• Run down: The Balisle Report offers an alarming picture of a US Navy whose readiness and reliability issues extend far beyond just its new multi-billion dollar LPD-17 program.

• Help Wanted: President Obama calls on the private sector to take on more of the civilian tasks in Afghanistan and Iraq, such as building schools and establishing a justice system. Perhaps one day they’ll also get to take on more civilian tasks in America.

• Yard Sale: US military sells surplus items to Iraqis, such as trailers, refrigerators, and latrines, as US troops prepare to withdraw. A slew of more serious military stuff is also on the way.

• Early Warning: Iran has sent advanced radar systems to Syria to provide early warning for Israeli air sorties against Iranian nuclear facilities, the WSJ reports. That won’t help much if they go through Saudi Arabia.

• On the Block?: Applied Signal Technology, a Sunnyvale, CA-based C4ISR supplier to the US military, is seen as the next possible takeover target following Boeing’s agreement to buy Argon ST.

• Eurohawk UAV: First flight for Northrop Grumman/EADS RQ-4 ELINT variant.

• Laser mine-hunter: ALMDS flight tests have begun.

• Can You Hear Me Now?: iGov snags contract worth up to $25 million to supply an expeditionary computer network that can be used for collaboration by US Marines in the field.

• Chillin’: Todd Shipyards in Seattle, WA gets $12.9 million contract modification to support reactivation of the icebreaker USCG Cutter Polar Star (WAGB-10); last year the shipyard got a similar order to repair the icebreaker USCG Cutter Healey (WAGB-20).

• Op-ed: Pentagon officials argue for phased adaptive ballistic missile defense to counter threat from rogue states.

• Controversy over F-35 design changes that may make it more vulnerable.

• EADS to continue funding development of Talarion MALE UAV despite reluctance of European partners to place orders. This study may also have had something to do with EADS’ decision.

• Eurosatory 2010 is on in Paris, France. BAE presents its new CV90 Armadillo family of tracked IFVs and RG41 wheeled APC, GD presents its Eagle V patrol vehicle, Renault its VAB Mk.II wheeled APC.

• Meanwhile, France is presenting its Munitions Precision Metrique (MPM) program [in French], which aims to offer a family of tank shells, 155mm artillery, 120mm mortars, GMLRS rockets, and 68mm SNEB rockets that use semi-active laser guidance + INS to get 1m CEP precision, instead of GPS/INS guidance’s 10m (decametrique).

• It’s called job security. US Navy loses 3 REMUS-100 UUVs, calls in the old standby dolphins and sea lions to find them.

• Australia’s new submarine support facility in Henderson, Western Australia, is open for work. They can use that help.

• Too many zeros: The Associated Press added 3 zeros to an $8.4 million Sikorsky Aircraft order for normal maintenance work on the VH-3D Sea King presidential helicopter fleet. Speaking of needing help… $8.4 billion should be intuitively wrong for that.

• Not business as usual: SAIC snags contract worth up to $75 million to provide technical support for the US DoD Business Transformation Agency’s Enterprise Planning & Investment Directorate.

• Japanese spacecraft lands in Australia with asteroid samples. Bruce Willis and crew not on it…

• Do the H2O: Global Defense Technology & Systems wins $45 million contract for mobile systems to package purified water for front-line Marines.

• Salt Lake seed money: Utah launches initiative to lift defense, aerospace industries.

EFSS Concept

Major article upgrade, incl. recent ammo production launch. (Jan 31/11)

The U.S. Marine Corps sees the 120mm Expeditionary Fire Support System (EFSS) mortar as the 3rd leg of its triad of land-based fire support for expeditionary operations that includes the lightweight M777 155mm howitzer, and the truck-mounted M142 HIMARS rocket system.

