DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Telephonics Corp., Farmingdale, N.Y., was awarded a firm-fixed-price, sole-source contract with a maximum $47,099,407 for interface control units and equipment. There are no other locations of performance. Using service is Army. Type of appropriation is Army Working Capital Funds. There was one proposal with one response. The date of performance completion is May 6, 2017. The Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (SPRRA1-12-D-0104).
SAN DIEGO — The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-1) USS Freedom is plagued by extensive corrosion and manufacturing issues more recent and serious than anything the Pentagon or prime contractor Lockheed Martin has publicly acknowledged thus far. This is based on a guided tour of the ship in dry dock, as well as sources intimately familiar with Freedom’s design, repairs and operations, U.S. Navy documents and defense analysts.
SINGAPORE — Belgium will be able to take advantage of some of Luxembourg’s allocation in the U.S. military’s Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) constellation.
As the U.S. looks for ways to reduce an immense budget deficit, planners in the military and intelligence communities appear to be questioning whether they really need two commercial imagery providers to supplement the super-capable government spacecraft. And that has set off a messy dance between two publicly traded satellite operators, DigitalGlobe and GeoEye, about whether they should merge and on what terms.
While the U.S. Defense Department is becoming more effective in the way it estimates costs for certain studies and reports, it still needs to do a better job of making those assessments, asserts a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. Cutting down on those costs, and obtaining a clearer picture of cost estimates, has become a Pentagon priority, GAO notes.
At first glance, the display looks familiar: rolling computer-generated terrain unfolding to mountains in the distance, a contour-hugging grid providing a sense of depth, while overlaid symbology informs and guides the pilot. The idealized three-dimensional world presented by synthetic vision is becoming known to civil pilots but, “flying” over Salt Lake City in a Rockwell Collins-built military-helicopter simulator, closer examination of the displays reveals a level of detail not seen on the screens in business-jet cockpits.
With India last week approving a $700 million contract with Switzerland's Pilatus to purchase 75 new PC-7 basic propeller trainers, the Indian air force (IAF) may also need to look outside the country for a fleet of intermediate jet trainers.
Limited numbers of expensive unmanned aircraft—each with its own massive intelligence-gathering capabilities—have been a U.S. Air Force staple for years. Now the service is eyeing redirection of its investment dollars into smaller platforms that can function as one huge network that ignores losses to air or cyberattack.
Perhaps it is best not to apply the proverb “a friend in need is a friend indeed” to the U.K. as it returns to buying the F-35B short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing (Stovl) version of the Joint Strike Fighter.
Three Apollo commanders put their weight behind legislation that would force NASA to move quickly to choose a single commercial crew vehicle to elicit public support. Neil Armstrong, Eugene Cernan and James Lovell, commanders of Apollo 11, 17 and 13, respectively, told Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), chairman of the House appropriations subcommittee that funds the space agency, that they endorse his panel's approach to commercial crew vehicle development that passed the House last week.
The Australian government will buy 10 Alenia Aermacchi/Lockheed Martin C-27Js to meet its tactical transport needs and replace de Havilland Caribous that were retired in 2009. The first C-27J is due in Australia in 2015, followed in late 2016 by its initial operating capability. The aircraft will be based at RAAF Richmond.
Pakistan on May 10 successfully test-fired a short-range nuclear-capable ballistic missile, the country’s military says. The Hatf-III, known as Ghaznavi, has a range of up to 290 km (180 mi.) and can also carry conventional warheads. The test-fire “was conducted at the conclusion of the annual field training exercise of Army Strategic Force Command,” Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) department says.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) has helped to block airline consolidation in the past, and now he has set his sights on the proposed union of US Airways and American Airlines. Schumer, a leading Democrat in the Senate, met last week with US Airways CEO Douglas Parker. Shortly after, Schumer followed up with a letter to the airline executive expressing his concerns about the merger's potential to disrupt airline service in upstate N.Y. Schumer is also asking whether a merger would derail American's plan to expand its hub at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
When Republicans talk about reducing the deficit, they don't mean reducing defense spending. House lawmakers last week passed a bill that would prevent massive budget reductions from taking place at the Pentagon next year by instead cutting funding for food stamps and other social programs. “This plan ensures that we maintain our fiscal discipline and commitment to reducing out-of-control government spending, while making sure our top priority is national security,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said after the bill passed.
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Project Agency is seeking bids to provide four small satellites to demonstrate its fractionated spacecraft architecture in orbit.
If only the court system worked faster. A judge last week dismissed drunken driving charges against former FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt after watching video of the incident and concluding Babbitt should not have been pulled over in the first place. And although his legal record and now his reputation are restored, the decision will not allow him to return to his old job. His former deputy, Michael Huerta, has been nominated by the president to replace him and is awaiting Senate confirmation.
New Delhi – India has approved the purchase of 145 ultralight M777 howitzers from the U.S., the first major artillery buy since it inducted howitzer guns from Switzerland-based AB Bofors in 1987. “The purchase of the 155 mm lightweight towed howitzers with Laser Inertial Artillery Pointing Systems [Linaps] will be made through the U.S. government’s foreign military sales program,” a senior defense ministry official says. The M777 is manufactured by BAE Systems ’ Global Combat Systems division.
Fly-by-wire controls are commonplace in fixed-wing aircraft, but a rarity in rotorcraft. Cost is usually cited as the reason for not using FBW, despite its performance advantages, but now Kazan Helicopters is removing fly-by-wire from its light twin-turbine Ansat because of safety concerns.
Delays in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program may not have produced big sales for interim aircraft, but could provide a boost for electronic warfare suppliers as militaries endeavor to keep existing hardware operationally relevant.
VIDEO RADAR: A synthetic-aperture radar small enough to fit inside an electro-optical/infrared sensor ball and which can provide high-resolution video in all weather – that’s the goal of a new U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency program. The Video Synthetic-Aperture Radar (ViSAR) program plans to develop an extremely high-frequency radar that will allow a gunship to target moving people and vehicles through clouds and other obscurants that degrade infrared.
