The awarding of a $2 billion, 10-year U.S. Air Force contract to one of three teams competing for the ground segment of the projected Transformational Satellite (TSAT) system is imminent, industry sources said Jan. 23. Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon are vying for the ground segment, called the Transformational Communications System Mission Operations System (TMOS), a secure, interoperable, high-capacity global communications network.
NAVAIR CONTRACT: The U.S. Navy has awarded Raytheon Technical Services Company LLC a one-year, $70.2 million contract option to continue providing supplies and services to the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), the company said Jan 23. Raytheon will work on aircraft support, mission planning, navigation systems, reconnaissance systems, aircraft armament equipment, and weapons data-link systems. The award is the fourth of four, one-year options in an original contract awarded in 2001. The contract could be worth up to $450 million.
The Defense Department said Jan. 20 that it would return milestone decision authority to the Air Force for 10 major programs that were stripped from it last March.
Lockheed Martin MS-2 Tactical Systems, Eagan, Minn., is being awarded an $18,568,372 firm-fixed-price delivery order (1305) under a previously awarded contract (N00024-98-D-5202) for replacement or repair of spares that comprise the AN-UYQ-79 advanced display system. This delivery order combines purchases for the Navy (95.73 percent) and the governments of Australia (2.3 percent); Spain (.88 percent); Egypt (.32 percent); Japan (.29 percent); Taiwan (.28 percent); and Korea (.2 percent) under the Foreign Military Sales Program.
AIR FORCE Lockheed Martin Co., Marietta, Ga., is being awarded a $33,267,307 firm fixed price contract modification. This action provides for C-5 AMP Production Lot IV Kits, Support, Spares and Maintenance Training Device Spares. The work will be complete in June 2008. At this time, total funds have been obligated. Negotiations were complete in December 2005. The Headquarters Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity. (F33657-98-C-0006/P00161).
ITT Industries, System Division, Colorado Springs, Colo., is being awarded a $7,559,843 cost plus award fee contract modification. This action provides for a System Engineering and Sustainment Integrator (SENSOR) contract to integrate system engineering and sustainment of ground-based missile warning, missile defense, and space surveillance sensors. The SENSOR systems currently include ground-based radars and optical systems controlled and operated by the United States Strategic Command and Air Force Space Command (AFSPC).
REUSE: The U.S. Navy will try to convince lawmakers to support its long-term 313-ship fleet plan in part by advocating "maximum reuse of existing production infrastructure and existing designs to achieve new requirements." Examples will include using the DD(X) destroyer's hull for the follow-on CG(X) cruiser hull, as well as basing the LHA-Replacement amphibious ship on a modified version of the existing LHD class, Navy admirals have said. The "reuse" should help keep costs down while stabilizing orders for industry.
The Navy announced Jan. 20 that the next ship of its newest class of advanced auxiliary dry cargo transports, the Lewis and Clark-class T-AKE, will be named for the first U.S. astronaut, the late Alan Shephard. In 1959, Shepard was one of seven men chosen by NASA for the Mercury program. Two years later, he became the first U.S. astronaut during a suborbital flight that reached an altitude of 116 miles.
NASA is soliciting bids from industry for commercial resupply demonstrations to the International Space Station that would take place between 2008 and 2010. The agency hopes to be able to turn responsibility for supplying the ISS over to industry some time after 2010, when the space shuttle is due to retire, provided "a capability is successfully demonstrated and the government determines it is in its best interest," according to a request for proposals (RFP) released Jan. 18.
The European Space Agency (ESA) and Galileo Industries have formally signed a contract for the first four spacecraft in the Galileo satellite navigation system. The 950 million euro ($1.1 billion) contract was signed Jan. 19 and will be paid out equally by ESA and the European Commission. Galileo Industries is an industry consortium led by EADS and Alcatel Alenia Space.
NASA on Jan. 23 began stacking the solid rocket boosters for space shuttle Discovery's second return-to-flight mission, STS-121, set to launch to the International Space Station no earlier than May. Stacking takes place in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The right aft booster was transported from the Rotation Processing and Surge Facility to the VAB on Jan. 23, with the left aft booster slated to make the same trip the following day.
Honeywell said Jan. 23 that the U.S. Army has awarded it a contract worth up to $1.4 billion to improve and extend the life of Abrams tank engines. The initial 12-month contract for the Total InteGrated Engine Revitalization (TIGER) program is worth $69 million.
If the U.S. wants to score more successes in the war on terrorism there has to be a mix of technology and human intelligence, says a member of the House Intelligence Committee. "I think we made a horrible mistake by getting away from human assets and human intelligence," Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) said following a Jan. 23 speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 'It has to be a combination of both," he added.
After $1 billion in additional cuts to its proposed design and construction costs that trimmed its multimission aspect in favor of an aviation role, the Defense Acquisition Board has approved Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Landing Helicopter Assault (LHA)-Replacement amphibious assault ship program to enter system development and demonstration (SDD).
The services are struggling with the choices for manned and unmanned aircraft, sensor packages and the need for better intelligence integration. The Pentagon's airborne signals intelligence community, with its decision to terminate the Aerial Common Sensor program, has likely triggered months of inter-service battles as the Air Force, Navy, and Army try to push their intelligence priorities on their sister services.
LUNAR RECYCLING: NASA will pay Honeywell to refurbish a Miniature Inertial Measurement Unit (MIMU) originally built for the Triana Earth-observation mission pushed by former Vice President Al Gore, and plans to install the unit on its proposed Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). Intended for launch in October 2008, the LRO requires three of the MIMUs for redundancy, and NASA wants a sole-source deal with Triana-supplier Honeywell for the whole set - two new and one refurbished.