Accompanying Marine Air Ground Task Forces (MAGTFs) in expeditionary operations, EFSS will be the primary indirect fire support system for the heliborne element of the Ship-To-Objective Maneuver (STOM) force. As such, the EFSS launcher, the Internally Transportable Vehicle (ITV) that tows the launcher, a portion of the basic load of ammunition, and a portion of its crew must be transportable by a single CH-53E Super Stallion or future CH-53K heavy lift helicopter, and/or a single MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft.

• EFSS and ITV [updated]
• Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings [NEW]
  Continue Reading… »

Small business qualifier Environmental Management Inc. (dba EMI Services) in Idaho Falls, ID won a combination firm-fixed-price (FFP), indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract for facilities maintenance and repair and heavy equipment repair at US Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, US Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) New River, and other USMC properties in the eastern North Carolina area.

The maximum dollar value, including the base period, 4 one-year options, and 5 one-year award options, is $187.3 million ($161.5 million FFP and $25.8 million IDIQ).

Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, NC is the home of the USMC’s Expeditionary Forces in Readiness. MCAS New River, also in Jacksonville, is the principal USMC helicopter operating location on the East Coast, and supports aircrew training in the H-53 helicopter…

[by John MacNeill]
Goo goo g’joob!

The Walrus heavy-transport blimp (“heavy” as in “1-2 million pounds”) was among a range of projects on the drawing board in the mid ‘00s. It offered the potential for a faster and more versatile sealift substitute. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) funded phase 1 contracts, but things seemed to end in 2006. Yet the imperatives driving the need for Walrus, or even for a much smaller version of it, remain. Is the Walrus dead? And could it, or a Hybrid Ultra Large Aircraft (HULA) like it, rise again?

Recent presentations and initiatives in several US armed services indicate that it might…

• WALRUS: Concept & Key Technologies
• WALRUS: The Program
• Walrus & HULAs: Contracts and Key Events
• Additional Readings
  Continue Reading… »

Maersk MPS Ship

Honeywell Technology Solutions in Jacksonville, FL received a not-to-exceed $45 million modification to a previously awarded cost-plus-award-fee task order to provide prepositioning and logistics support services to the US Marine Corps.

Honeywell’s logistics support efforts include maintenance, supply, and inventory management of prepositioned combat assets aboard ships.

Under the original $707 million indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity contract (M67004-09-D-0020), Honeywell supports the Maritime Prepositioning Ships (MPS) Program and the Marine Corps Prepositioning Program-Norway…

LCAC versatility

Oceaneering International’s Marine Services Division in Chesapeake, VA won a $14 million firm-fixed-price contract to extend the service life of 3 landing hovercraft. Oceaneering is performing the work under the Landing Craft, Air Cushion (LCAC) Service Life Extension Program (SLEP), which extends the expected service life of the LCAC by 50%, from 20 years to 30 years. The scope of this contract includes repair and upgrade of the buoyancy box, gas turbine engine replacement, installation of a new skirt, installation of an integrated C4N equipment package, craft alterations, and repair work. This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring its cumulative value to $38.9 million.

LCACs are high-speed, fully amphibious hovercraft capable of carrying a 60-ton payload (75 tons in overload) over water and land at speeds in excess of 40 knots and a nominal range of up to 200 nautical miles. Carrying equipment, troops, and/or supplies, the LCAC launches from inside the well deck of an amphibious warship, then travels the waves at high speed, runs right through the surf zone near the beach, and stops at a suitable place on land. “LCAC Hovercraft: US Navy’s Champion Schleppers Get SLEPped” (subscriptions) discusses the LCAC hovercraft and the SLEP.

Oceaneering will perform the work in Norfolk, VA and expects to complete it by November 2012. This contract was competitively procured via FedBizOpps.com, with four offers received by the Naval Sea Systems Command at the Washington Navy Yard, Washington, DC (N00024-09-C-2240)

Air Rover ECU

Air Rover Inc. of Tyler, TX, won a maximum $15 million indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity, firm-fixed-price contract for Environmental Control Units (ECUs) from the Navy. The units will be used for various types of expeditionary facilities (e.g., shelters, enclosed trailers, and tent complexes). The Navy has a current requirement for 4 units to be delivered.

