Skyhawk: Israel Aircraft Industries' Bedek Aviation Group has been awarded a 10-year, $150 million maintenance, repair and overhaul contract by the Israel ministry of defense for the Israel air force's A-4 Skyhawk trainer program, the company said Jan. 11. "The mutually beneficial award will further strengthen IAI Bedek's relationship with the IAF and provide opportunities in Israel and abroad," David Arzi, general manager of the Bedek Aviation Group, said in a statement.
General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems will continue system integration and development of the U.S. Navy's Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program (SEWIP) under an $8.8 million contract, the company said Jan. 11. SEWIP is a spiral-development upgrade and replacement program for the AN/SLQ-32 electronic warfare system used on several classes of Navy ships.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is examining whether the recent test failure of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system was caused by a computer-related glitch in the interceptor booster, sources said Jan. 11.
Green Hills Software Inc.'s Integrity operating system, deployed in military avionics for programs such as the Joint Strike Fighter, the S-92 helicopter, and the Joint Tactical Radio System, is one of the few operating systems that can implement Multiple Independent Levels of Security (MILS), Jeffrey Hall, a Green Hills engineer, told The DAILY Jan. 11.
National security technology products maker ManTech International Corp. of Fairfax, Va., has won a five-year, $51.3 million contract to provide engineering and technical support services for the Submarine and Surface Ship Signature Silencing Program at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division (NSWCCD), the company said Jan. 10. The contract was awarded by the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA).
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT: Dynamics Research Corp. of Andover, Mass., will help improve the Missile Defense Agency's supply chain performance under a $25 million contract, the company said Jan. 10. The goal of the work, which will continue through January 2008, is to use continuous improvement tools and techniques to improve the performance of MDA suppliers.
Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), the new chairman of the Senate Commerce, Transportation and Science Committee, said last week that there are "very serious issues" with NASA's financial footing, and that the aerospace agency will be a priority for his committee.
Northrop Grumman has awarded Raytheon a low-rate initial production (LRIP) Lot 3 contract for three sensor suites for the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle, Raytheon announced Jan. 11. Awarded in September 2004, the contract covers two Global Hawk Integrated Sensor Suites (ISS) and the first production Enhanced Integrated Sensor Suite (EISS), which will boast greater range than the basic suite, according to Raytheon.
GUNSHIP SENSOR: Lockheed Martin has been picked to provide a new sensor system for the U.S. Air Force AC-130U gunship, the company announced Jan. 11. Boeing, the prime contractor for the AC-130U upgrade program, awarded Lockheed Martin a $10.7 million contract to develop the Gunship Multispectral Sensor System (GMS2). Lockheed Martin's GMS2, a variant of a system now in flight-testing on the U.S. Marine Corps' AH-1Z Cobra attack helicopter, integrates infrared technology, low-light TV cameras and lasers.
INTEL SYSTEMS: Electro-Optics Industries Ltd. (Elop), a subsidiary of Haifa, Israel-based Elbit Systems Ltd., will supply advanced imagery intelligence systems worth more than $100 million to various customers, Elop said Jan. 11. The customers' identities were not disclosed. "These wins are testimony to our customers' trust in the operational maturity and technological quality of our systems," Haim Rousso, Elop's general manager, said in a statement.
Craig Field Airport, near Selma, Ala., would be Lockheed Martin's preferred pilot-candidate training site if it wins a U.S. Air Force Introductory Flight Training Program contract, the company said Jan. 10. The Air Force is expected to award the contract in the first half of this year, Lockheed Martin said. The program, headed by the Air Force Air Education and Training Command, would provide flight screening and support services for 1,300-1,700 students a year.
PROCEDURES: The U.S. Air Force is examining whether flight procedures were properly followed before an F/A-22 Raptor crashed on takeoff Dec. 20 at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., sources told The DAILY Jan. 10. The Air Force expects to wrap up its probe of the nonfatal accident in about two months. Although the investigation is not complete, the Air Force expressed confidence in the F/A-22's design Jan. 6 by lifting a Raptor flight suspension imposed after the crash (DAILY, Jan. 7). The service hopes to begin fielding the Lockheed Martin-built aircraft in December 2005.
The Sensor-fuzed Munition for Artillery (SMArt(R) 155), developed jointly in the U.S. by Minneapolis-based Alliant Techsystems (ATK) and German firm Gesellschaft fur Intelligente Wirksysteme (GIWS), recently underwent successful testing for United Arab Emirates officials, ATK said Jan. 10. Fired from a UAE G6 self-propelled howitzer, the SMArt(R) 155 rated perfectly in functional reliability, ATK said. Sixty-seven percent of armored targets struck by the munition were scored as kills. The tests were conducted in the UAE desert.
Electric Boat, a subsidiary of General Dynamics, has won a $6.3 million contract option to provide on-board repair parts for the Virginia-class submarine North Carolina (SSN-777), the company said Jan. 10. Fifty-five percent of the work will be performed at Electric Boat in Groton, Conn. Northrop Grumman's Newport News, Electric Boat's Virginia-class teammate, will perform 45 percent of the work at its shipyard in Virginia.
The next-generation air traffic management (ATM) system being developed by the Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO) will allow for greater independence on the part of pilots and more "strategic" thinking by controllers, according to JPDO Deputy Director Robert Pearce.
The U.S. Defense Department has decided to stick with the current management structure for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter after conducting a congressionally mandated review of how the program is run. Some lawmakers had expressed concern that DOD's practice of rotating JSF's management between the Air Force and Navy was creating program instability. But DOD insisted in a recent report to Congress that the existing approach is working.
Northrop Grumman Corp. has demonstrated a new technology that will allow weapons and vehicles to be released from submarines even if they were not originally designed for undersea use, the company said Jan. 10.
TRAINERS: Lockheed Martin Corp. will provide KC-130J Weapon System Trainers to the U.S. Marine Corps under a $24.5 million contract from the U.S. Air Force, the Department of Defense said Jan. 10. The work will be done by subcontractor CAE USA and is to be completed by March 2007.
