MARITIME ISR: The U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command has given the green light for Progeny Systems of Manassas, Va., to ramp up its technology associated with an expendable array installation vehicle for maritime surveillance systems. The Small Business Innovative Research Phase 3 follow-on contract, announced late July 1, was valued at $5.9 million. Progeny Systems will do its work in San Diego, where SPAWAR is located, and finish by May 2008.
NEW DELHI - The Indian government has approved a joint venture of its state-owned defense manufacturer Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. and France's Safran Snecma Moteurs for manufacture of precision components of engines for civilian aircraft. India initially is investing $11.6 million in the new company. Snecma will transfer technology to HAL and initially will buy all the products from the joint venture.
The European Defensive Aids Sub-System (EuroDASS) consortium has been awarded an 850 million pound ($1.49 billion) contract to provide the latest batch of Eurofighter Typhoons with an advanced electronic warfare suite. The contract was announced July 1 by Italian defense contractor Finmeccanica, whose subsidiary Selex Sensors and Airborne Systems leads the consortium. Italy's Elettronica, Spain's Indra and Germany's EADS are also members.
MINE WARFARE FIRST: The mine warfare package will be the first mission set deployed with the future Littoral Combat Ship, and Lockheed Martin Corp.'s AN/WLD-1 Remote Minehunting Vehicle (RMV) will be the primary unmanned vehicle used for mine hunting, the U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command said July 1. An RMV "mock-up" was tested late last month aboard the High Speed Vessel-2, the Swift. In "subsequent" years, the LCS also will sport a surface warfare package and an anti-submarine warfare package.
The U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy are both looking at putting jammers on unmanned aerial vehicles to defeat the kind of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that enemy forces have used in Iraq. According to a report circulating on Capitol Hill, the Navy plans to spend $8 million to pursue a "jammer architecture" called Intrepid Tiger that could be adapted to UAVs and other platforms. The Navy envisions destroying or neutralizing IEDs with radio-frequency jammers.
The U.S. Army is seeking congressional approval to reallocate $115 million within its budget to support several new aviation programs, including the Extended Range Multi-Purpose (ERMP) unmanned aerial vehicle. The money would come from the troubled Boeing-Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche reconnaissance/attack helicopter program, which the Army decided to kill in 2004, according to a reprogramming request recently sent to Capitol Hill.
Boeing Co. said it has completed performance and flight handling tests of the first 737 airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft for Australia's Project Wedgetail. The plane exceeded all specification requirements for altitude, speed and endurance during the tests, in which it logged more than 245 flights and more than 500 flight hours, the company said July 5.
JSF COURSEWARE: American Systems Corp., Applica Training Systems and Delex Systems Inc. have received a $1 million Phase I contract by Northrop Grumman Corp. to design and develop training system "courseware" processes and tools used to produce software that will train future F-35 Joint Strike Fighter pilots and maintenance personnel. Phase I extends though September 2006. Phase II, scheduled for fall 2006, will start actual courseware production, Chantilly, Va.-based ASC said July 5. The team is one of six suppliers selected to undertake courseware development projects.
July 11 - 12 -- 10th Annual Corporate Aircraft Transactions, Marriott Marquis Hotel, New York, N.Y. For more information call 1-800-599-4950 or go to www.srinstitute.com/cx542. July 19 - 20 -- Tactical IA, "Precise, Immediate, Secure Information Exchange on the Battlefield," Doubletree Hotel Crystal City, Arlington, Va. For more information go to www.idga.org. July 26 - 27 -- Nanotechnology for Defense, Georgetown Conference Center, Washington, D.C. For more information call 1-800-882-8684 or go to www.idga.org.
Two AS 565 Panther helicopters were officially delivered to the Mexican navy by Eurocopter June 30 in a ceremony in Marignane, France, the company said. The Panthers were accepted by Commander General Admiral Armando Sanchez Moreno, the Mexican navy's undersecretary. Mexico has an option to buy eight more Panthers under a contract signed in 2003. The helicopters will be operated from boats for coastal patrols, surveillance, search and rescue, anti-drug operations and troop transport, the company said (DAILY, Oct. 15, 2003).
