Computer Sciences Corp. of Falls Church, Va., will provide software engineering support services for the Navy's E-2C Hawkeye aircraft, the company announced. The contract from the U.S. Navy Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center (SPAWAR) is worth more than $20 million if all options are exercised over the next five years, according to the company. CSC will provide support services for the E-2C Airborne Tactical Data System, including software development, life cycle maintenance, hardware design, integration, prototyping and evaluation.
PASSES TEST: BAE Systems' Tactical Aircraft Directable Infrared Countermeasure System has completed key tests for the U.S. Navy, including hostile missile detection and jamming missile seekers. Live fire tests of the system are slated to begin later this month.
The Navy and Marine Corps are planning three consecutive block upgrades of the V-22 tiltrotor aircraft, a Naval Air Systems Command spokeswoman said Oct. 16. The objective of the first, including a redesign of the nacelle and software upgrades (DAILY, Oct. 16), is to deliver a safe and operational aircraft to the fleet, the spokeswoman said in response to questions.
(Editor's note: The following is an excerpt from a press briefing that Secretary of State Colin Powell gave Oct. 16 en route to Pakistan and India). Q: Mr. Secretary, since the events, the [military] sanctions against both countries have been lifted - POWELL: Some have. Q: Are you in any way going to discuss that, for example, what the limits might be particularly with respect to military sales to Pakistan. Is that on the plate?
While not discussing specific targets, a Pentagon official confirmed that the U.S. used an AC-130 gunship over Afghanistan during Oct. 15 air strikes. The AC-130 has been used in a number of U.S. combat operations, including the Vietnam War. It is most often used for close air support, interdiction, and force protection, according to the Air Force.
Heico Corp., of Hollywood, Fla., announced Oct. 16 it has acquired a provider of maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services and a producer of aftermarket commercial aircraft parts. Terms of the deals were not disclosed. Officials with Heico's aerospace division said a deal was signed to acquire the assets of Avitech Engineering Corp., of Hayward, Calif. Avitech provides overhaul and repair services on fuel systems, hydraulics, pneumatics, electrical and propeller controls for air carriers operating turboprop and turbofan aircraft.
A new sensor management system from Lockheed Martin is poised to take the next step in the evolution of network-centric warfare, forming sensor networks that not only fuse data, but selectively allow intelligent, automated control of individual sensor nodes. On the battlefield of the future, "you're going to have this disparate mix of unattended, unmanned, [and] manned sensors, and you have to be able to put them all together to make a coherent whole," Charles Pickar, program manager for Lockheed Martin's LinkSensors system, told The DAILY.
Naval Air Systems Command plans to launch a block upgrade of the V-22 Osprey aircraft, a program intended to put the tiltrotor aircraft on the way to operational service. The command said in an Oct. 15 Commerce Business Daily notice that the "effort will include the processes necessary to move the aircraft to a return to operational status, development of corrective action plans for discrepancies, integration of all necessary changes that will be occurring during this block upgrade and systems engineering products and planning data as required."
Aerospace and defense companies are re-evaluating their products and services to see how they might be adapted for the growing homeland security market. Companies that provide emergency response equipment could also benefit from the market's expected growth.
After a brief pause in planned air strikes on Oct. 12 - a Muslim holy day - air strikes against military targets in Afghanistan resumed over the weekend, while at U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla., a select number of U.S. allies gathered to discuss the next stage of operations.
India has activated the Agathi airfield at Lakshadweep island, in the southwestern part of the country, to step up surveillance in the Arabian Sea area in the wake of U.S. strikes against Afghanistan. Sources with the Indian air force said a Dornier aircraft has been moved to Agathi for aerial reconnaissance. The aircraft will report on the presence of foreign vessels near India's coast in the Arabian Sea, which has seen intense international activity since the strikes began.
October 9, 2001 Raytheon Systems Co., McKinney, Texas, is being issued a not-to-exceed $11,057,248 firm-fixed-price order for manufacture of 32 power supplies for the AN/AAS-38 Forward Looking Infrared Radar on F/A-18 aircraft. Work will be performed in McKinney, Texas, and is expected to be completed in December 2002. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. The Naval Inventory Control Point, Philadelphia, Pa., is the contracting activity (N00383-98-G-006J - Order 5100).
The Expedition Three crew on the International Space Station completed a second spacewalk Oct. 15, installing experiments outside the Zvezda module to analyze the effect the harsh environment of space has on engineering materials. Spacewalkers Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Tyurin installed a Russian experiment to study contamination from jet exhaust, and three Japanese pallets studying the affect of micrometeroid impacts and other aspects of the space environment.
ATK has been awarded a $4 million contract from the U.S. Air Force to continue production of the DSU-33B/B proximity sensor for the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) and other air-delivered ordnance. The sensor's design allows U.S. and allied tactical fighter aircraft to deliver ordnance from both low and high altitudes.
The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center should not be used as an excuse to cut spending on intelligence-gathering satellites, according to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.).
October 10, 2001 Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space, Sunnyvale, Calif., is being awarded a $6,366,897 cost-plus-award-fee contract modification to provide for the reactivation and related support activities of Defense Satellite Communication System III Satellite A3. At this time, the total amount of funds has been obligated. This work will be complete November 2002. The Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif., is the contracting activity (F04701-96-C-0023, P00098).
NEW CONCEPT: The recently released Quadrennial Defense Review suggested the U.S. military would need a different operational strategy for fighting future wars, and that is what is happening now in Afghanistan, says Michelle Flournoy, senior adviser in the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "The military operation underway in Afghanistan reflects a fundamentally different concept of operations," she says.
JPL PICKED: NASA has chosen the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., to provide the Mid-Infrared Instrument on the Next Generation Space Telescope, which is slated to replace the Hubble Space Telescope in 2009. The instrument will study old stars and examine active galaxies with very bright cores.
COMMITTED: Now that military action in Afghanistan is underway, the U.S. must ensure the destruction of both al Qaeda and the Taliban regime, says Anthony Cordesman, holder of the Burke Chair in Strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Half measures will only convey vulnerability to potential adversaries, he says. "We have begun a military campaign that now must end in the overthrow of the present Taliban regime and the virtual destruction of al Qaeda," Cordesman says.
NASA facilities, especially Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Fla., are "extremely vulnerable" to terrorism, according to a memorandum released by the House Appropriations Committee's Democratic staff. The Oct. 11 memo does not elaborate on the nature of the threat, but it calls for spending $392 million on NASA security upgrades as part of an economic stimulus package that Congress is considering. The upgrades would provide such things as more secure communications and information system improvements, the document says.
