GENERAL AWARDS: General Dynamics C4 Systems has received a $75 million order on the U.S. Army's Common Hardware/Software 3 (CHS-3) contract, namely computers and network equipment for the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) program. WIN-T has been restructured, delayed and reduced this year, yet General Dynamics eyes hundreds of millions of dollars in work under the revamped program (DAILY, Nov. 16). Also Nov. 27, General Dynamics Land Systems said it received a $47.2 million order for spare parts from Force Protection Inc.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the U.S. Army plan to address difficult issues associated with the command and control of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the second phase of the Heterogeneous Unmanned Reconnaissance Team (HURT) program, according to agency and industry officials.
IEDs: A Defense Science Board (DSB) task force on improvised explosive devices is examining ongoing anti-IED programs and the Pentagon's Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) in the context of a strategic campaign to address the IED threat. Senate defense authorizers have said they expect the DSB to address perceived duplication in different armed services' anti-IED efforts, along with JIEDDO's approach to short- and long-term investments. Monthly meetings of the task force next year were announced in the Federal Register on Nov. 26.
U.S. missile defense officials welcome recent congressional support for Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) beyond what the Bush administration requested for fiscal 2008, but the Aegis BMD program director says the military still may not have enough missiles to meet needs.
NEW YORK - U.S. Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne says his service is likely to add extra redundancy and hardening to its next-generation bomber to ensure the platform can carry and deliver nuclear weapons.
EAGLES FLY: All of the U.S. Air Force's F-15E Eagles have returned to flight after a temporary stand-down following a crash earlier this month, Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne said Nov. 28. The service put them back into operation around the globe following a rigorous structural inspection. Inspections on earlier models continue, and they are being returned to flight on a case-by-case basis. Wynne said the temporary gap in F-15 support underscored the need to fund a modernized fleet, specifically the F-22 Raptor (DAILY, Nov. 7).
The U.S. Air Force's Arnold Engineering and Development Center (AEDC) and GE/Rolls-Royce are initiating a series of tests aimed at collecting data on the alternate F136 engine for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter. The engine and afterburner have been installed in AEDC's J-2 test cell and will undergo a variety of simulated flight conditions across a wide envelope of altitudes and Mach speeds, says Gene Klingensmith, project manager for the tests.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) completed thermal vacuum testing on the second of its two Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS) satellites, which are expected to launch from Cape Canaveral in July.
NEW YORK - U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. John Castellaw, deputy commandant for programs and resources, says the V-22 is performing as expected during its first deployment to Iraq. Ten of the tiltrotors deployed in October via ship to their destination in the Anbar province in western Iraq, where much of the Marine Corps activity is concentrated. They are operating out of Al Asad Air Base there.
NEW YORK - U.S. Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne says air presence is becoming the United States' primary means of deterring enemies. Highlighting the global U.S. bomber presence, including repositioned B-2s in Guam, Wynne said, "We are saying to [the] North Koreans, don't do it because we have you covered." Wynne focused on the U.S. Air Force providing "sovereign options in a dramatic way" at the Aerospace & Defense Finance conference Nov. 28 here, hosted by Aviation Week and Credit Suisse.
NEW YORK - U.S. Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne says his push to garner an extra $20 billion per year to boost the service's procurement plans is "beginning to get some traction" with the White House. Wynne and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley have consistently told Congress that the extra funding is required to pay for aircraft - including the F-22, Joint Strike Fighter, future refueling tanker and next-generation combat search and rescue helicopter - in higher quantities and at lower per unit costs.
Implementing the 2004 Intelligence Reform Act and addressing some of the issues raised by the director of national intelligence (DNI) is raising some issues for Congress, according to a recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report. "Some commentators have suggested that ambiguities exist within the Intelligence Reform Act that cover complex relationships among disparate agencies with their own statutory authorities," says the report, "Director of National Intelligence Statutory Authorities: Status and Proposals," released earlier this month.
