• Defense executive panel offers advice to contractors on future industry challenges.

• Nordic Alliance proposal continues to make political progress.

• ASDReports.com: Global market for armored vehicles will reach $10.3 billion, fueled by continued IED threat.

• US Army: “Review drops two-war force size paradigm,” changing the assumptions used to set required military forces.

• “American Civil Liberties Union” sues the government, asking for in-depth information about the use of UAV strikes in foreign wars.

• CSC snags 5-year, $27 million contract to provide IT to US DoD’s Dependents Schools-Europe, which runs 81 schools for the children of US military.

• Cubic in San Diego, CA will supply small arms training systems to Saudi Arabia under a $30 million contract.

• Boeing’s A160T Hummingbird Warrior helicopter UAV completes resupply trials with US Marines. Main competition is Kaman’s K-MAX.

• USAF continues its shift from cost-plus contracts toward fixed-cost, for the F-35 program. Meanwhile, the first production model F-35B hovers in a test.

• Navy Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Release 1.1 (Single Supply Solution) goes live at Naval Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP). Sounds simple. Isn’t, in practice.

• General Dynamics gets $30.6 million contract to supply 118 Type-3 advanced mission computers for the F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter aircraft.

• Czech firm Aero Vodochody says it will supply 40 cockpits for the US Blawk Hawk troop transport and utility helicopter.

US “Chair” Force?
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UAVs have played a crucial role in gathering intelligence in the US military’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are thousands of UAVs gathering and distributing valuable data on the enemy, but each system uses its own proprietary subsystem to control the air vehicle as well as receive and process the data. Yet commanders need access to information gathered by all types of UAVs that are flying missions in their area of operation.

Recognizing this shortcoming, the Pentagon began an effort in 2008 to break down the proprietary barriers between UAV systems and create a single GCS that will fly all types of drones.

This free-to-view DID Spotlight article examines the problem of proprietary UAV systems and efforts to break down barriers to sharing vital UAV-generated information.

• Ground Control to Major Tom: The Role of GCS
• Come Together: The Pentagon’s UCS-WG
• Are You Going STANAG?: NATO’s Standard
• One is the Loneliest Number: AAI’s OneSystem
• Red ROVER, Red ROVER: The ROVER Datalink
• Masters of the Universe: Raytheon’s UCS
• Too Close to the Sun: ICARUS and Autonomy
• Contracts and Key Events
• Additional Readings
  
  Continue Reading… »

ScanEagle launch
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Insitu gets contract for support, equipment changes. (March 15/10)

ScanEagle’s base Insight UAV platform was originally developed by Washington State’s Insitu, Inc. to track dolphins and tuna from fishing boats, in order to ensure that the fish you buy in supermarkets is “dolphin-safe”. It turns out that the same characteristics needed by fishing boats (able to handle the salt-water environment, low infrastructure launch and recovery, small size, 20-hour long endurance, automated flight patterns) are equally important for naval operations from larger vessels, and for battlefield surveillance. A partnership with Boeing took ScanEagle to market in those fields, and the design is carving out a market-leading position in its niche.

This article covers recent developments with the ScanEagle UAV system, which is quickly evolving into a mainstay with the US Navy – and others as well.

• The ScanEagle Family
• Contracts and Key Events: 2008 – Present [updated]
• Additional Readings
  
  Continue Reading… »

BCTM B-Kit in Hummer
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The GAO tells Congress BCTM Increment 1 technologies are “immature” and “unreliable.” (March 10/10)

Concerns about cost overruns, vehicle design, and contract structure prompted the Pentagon to cancel the US Army’s Future Combat System (FCS) program in June 2009.

Instead of a single FCS contract, the Pentagon directed the Army to set up a number of separate programs to undertake parts of the FCS program. One of those programs is the Brigade Combat Team Modernization (BCTM) Increment 1. The BCTM Increment 1 capabilities – which include ground robots, UAVs, ground sensors, and vehicle (B-Kit) network integration kits – are planned to be fielded to 7 Infantry Brigade Combat Teams beginning in 2011.

A Boeing/SAIC team recently received a $138 million contract from the Army for low-rate initial production of the brigade sets for the BCTM Increment 1 capabilities…

Continue Reading… »

QF-4: the QF-16 predecessor
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QF-16s [pdf] are former F-16 fighters that will be fitted with remote-control equipment and used as aerial targets and decoys for testing against missiles and radars.

Boeing in St. Louis, MO recently received a $69.7 million contract to provide QF-16 full scale aerial targets. The USAF expects to buy 220 QF-16 with full rate production expected in FY 2014.

The QF-16 is a follow-on to the QF-4 aerial target drone…

Continue Reading… »

BAMS Operation Concept
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FY 2009-2011 budgets, $25 million to Curtiss-Wright. (March 2/10)

The world’s P-3 Orion fleets have served for a long time, and many are reaching the end of their lifespans. In the USA, and possibly beyond, the new P-8 Poseidon Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft will take up the P-3’s role. While the P-8’s base 737-based airframe offers strong service & maintenance arguments in its favor, the airframe is expensive enough that the P-3s cannot be replaced on a 1:1 basis.

