GENERAL DYNAMICS LAND SYSTEMS-CANADA will provide a range of support, including technical support and fleet management, for the Canadian Forces' Wheeled Light Armored Vehicles, the company said. The work will be done under a $164 million contract. "This contract is an important step in the growth of our customer-support services and our ability to provide cost-effective life cycle support for our products," John Ulrich, senior vice president of General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada, said in a statement.
Iunctus Geomatics has agreed to purchase a receiving station and telemetry from SPOT Image Corp. of Chantilly, Va. The station will be located in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada and will serve customers in the United States and Canada. The receiving station includes a dish antenna and a SPOT 5 terminal to automate operations and reception from the SPOT 2, SPOT 4 and SPOT 5 satellites. SPOT IMAGE Corp. is a subsidiary of the SPOT Image Group, Toulouse France.
The European Space Agency's European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESA-ESTEC) has selected LMS International's Virtual.Lab Motion for dynamic multibody simulation. ESTEC engineers in Noordwijk, The Netherlands, will use the modeling software to simulate orbit sequences for the design and development of launcher, satellite and lander assemblies, the Belgium-based LMS International said in a statement.
Boeing's new composite rotor blades for the Army's AH-64D Apache attack helicopter could begin qualification testing as early as this year as part of the program's Block III upgrade program, according to Larry Plaster, Boeing's manager of Apache modernization programs. The new blades completed initial flight testing in February at Boeing's rotorcraft facility in Mesa, Ariz. (DAILY, May 11). The flights capped four years of development by Boeing and the Army under the Affordable Apache Rotor Program (AARP).
In preparation for future long-duration space flights, NASA is sponsoring the development of new emergency medical training for astronauts that uses realistic mannequins to simulate the physiological responses of the human body after it's been in space for several months.
GOODRICH CORP. will provide the electrically actuated braking system for Northrop Grumman's unmanned reconnaissance vehicle, the Global Hawk, Goodrich announced May 7. Goodrich designed the system, which uses its electric actuators and control. After flight tests that will begin in summer of 2005, production is set for the company's Troy, Ohio, plant beginning in late 2005. Officials said electric braking is superior to hydraulic braking because hydraulic lines are eliminated, reliability is improved and maintenance is reduced.
The release of findings of a congressionally mandated commission charged with assessing the vulnerability of aircraft and satellites to a high-altitude nuclear detonation has been slowed by delays in declassifying the material it wants to include in its report, according to a Capitol Hill aide.
GENERAL DYNAMICS ARMAMENT AND TECHNICAL PRODUCTS will provide 60 enhanced-capability reactive armor sets for the Bradley Fighting Vehicle under a $17 million order from the U.S. Army, the company said. The armor is better able to withstand direct hits from a variety of anti-armor munitions, including rocket-propelled grenades, the company said. The work is to be completed by July 2005.
GE MARINE'S LM2500 gas turbine engines will make up the power plant for the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force's 15DDG AEGIS destroyer, GE announced May 6. Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. (IHI) will place the engines in the propulsion modules it is producing for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., which will build the ship in its Nagasaki shipyard. IHI will assemble and test the propulsion modules at its plans in Mizuho and Kure, Japan. The engines will be manufactured at GE's plant in Evendale, Ohio.
EADS Space Transportation is calling the first fully automatic flight of its Phoenix space shuttle prototype a huge success. The Phoenix landed at a test airfield in Vidsel, Sweden, on May 8 after it was towed to a height of 2,400 meters (1.5 miles) and released. The shuttle was released at a speed of 144 kilometers per hour (89 mph) and reached a top speed of 450 kilometers per hour (280 mph), the company said. EADS is the lead contractor for five other companies on the project for the German federal government and the state government of Bremen.
A recent Defense Science Board study recommends that the Department of Defense (DOD) accelerate the procurement of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) and make them an "integral part of the force structure" rather than a supplementary asset. "There is no longer any question of the technical viability and operational utility of UAVs," the report says. "The Task Force feels it is time for DOD and the services to move forward and make UAVs and UCAVs an integral part of the force structure, not an 'additional asset.'"
