Lockheed Martin officials said Oct. 8 that they are assembling a bid for the U.S. Army's Aerial Common Sensor (ACS) that would provide extensive interoperability with other Army systems and other military services. At the annual meeting of the Association of the U.S. Army (AUSA), Lockheed Martin Management & Data Systems announced that Orincon Corp., which Lockheed Martin recently acquired, has joined its team in the competition to develop ACS, the Army's next-generation intelligence-gathering aircraft.
Raytheon Co. will developed a miniaturized Global Positioning System navigator with an adaptive anti-jam capability for the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory's Miniature Navigator Demonstration (MIND) program, the company said Oct. 7. Under the $6.9 million contract, Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems will design and demonstrate a navigator system capable of operating in a high-speed environment against various GPS jammer threats, the company said.
Prognostic programs will become more critical for logistical operations as the U.S. military begins to deploy its systems for network-centric warfare, according to a program official with Honeywell International. The U.S. military has been successfully gathering and processing data through diagnostic tools over the last 10-12 years, said Mike Cuff, Honeywell program manager for the Army's Future Combat Systems program.
The House Appropriations Committee has drafted an $87 billion fiscal 2004 supplemental appropriations bill that adds tens of millions of dollars to the Bush Administration's request to buy extra jamming and communications equipment. In giving the Army a $46 million increase for improved portable radio-frequency jammers, a report explaining the bill says currently fielded equipment "does not provide an effective defense against remotely detonated explosives being used increasingly against American soldiers."
Lockheed Martin will implement a similar arrangement for its team competing to design the Navy's Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) as it did for the Joint Strike Fighter. "One of the things that we envision is adaptable from that program is the approach," said Carol Hulgus, vice president of programs of programs for Lockheed Martin's Naval Electronics & Surveillance Systems segments. The approach will differ slightly because the Navy has a different plan for international participation, Hulgus told defense reporters in Washington on Oct. 7.
Coming off this summer's "weight summit," the RAH-66 Comanche program is taking steps to shed 200 pounds by the end of the year, which would bring the projected weight of the reconnaissance/attack helicopter under its target of 9,950 pounds.
Army and industry officials still have not decided whether the combat vehicles in the Future Combat Systems program will be wheeled or tracked, industry officials said Oct. 7. Some of the design features for weapons and vehicles will be completed toward the end of next year, as the Army and its lead systems integrator team of the Boeing Co. and Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) begin preparing for the program's preliminary design review.
Lockheed Martin has completed deliveries of live fire training targeting equipment to Sweden, the company said Oct. 7. The equipment was part of the company's Weight, Hit Indication, and Planning (WHIP) program, Lockheed Martin said, and was delivered to the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration. The WHIP system is a rapidly deployable, configurable, radio-controlled live-fire training package used to improve the readiness of Swedish land forces, the company said.
The U.S. Army is developing plans to test the Tactical High Energy Laser (THEL) against mortars for the first time later this fiscal year, according to a general who oversees the program. The test is expected to occur in fiscal 2004 if the Army can line up everything it needs to conduct the shoot-down attempt.
ROCKWELL CONNEXION: Connexion by Boeing and Rockwell Collins have teamed to provide high-speed Internet connectivity to the corporate aviation market, the companies said Oct. 7. The service, "Collins eXchange," is scheduled to begin systems installations in mid-2004 and operation in early 2005.
The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS) hopes to offer new products for the military market, such as new tankers and standoff strike aircraft, co-CEO Philippe Camus said after the company's first North American investor forum. "We are rapidly adapting our Airbus manufacturing base into a variety of military applications," Camus said in a statement. "Beyond developing the A400M for markets outside of Europe, we will actively market variants of the A300 and A330 aircraft as aerial refueling tankers."
After being cut from the Unmanned Combat Armed Rotorcraft (UCAR) competition earlier this year, Sikorsky Aircraft now has joined Northrop Grumman's UCAR team, Northrop Grumman announced Oct. 7. Managed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the $500 million UCAR program is attempting to develop a highly autonomous unmanned combat helicopter that can work in groups, engage in close combat at the nap of the Earth, and work seamlessly with other manned and unmanned Army systems.
LOCKHEED MARTIN successfully completed initial testing of two key subsystems of the AN/WLD 1(V) Remote Minehunting System (RMS) during sea trials with the Navy destroyer Pinckney, the company said. The trials in the Gulf of Mexico included tests of the Data Link Subsystem and the launch and recovery system for the Remote Minehunting Vehicle (RMV). The unmanned RMV tows a depth sensor to detect and identify moored and bottom mines. Testing of the RMS will continue for the rest of this year and into 2004, with first deployment on a destroyer set for 2005.
Gulfstream Aerospace Corp.'s new G450 aircraft will be the platform in Northrop Grumman Corp.'s bid to produce the Army's Aerial Common Sensor (ACS) intelligence-gathering aircraft, the two companies announced Oct. 7.
DRS Technologies will produce flight control computers and power supplies for AgustaWestland EH101 helicopters under contracts worth $3.2 million, the company said Oct. 7. A contract from Smiths Aerospace in Cheltenham, England, was for flight control computers, and follows a 1997 agreement between the two companies for the delivery of that equipment. Two flight control computers will be installed on each helicopter.
NEW DELHI - The Boeing Co. has refused to transfer the technology of defensive equipment to be fitted on three aircraft that India planned to buy for executive use. A defense ministry official said the buy likely will be delayed due to the dispute. Boeing won a tender with its offer of the aircraft for $154 million, beating a rival bid by Airbus.
In February the U.S. Army will receive 100 new handheld Force 21 Battle Command Brigade and Below/Blue Force Tracking (FBCB2/BFT) systems to complement the vehicle-mounted units already fielded, according to manufacturer Northrop Grumman.
JSF WORK: BEI Technologies' Precision Systems and Space Division will design and build electro-optical components for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) under a $3 million contract from Northrop Grumman. The contract covers work through the program's system development and demonstration phase, the company said Oct. 6, and includes options for production work. "This contract represents a strong opportunity to baseline our optics technology into this program," Asad Madni, president and CEO of the company, said in a statement.
NATO defense ministers and defense chiefs convening in Colorado this week for their annual informal meeting are expected to review progress in forming the NATO Response Force (NRF). At the Joint National Integration Center (JNIC) at Schriever Air Force Base, officials will participate in a classified "exercise-type activity," in which they will look at how the NRF "might be applicable" in a hypothetical situation, a senior U.S. defense official told reporters at a briefing late Oct. 3.