In order to extend the P-8 fleet’s reach, and provide additional capabilities, the Poseidon is expected to work with at least one companion platform under the BAMS (Broad Area Maritime Surveillance) and/or PUMAS (Persistent Unmanned Aerial Surveillance) programs. This DID FOCUS Article explains the winning BAMS concept, the program’s key requirements, and its international angle. We’ll also cover ongoing contracts and key events related to the program, which chose Northrop Grumman’s navalized RQ-4N Gloal Hawk.

• Next-Gen Maritime Patrol Systems: Issues and Options
• BAMS: Requirements and Missions
• BAMS: The RQ-4N Maritime Hawk
• BAMS: The International Angle
• BAMS: The Program [updated]
• BAMS: Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings & Sources
  
  Continue Reading… »

P-8A: Sonobuoy drop
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Contract to deliver 7,500 AN/SSQ-101A sonobuoys. (March 3/10)

Sonobuoys are used to detect and identify moving underwater objects by either listening for the sounds produced by propellers and machinery (passive detection), or by bouncing a sonar “ping” off the surface of a submarine (active detection). They usually float, or have at least some part of them that does. Specialized sonobuoys can also detect electric fields, magnetic anomalies, and bioluminescence (light emitted by microscopic organisms disturbed by a passing submarine); as well as measuring environmental parameters like water temperature versus depth, air temperature, barometric pressure, and wave height.

Sonobuoys are generally dropped from aircraft or helicopters that are equipped with a means to launch them, and electronic equipment to receive and process data sent by the sonobuoy. They can also be launched from ships. This entry will discuss some of the new sonobuoys in use, and cover related contracts…

• Sonobuoy Types
• Contracts & Key Events, 2006 – Present [updated]
  
  Continue Reading… »

• Australian government continues to update their Defence Capability Plan 2009-2013 online, as promised

• POGO says US Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) is resisting meaningful reform, advocates independent agency status.

• Is a deal to modernize India’s Mirage 2000 fighter fleet any closer? Depends on whom you ask.

• DARPA is looking for commercially available smart phone apps that can be used on the battlefield.

• NCI told to stop work on task order to support BRAC-mandated C4I/IT move to Fort Meade because of protest filed with GAO.

• Curtiss-Wright to supply $25 million Advanced Mission Management System to Northrop Grumman for US Navy’s BAMS UAS program.

• Lockheed Martin gets $23 million contract to provide computer systems for modernization of the USAF’s Launch & Test Range System.

Lebanese armed forces

No MiG-29s – Mi-24s instead. (Feb 26/10)

The Lebanese Army’s own web site is blunt:

“The assistance received from Syria, the USA, and other friendly countries has played a basic role in bridging the gap between needs and available means.”

A number of countries are stepping up to fill those gaps, left in a military ravaged by foreign occupation, a long and losing civil war, and the presence of a foreign-backed private army in Lebanon possessing superior firepower. The USA has been supplying a wide range of equipment from ammunition to armored vehicles, and is adding tanks and mini-UAVs to that list. Belgium has worked to sell some of its own tanks and APCs, France has offered help with Lebanon’s existing French equipment; and in April 2009, Russia went so far as to offer MiG-29 fighters, for free, from its own stocks. What capabilities would these systems bring? And how are those sales going?

• UAVs, Tanks, and Planes [updated]
• Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings
  
  Continue Reading… »

• Will Northrop Grumman’s new compensation focus on profitability rather than growing market share kill KC-X tanker bid?

• US Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn asks for an extension to finalize a 3rd multiyear Super Hornet/ EA-18G deal.

• USAF, Northrop Grumman to redesign B-2 stealth bomber’s aft deck to lessen cracking .

• G2 Solutions: US Army tactical UAS competitions could total $2.6 billion between 2013 and 2025.

• Bill Sweetman on F-35 program: “Remember this distinction: The Donner Party was on track. They were not on schedule.”

• Pentagon moves F-35 JSF fighter full-rate production to November 2015, withholds $614 million from Lockheed Martin as promised earlier, restructures contract.

• Lockheed Martin-led team fabricates the world’s largest (16.4 foot diameter) heat shield structure, under budget and early.

• USA’s Ground Combat Vehicle next-generation armor: BAE (platform) teams with Northrop Grumman (C4ISR).

• Australia’s naval helicopter competition is officially on: MH-60R vs. NH90-NFH.

• UK Takeover Panel gives Babcock a 1 month deadline to complete GBP 1.25 billion purchase of UK defense firm VT Group.

• British medics get blood warming equipment to treat wounded in Afghanistan.

• BAE Systems will provide mission computer systems for the Indian Navy’s P-8I maritime patrol aircraft.