The Defense Department Office of Force Transformation has identified composite materials, propulsion systems, weapons and sensors as technology sectors ripe for exploitation, according to Terry J. Pudas, the office's acting director. The goal, and challenge, for the DOD and its suppliers would be to shrink the time and cost involved in these sectors' cycles, which can run decades from initial research to final implementation.
The V-22 Osprey has finished flight-tests for its operational evaluation (OPEVAL), keeping the tiltrotor aircraft effort on track to release initial results of that key phase within the next few weeks, a spokesman for the U.S. multiservice program said June 27. The flight-testing wrapped up June 18 aboard the USS Bataan in the Atlantic Ocean, the last of several OPEVAL test sites, and "now they're tabulating the results," program spokesman Ward Carroll told The DAILY. V-22s flew more than 500 hours for OPEVAL, which began in late March (DAILY, March 29).
PRAGUE - National governments still are too interested in protecting domestic suppliers when awarding defense contracts, a public hearing held at the European Parliament to discuss the creation of an EU market for defense equipment has heard. The June 23 hearing, organized by several European Parliament committees, brought together defense experts and politicians as part of the parliament's response to a European Commission Green Paper on defense procurement.
The Government Accountability Office has denied a protest from General Dynamics-Ordnance & Tactical Systems Inc., which said it had been treated unfairly in a contest to produce MK 244 ammunition for the U.S. Navy. Among other things, the company said that Alliant Techsystems (ATK), which won the contract, should not have been given a "favorable" rating for past work because the company had never produced the MK 244 ammunition, only similar weapons, but Ordnance & Tactical Systems had.
BAE Systems will rebuild and upgrade more than 500 Bradley Combat System vehicles under several delivery orders and contract modifications worth $1.1 billion, the company said June 27. Under four delivery orders, BAE Systems will rebuild and upgrade: * 450 older Bradleys to Bradley A3 vehicles. The order includes 55 vehicles and $71.5 million awarded in March. * 50 vehicles to Bradley A2 Operation Desert Storm vehicles. Kits will also be provided to convert 100 additional vehicles to the A2 ODS configuration.
Potential damage from ice striking the space shuttle's heat resistant tiles is the most significant remaining debris risk to the orbiter, according to shuttle managers, although they feel it is an acceptable flight risk at this point.
Egypt has requested engines for CH-47D Chinook helicopters worth up to $73 million, and Avenger fire units worth up to $126 million, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress on June 27. Egypt is seeking 50 T55-GA-714A turbine engines for its Chinook helicopters, along with related equipment and services, DSCA said. The prime contractor would be Honeywell of Phoenix, and there are no known offsets proposed for the deal, the agency said.
General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products will build 2.75-inch Hydra-70 rockets and warheads under a $17.8 million delivery order from the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, the company said June 23. The order was awarded under a five-year contract signed in May, which has a total potential value of $900 million. Orders so far total $154 million, the company said. Hydra-70 is a family of unguided rockets that can be fitted with several warhead configurations, the company said.
The U.S. Navy intends to seek a Milestone B decision for its Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) program in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007, with system development and demonstration (SDD) starting in FY '08 and initial operating capability by 2013.
QUESTIONING COMMITMENT: A new report written by former NASA Johnson Space Center Director George Abbey and former White House Science Advisor Neal Lane questions the Bush Administration's commitment to its plan to return astronauts to the moon and land people on Mars. "To achieve George W. Bush's proposed mission ... the United States will need to bolster the competitiveness of its commercial space industry, expand international cooperation and refocus on basic science both in the space program and in the broader economy," the report says.
RADAR CONTRACT: Now that Raytheon Co. has been awarded a $752 million "letter contract" to supply Taiwan's air force with a land-based radar system to monitor hostile aircraft, missiles and ships (DAILY, June 24), the two parties plan to negotiate a more detailed, "definitized" contract within the next 180 days, according to Dan Martin, vice president of surveillance and sensor systems at Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems. Meanwhile, Raytheon is defining the group of companies that will work with it on the program, Martin tells The DAILY.
LE BOURGET, France - Heads turned skyward recently at the Paris Air Show as the French air force Mirage IV took off from the runway here for its final public display ñ something it had done 46 years before when it performed its first fly-past at the same event. Its Sepecat Jaguar close air support cousin joined the Mirage IV on static display and also will retire this year.
