SBIRS-High
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DID has discussed the ongoing project issues with the USA’s “SBIRS High” missile launch early-warning satellites, which aim to replace the existing DSP fleet. Massive cost overruns, technical challenges that continue to present problems, and uncertain performance all factor into the equation. Yet their mission – to detect ballistic missile launches and so serve as the critical first stage of the USA’s national early warning system – is too critical to abandon. What to do?

While some progress has been made on SBIRS-High, the search for alternative technologies is now well underway in a program called AIRSS the Alternate InfraRed Satellite System. The effort continues to progress, as Raytheon reports early success and additional risk reduction contracts are being issued…

• For Every Action… (SBIRS-High: From $4B to $10+B)
• Reaction: AIRSS & the “Full-Earth Sharing Sensor Assembly”
• AIRSS Contracts & Key Events
• Additional Readings
  
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MV-22 Osprey
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Every once in a while, a defense-related controversy becomes large enough to hit mainstream news outlets. Making the cover of TIME Magazine is often a good sign for world leaders, but it’s almost always a very bad sign for military programs. Especially a program that is just making its combat debut. TIME’s Oct 8/07 cover story “V-22 Osprey: A Flying Shame” pulls few punches:

“The saga of the V-22 – the battles over its future on Capitol Hill, a performance record that is spotty at best, a long, determined quest by the Marines to get what they wanted – demonstrates how Washington works (or, rather, doesn’t). It exposes the compromises that are made when narrow interests collide with common sense. It is a tale that shows how the system fails at its most significant task, by placing in jeopardy those we count on to protect us. For even at a stratospheric price, the V-22 is going into combat shorthanded. As a result of decisions the Marine Corps made over the past decade, the aircraft lacks a heavy-duty, forward-mounted machine gun to lay down suppressing fire against forces that will surely try to shoot it down. And if the plane’s two engines are disabled by enemy fire or mechanical trouble while it’s hovering, the V-22 lacks a helicopter’s ability to coast roughly to the ground – something that often saved lives in Vietnam. In 2002 the Marines abandoned the requirement that the planes be capable of autorotating (as the maneuver is called), with unpowered but spinning helicopter blades slowly letting the aircraft land safely. That decision, a top Pentagon aviation consultant wrote in a confidential 2003 report obtained by TIME, is “unconscionable” for a wartime aircraft. “When everything goes wrong, as it often does in a combat environment,” he said, “autorotation is all a helicopter pilot has to save his and his passengers’ lives.”

Recent developments are about to address one of these concerns, but TIME has hardly been the Osprey’s only critic, or the most thorough. That distinction probably belongs to a report published by the left-wing Center for Defense Information, which makes a number of very specific allegations re: the V-22’s technical and testing failings…

• The V-22: Controversy, Turrets & the CDI Report [updated]
• Key Allegations & Excerpts from the CDI Report [updated]. Includes sections covering Flight control, Performance, Reliability & maintainability, and Survivability.
• Additional Readings
  
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Boeing Delta IV

The EELV program was designed to reduce the cost of government space launches through greater contractor competition, and modifiable rocket families whose system requirements emphasized simplicity, commonality, standardization, new applications of existing technology, streamlined manufacturing capabilities, and more efficient launch-site processing. Paradoxically, that very program may have forced the October 2006 merger of Boeing & Lockheed Martin’s rocket divisions.

Crosslink Magazine’s Winter 2004 article “EELV: The Next Stage of Space Launch” offers an excellent briefing that covers EELV’s program innovations and results, while a detailed National Taxpayer’s Union letter to Congress takes a much less positive view.

This DID Spotlight article looks at the contracts that have been placed since the merger was completed. The latest EELV contract is for over $100 million for MUOS-1 launch…

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UH-72As: MEDEVAC
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In 2006, while the rest of EADS was targeted for divestment and beginning to face bottom line issues, Eurocopter continued to fly. Fresh off of major wins with Korea’s KHP development program ($1.3 billion) and Australia’s NH90 order ($1.5 bilion), in June 2006 Eurocopter racked up the biggest win of all: its EC145 will serve as the USA’s future Light Utility Helicopter, replacing existing UH-1s and OH-58s in a 322 helicopter, $3+ billion program between 2006-2015. Losing entries included Team MD Helicopters’ 902 Explorer NOTAR design, Bell-Textron’s 412EP Twin Huey, and Team AugustaWestland’s AB139. See DID coverage of the 4 competing teams.

