AWS CERTIFIED: The U.S. Navy has certified that the latest advancement of the Lockheed Martin-developed Aegis Weapon System, Baseline 7, has been approved for deployment, the company said Sept. 12. The Baseline 7 AWS contains the first complete commercial-off-the-shelf Aegis advanced processing computing architecture and the new AN/SPY-1D(V) radar.
The U.S. Air Force plans to launch a program in early 2007 to examine weapons that could be adapted to destroy large, heavily defended ships at long ranges, an industry official said Sept. 12. Air Combat Command is spearheading efforts to begin the advanced concept technology demonstration (ACTD) program on maritime interdiction, said Ed Whalen, director of strike weapons business development at Lockheed Martin.
TRANSPARENT ARMOR: BAE Systems said Sept. 12 that will provide more than 1,000 Transparent Armor Gun Shields kits and spares for U.S. Marine Corps vehicles under a contract modification worth as much as $40 million. The kits will be installed on Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement units, Humvees and Logistics Vehicle Systems starting in October and continuing through next February. The U.S. Marine Corps System Command has already funded $19 million under the modification.
Metal Storm Ltd. said it lost $5.9 million in the first half of this year, up slightly from the $5.7 million loss recorded for the same period in 2004, but within company expectations. The ballistics company said it has enough money to last through September 2006 even if it doesn't generate any revenue or raise any more money until then. Company CEO and Managing Director David Smith said Metal Storm made "good progress" in the first half of the year in its drive to commercialize its technology, particularly its 40mm grenade launcher.
ARMY Rockwell Collins Inc., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was awarded on Sept. 1, 2005, a delivery order amount of $5,700,000 as part of a $5,700,000 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the Common Avionics Architecture System. Work will be performed in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and is expected to be completed by April 26, 2008. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This was a sole source contract initiated on March 14, 2004. The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (DAAH23-03-D-0015).
AIR FORCE Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., El Segundo, Calif., is being awarded a $20,000,000 indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract to provide for T-38 and F-5 Weapon Systems Engineering Services. At this time, $2,054,000 of the funds has been obligated. This work will be complete by February 2012. Solicitation began in June 2005 and negotiations were completed in September 2005. The Headquarters Ogden Air Logistics Center, Hill Air Force Base, Utah, is the contracting activity (FA8202-05-D-0004).
BAE Systems reported a profit of GBP 344 million (USD $633 million, 1.8 dollars to the pound) on sales of GBP 6.8 billion, up from earnings of GBP 237 million for the same period last year. Sales were up 13.6%, the company said last week, and earnings before interest and taxes were up 20.4%. The London-based defense and aerospace company said its defense business should grow in 2005 as much as it did in 2004, including six months' worth of results from its acquisition of United Defense Industries in the United States (DAILY, June 26).
DRS Technologies Inc. announced Sept. 12 that the U.S. Navy awarded it several new contracts worth around $43 million to design and produce power conversion, distribution and control equipment for future and existing combatant surface ships and submarines. DRS said it already started working on the contracts, which will be carried out by the DRS Power & Control Technologies unit in Milwaukee, Wis., and Danbury, Conn. The company said it expects to work through March 2007.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Satellite imagery is being used by state and local officials in the wake of Hurricane Katrina to help determine the depth of water in flooded parts of New Orleans and other areas, and thus decide how to deploy various forces, according to the director of the Joint Operations Center at U.S. Northern Command Headquarters here.
Northrop Grumman Corp. expects to test its Viper Strike munition as a standoff precision-guided weapon on the AC-130 gunship next fall, but is already in discussions with officials about deploying the platform on legacy fixed-wing aircraft such as A-10s and U.S. Marine Corps Harriers, company representatives said Sept. 12.
L-3 Communications' Canadian aerospace unit has won a U.S. Coast Guard contract to provide depot-level maintenance for up to eight C-130H Hercules aircraft, the Guard's long-range surveillance and transport backbone platform. The contract, awarded after a competitive bid process, is worth up to $20 million for all eight aircraft, L-3 said Sept. 9. Repair work will take place at SPAR Aerospace Ltd.'s facilities in Edmonton, Canada.
NAVAL DISPLAYS: The U.S. Navy has awarded Lockheed Martin Corp. $10 million more for the replacement or repair of spares for the AN/UYQ-70 Advanced Display System, including for Australia, Spain, Egypt, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. Lockheed Martin MS-2 Tactical Systems is expected to wrap up its contracted work by next March, the Navy announced late Sept. 9. The system is a family of displays, processors and networks currently fielded on the Navy's new Aegis destroyers, cruisers and other surface ships, as well as E-2C Hawkeye aircraft and attack submarines.
The Northrop Grumman Corp.-EADS North America KC-30 tanker is geared toward more cargo ability than the earlier requirements for the Boeing Co.'s KC-767, a consideration not yet formally voiced by the U.S. Air Force but one that the KC-30 teammates expect to see. Martin Dandridge, Northrop Grumman sector executive vice president, told reporters at the Air Force Association's Air & Space Conference in Washington that the companies looked at the 2002 requirements for the KC-767 leasing and then anticipated newer requirements.
A contractor was not treated unfairly when the U.S. Army gave its anti-improvised explosive device technology a poor rating, the Government Accountability Office said Sept. 12. Foster-Miller Inc. (FMI) of Waltham, Mass., a subsidiary of United Kingdom-based QinetiQ, was among companies competing to improve the Counter Remote Control Improvised Explosive Device Electronic Warfare (CREW) system.
L-3 Communications' Vertex Aerospace subsidiary will perform all maintenance and supply operations on 120 TH-57B/C Sea Ranger aircraft used to train helicopter pilots for the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard, as well as for international militaries, the company announced Sept. 12. L-3 Vertex has been the incumbent TH-57 program contractor since 1999. With four one-year options, the new contract's total value would reach $194 million. The TH-57 is a derivative of the commercial Bell Jet Ranger 206.
Lockheed Martin is talking with the Air National Guard about the possibility of installing the company's LongShot munition range extension system onto Guard F-15C fighters to give them air-to-ground strike capability, according to the company.
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Coalition forces, faced with a growing foreign fighter insurgency, unleashed a spate of air strikes across Iraq last week. According to military reports, Coalition forces dropped weapons on suspected insurgent safe houses and transit points at least five times in the past week.
Force Protection Inc. will deliver four of its Buffalo Mine Protected Clearance Vehicles to the U.S. Marine Corps for the first time under an "urgent operational need request" for $3.8 million. The company said Sept. 9 that it promised the first Buffalo to the Marines by the end of the month, and should deliver the other three by the end of the year.
The Missile Defense Agency's ongoing Project Hercules is delivering five to 12 new missile detection and discrimination algorithms into developmental and operational missile defense systems every year, according to Gary Payton, deputy for advanced systems at MDA.
MACHATZ 1 CONTRACT: Israel Aircraft Industries Ltd. has been awarded a contract worth more than $50 million to supply the Heron Unmanned Aerial Vehicle system, called Machatz 1, to Israel's air force, the company said Sept. 11. IAI said it will deliver the first UAV soon and also will provide maintenance. The Machatz 1 can fly at up to 30,000 feet for more than 40 hours, the company said. It can carry multiple sensors such as maritime patrol radar, a synthetic aperture radar, and communications intelligence and electronic intelligence systems.
