NATIONAL FLEET: As part of its fiscal 2006 policy bill for the Coast Guard, the House has approved a provision that would make it easier for the president to make the Coast Guard operate as a U.S. Navy service instead of under the Department of Homeland Security. Under a manager's amendment approved by unanimous consent and led by Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.), the House agreed to remove the requirement that a declaration of war - an act of Congress - be made before the president can order the naval rollup.
LRIP MINED: The U.S. Navy has given Raytheon the go-ahead for the low-rate initial production of the AN/AQS-20A sonar, the primary mine-hunting system to be integrated into the Navy's MH-60S Airborne Mine Countermeasures Helicopters aboard the Littoral Combat Ship. Raytheon's award from the Naval Sea Systems Command is worth almost $55 million and should be completed by March 2010.
ISS CONFIGURATION: Before the end of the month, congressional staffers with the House Science Committee hope to receive formal briefings from NASA on the agency's scaled-back plans for the International Space Station. The briefings have been delayed as NASA continues to vet the plans with the White House Office of Management and Budget, although staffers already have a sense of the space station's future based on informal meetings with NASA Administrator Michael Griffin.
The United Kingdom Ministry of Defence (MOD), Scottish emergency services and other organizations tested their plans and procedures for a nuclear incident in Exercise Senator on Sept. 14-15 in Scotland. Hundreds of people took part in the exercise, which simulated a serious traffic accident involving a nuclear weapons convoy, MOD said. Details of the scenario were revealed gradually to make the exercise as realistic as possible. It included an intense fire and the release of radioactive material.
HEAVY TRAILERS: Engineered Support Systems Inc. of St. Louis said Sept. 14 that it has been awarded a five-year, $40 million contract to provide the U.S. Army with more than 500 M989A1 Heavy Expanded Mobility Ammunition Trailers (HEMATs). Up to 583 trailers will be delivered. The initial order calls for 61 HEMATs worth $4.8 million. The work will take place at the company's St. Louis and West Plains, Mo. facilities. The contract was awarded by the U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command, Warren, Mich.
The United Kingdom navy's Type 23 frigates will be armed with the DS30 Mk2 Automatic 30mm Naval Gun under a GBP 15 million (USD $27 million) deal with MSI-Defence Systems Ltd., the company said Sept. 14.
Following a similar boost to Foster-Miller Inc. last week, the U.S. Navy on Sept. 14 announced an increase to its order of iRobot Corp.'s PackBot man-transportable robotic systems from 250 to 1,200 for $95.6 million. The system is a small robot used by land forces for remote reconnaissance of unexploded ordnance and improvised explosive devices. The Naval Sea Systems Command ordered a similar increase for Foster-Miller's Talon IV worth $96.1 million, the Navy announced Sept. 7 (DAILY, Sept. 9).
The Senate on Sept. 15 passed a fiscal 2006 appropriations bill covering NASA, although language lowering available aeronautics research and development funding could set up a disagreement with the House.
The long-delayed dual launch of NASA's CloudSat and CALIPSO spacecraft is tentatively scheduled for Oct. 26 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., following two higher-priority National Reconnaissance Office spacecraft that are scheduled to lift off first. Originally CloudSat/CALIPSO was to launch in 2003. Most of the delay sprang from technical problems with both spacecraft, according to NASA officials. They were finally shipped to Vandenberg in April and May, and would have launched in July but were bumped to make way for other flights.
TOWED SUPPORT: The U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center has awarded Lockheed Martin Corp.'s services unit of Cherry Hill, N.J., up to $116.5 million to back up the Towed Array Depot, including production, repair, refurbishment, installation and testing of towed array sonar systems and related engineering, technical and logistics support services. The company will work in Norfolk, Va., and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, through September 2013, the Navy announced Sept. 14. SPAWAR received two solicitations for this competition.
TORPEDO IMUs: KVH Industries Inc. of Middletown, R.I., said it will produce fiber optic gyro-based TG-6000 precision inertial measurement units under a $3.2 million production order from Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems. The IMUs will be a key component in the guidance system of the U.S. Navy's next-generation MK54 lightweight torpedoes, the company said.
