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E-2C Hawkeye
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On Oct 19/07, the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced [PDF] Egypt’s formal request for 2 used E-2C Airborne Early Warning (AEW) Command & Control aircraft, 2 excess spare T56-A-425 engines, modifications, support equipment, spare and repair parts, publications and technical data, maintenance, personnel training and training equipment, U.S. Government and contractor engineering and logistics technical support services, and other related elements of logistics support. The estimated cost is $75 million.

Now, that order appears to have been followed by an upgrade request…

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Northrop Grumman’s E-2C Hawkeye began replacing previous Hawkeye versions in 1973, and serves as the US Navy and French Navy’s carrier-capable “mini-AWACS” aircraft. Its primary role is advance warning of incoming aerial threats; ship-based radars are far larger and more powerful, but cannot scan below the angle of the horizon. Secondary roles include strike command and control, land and maritime surveillance, search and rescue, communications relay, and even civil air traffic control during emergencies. E-2C Hawkeyes also fly from land bases in the militaries of Egypt, Japan, Mexico, Singapore, and Taiwan; and in the US Naval Reserve in a drug interdiction role. Over 200 Hawkeyes have been produced.

The $17.5 billion E-2D Advanced Hawkeye program aims to build 75 new aircraft with significant radar, engine, and electronics upgrades in order to deal with a world of stealthier cruise missiles, saturation attacks, and a growing need for ground surveillance as well as aerial scans. It looks a lot like the last generation E-2C Hawkeye 2000 upgrade on the outside – but inside, and even outside to some extent, it’s a whole new aircraft. This DID FOCUS Article covers the E-2D program, from the new platform and its capabilities to the budgets, contracts, and companies making it all fly. The latest news includes a pair of contracts aimed at getting the first E-2Ds ready, and an associated engine contract…

• From E-2A Hawkeye to the E-2D
• E-2D Advanced Hawkeye: Program
• E-2D Advanced Hawkeye: Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings
  
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E-6B TACAMO
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The USA’s E-6 Mercury (aka. TACAMO, as in TAke Charge And Move Out) “survivable airborne communication system” airplanes support their Navy’s SSBN ballistic missile submarine force and overall strategic forces. With the advent of the new “Tactical Trident” converted Ohio Class special operations subs, their unique capabilities become even more useful. The E-6B version also has a secondary role as a “Looking Glass” Airborne National Command Post.

Delivery of the first production E-6 aircraft took place in August 1989, with delivery of the 16th and final airplane coming in May 1992. This is DID’s FOCUS Article concerning the E-6 system, which includes details concerning the capabilities and associated contracts. They’re mostly maintenance contracts, these days, but the latest contract involves electronics upgrades for improved communications, including IP and SATCOM…

• E-6 Mercury: Messenger from On High
• E-6 Mercury: Contracts and Key Events
  
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Raytheon in Tucson, AZ received a maximum $6.9 million contract. This contract will provide a Global Positioning System (GPS) circuit card assembly that utilizes Selective Availability Ant-Spoofing Module (SAASM) technology. With GPS embedded in everything from smart bombs to hand-held devices carried by thousands of US and foreign military troops, the ability to protect GPS-related “m-code” circuits from jamming is a critical capability.

This contract will support foreign military sales to Austria, Bahrain, Chile, Columbia, Egypt, India, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates. Raytheon Facility-100% Integrated Air Defense Center in Andover, MA received the contract (FA8807-08-D-0002)

ScanEagle launch
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ScanEagle 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 helped take ScanEagle to market in those fields, and the rest has been making history.

