The U.S. Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Information Technology sector a three-year, $49.8 million contract to provide advanced IT upgrades to improve the sustainability and readiness of existing weapon systems, the company said Oct. 20. Northrop Grumman will provide data services, including applications software development, system testing, configuration management, database administration, help-desk support and government-furnished hardware operation, the company said.
NASA is grappling with a defect discovered in the Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) that are used in many of the agency's spacecraft. An FPGA is an integrated circuit that can be programmed in the field after manufacture. FPGA manufacturer Actel Corporation of Mountain View, Calif., discovered the anomaly with the FPGAs, in which some of them begin to behave unpredictably after 700 hours of use.
Lockheed Martin has received $20.9 million for additional work on the Advanced Deployable System (ADS), an undersea surveillance system intended to detect and localize submarines for a joint task force commander (JTFC). The new contract, awarded Sept. 13 by the Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR), bolsters the company's original ADS contract, for program development and risk reduction, awarded in 1995.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency has concluded it cannot afford for now to begin developing an interceptor missile to destroy long-range ballistic missiles in their final phase of flight, Defense Department officials said Oct. 21. MDA had been looking at the feasibility of a terminal-phase Long Range Atmospheric Defense (LRAD) system to complement systems it is already pursuing for earlier phases of flight (DAILY, Nov. 20, 2003). The agency is charged with developing a layered system to provide several chances to intercept an incoming missile.
Raytheon Network Centric Systems will deliver prototypes of all three of its ground sensor systems for the Army Future Combat Systems (FCS) ground vehicles in late 2006 through 2008, Johnny Garrett, director of integrated systems at Raytheon Network Centric Systems, told The DAILY.
F-16 UPGRADES: Lockheed Martin will support midlife upgrades to 17 F-16A/B fighter aircraft being transferred to Jordan's air force, the company said Oct. 21. The upgrades are the same as the ones being done for 400 F-16s operated by European air forces.
Raytheon Co. has won a $79.7 million contract to provide sonar transmit group subsystems for the next series of Virginia class submarine shipsets, the company said Oct. 22. The transmit group sonar provides active, multisensor, high-power sonar that supports submarine underwater communication capabilities, anti-submarine warfare, mine hunting and depth sounding, the company said.
Aerospace and defense revenues continued to rise during the third quarter of 2004, but the rate of increase is expected to drop over the next two to three years, an industry analyst said. High single-digit and low double-digit top line revenue growth rates are expected to dip to 3- to 5-percent growth rates, Eric Hugel of Stephens Inc. told The DAILY.
The Navy transferred operation of the former Naval Space Surveillance System to the Air Force earlier this month, the Navy said Oct. 20. The "Fence" system, the oldest sensor system built to track satellites and debris in orbit around the Earth, was transferred Oct. 1 from the Naval Network and Space Operations Command to the new 20th Space Control Squadron.
The U.S. Defense Department is pooling similar weapon system programs into "communities of interest" (COIs) and directing each group to improve data-sharing among its members to increase interoperability.
Northrop Grumman has named 12 U.S. companies as its suppliers of the year, the company said Oct. 20. The company presented awards to the companies at a suppliers luncheon in Manhattan Beach, Calif. They are:
LAST ADJUSTMENT: The European Space Agency's SMART-1 lunar orbiter carried out a continuous thrust maneuver with its ion engine from Oct. 10-14 in a last major push to get it positioned to be captured by the moon's gravity, ESA said Oct. 18. SMART-1 will make two more orbits of the Earth before it enters lunar orbit, which is expected to occur on Nov. 13. It will spiral down to its final lunar orbit by mid-January 2005, and will begin a six-month survey of key chemical elements on the moon's surface.
The Australian Defence Forces have awarded Atlanta-based FATS Inc. several contracts worth about $3.3 million for customized courseware, weapon simulators and virtual training systems for the country's army and navy units, the company said Oct. 19. FATS plans to deliver and install the equipment and train the ADF in March 2005. In 1997, FATS produced small arms trainers for the ADF for the first time. The company won a $2 million contract award in September to upgrade those systems.
A Canadian air force move to limit operations of its 15 CH-149 Cormorant helicopters after finding cracks in a tail rotor component of one aircraft won't affect the Team US101 entry for the U.S. presidential helicopter competition, members of the Lockheed Martin-led team said Oct. 20.
The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has initiated several small research and development projects aimed at bringing down the weight and improving the performance of the Airborne Laser (ABL) system. The MDA Laser Technology Program consists of a variety of small, three-year projects aimed at enabling the use of directed energy for ballistic missile defense, according to Col. Ellen Pawlikowski (USAF), program director for the ABL. If successful, the technology developed in the projects will be picked up by one of MDA's active programs.
XCOR Aerospace has successfully pumped liquid oxygen through a cryogenic liquid oxygen pump it developed, reaching a significant milestone in its DARPA-funded Pump-Fed Rocket Program, the company said Oct. 20. DARPA's objective for the program was to develop a low-cost alternative to turbo pumps for high-performance propulsion systems, XCOR said. The company plans to focus now on securing government and private funding to continue development of a suborbital vehicle for space tourism, microgravity research and microsatellite launches.
If EADS North America won a reopened U.S. Air Force tanker refueling contract, it would open another U.S. aircraft facility dedicated to that work but would choose another U.S. company as the prime contractor, according to EADS co-CEO Philippe Camus. Camus spoke Oct. 20 at the opening of the company's new 85,000 square foot Eurocopter facility in Columbus, Miss.
Metal Storm Ltd. and Lockheed Martin have signed an agreement to conduct studies and demonstrations to establish the feasibility of a Metal Storm torpedo defense system, according to Metal Storm. It said the evaluations will be conducted over a four-month period. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
EARNINGS: General Dynamics reported $4.8 billion in revenues for the third quarter of 2004, up from $4.4 billion in 2003. Net earnings were $322 million, up from $262 million last year. Aerospace group earnings more than doubled, from $50 million to $117 million. Combat systems earnings increased 15.5 percent.
PerkinElmer Inc.'s California-based Optoelectronics unit will provide two critical subsystems to Lockheed Martin for the Joint Common Missile, the company said Oct. 19. The unit will design and build the firing modules for the electronic safe and arm device (ESAD) fuze system and the power supply for the air-to-ground missile system. Production contracts for the work could be worth more than $100 million for domestic needs, with foreign military sales on top of that, the company said.
The U.S. Defense Department is wrestling with a host of procedural issues that must be resolved before it can begin deploying the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system to destroy long-range ballistic missiles, an official said Oct. 20.
The Joint National Training Capability (JNTC) is poised to experience sizable growth over the next 12 months or so, a program official said Oct. 20. The program, which recently achieved an initial operational capability, has linked 18 training sites and conducted four events, said Greg Knapp, head of the JNTC office. In fiscal 2005, the JNTC plans to grow to 32 sites and hold 15 events. The program still is evaluating the recently completed FY '05 defense appropriations and authorization bills, but any impact is expected to be slight.
