COMBATSS READY: Lockheed Martin has successfully integrated its core combat management system (COMBATSS-21) onto the U.S. Navy’s first Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), the Freedom. Key components of the system include the radar, gun weapon system, missile launcher, decoy launcher and electronic warfare system. In a separate but parallel milestone, Lockheed Martin established the Mission Package Computing Environment infrastructure and commenced integration activities aboard Freedom with the ship’s consoles and equipment cabinets.
VEHICLE DISPLAYS: The U.S. Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) Manned Ground Vehicles (MGV) will sport Rockwell Collins Common Crew Station Displays under an $8 million contract awarded by BAE Systems. There are eight planned variants of the MGV, all with a common chassis. Rockwell Collins’ Common Crew Station Displays will be produced in conjunction with its Head Down Display Center, which has previously created more than 45 high performance display designs for use in air and ground applications, the company says. The contract includes delivery of 252 displays.
BAE CHOSEN: The U.S. Air Force’s Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., has selected BAE Systems for the Joint Mission Planning System (JMPS), the company said June 16. The $43 million award follows a seven-month downselect that was to “refine” requirements and improve the current JMPS framework’s architecture, according to BAE. JPMS is supposed to provide automated mission planning support for Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps fixed-wing aircraft.
MUCH OBLIGED: The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found DOD’s monthly reports on war costs to be of “questionable reliability.” The Supplemental and Cost of War Execution report is a monthly compilation of cumulative incremental obligations incurred in support of the Global War on Terror (GWOT). The report is used to inform Congress on war costs and to formulate future budget requests.
VULCAN POWER: Industry has been briefed on U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency plans to ground test a propulsion system capable of accelerating a full-scale hypersonic vehicle from rest to Mach 4+. The Vulcan engine will integrate a current production turbine engine into a “constant volume combustion” (CVC) engine. CVC candidates include pulsed detonation engines, continuous detonation engines and other architectures using unsteady combustion. The turbine engine – an F100-229, F110-129, F119 or F414 – and CVC engine would share a common inlet and nozzle.
TOKYO – The Japanese government has approved a new space law framework that could create a major structural change in its space program. The new law, which allows for the development of non-offensive satellites designed to provide “national security,” replaces a 1969 law that confined space development to strictly peaceful purposes. The new space law was recently approved by Japan’s House of Councilors and will be in force by the end of August at the latest.
FREE TRADE: U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has highlighted potential future information sharing with Mexico and Canada of data derived from sensors or unmanned aircraft. In a June 16 speech at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s North American Forum, the Pentagon chief further spotlighted homeland vulnerabilities exploited by drug smugglers and called on the three nations to better cooperate over emergency planning and response, security and prosperity initiatives, and counter-drug efforts.
An Israeli air force team is in Washington this week to continue hammering a deal to buy at least 25 Lockheed Martin-led F-35s under what could be the first potential foreign military sale (FMS) of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). The team is receiving the first, formal capabilities briefing on the F-35. This will allow them to determine what gaps, if any, exist between the F-35’s capabilities and Israel’s specific requirements, says U.S. Marine Corps Brig. Gen. David Heinz, deputy JSF program director.
HERCULES BUY: The U.S. Air Force has finalized its contract with Lockheed Martin for six new C-130 Js for Air Force Special Operations Command. The $470 million contract includes the buys in fiscal 2009; long-lead funding for the HC and MC-130 replacements is set aside in FY ‘08 These are the first of up to 68 approved by the Defense Dept.
Alenia Aeronautica has flown the first C-27J Spartan Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA) for the U.S. Army at its Caselle plant in Turin, Italy. The 40-minute first-flight on June 16 was conducted in poor weather, Alenia says, and focused on functional checks. It marks the beginning of a 70-hour flight-test and 180-hour ground-test program, the majority of which will be conducted at Caselle.
ISIS RISES: Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman will compete to build a subscale stratospheric surveillance airship demonstrator in the third phase of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Integrated Sensor Is Structure (ISIS) program.
NEW DELHI – Indian defense minister A.K. Antony is cautioning defense scientists to reduce their over-dependence on foreign countries and suppliers for “cutting-edge technologies.” Antony’s June 14 speech had overtones of the sanction era when the U.S imposed restrictions on exports following India’s nuclear tests. He was inaugurating a new building of the Defense Avionics Research Establishment (DARE) in Bangalore. Trouble
RIDLEY PARK, Penn. – Boeing representatives are preparing to host a Turkish coalition at the company’s manufacturing facility here, just weeks after having visited Turkey to discuss the potential Foreign Military Sale (FMS) of ten CH-47 Chinook helicopters.
Lockheed Martin plans to complete 20 flights with the first F-35B Joint Strike Fighter in conventional “up and away” mode before replacing the engine to allow short take-off and landing (STOVL) tests to begin. Aircraft BF-1 is expected to fly twice more this week after completing its 45-minute first flight on June 11. It has joined aircraft AA-1, a conventional take-off and landing (CTOL) F-35A, in the test program.
DRS C3 Systems has won congressional investigators’ backing to get U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) to reconsider an $83 million award to General Dynamics (GD) Advanced Information Systems for common enterprise display system (CEDS) display consoles.
The Phoenix Mars lander’s organic chemistry instrument is about half way through its first multi-day/multi-temperature heating cycle in a search for water ice and organics on the Martian surface. At the same time, the lander’s robotic arm is beginning to dig deeper at one location to the left front of the vehicle, while also reaching further right to start a new trench in more pillow-like material. The pillow-like soil is at the center of a soil polygon at the landing site, while the deepening trench is in a liner depression.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) apparently has dealt another blow to Alabama Aircraft Industries Inc.’s (AAII) dwindling hopes of wresting a $1 billion contract for KC-135 programmed depot maintenance (PDM) from Boeing Aerospace Operations. According to AAII – formerly Pemco Aeroplex – it learned June 13 that GAO had denied a protest it filed in March challenging the Air Force’s selection of Boeing to maintain and overhaul the KC-135 tanker fleet (Aerospace DAILY, March 13).
ARMY CAS, Inc., Huntsville, Ala., was awarded on Jun. 6, 2008, a $9,044,536 cost-plus fixed fee contract for mission and sustainment support for the rapid aerostat initial deployment product office. Work will be performed in Huntsville, Ala., and is expected to be completed by Jun. 2, 2010. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. One bid was solicited on May 5, 2005. U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command, Contracting and Acquisition Management Office, Huntsville, Ala., is the contracting activity (W9113M-05-C-0134).
MORE SIMS: Redstone Arsenal’s Cargo Helicopter Project Management Office, responsible for the U.S. Army’s CH-47 fleet, is slated to get more CH-47 Transportable Flight Proficiency simulators under a $37 million contract with WestWind Technologies. The program includes production of five build-to-print units and associated spares. Deliveries will begin in January 2009, with the final delivery the following October.
NASA is reserving about 500 pounds of its weight margin in the Ares I crew launch vehicle to accommodate modifications to solve a potentially dangerous thrust-oscillation problem, but overall the new vehicle development is progressing well as it passes preliminary design review (PDR) for its shuttle-derived first stage.
