ROOSEVELT: Northrop Grumman is being awarded a $190.7 million contract option for continuation of the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) Refueling Complex Overhaul advance planning effort, which includes shipchecks, design, documentation, engineering, procurement, fabrication and preliminary shipyard/support facility work. Work will be performed in Newport News, Va., and is expected to be completed by October 2008.
An Oct. 22 brief gave the incorrect impression that Raytheon is the prime contractor for the Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program (MP-RTIP). Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems in El Segundo, Calif., is the MP-RTIP prime, with Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems' Norden Systems unit in Norwalk, Conn., as principal subcontractor. Raytheon's Space & Airborne Systems unit in El Segundo is a subcontractor to Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems on MP-RTIP.
The U.S. Air Force released a long-anticipated draft revised request for proposals (RFP) late Oct. 23 for the combat, search and rescue (CSAR-X) helicopter replacement fleet that focuses on deploying early and leveraging available platforms or technology. This is the third go for the service, which awarded an initial contract to Boeing only to get knocked down by two sustained protests by competitors Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
The eruption of wildfires across Southern California this week sent the NASA-Dryden Research Center's General Atomics Predator B team scrambling to reconfigure the Ikhana unmanned aircraft to join the aerial effort to combat the blazes.
The top two U.S Air Force leaders lobbied Capitol Hill for their service Oct. 24, suggesting lawmakers help extend the F-22 Raptor production line with 20 more of the Lockheed Martin fighters than currently budgeted.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) would like young faculty members to propose "speculative and high-risk ideas" in micro- and nano-electro mechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS) to "deliver new technology of value to the Department of Defense."
A special access program oversight committee (SAPOC) is scheduled to meet on Oct. 30 to decide the fate of the Core Component Jammer (CCJ), which was introduced as the future of stand-off electronic warfare capability for the U.S. Air Force. The CCJ is a scaled-back version of the Stand-off Jammer (SOJ), for which the stand-off piece was the B-52 and the stand-in element was the E-18G. The original program cost was in the neighborhood of $7 billion, so the Air Force requested it be pared down (DAILY, April 5, 2006).
Evaluators at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) expect more cost growth and schedule slips in procurement of the next generation of U.S. geostationary weather satellites, but have found improvements in the program's management.
SIDM TRAINING: The French air force says it expects to start training operators for its long-delayed SIDM interim medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle fleet in November, and to begin operational flight trials at Mont de Marsan Air Base in southwestern France in early 2008. Initially targeted for deployment in May 2003, the 75 million euro ($105 million) EADS system, which uses an Israel Aircraft Industries Heron (Eagle-1) air vehicle, has suffered numerous delays, some attributed to EADS, some to IAI and others to U.S.
The European Space Agency (ESA) says the Oct. 5 flight of an Ariane 5 GS rocket fully validated the multiple in-orbit reignition capability of the booster's Aestus upper stage engine, which will be required to launch ESA's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV). The ATV will serve to resupply the International Space Station, periodically reboost it to proper orbit and evacuate waste. The first ATV is due to be launched Jan. 31.
CROW SIGHTS: BAE Systems said Oct. 23 that it received a $15 million contract to provide thermal imaging sights for the U.S. Army's Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station II (CROWS) program. Under the five-year contract, which is worth up to $200 million, BAE will manufacture and deliver up to 6,500 TIM1500 thermal sights to Kongsberg Defense and Aerospace AS, the CROWS II suppliers. CROWS II has a maximum order quantity of 6,500 remote weapon stations. Production deliveries will begin in early 2008.
The Bush administration has reaffirmed its desire for ground-based midcourse ballistic missile defense (BMD) elements based in Europe, while indicating it may be willing to slow their rollout until a purported Iranian threat materializes.
A last-gasp effort by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to clinch a Rafale combat aircraft sale to Morocco has failed, leaving the next-generation fighter still without an initial export order. Following a visit to Morocco last week, Sarkozy threw in the towel and acknowledged the U.S. F-16 was preferred by the Moroccans. French observers attributed the loss to the continued failure of government agencies, including armaments agency DGA, to coordinate effectively on foreign defense sales.
The United States is cooperating with Turkey concerning intelligence on PKK insurgents based in northern Iraq, according to Defense Secretary Robert Gates. "We've taken some actions along those lines, particularly in the realm of intelligence, and we are continuing to work the issue," he told reporters in Ukraine Oct. 21. "The key, as I indicated, is developing intelligence that would enable us to find these people. I think that has to precede any action by anybody."
MAFFS DEPLOYED: Six C-130 aircraft with Modular Airborne Fire Fighting Systems (MAFFS) units will be directed to assist in fighting the fires in Southern California, according to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R). The aircraft come from the U.S. Air Force Reserve's 302nd Airlift Wing at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., the Wyoming Air National Guard's 173rd Airlift Wing in Cheyenne, and the North Carolina Air National Guard's 145th Airlift Wing in Charlotte. MAFFS is a self-contained reusable 3,000-gallon aerial fluid dispersal system that attaches to C-130s.
The shuttle Discovery is beginning initial maneuvers to rendezvous with the International Space Station (ISS) while preparing for thermal protection system inspections Oct. 24, following a flawless countdown and liftoff that were unaffected by weather problems that were originally forecast.
The U.S. needs to link its defensive and offensive capabilities to create a strong cyber infrastructure if it is to properly deal with outside threats, U.S. Air Force Col. Steven "Mac" McPherson says. "I don't think what we're doing is even defensive," McPherson said Oct 22 at a roundtable hosted by the Association of Old Crows. "We're worried about security issues...doing things like a cop on the beat." He added that a secure foundation is just the starting point from which "I can defend and attack as part of my operations."
Five Southern governors are asking President Bush to make sure the Air Force is impartial in its selection of the tanker replacement aircraft. In an Oct. 16 letter to the president, governors from Alabama, Tennessee, West Virginia, Mississippi and Virginia write, "As you know, the tanker replacement program has been the subject of significant scrutiny by the media and the United States Congress. There have been reports of internal biases and political preferences, some substantiated and some dismissed."
U.S. defense and intelligence agencies and their allies have a new way of accessing National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) unclassified domestic and international products, in the form of a Commercial Joint Mapping Toolkit (CJMTK) from Northrop Grumman.
Lockheed Martin reported net earnings of $766 million for the quarter ended Sept. 30, a 22 percent increase from the same period of 2006. The results beat Wall Street's consensus earnings expectation by 10 percent. Third quarter sales were up 16 percent from a year earlier to $11.1 billion. All four of the company's segments posted strong year-over-year gains in operating profits: Aeronautics (up 31 percent), Electronic Systems (up 26 percent), Space Systems (up 26 percent) and Information Systems (up 20 percent).
The Pentagon has ordered an additional 2,400 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles and hopes the manufacturing process will improve, a senior department official says. "As we go forward, we are seeking to constantly improve the survivability of the MRAP design," the official said Oct. 19. "Some of the explosively formed projectile, or EFP, armor enhancement concepts require significant excess payload capacity...though none of the current designs have as much payload capacity as the Defense Department would prefer."
