THREAT REDUCTION: Raytheon Technical Services will help the former Soviet Union reduce its weapons of mass destruction under a six-year contract worth up to $82.1 million, the company said Aug. 8. Under the contract, awarded by the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Raytheon will provide logistics integration support, equipment support and services, program support services, infrastructure services, an enterprise information management system and program management. The work is part of the U.S. government's Cooperative Threat Reduction Program.
EDO Corp. will design and develop the sonobuoy launching system for the U.S. Navy's P-8A Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft, the company said Aug. 4. P-8A prime contractor Boeing awarded EDO the contract, which could be worth as much as $100 million, EDO said. The initial contract, which includes system design and development and acceptance/qualification testing, documentation and training courses, is worth $12.7 million. Sonobuoys are sensors dropped into the ocean to detect submerged submarines.
Engineered Support Systems will provide power-assisted cupolas to General Dynamics Land Systems for use on reconnaissance and fire support variants of the Stryker vehicle, the company said Aug. 5. The company's Systems & Electronics subsidiary will produce 55 cupolas under the $2.4 million contract. The St. Louis-based company has produced more than 335 cupolas for Stryker vehicles.
WHILE YOU WERE OUT: In addition to asking the White House to make a recess appointment of Gordon England as deputy secretary of defense (DAILY, Aug. 3), Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) says Eric Edelman should get one, too. Edelman has been nominated to be deputy secretary of defense for policy. The Senate Armed Services Committee, which Warner chairs, approved his nomination, but the full Senate has yet to approve it and is now away on its August recess.
General Services Administration contracting officials and Defense Department management officials did not comply with the U.S. Constitution, appropriations law and the Federal Acquisition Regulation when making dozens of defense purchases through GSA last year, the DOD inspector general has concluded. Of 75 purchases reviewed, valued around $406 million in total, "74 were either hastily planned or improperly funded," the IG office said. Moreover, on 38 purchases, or 51%, either GSA or the requesting DOD entity "improperly" used government funds.
SLOWER SPENDING: Defense spending has grown more slowly this year than in the past three years, rising by about 7% through July compared with an average of 14% during the buildup of military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq in fiscal years 2002 through 2004, the Congressional Budget Office reports. Outlays for military personnel have been one of the fastest-growing elements of the defense budget this fiscal year, up about 8.8% after adjusting for payment shifts.
USTRANSCOM LEADER: Air Force Lt. Gen. Norton Schwartz, who is being promoted to general, is scheduled to formally replace retiring Air Force Gen. John Handy as commander of U.S. Transportation Command Sept. 7.
The U.S. Army has begun exploring a smaller, shorter-range version of the Low Cost Interceptor (LCI) missile it is developing for cruise missile defense. The Multi-service Extended Range Low-cost Interceptor (MERLIN) would have a range of 19 to 25 miles, compared to LCI's 93-mile reach, said David Tilson, the Army's LCI project manager. MERLIN would weigh about 350 pounds, half as much as LCI, and would have a 7-inch diameter and 9-foot length, compared with LCI's 10-inch diameter and 15-foot length.
The U.S. Special Operations Command has awarded Northrop Grumman Corp. $22 million to demonstrate its Viper Strike munition as a standoff precision-guided weapon on the AC-130 gunship, the Defense Department said Aug. 4.
FATS Inc., a subsidiary of Firearms Training Systems, will provide its small arms and indirect fire trainers and close air support simulation to Lockheed Martin for two Virtual Combat Convoy Training systems bound for the U.S. Marine Corps. The contract is worth $800,000, bringing FATS' total for the VCCT program to $7 million, the company said Aug. 5.
The U.S. Navy's two unmanned underwater vehicles specialized for submersible search and rescue were sent Aug. 5 to help the Russian navy try to rescue one of its seven-manned AS-28 mini-subs believed caught up by a fishing net. The tethered U.S. submersibles, known as Super Scorpios, are capable of diving 5,000 feet and cutting one-inch-thick steel cable. They are part of the Navy's Deep Submergence Unit based in San Diego.
BEI RESULTS: BEI Technologies Inc. said Aug. 5 that its revenue for the third quarter of 2005 was up 21.5% over last year, totaling $83.6 million. Net income was up 57%, to $5.3 million. The company had higher expenses, partly due to its planned buyout by France's Schneider Electric, but said higher sales helped offset them.
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DRS DIVIDEND: DRS Technologies' board of directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of three cents per share on the company's common stock. The dividend is payable Sept. 30 to shareholders of record on Sept. 15.
The Global Command and Control System-Korea contract, recently highlighted in a court plea where two former defense industry executives admitted to improperly talking with an Army officer about a job, is scheduled to terminate at the end of this year and likely will soon be recompeted, the company involved has told The DAILY.
The U.S. Defense Department's new advisory panel on acquisition reform has scheduled a number of public and private meetings this month and next to discuss whether the department is properly equipped to oversee major weapon system programs.
Transformational Space Corp. (t/Space) tested a parachute landing system for its proposed Crew Transfer Vehicle over the Pacific Ocean Aug. 3, the company announced. The test used a full-sized mockup to represent the Crew Transfer Vehicle, or CXV, which would be a low-cost means of ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station. NASA will hold a competition this fall to select a new vehicle to carry ISS crew, the company said.
EXPLAIN AND JUSTIFY: Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), the assistant Democratic leader in the Senate, is calling for a Pentagon report identifying and explaining all major weapons programs whose unit costs have grown by more than 50% since their original budget estimates. In an amendment submitted to the Senate's fiscal 2006 defense authorization bill, Durbin also proposed requiring the defense secretary to justify continuing the programs despite the increases. The Senate is expected to restart debate on the defense bill soon after reconvening Sept. 6.
INFRARED REPAIR: The U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center has awarded FLIR Systems Inc. of North Billerica, Mass., almost $10 million more for repairs, upgrades and application engineering services and spares for the Maritime Forward-Looking Infrared AN/KAX-1 and AN/KAX-2 systems. The follow-on contract is for U.S. Coast Guard and unidentified "coastal patrol" customers, the Navy announced Aug. 4. The latest repair order is supposed to be finished by August 2009.
AIR EXERCISE: A recent U.S. Air Force exercise highlights the need to train airmen regularly to ensure they are up to date on the latest air operations technology, which is advancing at a rapid rate, according to Col. David Morte, an organizer of the event. "If we don't stay on top of our procedures of how we execute, and train as many people as we can on what the latest and greatest is, then even people who have done this a year or two ago ... can almost get left behind," Morte says.
LM DIVIDEND: Lockheed Martin's board of directors declared a regular quarterly dividend on the company's common stock of 25 cents a share, the company said Aug. 4. The dividend is payable Sept. 30 to shareholders of record on Sept. 1.
MRO A GO: NASA plans to launch the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Aug. 10 during a launch window lasting from 7:54 a.m. to 9:39 a.m. EDT. The 4,800 pound Lockheed Martin-built spacecraft is the first NASA payload to be carried by an Atlas V rocket. After arriving at Mars in March 2006, MRO will use its suite of instruments to study the history and distribution of martian water and scout possible landing sites for future missions.
