MRAP-III Buffalo & C-5
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EG&G Technical Services, Inc. in Dumfries, VA received a $9.9 million task order under previously awarded contract (M67854-02-A-9011) for professional technical support to the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) Vehicle Joint Program Office. The contractor shall provide expert support directly to the MRAP Joint Program Manager and Deputy PMs; Assistant PMs for all MRAP vehicle variants and the following functional managers: Integration and Government Furnished Equipment, Spiral Development, International Programs, acquisition, contracts, production, quality, logistics, engineering, test & evaluation and safety. This effort builds upon existing contract support that will remain in place. Work will be performed in Stafford, VA and is expected to be complete in November 2008. The Marine Corps System Command in Quantico, VA issued the contract.

As of Dec 17/07, the US DoD has announced that 1,300 MRAPs were in theater, with another 180 are en route by sea aboard the RO/RO(Roll-On, Roll-Off) USNS Pililaau and another 15 MRAPs are in the air headed to Iraq. While the success of the revolt against al-Qaeda in Anbar province has led to a (not yet granted) request by the US Marines to reduce their order from 3,700 to 2,300, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell has told reporters that the Army’s request may actually increase, as commanders in Afghanistan are expressing an interest in getting more MRAPs than originally planned.

Dextre: part of ISS
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Alliant Techsystems announced today that it has negotiated definitive agreements with Canadian-based MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates to acquire its Information Systems and Geospatial Information Services businesses for C$1.325 billion (about $1.318 billion). MDA’s IS/GIS business has more than 1,900 employees and estimated FY 2009 revenues of approximately USD$ 500 million, and is a global leader in space-based radar systems, space robotics (the robotic arms for the NASA Space Shuttle and International Space Station are MDA products), satellite systems, and imaging satellite ground stations and processing; with additional world-class capabilities in satellite payloads, C4ISR, and geospatial services.

ATK’s rationale for the acquisition was straightforward:

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The US Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southwest in San Diego, CA has awarded a number of firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, multiple award construction contracts for commercial and institutional building construction at various locations within its area of responsibility. In fact, it has awarded 2 very similar sets of contracts to the same set of providers. the only thing that differs is their exact areas of performance within NAVFAC SW.

The term of the contracts are not to exceed 60 months, with an expected completion date of January 2009 for the 1-year base period, and January 2013 if all 4 option years are exercised. For each of these 2 contract sets, the maximum dollar value over all 5 possible years, for all 6 winning contracts combined, is $500 million, with a guaranteed minimum of $25,000 for each contract. In practice, this means a grand total of $1 billion for all 6 contractors combined, with a guaranteed minimum of $50,000 for each. These 6 contractors may now compete for individual task orders under the terms and conditions of the awarded contracts. The winners are:

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T-AOE-6 & CG-72
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Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems–Marine Systems in Sunnyvale, CA received a $20.5 million firm-fixed-price contract to design and produce replacement gears for the propulsion system in the Navy’s 4 T-AOE 6-class fast combat support ships, USNS Supply [T-AOE 6], USNS Rainier [T-AOE 7], USNS Arctic [T-AOE 8] and USNS Bridge [T-AOE 10]. Fast combat support ships provide fuel, ammunition, food and other cargo to U.S. Navy ships at sea worldwide. The new hardware will replace components of the ships’ main reduction gear, which converts and transmits engine power to the propeller. The contract includes 5 options for installation support and 1 option for the purchase of additional hardware, which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $22.4 million.

Work will be performed at various locations worldwide and is expected to be complete by September 2013. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured with 2 offers received. The solicitation was issued on an unrestricted basis, using full and open competitive procedures via the Military Sealift Command, Navy Electronic Commerce Online and Federal Business Opportunities web pages. The U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command in Washington, DC issued the contract (N00033-08-C-7501).

Leo2 fires Lahat -
time-lapse photo
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Ever since anti-tank missiles proved their lethality on the battlefield, designers and officers have wanted to create tank rounds that could act like guided missiles. The pursuit hasn’t always gone well. The force created by a tank gun’s firing isn’t very hospitable to delicate electronics, which has resulted in some prominent failures. The M551 Sheridan light tank and its MGM-51 Shillelagh missile, for instance, became a negative example to the industry as a whole during its brief career in the 1960/70s.

Electronics have moved on since then, however, and advances in electronics’ size and composition are beginning to make the concept thinkable once more. Israel’s laser-homing Lahat missile equips some Merkava tanks, will reportedly equip India’s new Arjun tanks, and has been qualified for use with the Leopard 2 tank family. It can be fired from missile launchers, and also offers 105mm or 120mm tank guns a range boost to 8km, the ability to kill heavily protected tanks from the top, and effectiveness against slow flying aerial targets like helicopters and UAVs. Russia’s shorter-range 9M119M Refleks (NATO designation AT-11 Sniper) round is also available on the market, to equip late-model Russian and Chinese tanks.

