Rapid Fire 2011-12-02: NAVAIR Procurement Management System

  • South Korea unveils a tilt-rotor UAV. Reports say it’s the 1st of its kind, but sharp eyed readers will note that it bears a resemblance to Bell Helicopter’s larger HV911 Eagle Eye. That had been the Korea Aerospace Research Institute partnership until the US Coast Guard program ended in 2005, and Bell dropped out of the partnership. KARI has worked on the “Smart UAV” for 9 years now, and recently partnered with Sikorsky.

  • Dial-A-Boom: Lockheed Martin’s 227mm GMLRS+ rocket successfully tests its new variable effects warhead. The new GPS-guided rocket extends the firing range from 70km (GMLRS) to 120km (GMRLS+), and the new warhead allows the rockets to be used in a wider range of situations.

  • ATK Awarded $20 Million UltraFlex Solar Array Contract from Orbital Sciences Corp. The destination is NASA’s Cygnus cargo vehicle.

  • Meanwhile, Raytheon receives the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s 2011 Large Business Prime Contractor of the Year Award. Nice job.

  • Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) posted a video about their Procurement Management System.

  • The US Senate passed the FY12 defense authorization bill (S. 1867) after blinking in the face of White House veto threats and agreeing to an amendment on detainees accused of terrorism. Next step: conference with the lower chamber to agree on a common version of the bill. Don’t feel rushed, we’re only 2 months into the fiscal year. The House intends to adjourn on Dec. 16 so little will probably be done before early 2012 now.

  • Huntington under pressure to keep its Avondale, LA yard open reports Bloomberg.

  • The US House Committee on Transportation had a hearing about Coast Guard operations in the Arctic. Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA), the Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation and also a member of the Armed Services Committee, objects to decommissioning the Coast Guard’s two heavy icebreakers. GAO also released its latest observations on the topic.

  • Speaking of the Coast Guard, here’s a DOD video about their National Security Cutters:

  • Categories: ATK, Budgets, Contracts - Awards, Electronics - General, Fighters & Attack, Lockheed Martin, Materials Innovations, Missiles - Precision Attack, Northrop-Grumman, Other Corporation, Polar Regions, R&D - Contracted, Radars, Raytheon, Rockets, Satellites & Sensors, Textron, UAVs, United Technologies, USA

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