The U.S. Navy recently started at-sea testing and data collection of the Rapid Prototype Torpedo Warning System (TWS) and Countermeasure Anti-Torpedo (CAT) system. The tests are being conducted aboard the CVN-77 USS George H.W. Bush by the Naval Sea Systems Command (Navsea) Surface Ship Torpedo Defense (SSTD) team. The aircraft carrier is currently completing training qualifications. This marks the first aircraft carrier to use the TWS, Navy officials say, which was installed during the ship’s recent planned incremental availability period.
PRYING EYES: Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) is joining other lawmakers in drafting legislation to protect the privacy of U.S. citizens from being invaded by loitering UAVs, specifically UAVs operated by private citizens. “The only way to truly embrace these innovative, job-creating technologies, is to assure the public that these technologies will not compromise Coloradans’ basic privacy rights,” says Udall, who is supportive of a bid from his home state to become one of six test sites for civilian-use UAVs.
MUHU ISLAND, Estonia — Estonia unveiled the first of two new long-range air defense radar posts March 26 as part of an effort to modernize the former Soviet-occupied country’s air surveillance capability in support of NATO air policing missions. Produced by ThalesRaytheonSystems (TRS), Estonia’s first Ground Master 403 (GM 403) radar was delivered to the Baltic nation last December under a 2009 contract valued at €25 million ($32 million), including options.
The U.S. Forest Service is in search of six or more high-fidelity networked aerial firefighting simulators for initial and recurrent training of fire management officials and contract pilots flying a wide variety of fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft for the agency.
Engineers from the Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock recently released software that provides the U.S. government, industry and academia a standardized method of analyzing ship testing data that is expected to improve high-speed craft design, Navy officials say. The software — called Standard G — uses a physics-based approach to analyze data recorded during wave-impact testing on watercraft and was developed in partnership with the Office of Naval Research, the U.S. Naval Academy and the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
GROUND FORECAST: The West’s simultaneous withdrawal from Afghanistan and fiscal austerity efforts at home will eat into the MRO business for ground combat vehicles, according to one consulting group, but the industry may not see its worst fears realized. Visiongain sees the global military ground vehicle MRO market at $5.66 billion this year, and it should continue to achieve “strong and stable” growth.
LANGKAWI, Malaysia — Australia’s air force chief is still optimistic that his country will eventually order 100 Lockheed Martin F-35s, even though the government is currently looking at ordering 24 additional Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornets in light of delays with F-35 development.
It will take another year for export control reforms aimed at easing the path for the U.S. satellite industry to take effect, which is time enough for manufacturers and others affected by more than a decade of onerous International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) to push for additional changes.
The U.S. Navy’s first Mobile Landing Platform MLP-1 USNS Montford Point successfully completed builder’s sea trials March 20 in San Diego, proving the vessel’s propulsion, ballasting, communications, navigation and mission systems, as well as related support systems meet requirements. The milestone is not only an accomplishment for the program of a new ship concept, but also for the Navy itself, which has had some issues lately with developing other new first-of-class vessel concepts.
ARMY BAE Systems – Ordnance Systems Inc., Kingsport, Tenn., was awarded a $780,802,473 firm-fixed-price contract. The award will provide for the manufacture and supply of Insensitive Munitions Explosives. The work location will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 29, 2017. One bid was solicited, with one bid received. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island, Ill., is the contracting activity (W52P1J-12-D-0037).
Success in the Army’s growing catalog of work in linking manned and unmanned aviation assets could lead the service to reduce is reliance on helicopters, potentially impacting the planned buys of Boeing Apache AH-64Es and future Armed Aerial Scouts.
Lockheed Martin is planning additional air- and ground-launched tests of its stealthy Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (Lrasm) under development for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) and the Office of Naval Research.
The Senate passed its budget resolution March 23 before leaving for its Easter and Passover recess, setting up the next phase in the ongoing battle over deficit reduction.
The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a leading Republican on the panel are calling on President Obama to work with allies including Turkey to establish a “safe zone” in Syria. That includes the possibility of using Patriot missiles stationed in Turkey to shoot down aircraft or SCUD missiles in northern Syria, according to a March 21 letter from Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.).
The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-1) USS Freedom’s first overseas deployment to Southeast Asia has been marred by two more power outages, the U.S. Navy says. The most recent two this week — including one March 21 — brings the outage total to three, all during the ship’s transit from Pearl Harbor to Guam en route to Singapore, says U.S. Pacific Fleet spokesman Darryn James.
TEL AVIV — Securing maritime Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) has become a big business for Israeli companies, particularly since the discovery of significant oil and gas reserves offshore in the Eastern Mediterranean, and developing the resources discovered within Israel’s EEZ could mean substantial growth in domestic offshore offshore security activities for Israel’s defense companies.
Speaking before what was very much a hometown crowd, leaders from the U.S. military, shipbuilding industry and Congress took turns March 21 touting the importance of Navy shipbuilding—and defense contracting in general—during an Aircraft Carrier Industrial Base Coalition breakfast. With the current U.S. Pacific Pivot focusing on Asia, the message was that the time is now to shore up the carrier fleet and general shipbuilding base.
Participants in a recent workshop on how to cut U.S. Air Force sustainment costs essentially concluded that the problem is not a lack of ideas, but a lack of leadership. The three-day workshop was convened last December by the National Academies to discuss Air Force weapon system sustainment costs and how science-and-technology (S&T) spending can help cut life-cycle costs.
