NAVY IT: The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps drove the "vast majority" of federal information technology acquisition during the third quarter of fiscal 2005 with nearly $57 billion in contract awards, Reston, Va.-based consulting company Input said. The services' high activity stemmed primarily from their awards of more than $54 billion to 503 information technology vendors under the SeaPort Enhanced (SeaPort-e) multiaward vehicle for IT goods and services, Input said (DAILY, June 2).
Donna J. Demerling has been appointed senior vice president of quality and Six Sigma. Michael J. Hill has been named senior vice president for supply chain management.
Northrop Grumman has completed training representatives of Korea's air force and Boeing in the use of its improved ALQ-135M electronic countermeasures system. During a four week-class held in Rolling Meadows, Ill., the military and contractor officials learned how to operate and program the system using its reprogramming tool. The ALQ-135M is the newest upgrade to the ALQ-135, an automatic, internally mounted, electronic combat system.
Maj. Gen. John L. Barry (USAF Ret.) has been named to the board of directors. Barry was executive director of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board.
VIPER STRIKE: Northrop Grumman has won a $22 million sole-source contract from U.S. Special Operations Command to develop Viper Strike as a stand-off precision-guided munition on the AC-130 gunship, the company said Aug. 24. The initial $22 million contract is for an Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration program with a potential value of up to $48.6 million. The first phase of the program is scheduled for completion in December 2006.
DONNING HALOS: Selex Sensors and Airborne Systems, a British joint venture of Finmeccanica and BAE Systems, said that the U.S. Marine Corps has ordered 10 Hostile Artillery Location Systems (HALOs) for immediate fielding to meet an "urgent" need for ground counterfire sensor systems. HALO, currently in service with the British army, is an autonomous system that is supposed to provide highly accurate location of indirect fire systems, explosive detonations and heavy direct-fire weapons. The systems will be put together at facilities in Basildon, United Kingdom.
Patrick Crowley has been named president of Neltec Inc., Park's circuitry material business unit in Tempe, Ariz. Howard R. Elliot has been appointed president of Nelco Products Pte. Ltd., Park's electronics circuitry material subsidiary in Singapore. Steven L. Garrette, president of Park's FiberCote Industries Inc. subsidiary in Waterbury, Conn., is on special assignment through Dec. 31 to assist efforts to expand Park's advanced composite materials business in North America and Asia.
The Base Closure and Realignment Commission on Aug. 24 spared southeast Virginia's Naval Air Station Oceana, Va. - for now - but warned that local and state officials will have to fight increasing commercial and residential development or lose the facility to Florida. In an unusual move, the commission said that if Virginia and the municipal governments of Virginia Beach and Chesapeake "fail to enact and enforce legislation to prevent further encroachment" of Oceana by March 2006, its naval air equipment will move to Cecil Field, Fla.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has invited three alternate teams to the Grand Challenge 2005 National Qualification Event to be held Sept. 28-Oct. 6 at the California Speedway in Fontana, Calif. In June, DARPA chose 40 robotic ground vehicle teams out of 118 hopefuls to participate in the NQE. The three alternate teams that will compete are Austin Robot Technology of Austin, Texas, Princeton University of Princeton, N.J., and Team Underdawg of San Jose, Calif.
BREATHING EASIER: The U.S. Navy has tapped Treadwell Corp. of Thomaston, Conn., for $12.3 million in auxiliary cubicles and microprocessor controller components for Model 6L16 Electrolytic Oxygen Generators, the primary oxygen producer aboard SSN-688- and SSBN-726-class submarines. The Navy said late Aug. 23 that the follow-on acquisition is part of a program to upgrade the Treadwell generators for extended life, increased reliability and reduced life cycle costs. Treadwell is supposed to finish by September 2007.
The independent Base Closure and Realignment Commission voted 7-1 on Aug. 24 to reject the Defense Department's recommendation to close the Naval Submarine Base New London, Conn., saying it was too special to lose, partly because of General Dynamics' work there. The commission said DOD's May 13 recommendation to close the base "deviated" from almost all of the military value criteria under which 2005 BRAC decisions are to be made, as well as the force structure plan for probable threats to national security over the next 20 years.
CHECKING BATTERIES: This week Boeing expects to finish testing the batteries used in the flight termination systems of the company's Delta II and Delta IV rockets to ensure they will work properly. Located in the rocket's second stage, the batteries power the avionics that command the rocket to destroy itself if it veers off course. Verification of the batteries has delayed the launch of the first GPS IIR-M spacecraft on a Delta II from Cape Canaveral, Fla. (DAILY, Aug. 24).
Raytheon has delivered an experimental Distributed Common Ground System to Langley Air Force Base, Va., for additional Air Force and company testing, the company said Aug. 24. The delivery completes the first phase of the company's DCGS contract.
Space Shuttle Discovery's wheels are lowered to the ground at NASA Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility. Discovery, which landed at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., returned to KSC Aug. 21 after a two-day trip home atop a modified Boeing 747. Photo courtesy NASA/KSC.
The U.S. Defense Department has approved an accelerated full-rate production run of Lockheed Martin's thermobaric Hellfire (AGM-114N) missile, allowing the company to fill a $90 million order from the U.S. Army. A government-industry team successfully completed the production readiness review of the metal augmented charge (MAC), or thermobaric warhead, prompting approval of the new version of the Hellfire II missile, the company said.
Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) has proposed requiring the U.S. Army to find a second domestic source for Stryker tires, after an internal Army report said the extra weight of slat armor added to the vehicles has led to worn-out tires. Michelin XML 12.00R20 tires are used on the combat vehicles, according to the Pentagon's Defense Technical Information Center. Voinovich submitted the legislation in late July as a possible amendment to the fiscal 2006 defense authorization bill.
LOCAL INTEREST: The National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining, a two-year-old trade group championed by Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), has been awarded a five-year, $24.3 million contract by the U.S. Army. The award allows the Defense Department and other government organizations to use the manufacturing expertise of the Latrobe, Pa., center, according to a statement. The center said it was established through Murtha's efforts, and he helped announce the Army contract Aug. 19 at the annual Johnstown, Pa., Showcase of Commerce and Industry.
Outlays for national defense will total $493 billion in 2005, the Congressional Budget Office has estimated, 8.6% more than last year but down from 12.1% growth in 2004 and 16% in 2003.
FUZE WORK: Alliant Techsystems (ATK) has been awarded a $15 million contract by U.S. Army Field Command to produce M-228 Practice Grenade Fuzes. If all options are exercised, the work could be worth up to $57 million, ATK said Aug. 23. Production will begin in March 2006 on a new manufacturing line in the companyís Allegany Ballistics Laboratory in Rocket Center, W.Va.
The Navy hopes in the coming months to award a contract for outsourced medium- and heavy-lift helicopters to fly throughout the Pacific Missile Range Facility off Hawaii for weapons recovery, visual surveillance, range clearance, firefighting and transport missions.
