Britain's troops in Afghanistan are set to receive a powerful new battlefield weapon, the Automatic Lightweight Grenade Launcher, the U.K. defense ministry said Oct. 19. The weapon can fire up to 340 of the 40mm high explosive grenades per minute as far as 2,000 meters (2,187 yards), a defense ministry news release said. The grenades can be used against both enemy troops and light armor, and may be fired either automatically or in single shots.
CAMERAS: Gyrocam Camera Systems of Sarasota, Fla., has been awarded a $51.7 million contract to provide the U.S. Navy with 140 camera systems and related parts and support to help perform counter improvised explosive detection missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Defense Department said Oct. 19. The work is set to be complete by October 2007. The Marine Corps Systems Command, Quantico, Va., awarded the contract.
HI GAINS: Honeywell International said Oct. 19 that its sales and net income both grew in the third quarter of 2006. Sales increased from $6.9 billion last year to $7.95 billion, a 15 percent improvement. Net income jumped 17 percent, from $464 million to $541 million.
Current plans to boost acquisition of new or costlier military equipment in coming years, as well as burgeoning operations, maintenance and personnel costs, will require an annual defense budget of about $492 billion, according to congressional budget officials.
Officials at Boeing and a Northrop Grumman-EADS North America team - both vying for the U.S. refueler contract - are expecting a new draft request for proposals for the multibillion tanker project. A new draft RFP could further delay the project, which has been under unprecedented scrutiny since the Darleen Druyun scandal.
TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla.- Maintaining F-22 Raptors requires greater emphasis on avionics training and care - and relatively little concern for engines - than legacy aircraft like F-15s, say those in charge of keeping the aircraft mission ready.
NASA's Constellation program, which includes the Ares rockets and Orion spacecraft design to return astronauts to the moon, is in the midst of a system requirements review (SRR) that should be complete by the end of November, according to agency officials.
ARMY RADIOS: The U.S. Army has awarded Raytheon Co. a $36 million contract to supply the Army with 746 multiband, multimission radios, the company said Oct. 19. The AN/PSC-5D radios will be used to communicate with satellites that provide warfighters with enhanced voice and data capabilities for beyond line of site communications. The radios can be either carried by soldiers or housed in vehicles, and the contract includes 432 kits that can switch the soldier-carried radios to the vehicle configuration.
Defense Department leaders think it is "imperative" that DOD business operations rapidly modernize to meet warfighting needs quicker, but it is unclear how. Navy Adm. Edmund Giambastiani Jr., vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke about military and industrial collaboration Oct. 18 at the Defense Business Agility Forum in Washington, but the speech was behind closed doors.
WIDEBAND GAPFILLER: The U.S. Air Force has signed a $1.067 billion contract with Boeing for up to three more Wideband Gapfiller Satellites (WGS), if all options are exercised. The Block II satellites will be similar to the three Block I satellites already in production, but will have an enhanced capability to support bandwidth-hungry reconnaissance platforms such as unmanned aerial vehicles, according to Boeing. The first WGS satellite is slated to launch next year.
As expected, Northrop Grumman has formally announced its intention to propose a maritime variant of its U.S. Air Force Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for the U.S. Navy's Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) program next year.
Northrop Grumman will continue to expand the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) and improve communications for the F-22 Raptor under two recent contracts, the company announced Oct. 18. The firm recently received the $25 million BACN Spiral Technical Phase II contract, as well as the $8.5 million Intraflight Datalink Gateway System contract to integrate a data link allowing the F-22 to communicate with other platforms.
The third 57mm Mk 110 Mod 0 Naval Gun system bound for the U.S. Coast Guard National Security Cutter (NSC) program should be delivered next July, while BAE Systems expects to contract for a fourth system later this year for the U.S. Navy's Littoral Combat Ship program. The NSC contracts, including the third one announced Oct. 17, were from Northrop Grumman Corp., while LCS contracts have come from Lockheed Martin Corp.
POOR PERFORMANCE: The Defense Department continues to be one of the worst internally performing federal agencies, according to the latest briefing on White House Office of Management and Budget metrics over federal management performance. The OMB's statement on the five-year-old President's Management Agenda consistently ranked the DOD at the bottom, if not last, in describing how agencies have progressed under the Bush administration. The Oct.
HELOS FOR POLAND: Eurocopter has sold its first EC135 and EC145 light twin helicopters in Poland. Due for delivery early next year, the aircraft were ordered through HeliInvest, the company's Warsaw-based representative. Seven EC120B and EC130B4 helicopters are operating in the country.
The Defense Department is having difficulty drafting new acquisition regulations that incorporate obligations to protect export-controlled information or technology within contracts after at least two attempts and vocal opposition from researchers and contractors. The deadline for public comment on a second set of requirements, proposed in August, has been extended until Nov. 2, according to an Oct. 16 notice in the Federal Register.
HUBBLE DECISION: NASA Administrator Mike Griffin and top Hubble Space Telescope and space shuttle managers are scheduled to meet this week for a decision on whether to proceed with a final shuttle mission to service the telescope on flight STS-125 in mid April, 2008. All indications are that the mission will be approved.
The Optus D1 and DirecTV 9S communications satellites were successfully dual-launched by an Ariane 5 rocket on Oct. 13. The launch took place from Arianespace's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, at about 4:56 p.m. Eastern time. Built by Orbital Sciences Corp. for Optus Networks Pty Limited of Australia, Optus D1 will operate in the Ku-band frequencies from its orbital location at 160 degrees East longitude, providing fixed satellite services and direct-to-home television broadcasting to Australia and New Zealand.
Northrop Grumman is expecting the downselect for the U.S. Navy's Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS-N) demonstration program in late May or early June of next year, following the release of a final request for proposals (RFP) in February.
ISS CREW: Two cosmonauts and two astronauts have been named to the next International Space Station crew, NASA said Oct. 18. Cosmonauts Fyodor N. Yurchikhin and Dr. Oleg V. Kotov will spend six months on the ISS. Astronauts Clayton C. Anderson and Daniel M. Tani will work as flight engineers and fly to the station next year. Anderson will fly on Space Shuttle Endeavour on a mission set for June 2007. He'll return on shuttle Atlantis, which will carry Tani, his replacement, to the station. Tani is scheduled to come back to Earth in October 2007.