BUYING SOYUZ: The Bush Administration plans to deliver "very soon" to Congress a proposed amendment to the Iran Nonproliferation Act that would allow NASA to buy Soyuz rockets from Russia for use as crew rescue vehicles on the space station. Passed in 2000, the INA prohibits the U.S. from buying Soyuz vehicles, to dissuade Russia from helping Iran with its missile programs. "The proposed amendment will seek a balanced approach which maintains U.S.
The U.S. Army and the Boeing Co. recently signed a contract worth about $27 million to begin developing the Block III upgrade to the Boeing AH-64 Apache attack helicopter, The DAILY has learned. The deal has not been publicly announced yet. The Block III configuration calls for about 25 technology insertions, including giving the aircraft the ability to control unmanned aerial vehicles and improving the Apache's ability to share information with other forces. Delivery of the first Block III aircraft is scheduled for 2010.
PRAGUE - The Czech Republic's newly acquired batch of JAS-39 Gripen jet fighters began patrolling Czech airspace July 1, according to the Czech ministry of defense. Two of the six fighters recently delivered by Sweden under a 10-year lease took off from Caslav tactical air base to fulfill NATO duties as part of the NATO Integrated Extended Air Defense System. The defense ministry said that from now on, two Gripens would be on continuous 24-hour alert on the ground or in the air as part of the country's NATO commitments.
The new era of counter-terror operations is taking place across a large swath of territory encompassing the mid-Atlantic and northern South America, across almost all of Africa and the Middle East, and including the Indian Ocean and the southwest Pacific, according to Terry J. Pudas, acting director of the Defense Department Office of Force Transformation.
Although the Department of Defense broadened its definition of the nation's strategic "triad" in the 2001 Nuclear Posture Review - moving from a heavy dependence on nuclear weapons to include improved conventional weapons and a beefed-up command and control system - it hasn't figured out how much money it plans to spend on the new triad, according to the Government Accountability Office.
FIRE SCOUTS: The U.S. Naval Air Systems Command on June 30 bought two RQ-8B Fire Scout Unmanned Air Vehicles, including two associated payloads and nonrecurring engineering services, from Northrop Grumman Corp. for $15.2 million. Work on the contract modification order should be completed in August 2008, the Navy said. Days earlier, Navair hosted its third UAV public flight demonstration featuring Fire Scout and Pioneer flights (DAILY, June 28).
LASER PROPOSALS: The U.S. Defense Department's Joint High Power Solid State Laser (JHPSSL) program has released its much-anticipated request for proposals (RFP) for 100-kilowatt laser laboratory demonstrators. Responses are due July 11, and the program is expected to award a contract or contracts in October. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and Textron Systems, all of which already are developing lower-power lasers for the program, are expected to respond to the RFP (DAILY, May 25).
(Editor's note: Kimberly Johnson, Airports editor for our sister publication Aviation Daily, has embedded in Iraq with the 2nd Marine Division for three months. She will be reporting for The DAILY from there, covering the performance of specific weapon systems, the realities of warfare in Iraq and other topics important to our readers.)
A Pentagon proposal to move around $2.07 billion in previously allocated funding has been sent to lawmakers for their review. The 70-page omnibus reprogramming request, obtained by The DAILY late July 1, would add $12.8 million to the Army's Light Utility Helicopter program to support a contract award in the second quarter of fiscal 2006. Another $7.5 million would be freed up to improve the payload on the Army's Shadow unmanned aerial vehicle program.
CONTRACTOR POLICY: A "comprehensive" Defense Department policy on contractors is expected to be released in the coming weeks, according to Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace. The policy captures lessons - good and bad - from Iraq and Afghanistan operations and addresses "contractor challenges" from the planning phase to actual employment across military operations, Pace says. He appeared last week before the Senate Armed Services Committee on his nomination to become the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
SATELLITE TRACKING: The U.S. Coast Guard is interested in a $4 million pilot program for long-range tracking of ocean vessels using satellites. Authorization legislation in the House, H.R. 889, would give the go-ahead, although the bill has yet to be taken up on the chamber floor. Such tracking falls under greater maritime domain awareness (MDA), which experts and defense officials in Washington have said is critical in keeping terrorists from using the nation's 361 ports to smuggle in weapons of mass destruction.