HIGHLY ATTRACTIVE: "Highly attractive and complementary" homeland security companies, along with an increase in federal information technology and aerospace and defense wartime spending, is making for "significant" merger and acquisition activity, the consulting firm Input says. Input points to L-3 Communications' planned acquisition of Titan, BAE Systems North America's pending $4.2 billion takeover of United Defense Industries and SRA International's bid to buy Galaxy Scientific Corp. "The shift of federal dollars to support the war on terror and multiple U.S.
EGNOS QUALIFIED: The European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), which will augment the U.S. Global Positioning System and Russia's Glonass satellite navigation programs, has completed its technical qualification, Alcatel Space says. EGNOS completed its operational readiness review, says Alcatel, which led a consortium of more than 40 companies to develop the system.
JOINT PROPOSAL: Two consortia bidding for Europe's Galileo satellite navigation system have delivered their joint proposal for the work to the Galileo Joint Undertaking (GJU). The Eurely and iNavSat consortia had been competing, but earlier this year the GJU said their offers were so similar that it could not choose between them and instead would negotiate with them simultaneously (DAILY, March 4).
The industry standards organization ASTM International is kicking off a new effort to develop consensus technical standards for unmanned undersea vehicles in response to a request made by the U.S. Navy, which is seeking to ensure that its future unmanned systems will be interoperable.
SECOND X-45C: The Boeing Co. has begun building the second of three X-45C air vehicles it is supposed to supply to the Defense Department's Joint Unmanned Combat Air System (J-UCAS) program. The first X-45C is well along in being assembled and is scheduled to begin flight-testing in early 2007.
June 27 - 29 -- The ION 61st Annual Meeting, Cambridge, Mass. For more information go to www.ion.org. June 27 - 29 -- 4th Annual Government Symposium on Information Sharing & Homeland Security, New Orleans, La. For more information call 1-888-603-8899 or go to www.federalevents.com. June 27 - July 1 -- 2005 National Space & Missile Materials Symposium, "Betting on Materials: A Sure Win," JW Marriott Resort at Summerlin, Nev. For more information go to www.usasymposium.com/nsmms/.
IMAGE SHARING: The U.S. Navy is making software changes and adding solid-state recorders to its Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornets to allow them to send target images from their Advanced Targeting Forward Looking Infrared (ATFLIR) pods to other aircraft and to ground forces. Capt. Donald "BD" Gaddis, the Navy's F/A-18 program manager, says the first two squadrons - one with 10 F/A-18Es, the other with 12 F/A-18Fs - are slated to have that capability this fall. "My plan is to make sure that that's in every Super Hornet," Gaddis says.
The U.S. Army and Marine Corps anticipate fielding a joint Blue Force Tracking system for testing as early as December 2005, according to Army officials. The joint BFT system is being developed using the Army's Force 21 Battle Command Brigade and Below (FBCB2) software. FBCB2/BFT is a tactical command-and-control system that links troops, vehicles, aircraft and sensors via satellite or terrestrial radio to provide a digital picture of the battlefield.
NAVY HAWKS: The U.S. Navy expects the first delivery of its maritime Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., in August, says Capt. Paul Morgan, program manager for the Naval Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Program Office. The Northrop Grumman Corp. RQ-4A Global Hawks originally were developed for the Air Force. The maritime system includes landing and recovery and mission control elements for the Navy and calls for 34-hour endurance.
BAE Systems North America's $4 billion acquisition of United Defense Industries, finalized on June 24, "expands our prime position in the U.S. into land systems, enhances our existing support and services profile and brings strong, differentiating technologies for future programs and opportunities," said Mark Ronald, president and CEO of BAE Systems North America. He said his company's new unit is expected to generate annual revenues of more than $3 billion.
FCS MEETING: Newly appointed Pentagon acquisition chief Ken Krieg was briefed on the status of the Army's Future Combat Systems program during a meeting June 21. "The FCS meeting was just an information briefing to Mr. Krieg as the new defense acquisition executive, so is characterized as a DAE review, instead of a Defense Acquisition Board program review," a Pentagon spokeswoman told The DAILY.