XM1111 MRM-CE
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The USA’s 160+ billion Future Combat Systems program aims to revive the light tank with its Mounted Combat System variant of its MGS tracked vehicle family. It won’t have the M1 Abrams’ armor protection, and its light 120mm gun won’t have that tank’s firepower punch, either – unless a guided round can even the odds, and give it beyond line-of-sight capabilities. Enter the XM1111 Mid-Range Munition…

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The AETC CONS/LGCK at Randolph Air Force Base, TX has awarded a set of indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contracts for the $4 billion Sustainment, Restoration, and Modernization (SR&M) Task Order Contract (SATOC) program. This is a multiple-award contract, where the winning vendors will then compete on task orders under the umbrella contract; $4 billion is the maximum total of all task orders over the 10 year life of the program. At this time $2,500 per awardee has been obligated. The winners include:

• AMEC Earth and Environmental, Inc. of Plymouth Meeting, PA
• Barlovento, LLC of Dothan, AL
• CDM Constructors Inc. of Cambridge MA
• CH2M-Hill Facilities and Infrastructure, Inc. of Englewood, CA
• Charter Environmental of Wilmington, MA
• DWG and Associates of Bluffdale, UT
• Earthtech Inc. of Long Beach, CA
• ECC of Burlington, VA
• Innovative Technical Solutions Inc. of Walnut Creek, VA
• J2 Engineering of Tampa, FL
• Jacobs Government Services CO., of Pasadena, CA
• North Wind of Idaho Falls, ID
• Parsons Infrastructure and Technology Group, Inc., of Pasadena, CA
• Perini Corp of Farmington, MA
• SEI Group, Inc. of Huntsville, AL
• Toltest of Maumee, OH

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Over the Christmas holidays, the NY Times ran an interesting story that talked about experts and innovation – especially the paradox that more experts can produce less innovation. The results of the following experiment may provide a clue, and offer a useful reminder to our industry as a whole as it attempts to communicate with the broader public:

“Elizabeth Newton, a psychologist, conducted an experiment on the curse of knowledge while working on her doctorate at Stanford in 1990. She gave one set of people, called “tappers,” a list of commonly known songs from which to choose. Their task was to rap their knuckles on a tabletop to the rhythm of the chosen tune as they thought about it in their heads. A second set of people, called “listeners,” were asked to name the songs.

Before the experiment began, the tappers were asked how often they believed that the listeners would name the songs correctly. On average, tappers expected listeners to get it right about half the time. In the end, however, listeners guessed only 3 of 120 songs tapped out, or 2.5 percent. The tappers were astounded. The song was so clear in their minds; how could the listeners not “hear” it in their taps?”

F-16F “Desert Falcon”
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Note: a technical issue in which this story’s database tag was mysteriously changed to a non-public setting may have affected viewing for some readers before it was reported and fixed. This is a problem we’ve had before with our back end, and we’re looking into more permanent fixes that will remove the problem entirely.

The F-16 has become what its designers intended it to be: a worthy successor to the legendary P-51 Mustang whose principles of visibility, agility, and pilot-friendliness informed its design. It is no exaggeration to call it the defining fighter of its age, the plane that many people around the world think of when they think “fighter.” The aircraft’s ability to handle future adversaries like the thrust-vectoring MiG-29OVT/35 and advanced surface-air missile systems is in question, but upgrades have kept F-16s popular and in production.

The most advanced F-16s in the world, however, are not American. That distinction belongs to the United Arab Emirates, whose F-16 E/F Block 60 are a generation ahead of the F-16 C/D Block 50/52+ aircraft that form the backbone of the US fleet and many others around the world. The Block 60 has been described as a lower-budget alternative to the forthcoming F-35A Joint Strike Fighter – and is being treated as such in countries like India and the Netherlands as they contemplate their future fighter needs. The UAE invested in the type’s development, and with that investment comes inevitable fielding, training, and equipping needs. This DID article showcases the F-16 E/F “Desert Falcon,” and offers a window into associated costs. The latest item is a significant weapons request to equip their fleet…

• The F-16E/F “Desert Falcon”
• Contracts and Key Events
• Additional Readings
  
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RAF MQ-9, Kandahar
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On Jan 3/08, the US DSCA announced [PDF] the United Kingdom’s official request for “10 MQ-9 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) aircraft, 5 Ground Control Stations, 9 Multi-Spectral Targeting Systems (MTS-B/AAS-52), 9 AN/APY-8 Lynx Synthetic Aperture Radar/Ground Moving Target Indicator (SAR/GMTI) systems, 3 Satellite Earth Terminal Sub Stations (SETSS), 30 H764 Embedded Global Positioning System Inertial Navigation Systems, Lynx SAR and MTS-B spares, engineering support, test equipment, ground support, operational flight test support, communications equipment, technical assistance, personnel training/equipment, spare and repair parts, and other related elements of logistics support. The estimated cost is $1.071 billion.”

The principal contractors will be General Atomics’ Aeronautical Systems (MQ-9) and Lynx Systems (Lynx ground scan radar) subsidiaries in San Diego, CA, and Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems in El Segundo, CA (MTS-B/AAS-52).

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P-3P
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Covering the Atlantic side of Europe out of the Azores, and sitting near the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea, Portugal has a lot of maritime territory to patrol. The FAP has received a number of upgraded P-3 Orion aircraft over the years, from the US P-3Bs that became P-3Ps via upgrades et. al., to a recent set of P-3Cs from The Netherlands. Maintaining their long range maritime patrol capabilities, and keeping the fleet at acceptable strength as aircraft are retired, is critical to Portugal’s ability to watch those important sea lanes. Soon the Dutch P-3Cs will constitute Portugal’s entire P-3C fleet, as the P-3Ps are being retired. These 5 Orions will be supplemented by shorter-range CASA C-295 VIMARs – but they will also require their own capability upgrades.

Now Lockheed Martin announces that the Portuguese Ministry of Defense has awarded them a direct commercial sale contract valued at EUR 99.7 million (about $141 million) to upgrade the mission system avionics on the 5 ex-Netherlands P-3Cs. Under the contract, Lockheed Martin will provide a full mission system upgrade, including electronic support measures, acoustics, communications, electro-optic and infrared systems, as well as new data management software and hardware, including controls, displays and mission computers. Systems design, development and integration work will be completed at Lockheed Martin’s Eagan-based Tactical Systems line of business, followed by equipment installation and checkout at Lockheed Martin’s Aircraft and Logistics Center in Greenville, SC. The first modernized Portuguese Air Force P-3C aircraft is scheduled to be delivered in late 2009.