Competing teams led by Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman have turned in their proposals to the U.S. Air Force for the next phase of the Space Based Radar (SBR) program, according to company representatives. Proposals were due March 1. The Air Force is expected to award two 24-month study contracts worth approximately $230 million each in May, and to select a prime contractor for the program in 2006.
The Department of Defense (DOD) has awarded Boeing two contracts for the production and integration of the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) that total about $857 million, the company announced March 1. The first contract, worth $642 million, is for the production of 32,000 JDAM Lot 8 guidance kits for the U.S. Air Force and Navy. To be delivered by February 2006, the kits will convert 500-, 1000-, and 2000-pound unguided bombs from the military inventory into GPS-guided "smart weapons," according to Boeing.
CenGen, a consulting company for satellites and wireless networks, will provide a real-time tracking system for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Grand Challenge, a Los Angeles-to-Las Vegas race of autonomous unmanned ground vehicles. Six to eight communications support contractors are working under CenGen on the March 13 race.
The Mission Integration and Development (MIND) program, a secretive effort by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) to integrate imagery from multiple aircraft and satellites, is now up and running, according to a Washington think-tank. In a Feb. 27 "issue brief" posted on its website, the Lexington Institute revealed that the MIND system quietly began operations on Dec. 15.
PRAGUE, Czech Republic - BAE Systems has been selected as avionic systems integrator for two prototype Mi-24 helicopter upgrades in Poland. Polish officials announced Feb. 26 that they had chosen Polish company WZL1 as the prime contractor for the modernization project, which marks the first time the Russian-built helicopter will have been brought up to NATO standards.
RETIREMENT: Lockheed Martin Chairman and CEO Vance Coffman is retiring, the company announced March 1. Robert J. Stevens, the company's president and chief operating officer, will succeed Coffman as of Aug. 6. Coffman will remain chairman until April 2005, Lockheed Martin said.
NEW DELHI - Indian air force sources say a trigger built by the state-owned Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE) could have played a role in the recent crashes of two fighter aircraft. A Jaguar crashed Feb. 26 and a MiG-23 crashed Feb. 6, both in the Pokhran region of Rajasthan, where India has tested its nuclear weapons. Sources said the events leading to the crashes were similar for both aircraft and suggest a problem occurred when the pilots tried to press triggers to release live ammunition. Both pilots were killed.
The U.S. Department of Defense will send Congress "relatively soon" a proposed budget amendment that would take money that had been allocated to the canceled RAH-66 Comanche helicopter program and use it to modernize and buy more than 2,000 military aircraft, the department's comptroller said March 1.
Raytheon Co. has won a $127 million contract for work on the U.S. Army and Marine Corps Surface Launched Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (SLAMRAAM) system. The contract, awarded Feb. 26 by the Army Aviation and Missile Command, calls for a team under Raytheon's Integrated Defense Systems unit to develop, fabricate, integrate and test SLAMRAAM.
DRS Technologies Inc. will design, integrate and manufacture an Altitude Hold and Hover Stabilization (AHHS) system for U.S. Air Force MH-53M Pave Low Helicopters, the company announced March 1. The AHHS system is installed on Air Force HH-60G Pave Hawk Rescue Helicopters.
Arianespace has delayed the launch of the Rosetta spacecraft until at least March 1 while engineers replace a missing piece of cork insulation on the Ariane 5's main cryogenic stage that was discovered during final inspection before a Feb. 27 launch attempt. Inspectors found that a 10-by-15 centimeter piece of cork was missing. The cork insulates the stage's cold cryogenic propellants against the warmer external environment.
Intelsat Government Solutions (IGS) Corp., which was formed last year to focus Intelsat's government and military business, is poised to grow both organically and through acquisitions over the next few years, according to IGS President Susan Miller.
FLAWED PROCESS: House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) says a new General Accounting Office report raises concerns about the U.S. Commerce Department's post-shipment verification (PSV) process. The system is meant to prevent overseas misuse of sensitive dual-use technologies, but the report found deficiencies in the system.
The U.S. Department of Defense needs to do a better job of controlling technology exports for dual-use items that could be used to develop cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), according to a recent General Accounting Office (GAO) report.
DD(X) FUTURE: If the U.S. Navy is forced to cut a big program, as the Army did with its RAH-66 Comanche helicopter, it likely would truncate its DD(X) next-generation destroyer program, says Congressional Budget Office naval analyst Eric Labs. "If this happens, the Navy is likely to get 12 hulls, rather than the planned 24," he says. Labs says that in the long run - beyond the next 15 years - he predicts a Navy fleet of fewer than 300 ships, not far from the current level of 294 ships.
MOSCOW - RSC Energia, Russia's lead manned space program contractor, said its proposed "Clipper" spacecraft would be a lifting body capable of carrying six crewmembers and 1,750 pounds of cargo to low-earth orbit. Yuri Koptev, the head of Russia's aviation and space agency, has said the proposal could be a replacement for Russia's venerable Soyuz spacecraft, which are used to carry crew to and from the International Space Station (ISS) and to serve as escape craft.
United Defense Industries, Inc. successfully fired a 105mm round from a variable-volume cannon that uses 155mm modular propellant charges, the company said Feb. 26. The variable-volume chamber cannon (named 105mm V2 C2), essentially a cannon with a variable-volume breach, has continuously fired rounds at a test facility in Minnesota, the company said. The system offers the U.S. Army a cost-effective option should there be a requirement for a new 105mm system, United Defense said.
THAAD RENAMED: What's in a name? Apparently something, at least when it comes to ballistic missile defense. The Missile Defense Agency is dropping the "Theater" in its Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system and replacing it with "Terminal" to indicate that it is designed to intercept missiles in their terminal phase of flight. MDA has been moving away from referring to "theater" or "national" defenses on the grounds that anti-missile systems do not always fit neatly into such categories.