Eurocopter’s LUH first carried the designation UH-145, before being renamed UH-72A Lakota at a December 2006 naming ceremony. This marks the first major US military program awarded to an EADS company; as such, it represents a breakthrough for both Eurocopter and its EADS parent. It would be followed by a much bigger breakthrough in the KC-X competition, a win whose path was paved in many ways by the UH-72’s success.

This is DID’s FOCUS Article regarding the LUH program, covering the program and its objectives, the winning bid team and industrial arrangements, and contracts. Eurocopter’s early success began to create a bigger opportunity on Capitol Hill – but issues with the UH-72A’s hot weather performance may have lost that ARH opportunity. Still, orders and support contracts continue…

• The LUH Program: Objectives & Background
• The LUH Winner: Eurocopter’s EC145/ UH-72A
• The LUH Program: Industrial Arrangements
• The LUH Program: Contracts and Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings & Sources
  
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Head X-Ray
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Brain injuries have become a focus of study and controversy received during the current war. This is partly the result of improved detection and understanding of maladies whose symptoms are sometimes subtle, and can be mistaken for purely psychological maladies. It is also partly the result of enemies whose primary tactical approach is land mine warfare. When these go off, they have a tendency to throw vehicles around pretty hard. Being slammed against the top or side of one’s vehicle leads to concussions, and sometimes to brain injuries. US veterans have been pushing for more work and funding in this area in order to help soldiers who have encountered this hazard, and to improve the future design of equipment and vehicles.

Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson was a US Senator [D-WA], who was known as one of the most consistent supporters of a powerful US military and a strong anti-communist foreign policy within his party. He was also known as a smart lawmaker who authored the National Environmental Policy Act, was a key player in the grant of statehood to Alaska and Hawaii, strongly supported the US submarine fleet, and sought his party’s nomination for President in 1972 & 1976. With the shift of USS Ohio and three other ballistic missile submarines to SSGN special forces and conventional strike roles, the lead sub of the US Trident fleet is now the SSBN 730 Henry M Jackson based in Bangor, WA. His legacy is also continued by the The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicines...

MEADS: air view
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The Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS program aims to replace Patriot missiles in the United States, the older Hawk system in Germany, and Italy’s even older Nike Hercules missiles. MEADS will be designed to kill enemy aircraft, cruise missiles and UAVs within its reach, while providing next-generation point defense capabilities against ballistic missiles. MBDA’s SAMP/T project would be its main competitor, but MEADS aims to offer improved mobility and wider compatibility with other air defense systems, in order to create an linchpin for its customers’ next-generation air defense arrays.

The German government finally gave their clearance in April 2005, and in June 2005 MEADS International (MI) formally signed a contract worth approximately $3.4 billion to design and develop the tri-national MEADS system. This DID FOCUS Article covers that program, which has just progressed to detailed design. The system will use a slightly different main missile than originally forecast, and a minor contract associated with that has been issued…

• MEADS: The System
• MEADS: Mobility and Employment
• MEADS: The Program
• Contracts & Key Events, 2004 – Present [updated]
• Additional Readings
  
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F-15C over DC
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“Array of Aging American Aircraft Attracting Attention” discusses the issues that accompany an air force whose fighters have an average age of over 23.5 years – vs. an average of 8.5 years in 1967. One of the most obvious consequences is the potential for fleet groundings due to unforseen structural issues caused by time and fatigue. That very fear is responsible for the #1 priority placed on bringing new KC-X aerial tankers into the fleet to complement the USA’s 1960s-era KC-135 Stratotankers.

It can also affect the fighter fleet more directly.

Following the crash of a Missouri Air National Guard F-15C aircraft Nov 2/07, the US Air Force suspended non-mission critical F-15 flight operations on Nov 3/07. While the cause of that accident is still under investigation, preliminary findings indicate that a structural failure during flight may have been responsible. In response, Japan suspended its own F-15 flights, which left them in a bit of a bind – even as Israel’s F-15s joined them on the tarmac. As the effects continue to spread and the USAF and others continue to comment on this situation, DID continues to expand its coverage of this bellwether event. A conditional restoration of the American F-15A-D fleet to flight status was soon overturned by the re-grounding of that fleet as a result of the report’s conclusions – a status that remains only been partially lifted. Meanwhile, the accident report has been released (compete with video dramatization) and the status of the remaining aircraft will have significant implications for the USAF’s future F-15 fleet size. Not to mention its other procurement programs.

