The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the cost of wear and tear on U.S. military equipment this year due to U.S. homeland defense and operations in Iraq and Afghanistan could rise to $8 billion, with the total backlog including the past two years reaching $13 billion to $18 billion.
Companies will have 30 days to respond to separate, final requests for proposals for the Class II and III unmanned aerial vehicle systems for the U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems, FCS lead system integrators Boeing and Science Applications International Corp. said March 22. Up to three contract awards for each class will be awarded in August for Phase I, for technology and risk-reduction demonstrations.
The U.S. Navy's planned Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft (MMA) fleet should sustain at least 80% availability initially, Navy and contractor officials said March 22, far above the current 65% availability of the ailing P-3s maritime patrol aircrafts.
With NASA in the final stages of preparation for the space shuttle's return to flight, the Boeing Co. is anticipating reductions in its shuttle work force by year's end, as well as the imminent shutdown of an operation in Palmdale, Calif., that builds external tank disconnect valves.
If the European Union (EU) decides to lift its arms embargo on China, the U.S. Congress will seriously restrict European countries from cooperating on U.S. military programs, U.S. officials warned March 21. "The Congress is going to spank, and spank hard," said Gregory Suchan, deputy assistant secretary of state for defense trade at the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs.
Companies have until April 4 to submit specific capabilities of how they would counter improvised explosive devices (IED) under a broad agency announcement (BAA) released by the Department of Defense's IED task force. The March 2 BAA seeks capabilities in detecting, neutralizing and mitigating IEDs. It specifically asks for technology in areas including blast effects and mitigation, explosives detection, explosive ordnance disposal and infrastructure protection.
The launch of the first Wideband Gapfiller Satellite (WGS) has been delayed for about three months due to a scheduling conflict and industry job cuts, the U.S. Air Force said late March 18.
COMPONENT REPAIR: Aviation and aerospace parts and services provider AAR Corp. of Wood Dale, Ill., has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Air Force worth up to $18.3 million over five years for the overhaul of certain augmentor module components for Pratt & Whitney F100 engines, the company said March 21. AAR will remanufacture the components and return them to Tinker Air Force Base, Okla. The components include divergent nozzle segment seals, convergent nozzle segment seals and divergent segment assemblies. The F100 engine is used in F-15 and F-16 aircraft.
U.S. Navy Secretary Gordon England, a contender to become secretary of the Air Force, said March 21 that he expects the current Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) to closely examine tactical air assets across the Defense Department. England, who spoke to reporters at the Pentagon, said it is important to have a department-wide review of tactical aircraft (TACAIR) and to look at better integration, acquisition and capability.
Navy officials expect to receive software that will form the "backbone" of the Distributed Common Ground System on April 1, a service official said March 21. "That is a big day for us," said Lorraine Wilson, direct reporting program manager for the Distributed Common Ground System-Navy (DCGS-N). She spoke at a luncheon sponsored by BAE Systems.
Northrop Grumman Corp. has completed its purchase of Chantilly, Va.-based information technology provider Integic Corp., Northrop Grumman said March 21. Financial terms were not disclosed. The acquisition was first announced on Feb. 18 (DAILY, Feb. 22). Integic specializes in enterprise health and business process management products. The firm reported 2004 revenues of $161 million. Integic Corp. has become part of the Federal Enterprise Solutions business unit of Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman's Information Technology sector.
MOSCOW - Space contractor Energia has announced that two candidates have been nominated to be its president: current chief Yuri Semyonov and rival Nikolai Sevastianov. Semyonov was nominated by stock-holding Energia employees, who control about 30% of the company. Sevastianov was nominated by the Kaskol group, a minority company shareholder with just more than 3%. Energia, Russia's only major space company that is not completely state owned, needs a new president by the end of May, when Semyonov's current tenure expires (DAILY, March 15).
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has "no reason to question" the U.S. Navy's selection of OmniPhase Research Laboratories Inc. to provide testing equipment for the Aegis shipbuilding program, the GAO said in a decision released March 21. Competitor Aeroflex Test Solutions of Plainview, N.Y., had protested the award of continuous wave illuminator noise test sets (CWINTS), which measure the noise level of the Navy's Mk 99 and Mk 92 Aegis fire control systems, to Newport Beach, Calif.-based OmniPhase.
Power systems and engineering company Rolls-Royce has won a $260 million service and support contract for gas turbines powering 27 ships in service with the United Kingdom's Royal Navy as well as the French, Belgian and Royal Netherlands navies.
A helicopter programs report by a United Kingdom Parliament committee found good news and bad news. Formation of the Joint Helicopter Command in 1991 has been a plus, reducing duplication of capabilities across the military services, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee said in a report on battlefield helicopters released March 18. But there still is a gap of as much as 38% in the number of helicopters available versus those needed, the report said.
ARMY Cox Construction Co., Vista, Calif., was awarded on March 11, 2005, an $18,933,000 firm-fixed-price contract for Construction of a new Command and Control Facility. Work will be performed at Fort Irwin, Calif., and is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2006. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There were an unknown number of bids solicited via the World Wide Web on Jan. 12, 2005, and four bids were received. The U.S. Army Engineer District, Los Angeles, Calif., is the contracting activity (W912PL-05-C-0003).
DALLAS WORK: The U.S. Navy has awarded General Dynamics Electric Boat a $5.7 million contract modification to perform additional routine maintenance work on the USS Dallas (SSN-700), a Los Angeles-class attack submarine. The work, which consists of repairs, maintenance and alterations, began in February and should be completed in July. Initially awarded in August 2004, the contract has a total value of $22.1 million (DAILY, Dec. 21, 2004).
The launch of a test satellite for the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) has been delayed for about 16 months due to sensor problems, according to the U.S. Air Force. The Visible Infared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), which is being developed by Raytheon Co. to measure such things as sea surface temperature and ocean color, has experienced hardware glitches, causing the October 2006 launch of the test satellite to be moved to about February 2008.
VSE ORDERS: Alexandria, Va.-based VSE Corp. said March 18 that it was awarded the first three delivery orders totaling $44.1 million under a five-year U.S. Navy contract announced last September (DAILY, Sept. 29, 2004) for ship systems. Under the contract, VSE provides engineering and technical services to support Navy maintenance, overhaul, repair and alteration of systems aboard ships. The total contract could be worth more than $1 billion, the company has said.