Executives from ArianeSpace and EADS Space Transportation (EST) have signed a contract for EST to provide ArianeSpace with 30 Ariane 5 launchers. ArianeSpace CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall, EADS Space Transportation CEO HervÈ Guillou and President Josef Kind signed the contract at the Berlin Air Show on May 10.
The Tethered Aerostat Radar System (TARS), which has been "critical" to efforts to intercept drug traffickers along the U.S.-Mexico border, could have other applications in protecting the United States, according to a unit of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). "The system could be modified to provide surveillance of maritime targets in coastal regions and limited land targets, capabilities that are not currently being employed," DHS's Office of Air and Marine Operations (AMO) wrote in a recent report to Congress.
Lockheed Martin and Day & Zimmermann have formed a new joint venture called Defense Support Services LLC (DS2), to provide responsive field services to the government, Lockheed Martin announced May 7. DS2 is scheduled to be operational in July. Larry Ames, the current president of Day & Zimmermann Services, will lead the new company.
NEW DELHI -- VirTra Systems of Arlington, Texas, has received its first purchase order for a 360-degree situational awareness and judgmental use-of-force firearms training system, the IVR-300 HD, from India's Nikunj Eximp Enterprises. A north Indian state police training center will use the system to train police officers on situational awareness, judgmental use-of-force, and marksmanship.
ACSW: General Dynamics has received a contract with a total potential value of $94.8 million from the Army for the system development and demonstration (SDD) of the XM307 Advanced Crew Served Weapon (ACSW) system. The ACSW is a next-generation mounted and dismounted 25mm machine gun. The contract funds work through 2007.
Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) wants the Department of Defense to report to Congress on the effect of the Near Field Infrared Sensor Program (NFIRE) and on space weaponization. Sanchez has been leading a charge on the House Armed Services Committee to spur debate on what she views as costly technology that could ultimately harm the nation's relationship with the international community.
A U.S.-owned Czech vehicle producer, Tatra, is to supply nearly 1,000 off-road transport vehicles to the Czech military in a two-phase process over the next decade. The strategic order, which did not require a public tender, was approved by the government last week on the recommendation of the Czech ministry of defense. Under the deal, Tatra, which is 70.51 percent owned by Terex Corp., a vehicle manufacturer based in Westport, Conn., will supply a range of middle-sized 6x6 vehicles suitable for carrying troops or cargo.
The first Eurofighter Typhoon production aircraft are now in service with the German air force, one of the program's industry partners announced May 10. So far, the German Luftwaffe has received a total of eight twin-seat Typhoons, seven of which are now with a fighter wing in the northern part of the country, according to the European Aeronautic and Defense Space Co. (EADS), which owns almost half of the industry consortium that is developing and producing the next-generation fighter aircraft.
The Boeing Co. has completed testing of a new composite rotor blade for the AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopter, the company announced May 10. Recent flight tests at Boeing's rotorcraft facility in Mesa, Ariz., cap four years of development by Boeing and the Army under the Affordable Apache Rotor Program (AARP), according to the company. The tests demonstrated that the blade meets the program's cost reduction target and will be stronger and longer lasting than current blades, according to Boeing.
Service contractors for naval surface warfare centers (NSWC) will benefit from the Naval Sea Systems Command's (NAVSEA) new SeaPort-Enhanced (SeaPort-e) electronic contracting program, said Capt. Rich Sweeney, NAVSEA commander.
Space Imaging of Denver, Colo., has agreed to supply a ground station to the Satellite Center for Regional Operations (SCOR), a commercial arm of the Polish Government, the company announced May 7.
CHINOOKS: Boeing delivered the first MH-47G Special Operations Chinook helicopter to Army Special Operations Command (SOCOM) May 6. The company plans to produce at least 37 new MH-47Gs and to remanufacture another 58 Chinooks into G-models by 2011.
