DIRECTED ENERGY: The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory is awarding Advanced Information Engineering Services Inc. a $24.9 million contract for directed energy bio-effects research. The effort includes conducting research to identify the benefits, risks and capabilities for a wide range of military radio frequency and high-power microwave radiation systems, the Defense Department said in its March 29 contract announcement.
Continuing his push for more far-reaching acquisition reform, U.S. Navy Secretary Donald Winter said April 3 he would like to see changes to the source selection process currently used by the service and other Pentagon entities. With the current system, he said during a briefing at the Navy League Sea Air Space 2007 Conference in Washington, the Navy or any other customer is tied down by source selection to a specific contractor and its accompanying set list of subcontractors, designs, components and subsystems.
GLOBEMASTER SUPPORT: The U.S. Air Force has awarded Boeing's McDonnell Douglas Corp. a $248.3 million firm-fixed and cost-plus-incentive-fee price contract modification funding the fiscal 2007 third-quarter option for the ongoing Globemaster III Sustainment Partnership. The option maintains support for the C-17 sustainment-labor/engines CLS (contractor logistics support) and material, the Defense Department said March 29.
About 10 percent of simulated North Korean missiles hit Japan in an exercise held this year, a Japanese newspaper has reported. The Japanese-U.S. Keen Edge command exercise in late January and early February simulated the launch of about 150 enemy missiles over several days, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said. The paper didn't say what defensive weapons were used in the simulation.
SATCOM BUY: The European Commission has approved the acquisition of Nera Satcom of Norway by Danish-based Thrane & Thrane. Nera, a maker of terminals and Earth stations for mobile satellite systems, will expand Thrane & Thrane's portfolio of land-based, maritime and aeronautical satellite communications systems, chiefly linked to Inmarsat. The merger had been referred to the EC by the Office of Fair Trade in the U.K., where Inmarsat is based.
Shuttle managers will decide as early as next week whether Atlantis will be launched in late May or further delayed until early June as a result of the hail damage done to its external tank. If tank repairs go well, a launch could be set by no later than about May 23. But if repair options begin to overlap with the launch availability of a new tank set to arrive at Kennedy Space Center by mid-April, managers may delay liftoff to a window that opens around the second week of June.
The U.S. Navy would like enhanced satellite communication capability and ship identification abilities for its improved MH-60 helicopter fleet. "We have satcom. We don't have satcom data links. We are considering it," said Capt. Paul Grosklags, Navy program manager for multimission helicopters. Grosklags spoke during an April 3 interview at the Navy League Sea Air Space 2007 conference in Washington.
STRAIT SUPPORT: ATA Aerospace, Schafer Corp. and Jackson and Tull are all being awarded a $48.5 million indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity with cost-plus-fixed-fee-task orders contract for the Space Technology Research, Analysis, Integration and Test (STRAIT) program, the Defense Department said March 29. STRAIT will provide the Air Force Research Laboratory's Space Vehicles Directorate with required engineering, technician, program management and administrative services to perform space-based technology research, analysis, integration and testing.
MH-60S contractors Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky are in the process of integrating Northrop Grumman's first production unit of the Airborne Laser Mine Detection System (ALMDS) on the helicopter. The system was delivered to Lockheed Martin in Owego, N.Y., in late January. A second system will be delivered this month. Following integration, the U.S. Navy will begin its own testing with the system on the MH-60S in May.
PARIS - French space officials warn that Europe risks falling further behind in space business applications unless it comes up with a new model for funding and orienting such endeavors.
An April 2 DAILY item erroneously said that ITT is not a member of the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA). The company also was not fined for selling sensitive night-vision technology to China, but rather for improperly sending sensitive documents. Aerospace Daily regrets the errors.
SNIPER: The Canadian Forces have placed an order with Lockheed Martin for 36 Sniper Advanced Targeting Pods, making Canada the seventh international customer for the system, according to the company. The contract, the value of which was not disclosed, includes spares, support equipment and integrated logistics support until 2020. Deliveries will begin this month.
SHIPBUILDING DEAL: BAE Systems and VT are closing in on a deal that will likely see the two merge their shipbuilding facilities. The move would go some way toward satisfying the British Defense Ministry's desire to use its next-generation aircraft carrier program (CVF) as a prompt for industrial consolidation. The Thales-DCN team designing France's PA2 aircraft carrier is anxiously awaiting conclusion of the merger so it can nail down a development and build a contract with French armaments agency DGA.
After prolonged negotiations, the four Eurofighter countries and industrial consortium have agreed on a $1.6 billion upgrade package to introduce new capabilities to the Typhoon strike fighter. The so-called Phase 1 Enhancements chiefly bolster the Eurofighter Typhoon's air-to-ground weapons delivery capability. The primary additions to its arsenal come through the planned integration of Raytheon Paveway IV and the EGBU-16 laser/Global Positioning System-guided bombs, as well as a laser-designator pod capability.
Defense Department contracts and contract modifications for war-supporting operations continue to lead the list of the Pentagon's accounts for money already spent or about to be spent, according to an Aerospace Daily analysis. Fuel, logistics and wheeled trucks or tractors procurement all were ranked among the top 10 of 2006 contract transactions, according to an analysis of more than 1 million records gleaned from data provided by the National Institute of Computer Assisted Reporting (see charts p. 5-7).
Lockheed Martin is discussing the potential sale of a new, small weapon designed to minimize collateral damage to the U.S. Navy, company officials say. The Navy is experiencing a gap in engaging small targets in urban areas, where damage to buildings is unacceptable, according to Mark Naso, senior business development manager for Lockheed Martin precision-guided munitions.
When the Pentagon next updates the cost information on its major weapon systems, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program will show a roughly 4 percent unit cost increase. The cost growth, to be detailed this month to Congress in the next filing of the Pentagon's selected acquisition reports, is largely the result of a cutback in near-term procurement funding for the Lockheed Martin-led project, according to program officials.
Efforts by NASA and the FAA to promote space tourism and other new commercial space endeavors could run afoul of insurance risk issues, despite attempts by the federal government to write risk out of the contracts, insurers say. Concerns could be heightened by the failure of the second demonstration flight of the Space-X launch vehicle in late March.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is backing an L-3 Communications protest over the loss of a multibillion-dollar linguistics contract, a move that opens the door to a possible re-compete of the work.
