LAUNCH: The Kinetic Energy Interceptors (KEI) industry team of Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and Alliant Techsystems (ATK) has begun testing the U.S. Missile Defense Agency program’s cold-launch system. The solid-propellant gas generator was tested Dec. 18 at ATK’s Elkton, Md., facility. KEI’s launch system is designed to eject an interceptor at about 200 feet in the air before the first-stage rocket motor ignites. For KEI, about 70 pounds of propellant is ignited in the generator to eject the approximate 25,000-pound missile.
Modern warfare – where the battlefield is a mix of actors, motivations and weapons – is in part defined by its rapidly changing threat scenarios and multiple layers of high- and low-tech on-the-fly innovations, all of which demand real-time responses.
U.S. intelligence agencies should map the “human terrain” of potential world trouble spots the way the ocean floor was mapped for Navy submarines during the Cold War, the top State Department counter-terrorism official said Jan. 6.
Potential contractors on NASA’s heavy-lift Ares V moon rocket will have until Feb. 9 to submit bids on the first procurement package of the huge launch vehicle, under a request for proposals issued Jan. 5.
AAI has begun flight testing its Aerosonde Mark 5 in preparation for entry in the upcoming competition for the U.S. Navy Small Tactical Unmanned Air System (STUAS) and U.S. Marine Corps Tier II UAS. The new design incorporates features of both the long-endurance Aerosonde and Shadow tactical unmanned air vehicles.
Boeing will upgrade the mission systems in 2,000 F/A-18s operated by eight countries through a $905.3 million system configuration set contract awarded by the U.S. Navy. F/A-18 A/B, C/D, E/F and EA-18G aircraft from the U.S., Canada, Australia, Spain, Kuwait, Switzerland, Finland and Malaysia will receive the enhancements, scheduled to be finished in December 2013. The upgrades are part of an effort to keep the fighters “in front of developing threats over the next three decades,” Boeing spokesman Philip Carder said.
AUTOMATIC IDENTIFICATION: The U.S. Coast Guard has awarded Northrop Grumman a contract potentially worth $68 million to design, integrate, install and test the armed service’s Nationwide Automatic Identification System (Nationwide AIS) core data exchange capability. The capability will serve as the foundation for Nationwide AIS, a two-way maritime digital communication system that will continually transmit and receive voiceless vessel data, including the vessel’s identity, position, speed, course and other vital details.
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THE REPLACEMENTS: The Defense Logistics Agency has awarded Oshkosh Defense a contract with a potential value of $1.12 billion over 10 years for replacement parts for medium and heavy tactical vehicles including the Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement (MTVR), Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck (HEMTT) and Palletized Load System (PLS). This follows a one-year contract that included seven option years, each of which were exercised, that ended in December 2008. The first contract order, valued at $17.5 million, is for about 2,300 replacement part numbers.
MISSIONIZATION ACCOMPLISHED: The U.S. Coast Guard has exercised contract options valued at $13.25 million with Lockheed Martin to install mission systems aboard two additional HC-130J aircraft. Once delivered, these aircraft will complete the Coast Guard’s planned inventory of six missionized HC-130Js. The aircraft’s new mission equipment and sensor packages aid in search, detection and tracking for maritime search and rescue, law enforcement and homeland security missions.
NASA’s Orion program is drawing on the findings of a special investigation team formed to study the final moments of the space shuttle Columbia crew in an attempt to improve the chances of future crews surviving emergencies.
NEW DELHI – The Indian navy ordered eight Boeing P-8I multimission aircraft on Jan. 2 to replace its eight aging TU-142s, making for the first direct military sales by Boeing to India. “Clearly, we are pleased that the government of India has selected the P-8Is,” said Vivek Lall, vice president and country head for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems. “India has become the first international customer for P-8s. It is significant for us to partner with this market.”
NAVY Rolls-Royce Corp., Indianapolis, Ind., is being awarded a $221,690,616 modification to a previously awarded firm fixed price contract (N00019-07-C-0060) to exercise options to procure 96 MV-22 and CV-22 AE1107C engines, and one-year of support services. The work will be performed in Indianapolis and is expected to be completed in December 2011. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.
Raytheon’s protest of the U.S. Navy’s decision to award sole-source contracts to Lockheed Martin for its Aegis modernization program has been denied by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). Following the Dec. 22 decision by GAO, Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) is now free to proceed with its plans to procure the ship-based Aegis Combat System Modernization on Ticonderoga-class cruisers and Arleigh-Burke-class destroyers.