Boeing has had field representatives in theater for a few years now to support and operate the Boeing/Insitu ScanEagle UAV from ships and ashore, receiving high battlefield praise and a fairly regular stream of contracts from the USA and Australia. ScanEagle has been demonstrated or used from 15 different vessels in various classes, including the USNS Fred G. Stockham [T-AK 3017] supply ship, HSV-2 Swift fast catamaran, USS Whidbey Island [LSD 49], Carter Hall [LSD 50] and Oak Hill [LSD 51] amphibious landing ships, and USS Oscar Austin [DDG-79] Flight IIA Arleigh Burke Class AEGIS destroyers. ScanEagle is currently being readied for deployment aboard the Flight II AEGIS destroyer USS Mahan [DDG-72]., and a number of specialty adaptations from sniper locator, to bio-warfgare agent detection are being tested.

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…

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Link 16 Display
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Jam-resistant Link-16 radios automatically exchange battlefield information – particularly locations of friendly and enemy aircraft, ships and ground forces – among themselves in a long-range, line-of-sight network. For example, air surveillance tracking data from an Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft can be instantly shared with fighter aircraft and air defense units. More than a dozen countries have installed Link 16 terminals on over 19 different land, sea, and air platforms, making it an interoperability success story.

While recent advancements may make AESA radars the future transmitters of choice, Link 16 is the current standard. The Multifunctional Information Distribution System-Low Volume Terminals (MIDS LVTs) were developed by a multinational consortium to provide Link 16 capability at a lower weight, volume and cost than the Joint Tactical Information Distribution System (JTIDS). This DID focus article describes the program, and covers international contracts associated with it. It will be updated and backfilled as time goes on. The latest award is a pair orders covering the USA, Hungary, Japan, Portugal, and Turkey; and a MIDS-JTRS demonstration…

• The MIDS-LVT Program
• Into the Future: MIDS JTRS
• MIDS/ Link 16 Contracts & Events [updates]
• Additional Readings
  
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MQ-1C Sky Warrior
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In August 2005, “Team Warrior” leader General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. in San Diego, CA won a $214.4 million cost-plus-incentive-fee contract for research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) of the Extended Range/ Multi Purpose Unmanned Aerial Vehicle System (ER/MP UAS). The Warrior was designed to fill both surveillance and attack roles, and the MQ-1C Sky Warrior derived from General Atomics’ famous MQ-1 Predator beat the Hunter II system offered by Northrop Grumman, Aurora Flight Systems, and IAI.

The Sky Warrior ER/MP program is part of the US Army’s reinvestment of dollars from the canceled RAH-66 Comanche helicopter program, and directly supports the Army’s Aviation Modernization Plan. ER/MP could be a $1 billion effort, and recently strengthened its position when a 2007 program restructuring cut the Future Combat Systems Class III UAV competition.

Now, in FY 2008, the MQ-1C Sky Warrior ER/MP prepares to move into production – as the first big “Key West” battle of the 21st century between the USAF and US Army reaches a resolution. But the Sky Warrior and Predator will be merging into a single program. What does that mean, exactly? DID asked. Meanwhile, our readers asked us to explain the differences between the MQ-1 Predator, MQ-1C Sky Warrior, and MQ-9 Reaper. DID is happy to oblige. The program’s engine supplier remains in very serious legal and financial trouble, and payment and warranty conditions are changing even as the UAVs begin to see action in Iraq…

• The MQ-1C Sky Warrior, and its Band of Brothers
• The Army’s Sky Warrior Program
• ER/MP UAS – Enter the Warrior: Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• Appendix A: US Army et. al. vs. USAF Over UAVs
• Appendix B: Additional Readings – Who Controls the UAVs?
• Appendix C: Additional Readings
  
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Harris Corporation has recently endured a difficult period in the stock market. Despite a strong outlook for the tactical radio market, and a competitive international position vis-a-vis key rivals like General Dynamics C4 and Thales Group, there were persistent rumors that the firm was up for sale. EADS openly said that its recent PlantCML acquisition required its full attention, but General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman were also mentioned frequently. In the end, there was no acquisition and the firm’s stock price dropped swiftly to pre-rumor levels. Bloomberg | Forbes | Reuters.