Air Rover works directly with the U.S. armed forces to research and manufacture field-deployable ECUs to cool living quarters and electronics. In response to troop feedback and technological advances, Air Rover’s engineering team designed modular ECUs to produce cold, refrigerated air in extreme climatic conditions that range from 50 degrees to 150 degrees Fahrenheit. A recent LA Times article noted the costs involved, however, and called attention to a temporary fix that gets much better efficiency from Army ECUs.

Air Rover expects to perform the work at its Tyler, TX, headquarters and to complete it by May 2014. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via FedBizOpps.com and the internet, with 5 offers received by the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Crane, IN (N00164-09-D-JS25).

JHL: QTR Concept

In 2005, the US military and NASA announced the kickoff of the Army-led Joint Heavy Lift program, with the award of 5 contracts for the Concept Design and Analysis (CDA) of a Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) Joint Heavy Lift (JHL) rotorcraft. This is a futuristic aircraft that’s imagined as having the C-130 Hercules aircraft’s 20 ton cargo capacity, but with the ability to take off and land like a helicopter. No current US military helicopter platform even comes close to that vision, and so the competitors are deploying some radical and different technologies in their attempts to meet these goals. DID covers each of them below.

CH-53E Super Stallion

At the same time, the US Marine Corps’ vital medium-heavy lift CH-53E Super Sea Stallion helicopters are beginning to to wear out their airframes. Hence the HLR Heavy Lift Replacement (HLR) program, aimed at fielding new-build CH-53K aircraft beginning in 2013-2015. The US Air Force, meanwhile, has its AJACS program, which aims to produce a C-130 replacement beginning around 2020.

All 3 programs may face a rough ride ahead. Runaway cost growth on numerous US defense programs, operational demands, and a looming demographic crisis in social programs all work to create budget squeezes, and hence pressures for program consolidation. The USMC’s affordable CH-53X track upgrade was very nearly sidetracked via a merger with he R&D heavy, schedule-uncertain, JHL, and may not be in the clear yet. The USAF’s AJACS program to replace the C-130 Hercules with a modern 20+ ton transport is also facing scrutiny of this sort, and those pressures, too may increase. Conversely, it is also possible that the JHL program could find itself edged out by a pair of more conventional helicopter and aircraft solutions from the USMC and USAF. DID notes the technologies, the politics, and progress to date.

Recent news includes a report that shows just how far away the US military is from a viable competition and winning design:

• The JHL Program
• The Contenders
  • The Modernized Standbys [updated]
  • Sikorsky’s Compound Helicopter Option [updated]
  • The Tilt-Rotors [updated]
• Contracts and Key Developments [updated]
• Appendix A: ‘Borging’ HLR & the CH-53’s Future (Oct 2005)
• Appendix B: Additional Readings & Sources – JHL Program
• Appendix C: Additional Readings & Sources – HLR Program (CH-53X)
  Continue Reading… »

V-22 With M777

The V-22 Osprey has attracted both praise and criticism during its long journey through development toward front-line deployment. Its characteristics have also had an impact on other weapons programs being developed for use with the aircraft. This article deals with two of those programs being developed to help strengthen the USMC’s badly eroded artillery capabilities.

One is the $74 million Internally Transported Vehicle (ITV) program; the United States Marine Corps says testing on American Growler, Inc’s vehicle is on track. The ITV – often incorrectly identified as the “Growler” – fits in the narrow belly of the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft. The Marine Corps eventually expects to field about 600 to 700 of the two-ton, $120,000-a-copy tow trucks if they are accepted for fielding. ITVs will be delivered in two basic configurations: a Light Strike Variant (LSV), designed for Marine Corps infantry and reconnaissance battalions; and, the Expeditionary Fire Support System (EFSS) Prime Mover (PM), designed to tow the EFSS 120mm rifled mortar and the EFSS ammunition trailer. A decision to field them should be made by October 2007, a Marine Corps spokesman said.