Northrop Grumman, SAIC and others already have begun developing their own tailored simulations based on Microsoft's ESP simulation toolkit, which the software giant plans to formally release to the market in January. Based on gaming technology, ESP is a software package allowing developers to create their own immersive 3-D simulations. Microsoft hopes ESP will eventually become the standard package with which military, government and commercial users will develop training and decision-support programs (DAILY, Nov. 15).
NEW YORK - U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad Allen says that the key to strong maritime security is to create a "governance structure for all the world's oceans" - a move that would require a culture change among "independent, proprietary" mariners.
BOEING LAUDED: NASA has selected The Boeing Company as its 2007 Large Business Contractor of the Year for providing outstanding support to small businesses at Kennedy Space Center, Fla. The specific contract involved in the honor is the Checkout, Assembly and Payload Processing Services (CAPPS) program. As the CAPPS prime contractor, Boeing performs designated activities for the International Space Station (ISS), space shuttle and expendable launch vehicle payloads, including managing the handling of large ISS modules in the Space Station Assembly Facility.
The six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members - Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE - have seen their collective defense spending grow from $31.15 billion in 2003 to $40.33 billion in 2005 and reaching roughly $49.6 billion in 2007, according to a new Forecast International report. This collective figure is expected to grow again in 2008, likely topping $51 billion, says Dan Darling, Forecast's Middle East Military Market analyst.
An airlift and rotorcraft shortfall - the eternal NATO bugaboo - may delay deployment of a force to Chad and the Central African Republic to assist a United Nations/African Union effort to help defuse the Darfur humanitarian crisis. Military officials in France, which has committed 1,300 troops to the 2,800-3,000 man European Union (EU) force, say a third force generation conference in Brussels Nov. 21 failed to raise the necessary number of helicopters, fixed-wing transports and medical support units to sustain the effort.
FREQUENCY HOPPING: Northrop Grumman has been awarded a $20 million follow-on contract from U.S. Army Communication and Electronics Command to provide soldiers additional Frequency Hopping Multiplexers (FHMUX) antenna systems. The primary function of the FHMUX is to reduce the number of antennas while providing RF isolation between multiple frequency hopping radios. The FHMUX operates across the 30.0 to 87.97 MHz band and has the ability to combine up to four Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System (SINCGARS) transceivers in a single antenna.
Thwarted by unusually strong ocean currents at its launch site in the equatorial ocean, Sea Launch has decided to postpone the Thuraya-3 launch campaign, and its command ship and Odyssey launch platform are on their way home. Driven by El Nina, the winds and currents at the site "made it difficult for the platform to stay in position," Sea Launch spokeswoman Paula Korn said. "We were using up a lot of fuel just staying in place."
The outgoing head of the Defense Department's Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) says the group will not be able to fund any new initiatives - its raison d'etre - or contracts after Dec. 1 because new off-budget Iraq funds have not been provided. Retired Army Gen. Montgomery Meigs, who hands over the reins to active Army Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz on Nov. 30, told reporters last week that besides headquarter costs, JIEDDO workers and sustainment of nascent initiatives, JIEDDO will stop paying for new efforts next month.
AMPED UP: Boeing said Nov. 27 that the first two C-130 Avionics Modernization Program (AMP) aircraft are currently at the U.S. Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., where they continue to undergo ground and flight-testing that is more than 10 percent ahead of schedule. A third aircraft was "inducted" the day before. The program recently encountered major cost overruns and the Air Force more than halved the number of C-130s it expects to be upgraded (DAILY, Nov. 1).
PARIS - The U.K.'s Principal Anti-Air Missile System (PAAMS) is in the final phases of preparation for end-to-end testing that will begin in France next year. The Longbow platform that will be used for the trials has arrived in France at the Toulon naval base, in preparation for test firings that will take place at the French missile launch test center near the Ile du Levant in the Mediterranean. The trial phase is supposed to be completed in 2009.
