ARMY HELLFIRE Systems L.L.C., Orlando, Fla., was awarded a $403,484,222 firm-fixed-price contract. The award will provide for the modification of an existing contract to procure various models of HELLFIRE II missiles. The work will be performed in Orlando, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 31, 2014. One bid was solicited, with one bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (W31P4Q-11-C-0242). NAVY
The U.S. Pacific Fleet established Navy Expeditionary Combat Command NECC Pacific (NECC PAC) this month to provide administrative control for the service’s forces assigned to the area. The move reinforces the Navy’s interest in bolstering its expeditionary forces while highlighting the Pentagon’s refocus on the Pacific region. The Navy calls the establishment of NECC PAC “a signif existed since NECC’s establishment in 2006.”
WIN-T: The U.S. Army has awarded General Dynamics C4 Systems a $346 million delivery order to procure the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) Increment 2 (Inc 2) network for additional Brigade Combat Teams and Division Headquarters units, according to the company. The contract follows the Pentagon’s decision to authorize the service to continue fielding WIN-T Inc 2 as part of the Army’s Capability Set 13 deployment. Initial fielding began Oct.
A $33 million program to demonstrate autonomous aerial refueling to extend the endurance of high-altitude unmanned aircraft has been ended by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) without achieving its goal of transferring fuel between two Northrop Grumman Global Hawks in flight.
ARMY The Boeing Co., Ridley Park, Pa., was awarded a $185,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract. The award will provide for the performance based logistics services in support of the CH-47 Chinook helicopters and rotor blades. The work will be performed in Ridley Park, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2017. The bid was solicited through the Internet, with one bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (W58RGZ-12-D-0196).
Click here to view the pdf 2013 U.S. Defense Spending: Funding for U.S. Navy, Air Force Aircraft Under The CR ($ in thousands) 2013 U.S. Defense Spending: Funding for U.S.
Iran recently revealed four copies of its Ra’d (Thunder) surface-to-air-missile (SAM) system, with each transporter carrying three Taer (Bird) missiles. Iran very likely did not develop this missile indigenously, but its configuration defies clear determination of its parentage, which is likely either Russian or Chinese. Iranian military officials told the Fars News Agency that the Taer has a range up to 50 km to an altitude of 75,000 ft. and that it was currently in production for the Iranian armed forces.
NAVY Electric Boat Corp., Groton, Conn., is being awarded a $100,444,236 modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-10-C-2118) to exercise an option for continued lead yard services for the Virginia-class submarine program. The work will be performed in Groton (93%), Newport, R.I. (1%), and Newport News, Va. (6%), and is expected to be completed by September 2013. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.
The Pentagon is continuing its efforts to buy its replacement Joint Light Tactical Vehicles (JLTVs) under a different purchasing strategy from the way the Defense Department developed and procured the initial fleet. The U.S. Marine Corps and Army took some heat for the way they first bought JLTVs to meet rapid development and acquisition needs for protection against improvised explosive devices (IEDs) as well as terrain conditions in recent military conflicts.
ARMY Raytheon Co., Andover, Mass., was awarded a $59,034,271 cost-plus-incentive-fee contract. The award will provide for the modification of an existing contract to support the Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor. The work will be performed in Andover, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 28, 2013. One bid was solicited, with one bid received. The U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command, Huntsville, Ala., is the contracting activity (DASG60-98-C-0001). NAVY
FRANKFURT — Two days ahead of an important regulatory deadline for the proposed merger of EADS and BAE Systems, another roadblock has appeared in the form of a major BAE shareholder publicly slamming the deal.
Cyberattacks have breached the Pentagon and sent businesses into bankruptcy. Still, it might take a cyberdisaster on the scale of Hurricane Katrina to impel lawmakers to pass laws to help shore up the nation's infrastructure. The White House has proposed an executive order to address some of the problem, but Gen. Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency and commander of U.S. Cyber Command, says more is needed. The Pentagon has a pilot program that will help private companies to work with the government to help them protect their own information.
NEW DELHI — The Indian air force (IAF) soon will have determined the winner of its heavy-lift helicopter competition, based on lifecycle costs, and the winner should be decided within a few months, according to a senior defense ministry official. The contenders are Boeing’s CH-47F Chinook and Russia’s Mi-26. The IAF already operates four Mi-26s Meanwhile, IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal N.A.K. Browne on Oct. 5 said 75% of the IAF’s modernization program will be complete by 2022.
NASA stalwarts across the agency have pulled up their socks and forged ahead with the new approach of sending humans to Earth orbit in commercial crew vehicles. But it has been a case of reality transcending preference, says William Gerstenmaier, who runs NASA's human-spaceflight effort. “As a government person, I kind of like the old way of doing business with these big government programs, and controlling specifications and not being in this new world,” he tells an International Astronautical Congress audience in Naples, Italy. “This is a little riskier for me.
NETANYA, Israel — Cyberdefense specialists in Israel are looking for ways to protect networks that control critical infrastructure from attacks like the Stuxnet worm discovered in 2010 that infiltrated Iranian nuclear facilities. The networks that control many crucial industrial and manufacturing processes were once considered largely immune to cyberattack. But now researchers have found there are often obscure Internet connections in virtually every automated network.
While they may disagree on energy policy, crucially for the aviation industry President Barack Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney do agree that a national program designed to expand the production of biofuels should continue. As the Pentagon and airlines try to bridge the gap between the technical feasibility and commercial availability of advanced biofuels as drop-in replacements for fossil fuels, government support for scaling up both feedstock and fuel production is proving critical—and controversial.
For General Electric, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL)-led push to develop a variable-cycle engine for the next generation of combat aircraft is a blast from the past. After all, the company's variable-bypass YF120 still holds the record for supersonic cruise speed without afterburner, set in 1990 at Mach 1.6 on the Northrop YF-23 Advanced Tactical Fighter prototype.
Last fall, a bill to block U.S. air carriers from participating in the EU's emissions trading system flew through the House of Representatives. Now it appears stalled there until after the Nov. 6 elections, industry and congressional sources say. The bill, co-sponsored by Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), was approved by the Senate before the chamber adjourned for recess. Supporters had expressed hope that the House would consider the bill during its pro-forma session before the elections, but 435 members would need to say yes.
