DRS Technologies Inc. has been awarded a $9.2 million contract to provide a Fiber Optic Data Multiplex System (FODMS) for the South Korean navy's newest KDX-III Aegis-class destroyer, the company said April 25. The FODMS is a dual network system that provides data and integrated communications between propulsion and power control systems, steering, navigation sensors, weapons systems, alarms, indicators, integrated bridge systems, and Aegis combat systems, the company said.
AIR FORCE Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., San Diego, Calif., is being awarded a $143,000,000 contract modification to provide for contract price increases and funding to account for Global Hawk EMD Overrun. At this time, $8,851,651 of the funds has been obligated. The Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-01-C-4600, P00090).
(Editor's note: The following is excerpted from written responses by Gordon England, who has been nominated to be deputy secretary of defense, to written questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee. England testified April 7).
Boeing will produce ScanEagle unmanned aerial vehicles, communication links and ground equipment for the U.S. Navy under a $14.5 million contract, the company said April 25. The UAVs and related equipment will support Operation Iraqi Freedom and the global war on terror, Boeing said. It did not disclose the number of vehicles that are to be provided.
A ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems-built U32 submarine began its final sea testing on April 20 in preparation for its scheduled July delivery to the German navy, the Hamburg-based company said April 24. Extensive tests will take place in deep water on the south Norwegian coast and in various shallow waters of the Baltic Sea. The shallow-water tests will gauge the sub's handling, while the deep water tests focus on sensors, weapons and guidance systems.
Subscriptions to direct broadcast satellite (DBS) services - the main competitor to cable TV - have grown rapidly since 2001, and DBS is increasing its penetration in urban and suburban markets, the Government Accountability Office found in a new report. "DBS penetration rates have been and remain highest in rural areas, but since 2001, DBS penetration has grown most rapidly in urban and suburban areas, where the penetration rates were originally low," the report says.
General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS) will provide MK46 weapon station turrets, remote consoles and related engineering support for three LPD-class ships, the company said April 25. The work, done under an $18.9 million contract from Northrop Grumman Ship Systems, is for the LPD-21, 22 and 23. GDLS is to provide two turrets and two consoles for each of the ships, and complete the work by June 2007. The MK46 turrets allow close-in gun system capability for defending against surface threats.
Congressional budget estimators say the U.S. Navy would need to spend about $15 billion a year on total shipbuilding efforts just to reach the low end of a range that Pentagon leaders say is an acceptable future fleet size - nearly twice what the White House proposed for fiscal 2006 and billions more than the service currently believes. Moreover, the Congressional Budget Office said the Navy's minimum plan of 260 ships still would produce a "peak-and-valley" construction pattern that industry has lamented in recent years.
InterSense Inc. has delivered a helmet tracking system for use with the night-vision goggle capability on the U.S. Air Force's F-16 Mission Training Center program, the company said April 25. The training systems, developed by Lockheed Martin, provide realistic, immersive training. The initial order for the IS-900 tracking system was used in a critical design review demonstration to the Air Force, the Bedford, Mass.-based company said.
Information technology company SRA International Inc. has completed its acquisition of Touchstone Consulting Group Inc., a management consulting company. Terms of the all-cash deal were not disclosed. The 135-employee Touchstone works with the Department of Homeland Security, the Defense Department and other agencies. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. SRA, based in Fairfax, Va., provides information technology services and products for the national security market and other markets.
United Defense Industries Inc. said April 25 that the Government Accountability Office upheld the U.S. Navy's award of $228 million to UDI to work on six LHA and LHD class amphibious assault ships after a protest by Metro Machine Corp. The GAO decision to deny a protest allows UDI to "immediately" resume repairs and modernization of the LHA/LHD-class vessels, the company said. The contract was awarded in December by the Naval Sea Systems Command (DAILY, Jan. 6).
Northrop Grumman plans to vie with Lockheed Martin for the contract to manage Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, which could be worth up to $44 billion over the next 20 years.
United Defense Industries Inc. said its United States Marine Repair subsidiary has completed its acquisition of Corrosion Engineering Services Inc. (CES) of San Diego. CES focuses mainly on controlling corrosion on U.S. Navy and commercial vessels.
SUPERCOMPUTER: Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI) has delivered a 2,048-processor SGI Altix supercomputer to the Aeronautical Systems Center's Major Shared Resource Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, the company said April 25. The computer will allow the DOD to simulate entire aircraft, weapon systems and battlefield engagements, SGI said.
United Defense Industries Inc. has been awarded four contracts worth up to $479 million from Anniston Army Depot, Ala., to perform overhaul maintenance on the M109A6 Paladin Self Propelled Howitzer, the M88A1 Medium Recovery Vehicle, the M992A2 Field Artillery Ammunition Supply Vehicle, and the M9 Armored Combat Earth Mover, the company said April 25.
No matter how many ships the U.S. Navy eventually has in the fleet, the service is looking to cut its logistics and support forces "substantially," the Congressional Budget Office said April 25. The Navy's 30-year plan calls for having 260 to 325 ships.
NASA's Prometheus team is awaiting a decision from NASA headquarters on what mission the agency wants to replace the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO) as a means of demonstrating new space nuclear power and propulsion technologies.
BAE Systems said April 25 that it was recently awarded two U.S. Navy contracts totaling more than $56 million as a prime contractor to provide technical services for the Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division, Newport, R.I. (NUWCDIVNPT).
The U.S. Navy on April 22 awarded VSE Corp. of Alexandria, Va., a $544 million, five-year contract for services in support of ships that are bought, sold or transferred through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. While the contract was competitively procured and advertised on the Internet, only one proposal was received, according to the Navy. VSE said this new contract replaces a similar 10-year contract awarded to it in 1995. Ship transfer work has made up 37-56% of annual VSE revenues each year since 1996.
April 27 - 28 -- DOD Architectures, "Applications and Regulations Forecasts," Hilton Silver Spring, Silver Spring, Md. For more information go to http://www.idga.org. April 27 - 28 -- Performance Based Logistics, "Projecting and Sustaining Forces into the 21st Century," Georgetown University Conference Center, Washington, D.C. For more information call 1-800-882-8684 or go to http://www.idga.org.
JSF RESTRICTIONS: The U.S.-led F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program office has stopped sharing new information with Israel until concerns about that country's technology controls are resolved. There "are some types of technology information that we're not comfortable sharing until we can resolve some of these issues," Pentagon spokesman Larry Di Rita says. "But there's an expectation that they can be resolved." Israel, one of 10 countries participating in the program, often has drawn U.S. scrutiny for its arms sales to China.
