Basic Nuclear Propulsion
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Several navies around the world currently use nuclear propulsion in at least some ships and submarines: The USA has had an all-nuclear submarine fleet for over 50 years, a policy that dates back to Adm. Hyman Rickover. As our readers were quick to point out, Britain’s sale of its SSK Upholder Class to Canada (as the problem-plagued Victoria Class) made them an all-nuclear fleet as well. China, France and Russia also use naval nuclear propulsion, and India is currently working to join this club via its SSN program. On the surface, France’s trouble-plagued FNS Charles de Gaulle joins America’s USS Enterprise and its Nimitz Class carriers.

The saga of the Charles de Gaulle serves as a reminder that adapting nuclear propulsion technology to the small spaces of a submarine, or fitting them to a surface warship, is no trivial feat. Much can go wrong, even in nations that have used nuclear naval propulsion for some time. On the flip side, advances in design can offer significant benefits. The new nuclear plants in America’s Virginia Class and Seawolf Class, and Britain’s new Astute Class, fast attack submarines, and the USA’s forthcoming CVN-78 Gerald R. Ford Class aircraft carriers, sport new reactor designs that will save billions over the life of each ship by eliminating the standard mid-life reactor refueling.

This FOCUS article covers related American contracts since the beginning of FY 2006, and will be updated and backdated as circumstances allow. Note that all contracts noted here are awarded by The US Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington, DC, and that completion date or other additional information are provided for Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program contracts as a matter of official policy. Other contracts related to maintenance, however, may show completion dates.

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SM-2 Launch w. AEGIS
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Variants of the SM-2 Standard missile are the USA’s primary fleet defense anti-air weapon, and in service with 13 navies worldwide. The most common variant is the RIM-66K-L/ SM-2 Standard Block IIIB, which entered service in 1998. It includes a number of modifications over previous versions, including greater capability at even lower altitudes, a more powerful fragmentation warhead, and a side-mounted infrared seeker developed in the Missile Homing Improvement Program (MHIP) to supplement the missile’s semi-active radar guidance system. These missiles work best when paired with the AEGIS radar and combat system, but can be employed independently.

DID details Raytheon’s recent US contracts related to the Standard Missile family from April 2006 onward, and also adds some budgetary and technical background that can help put them in context. New material is indicated in green type. The latest news involves a billion dollar joint contract for SM-3 missiles by the USA and Japan, followed closely by a landmark event: the successful destruction of a failing US satellite by a modified SM-3 (incl. photos, video, etc.)...

• The Standard Missile Naval Defense Family: Budgets, Missiles, and Plans (i.e. “Continue reading…”)
  • Budgets
  • Missiles: The Standard Missile Family (SM-1 to SM-6)
• The Standard Missile Naval Defense Family: US Contracts & Events
  • FY 2008 [updated]
  • FY 2007
  • FY 2006
• The Standard Missile Naval Defense Family: Exports & Related Key Events
  • CY 2008 [updated]
  • CY 2007
  • CY 2006
  • CY 2005
• Additional Readings
  
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LeTourneau U project-
not DARPA
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A Pentagon DefenseLINK story recently touted the progress of prosthetic limb development, fueled by a combination of combat need and the steadily advancing capabilities inherent in modern electronics and robotics. Army Col. Geoff Ling manages DARPA’s Revolutionizing Prosthetics programs.

For instance, researchers at Dean Kamen’s DEKA Research and Development Corp. in Manchester, NH (inventors of the Segway, the stair-climbing iBot wheelchair, and those PowerSwim fins that I want), have developed a “strap-and-go-arm” that requires no surgery, just 1-2 hours of training. The process of picking up a pen, key, coffee cup, or power drill obviously differs. Embedded electronics in DEKA’s arm enable the wearer to activate a switch with a foot or chin, to cycle through 5 different gripping actions to match the task at hand. One tester who lost his arm at the shoulder was reportedly able to field strip and reassemble an M-16 rifle using the prosthesis, which comes in 3 models: [1] amputees who have lost a complete arm, [2] amputations above the elbow, and [3] amputations below the elbow. See a picture here.

The Department of Veterans Affairs, National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration have all shown interest in the program, and are expected to join forces with the Defense Department in the months ahead, and getting a governmental agreement in place will be a big step forward to getting the devices mass-produced. Meanwhile, Johns Hopkins University is working on a device that connects into the peripheral and central nervous system under Revolutionizing Prosthetics 2009; a Phase 2 contract is expected in the coming months. Read “Defense Agency Makes Big Advances in Prosthetics Research” for more, and see also WIRED’s feature on the JHU project: “The World’s Most Advanced Bionic Arm.”

