Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are considering improving defense cooperation with a particular focus on procurement. In a meeting of the three countries’ defense ministers, army development and joint procurements were high-profile issues. Initial efforts are already under way with a joint infantry battalion assigned to NATO Response Force 14.
The developers of a small, lightweight — but high-powered — laser system say it could make directed infrared countermeasures (DIRCM) technology more affordable to protect commercial airliners from surface-to-air missiles.
MAKING WAVES: The Jason defense science advisory panel has dismissed the notion that high-frequency gravitational waves (HFGW) could pose a national security threat. The group of experts was asked to evaluate the scientific, technological and national security significance of the waves. “Our main conclusions are that the proposed applications of the science of HFGW are fundamentally wrong; that there can be no security threat; and that independent scientific and technical vetting of such hypothetical threats is generally necessary,” an October report said.
CHRISTMAS LIST: President-elect Barack Obama and the 111th Congress should cast their immediate attention on the ongoing wars, homeland security, defense spending and readiness, and the space shuttle’s pending retirement, nonpartisan congressional auditors suggest in their own list of to-do’s next year. The list is the centerpiece of a new Web site the Government Accountability Office launched last month that is supposed to help the incoming administration and lawmakers.
GROUND CONTROL: NASA says Science Applications International Corp. will provide engineering and technical support services to support the Constellation next-generation launch development systems, primarily at Kennedy Space Center. A two-year baseline contract includes three one-year options; the total value possible is $69 million. Constellation includes the Orion space capsule and its shuttle-derived Ares launcher.
AIR FORCE The Air Force is awarding a firm fixed price contract to McDonnell Douglas Corporation, St. Louis, Mo. for $110,224,001. This contract action will exercise the Lot 5 Option for Small Diameter Bomb, Increment I Production for munitions, carriages, and technical and logistical support. At this time, the entire amount has been obligated. 681 ARSS/PK, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity (FA8672-09-C-0047).
The U.S. Navy has contracted with General Dynamics (GD) for T-AKEs 11 and 12, as well as long-lead time and materials toward the last two ship planned in the new class of auxiliary support ships. The Naval Sea Systems Command award — announced late Dec. 12 — with GD’s National Steel and Shipbuilding Co. is worth more than $940 million, according to the company and the Defense Department.
Italy’s Defense Ministry has certified AeroVironment’s Raven B micro unmanned aircraft system (UAS) to fly military-operated missions in Italian airspace, the company announced Dec. 15. A military aircraft type-classification certificate was issued for the 4.2-pound, hand-launched UAS by the ministry’s General Directorate for Aircraft Weapons Systems — the first issued in Italy for a micro-UAS, according to AeroVironment.
BEIJING — China orbited the remote sensing satellite Yaogan 5 from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center Dec. 15, marking the country’s second remote sensing satellite to be launched this month. “Yaogan” means “remote sensing.” The stated purpose of the satellite is the collection of data for land resource surveys, environmental surveillance and protection, urban planning, crop yields, disaster management and space experiments. Yaogan 4 was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center earlier this month.
INTELLIGENT BUSINESS: CACI International has received a prime contract worth up to $452 million to continue providing mission support services to the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command. The Arlington, Va.-based company said Dec. 10 that the Genesis III award “significantly increases” the size and scope of CACI’s business with the command. CACI is responsible for engineering and logistics support for ground and air-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) systems worldwide.
Depending on whom you cite, U.S. military operations since 2001 have cost the country between $808 and $904 billion, with the bulk of the money coming from supplemental funding — a budgetary problem the Defense Department is going to have to resolve, according to two new reports.
UNRULY RECEPTION: A new U.S. government acquisition rule requiring contractors to disclose government overpayments and their own criminal contracting violations went into effect Dec. 12. The rule — still considered “controversial” by federal contractors as voiced in a year’s worth of public comment — stems from a Justice Department request last year following government complaints that industry was not volunteering enough information (Aerospace DAILY, Nov. 15, 2007).
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — NASA is testing and installing the avionics in the Orion crew module test unit at its Dryden Flight Research Center here, in preparation for transfer to the U.S. Army’s White Sands Missile Range for launch abort system (LAS) tests.
AIR FORCE The Air Force is modifying a Fixed Price Incentive Firm contract with Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., San Diego, Calif., not to exceed $18,222,000. This action will provide additional long lead associated with 5 Global Hawk Air Vehicles, 2 Ground Segments, 2 EISS and 2 ASIP sensor payloads. At this time the entire amount has been obligated. 303 AESG/PK Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio is the contracting activity (FA8620-08-C-3001, modification P00005). NAVY
HORNET POWER: The Australian Defense Ministry has awarded a 12-year contract to General Electric International Inc. to provide all-engine support for the country’s F/A-18A/B Hornet and soon-to-be acquired F/A-18F Super Hornet aircraft. Minister Joel Fitzgibbon asserted Dec. 15 that the new contract will save more than $20 million and provide more work for about 150 workers around Royal Australian Air Force Base Amberley in southeast Queensland.
NAUGHTY OR NICE?: Just how bad or good are defense contractors in Australia? They are about to find out. The Australian government said Dec. 11 it will issue what amounts to a report card to industry. Around 100 companies will receive the so-called CompanyScoreCard, spelling out just how they are doing. While the Australian defense materiel organization has provided feedback before, this time the data will be far more detailed, including comparing companies with others operating in the same business segment over the past three years.
The revamped request for proposals (RFP) for the U.S. Air Force’s $15 billion Combat, Search and Rescue (CSAR-X) helicopter replacement program puts greater focus on the lifecycle cost calculations that derailed the service’s previous procurement effort.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicated new calendar listing.) Jan. 26 - 28, 2009 — 6th Annual Tactical Power Sources Summit, Hilton Alexandria Old Town, Alexandria, Va. For more information go to www.idga.org/us/tacticalpower
STRANGE BEDFELLOWS: Left-leaning analysts are pointing to two reports last week to boost their arguments that the U.S. military must better address unconventional threats, reinvigorate its ground forces, and rebalance the budget to match funding to post-9/11 priorities. The think tanks and related commenters from the liberal National Security Network also are highlighting a new essay from Defense Secretary Robert Gates in the newest Foreign Affairs magazine that apparently argues along similar lines. “The United States cannot expect ...
Controllers are sending the starboard solar array wing on the International Space Station (ISS) into an 18-hour test this weekend to gauge how well repairs made during the past space shuttle mission improved the performance of a critical mechanism that has been out of action for the past year.