UNDER WAY: General Dynamics subsidiary National Steel and Shipbuilding Co. has begun construction on the third ship in the T-AKE program, a new class of combat logistics ships named the Lewis and Clark class, the company said Sept. 15. The U.S. Navy has awarded the company contracts for eight ships and has options for four more. If the options are exercised, the program would be worth $3.7 billion, the largest contract in NASSCO's history, the company said. The first T-AKE was launched May 21. The second is scheduled to be launched next spring.
DRS Technologies said Sept. 15 that it has been awarded $15 million in contracts to provide the U.S. Army with more than 1,150 computer digitization systems to improve battlefield visualization.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Airborne Laser (ABL) program plans to begin tests against medium- and long-range ballistic missile targets shortly after conducting its first intercept attempt in 2008 against a short-range ballistic missile, according to a program official. Air Force Col. John Daniels, ABL's director, said at the Air Force Association's recent Air & Space Conference in Washington that the tests against longer-range targets, including an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), are slated to occur in 2009 and 2010.
ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS: EDO Corp. of New York has been awarded a $10 million contract to provide the ES 3701 Tactical Radar Electronic Support Measures (ESM) and Surveillance System for the Denmark navy's new Flexible Support Ships and Patrol Ships, the company said Sept. 15. The ES 3701 is designed to detect, identify and locate hostile ship and missile radar signals early and efficiently, enabling the ship's commander to make a quick defensive response.
Arlanda, Sweden-based Patria Helicopters AB said Sept. 15 that it has been awarded a contract worth EUR 1.5 million to EUR 2 million (USD $2.4 million) to provide maintenance for the Swedish military's Vertol helicopters (HKP4). The contract covers the rest of the helicopters' life cycle. Patria said it also is performing maintenance on Sweden's Agusta 109 (HKP15) under a 2002 contract, and hopes to land maintenance contracts for NH90 helicopters in Sweden, Finland and Norway. In 2003 Patria opened new final assembly facilities for NH90 helicopter in Jamsa, Finland.
Late this month the Air Force will meet with researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., to discuss how "lean" industry principles can be applied to the service's acquisition process. The goal is to create a "value stream map" of the Air Force's entire acquisition enterprise. Value Stream Mapping involves drawing a visual representation of every process in a manufacturing line to identify and eliminate sources of waste.
DEEPWATER AUTHORIZED: The House has authorized $1.6 billion for the U.S. Coast Guard's Deepwater recapitalization program. The chamber voted 415-0 on Sept. 15 to pass the fiscal 2006 Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2005. The bill authorizes roughly $8.7 billion for the Coast Guard overall, including $39 million for operating expenses to fund a West Coast helicopter interdiction tactical squadron and $24 million for research, development, testing and evaluation.
BOMB NETWORK: After submitting the only offer, Dell's Federal Systems unit on Sept. 13 received $18.4 million from the U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command to update the Joint Explosive Ordnance Disposal Network, as well as for the initial rollout of four regional gateway nodes. The network is a tactical, Web-based information system that provides information and access "where delivery of accurate and timely tactical mission critical knowledge is crucial to the success of a mission," the Navy said Sept. 14. The Navy expects Dell to finish its work by September 2010.
The U.S. Army has halted work on the troubled Aerial Common Sensor (ACS) development program and told prime contractor Lockheed Martin to come up with a fix-it plan in 60 days. The Army announced its decision late Sept. 14 after reviewing the ACS design with Lockheed Martin and concluding that "the weight of the ACS payload and required airframe modifications exceed the structural limits of Lockheed Martin's selected aircraft," the Embraer ERJ-145 regional jet.
NASA's DC-8 flying laboratory has left the Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., for Grand Forks, N.D., where the University of North Dakota will maintain and operate it. Under a deal announced earlier this year (DAILY, June 6), NASA will pay the university $25 million over five years for the work, which will make the DC-8 the centerpiece of a new National Suborbital Education and Research Center there. NASA flight crews will operate the aircraft "for the foreseeable future," the agency said Sept. 15.