Feb 20/08: Combat Support Associates in Orange, CA a $30.9 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for contract modifications for expansion of postal operations support at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait. Work is expected to be complete by Sept 30/09. This web solicitation was posted on Oct 30/98, and 4 bids were received by the U.S. Army Sustainment Command at Rock Island, IL (DASA02-99-C-1234).

This is actually part of a much larger effort, wherein CSA provides services to U.S. Army troops and Allied Forces at Camps Arifjan, Buehring, Virginia, and Ali Al Salem in Kuwait, under a 10-year effort with a base year and 9 option years that run through September 2009. (Unsurprisingly, the firm is hiring in the Middle East)...

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The US Air Force is awarding 25 indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity 5-year contracts with a maximum value of $3 billion under Architecture-Engineer selection procedures. The firms will provide professional architect-engineer services to administer, coordinate, and technically support environmental, military construction, military family housing, and facility sustainment, restoration, and modernization programs of interest to the government worldwide, including Title I, Title II, and other Architect-Engineer services. At this time each contractor receives just $2,500, and they will compete for task orders as these become available.

AFCEE/ACV at Brooks City-Base, Texas issued contracts to the following list of contractors (there were 32 in the Feb 14/08 DefenseLINK release; removing duplicates gets these 25, no contract numbers released):

• Advent Environmental, Inc., of Mt. Pleasant, S.C.
• Aerostar Environmental Services, Inc. of Jacksonville, Fla.
• Battelle, of Columbus, Ohio
• BEM Systems of Chatham, N.J.
• Black & Veatch of Overland Park, Kan.
• CH2M Hill, Inc. of Englewood, Colo.
• Earth Tech of Long Beach, Calif.
• Engineering-Environmental Management, Inc., (E2M) of Englewood Colo.
• Geo-Marine, Inc., of Plano, Texas
• HydroGeoLogic of Reston, Va.
• J. M. Waller of Burke, Va.
• Jacobs of Pasadena, Calif.
• LATA Merrick of Albuquerque, N.M.
• Merrick & Co. of Aurora, Colo.
• Metcalf & Eddy of Wakefield, Mass.
• MWH Americas of Broomfield, Colo.
• North Wind, Inc. of Idaho Falls, Idaho
• Parsons Infrastructure & Technology Group of Pasadena, Calif.
• Prudent Technologies, Inc. of Kansas City, Mo.
• SAIC of San Diego, Ca.
• Shaw of Knoxville, Tenn.
• Tetra Tech, of Pasadena, Calif.
• TN & Associates of Milwaukee, Wisc.
• URS Group Inc. of Austin, Texas
• Weston Solutions of West Chester, Pa.

Militaries order a lot of metal equipment, but they also order significant quantities of raw metal or basic metal forms directly for use in repair depots, machining shops, et. al. This DID article will cover these orders during 2007, offering a bit of visibility to purchases of steel, brass, aluminum, and other industrial metals. Note that a contract to purchase a certain amount of titanium or steel for a weapons program would not be included, because these contracts are properly program-related rather than items for general usage.

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C-23B Sherpa
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DID’s coverage of the WALRUS super-heavy cargo airship’s cancellation noted complaints from combat commanders that C-130s were not able to get equipment close enough to the front lines due to short airfield restrictions. Delays in buying a small cargo aircraft to fill that role, replace aging C-23 Sherpas et. al., and ferry troops, supplies, and/or small vehicles within a theater of operations were making that problem worse. “The JCA Program: Key West Sabotage?” looked at the different levels of urgency and priority in the US Army and US Air Force and the resulting Congressional SNAFUs, and covered early-stage developments leading up to the award.

JCA could be worth up to $6 billion before all is said and done, and the finalists were a familiar duo. After EADS-CASA’s CN-235 and a shortened version of Lockheed Martin’s C-130J were disqualified for failing to meet requirements, JCA became yet another international competition between EADS-CASA’s C-295M vs. Alenia’s C-27J. The decision was expected in March 2007, but it seems we now have a clear winner: the C-27J team. Oddly, we can’t quite tell yet how much they’ve won – and if you thought the joint decision and contract announcement would end the inter-service and Congressional politicking, think again. So, what are the USAF’s requested studies, and the Congressional Research Service, saying now?...