Then, too, this is America. Now there’s a lawsuit…

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In 2006, DID covered the US Department of Defense’s serious accounting and finance-related issues. Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc. is one of many consulting companies trying to help them change that, and in May 2006 they received a new blanket purchase agreement (BPA) under contract HQ-0423-06-A-0011 in support of the Defense Finance and Service (DFAS) agency transformation initiative. The contract covers program management, accounting, training, human resource services and Information Technology services in support of the Transformation Directorate at DFAS Indianapolis, IN. Booz consultants role will assist DFAS in planning and executing agency efforts and lead a team of vendors under the BPA through 21 contractor teaming arrangements. These services will be temporary support to closing DFAS locations, and are not anticipated to be required after agency transformation is complete.

The estimated total value of this contract was $25 million, with primary work performed at DFAS Indianapolis, IN, and temporary services provided to closing locations at the closing locations. Work will be performed between May 1, 2006 – April 30, 2011. Funding will be provided through defense working capital funds and BRAC funding, via the DFAS Contract Services Directorate in Columbus, OH (HQ-0423-06-A-0011).

A March 4/08 Booz Allen Hamilton podcast provides something we don’t often get: a retrospective look at the project, which was tied into BRAC 2005, consolidation of IT and accounting systems, and wider efforts within the DoD. The podcast doesn’t reach the high benchmarks set by Manager Tools; nevertheless, it is a useful way to begin to connect the award with the actual project, and understand the challenges involved.

Black Brant XII
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As NASA’s sounding rocket program site tells us:

“Sounding rockets carry scientific instruments into space along parabolic trajectories, providing nearly vertical traversals along their upleg and downleg, while appearing to “hover” near their apogee location. Whereas the overall time in space is brief (typically 5-20 minutes), for a well-placed scientific experiment launched into a geophysical phenomena of interest, the short time and low vehicle speeds are more than adequate (in some cases they are ideal) to carry out a successful scientific experiment. Furthermore, there are some important regions of space that are too low to be sampled by satellites (i.e., the lower ionosphere/ thermosphere and mesosphere below 120 km altitude) and thus sounding rockets provide the only platforms that can carry out direct in-situ measurements in these regions.”

Some agency of the USAF has issued a set of indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity contract for $250 million, allowing multiple awards within a 7-year ordering period to cover engineering and technical services that support the Sounding Rocket Program 3. SRP3 provides launch systems and services for sub-orbital ballistic trajectories up to 5,500 km downrange. At this time $200,000 has been obligated.

The DefenseLINK announcement lists Robins AFB, which is incorrect. Robins AFB believes the contracts were issued through Kirtland AFB, NM, but Kirtland’s PA department claims no knowledge of them. For good measure, the contract numbers were crossed with different day’s announcement re: ECM systems for Pakistan. As best we can determine, winners include:

• Orbital Science Corp. Launch Systems Group of Chandler, AZ (FA8818-08-D-0036)
• Space Vector Corp. of Chatsworth, CA (FA8818-08-D-0037)
• L-3 Communications Corp., Coleman Aerospace of Orlando, FL (FA8818-08-D-0038). Has a specialty in ballistic missile target simulators [PDF], which may also use this flight profile.
• ATK Launch Systems of Brigham City, UT ((FA8818-08-D-0039)

ITAS on the Firing Range
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ITAS (improved target acquisition system) was originally designed to provide an advanced fire control system for the TOW anti-armor missile, significantly increasing target detection, acquisition, recognition and engagement ranges. It also offers upgraded hardware for a 30-year old system, as electronics have a rapid turnover cycle and some of its parts were no longer in production. An October 4, 2006 Raytheon release notes that the new 5-year contract continues Army procurement of the systems, and marks the start of U.S. Marine Corps ITAS acquisition.

This DID FOCUS Article article provides more information about TOW-ITAS and its uses in battle, which have broadened beyond missile guidance to some roles its designers had not expected. February 2007 marked the first payment in a 10-year, $300 million support contract that extends to field locations in Iraq & Afghanistan. That contract is off to an excellent start, as it has picked up a 2007 award from the US DoD for excellent performance…

• The TOW Improved Target Acquisition System
• Contracts and Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings & Sources
  
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