Falcon II Multiband

This leaves the firm back on familiar ground: execution in the international tactical radio market. Harris was recently awarded $118 million in delivery orders to supply the U.S. Marine Corps with Falcon II AN/PRC-117F multiband manpack radios, as part of a new $350 million indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity contract that will almost double the number used by the USMC. As part of the contract, Harris will also provide 3 dedicated technical service personnel who will be embedded with Marine maintenance companies. Harris release.

The Marine Corps’ situation is similar to many other global militaries, as their Strategic Radio Plan works to move their troops from existing single-band radios to multiband, multimission software-defined radios with longer range, less weight, long-term upgradeability, and better interoperability. As one Marine explained, re: the PRC-117s deployed in Kuwait and Iraq, their uses included:

”...monitoring our IntraSqaud Radios (ISR) using the CTCSS bands… SINCGARs to communicate in vehicle convoys, HAVEQUICK to talk to aircraft, single channel LOS VHF/UHF frequencies to talk to aircraft and ground stations, as well as both DAMA and Dedicated SATCOM.”

Raytheon: C4ISR Future?
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As video communications is integrated into robots, soldiers, and UAVs, and network-centric warfare becomes the organizing principle of American warfighting, front-line demands for bandwidth are rising sharply. The Transformation Communications Satellite (TSAT) System is part of a larger effort by the US military to address this need.

The final price tag on the entire TSAT program has been quoted at anywhere from $14-25 billion through 2016, which includes the satellites, the ground operations system, the satellite operations center and the cost of operations and maintenance. By mid-2007, the U.S. Air Force was scheduled to make a key decision: build the TSAT system on its current schedule and launch in 2013-2016, or postpone TSAT, take stopgap measures and add Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellites 4 & 5 to the three slated for launch from 2009-2012.

Lockheed Martin and Boeing have won a total of $514 million each in risk reduction contracts for the TSAT SS satellite system, in hopes of making that Plan B unnecessary. The bids are in, and both teams await a decision. TSAT’s $2 billion TMOS ground-based network operations contract is already underway.

The TSAT constellation of satellites, receivers, and infrastructure has seen a recent resurgence of news coverage, and its central role in next-generation US military infrastructure makes it worthy of in-depth treatment. Yet its survival is not assured by any means. Outside events and incremental competitors could spell its end just as they spelled the end of Motorola’s infamous Iridium service. This updated DID Special Report looks at the TSAT program, its challenges, and the potential future(s) of U.S. military communications – with new additions highlighted in green for your convenience. The latest item is another $150 million in TSAT-SS development contracts, despite an expected decision date of November 2007. The wording of the accompanying announcements also suggests that some reconsideration of TSAT program options in under way…

• Key Background – Why TSAT Is Thought to be Necessary (i.e. continue reading…)
• Key Background – The Big Picture: TSAT and the Transformational Communications Architecture
• Briefing – What Is TSAT?
• Briefing – TMOS: TSAT’s Ground Component
• Briefing – The AEHF Alternative, and Lessons Learned for TSAT
• Analysis – TSAT Program: Issues & Decisions
• Analysis – TSAT’s Competitors – and Its Fate
• News – TSAT: Timeline and Ongoing Developments [updated]
• Appendix A – Additional Readings & Sources
  
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Deep Green concept
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DID readers send us some interesting tips. The USA’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency handles futuristic research projects that would be too difficult for the normal defense program R&D process (one of those projects became the Internet). Now its Information Processing Technology Office (IPTO) is turning its attention to a project called “Deep Green,” which aims to provide US commanders with significantly better decision support tools in battle. According to DARPA, Deep Green will:

”...aid in battle command and commander’s visualization by creating technologies that make it easier for the commander to articulate options to consider and anticipate the possible futures that result from those options. This proactive analysis will help predict which possible futures are becoming more likely – before they occur. Given that information, the commander can make better decisions and focus planning efforts (the generation of future branches and sequels) on where they can be the most useful.”

The article below explains the vision of Deep Green, its envisioned components, and some of the challenges the program faces. It also begins to cover contracts, now that the first R&D orders are being issued…