BLACK HAWK MODS: Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. will provide eight Army Black Hawk helicopters under a $245 million contract modification, the Department of Defense said Dec. 13.
Stuart Boulton has been appointed managing director, DRS Tactical Systems Ltd., a unit of the C4I Group, and head of United Kingdom and European operations.
The U.S. Navy has awarded Raytheon Co. of Waltham, Mass., a $29.7 million contract to provide 10 AN/AQS-22 Airborne Low Frequency Sonar (ALFS) systems for its MH-60R multimission helicopter, the company said Dec. 15. The ALFS is an undersea warfare sensor for the MH-60R. It detects submarines and provides tracking, localization, classification, acoustic intercept, underwater communication and environmental data collection, the company said.
New York City-based L-3 Communications Spar Aerospace has been awarded a $226 million contract to upgrade New Zealand's C-130 Hercules aircraft fleet, the company said Dec. 15. The upgrade of the five aircraft will extend their lives by 15 years.
THIRD TEST: Orbital Sciences Corp. conducted a third successful test flight of the GQM-163A "Coyote" Supersonic Sea-Skimming Target system on Dec. 14, the company said. The test, at the Navy's Point Mugu, Calif., missile-testing range, achieved all of its objectives, the company said, including the verification of booster ignition and stable first-stage flight. Capt. Richard Walter, the U.S.
The U.S. Air Force is preparing a repackaged Space Based Radar (SBR) program for its fiscal year 2006 budget submittal that should address concerns that prompted lawmakers to slash the program's budget, according to Maj. Gen. Craig Cooning, director of space acquisition for the undersecretary of the Air Force for space.
MOVING: Bell Helicopter is moving its V-22 Program Office from Fort Worth to Amarillo, Texas, "in anticipation of the eventual need to ramp up for full-rate production on the V-22," company CEO Michael Redenbaugh said in a statement Dec. 13. Bell wants to move its program engineers and managers to where the aircraft are built. The Amarillo facility also will be responsible for Marine Corps' AH-1Z/UH-1Y helicopter upgrades, the Bell Eagle Eye unmanned aerial vehicle and the Bell 407 ARH, which has been proposed for the Army's Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter.
Ronald C. Marcotte has been appointed vice president of Air Force Airlift and Tanker programs and site executive for the Boeing Integrated Defense Systems units in Long Beach, Palmdale and Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. Richard D. Nanula, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Amgen Inc., has been elected to the board of directors effective Jan. 1. John B. Sams Jr. has been named vice president of the Air Force Systems business unit within Integrated Defense Systems.
A flight-test of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system was cut short when the interceptor missile inexplicably shut down shortly before launch, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency announced Dec. 15. The target missile for Integrated Flight Test 13C (IFT-13C) was successfully launched from Kodiak Island, Alaska, at 8:45 p.m. Alaska Standard Time Dec. 14, or 12:45 a.m. Eastern Standard Time Dec. 15. But about 16 minutes later, the interceptor shut down automatically while preparing to launch from Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.
NASA eventually will have to restructure its Discovery program in light of budget overruns that have plagued several missions, according to Andrew Dantzler, acting director of the solar system division in NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The Discovery program competitively selects low-cost science mission proposals from industry, small businesses, government laboratories and universities. Each mission is led by a principal investigator and must be kept within a budget cap.
General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products will produce more Gatling gun-based Goalkeeper ship defense systems under a $15 million contract from partner Thales Nederland, the company said Dec. 14. Goalkeeper, designed to defend ships from attack by missiles and aircraft, combines a General Dynamics turret mount and seven-barrel Gatling gun with Thales radars and electronics. The system has been in production since the 1980s.
The U.S. Army is setting up a task force to explore options for continuing the acceleration of armor deliveries for U.S. military vehicles in Iraq, an Army source confirmed. "I think the secretary of the Army has set up a task force to see what else might be done to continue the acceleration of capability in this area," Defense Department spokesman Lawrence Di Rita said Dec. 14 at a Pentagon news briefing.
Dayton, Ohio-based MTC Technologies Inc. has won a five-year, $5 million contract to provide composite materials for C-17 aircraft and other Department of Defense weapon systems worldwide, the company said Dec 14. The contract was awarded by the Ogden Air Logistics Center (ALC), Material Management Division, Hill Air Force Base, Utah.
L-3 Communications Integrated Systems (L-3 IS) will complete mission system modernization work and service life extensions for eight Korean navy P-3 aircraft the country is buying from the U.S. Navy, L-3 said Dec. 13. The work will give Korea's newest Lockheed Martin-built P-3s a suite of modern sensors and electronics, and will provide ground support systems to augment another eight P-3s that already are in the Korean navy fleet.
The Northrop Grumman Corp. has been awarded a $215.3 million contract modification from the U.S. Navy to prepare for the overhaul and refueling of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, the company said Dec. 14. The work includes advance planning, design, documentation, engineering, material procurement, shipboard inspections, fabrication and preliminary shipyard support facility work.
TRAINING AIRFRAMES: Boeing has been awarded a $209.4 million contract modification by the Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., to provide 10 fiscal 2005 T-45 training aircraft system airframes and engineering work, the Defense Department said Dec. 13. Fifty-two percent of the work will be performed in St. Louis and 48% in Warton, Brough, England. The work is expected to be finished in September 2007.
MORE TYPHOONS: Defense officials will sign a contract on Dec. 17 for the delivery of 89 Eurofighter Typhoon fighters for the United Kingdom Royal Air Force. A daylong event will include speeches by defense and industry officials and tours of Typhoon facilities.
GPS, GLONASS: Government officials will continue talks aimed at making sure the U.S. Global Positioning System and Russian Glonass navigation system don't conflict, the U.S. State Department said Dec. 14. They will seek to "maintain compatibility and promote interoperability" of the systems for civil users, and begin "preliminary discussions" on a GSP-Glonass cooperative agreement.