• Canned Feud: The Transport of Seville vs. the Spartan Salesmen
• Hello, My Baby, Hello, My Honey…
• A Great Big Bunch Of You: Contracts and Key Events [updated]
• Stop, Look, and Hasten: Additional Readings
  
  Continue Reading… »

Air traffic consoles
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BAE Systems Technology Solutions & Services in Rockville, MD won a contract to provide integration, engineering, procurement, fabrication, assembly, test, inspection, delivery, and limited installation services for integrated Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence (C4I) electronics aboard new construction ships. The company will also support various Navy and other United States Government shipbuilding programs including modernization and Refueling Complex Overhaul (RCOH) efforts, which usually involve significant electronics upgrades procured from various sources. This award doesn’t make BAE the exclusive provider of this equipment, but it does make them the preferred integrator in many cases.

Feb 6/08: The initial $242 million indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity, cost-plus-incentive fee, firm-fixed-priced, performance-based Enterprise Platform Integration Contract has a 5-year base period, and also includes 3 one-year options that would bring the total potential value to $344.4 million. The contract was competitively procured with an unlimited number of proposals solicited via the Commerce Business Daily’s Federal Business Opportunities website and the SPAWAR e-Commerce Central website, with 3 offers received. The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command in San Diego, CA issued the contract, on behalf of its organizational partner, the Navy’s Program Executive Office for Command, Control, Communication, Computers and Intelligence systems (PEO-C4SI) (N00039-08-D-0002).

BAE Systems will provide the technical expertise and personnel for execution of these services in Charleston, San Diego, California, and various shipyard locations throughout the United States. Work will be performed in North Charleston, SC (75.5%); New Orleans, LA (4.7%); Pascagoula, MS (4.2%); San Diego, CA (3.7%); Mobile, AL (3.6%); Green Bay, WI (3.5%); Norfolk, VA (2.4%), and Washington, DC (2.4%), and work is expected be complete by February 2013. If all options are exercised, work will continue until February 2016. BAE release Feb 14/08.

F136 w. Lift System
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In February 2007, “The F136 Engine: More Lives Than Disco?” looked at the F136 alternate engine program for the F-35 Lightning II fighter family, and the ongoing efforts by the US Air Force to kill the program in favor of the Pratt & Whitney F135 that powers the existing fleet. In response, Congress looked at the success of dual-engine programs for the F-16 and now the F-15 as well, and voted twice to restore funding.

F136 engine tests continue at a unique, new test facility, located at a GE center at Peebles, OH (normal & STOVL engines) as well as at the US Air Force Arnold Engineering Development Center in Tennessee (basic F136 + F-35 exhaust nozzle). F-35 system development is scheduled to run through 2013, with the first production 40,000+ thrust F136 engines scheduled for delivery in “late 2012,” during F-35 Lot IV production.

Until then, all F-35s will fly with the Pratt & Whitney’s F135 engine, whose version for the F-35B STOVL fighter uses the same Rolls Royce Lift System add-ins that would be found in the F136…

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F-15E and F-22A
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Northrop Grumman recently announced that tests aboard a company BAC 1-11 test aircraft have successfully demonstrated the AN/APG-77v1 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar’s ability to generate high-resolution, in-flight synthetic aperture radar (SAR) ground maps and moving target tracking. The test flights are the first phase of a planned multi-year contract with Boeing to add SAR capability to the existing fleet of F-22A Raptor stealth fighters, and incorporate them into new production aircraft. SAR capabilities can already be found in most multi-role fighter radars, and current image resolutions for aircraft like advanced F-15E Strike Eagles, F/A-18E/F Hornet Block IIs, et. al. are under 1 meter.

No details have been released, but the APG-77 can be expected to demonstrate similar performance, along with “agile beam” technology that makes it very hard to trace the origins of its radar scans. This is very different from conventional radars, which have been described as being akin to turning on a flashlight in a dark warehouse – enemies can see you long before you see them.

Directly identifying and targeting enemy ground defenses and mobile forces using its AESA radar will expand the Raptor’s offensive and defensive capabilities. On the offensive end, they make it possible for the F-22s to target ground installations and moving targets on the fly, in response to events during a mission. On the defensive end, the addition of SAR/GTMI lets the radar provide complete coverage of ground threats as well as aerial threats. While the aircraft’s electronic intercept capabilities and ability to share information from other military assets via Link 16, the new AESA Radar Common Data Link et. al. already provided some capabilities in this regard, the addition of high-resolution, agile-beam active radar scans adds an important piece to the puzzle. Northrop Grumman release.