E-6B TACAMO

Over $95M for support, Block I mods; SLEP process & Looking Glass background added. (Dec 1/11)

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, and in recent years they have seen use as communications relay stations over the front lines of combat.

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 and training-related contracts, these days, but the latest contracts involve a fleet upgrade…

• E-6 Mercury: Messenger from On High [updated]
• E-6 Mercury: Contracts and Key Events [updated]
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• South Korea’s 2012 defense budget: +5.6% or roughly in line with total budget growth, pending parliamentary approval.

• British Secretary of State for Defence Dr Liam Fox says a 1% increase (in real terms) to the Defence Equipment and Support budget between 2015/16 and 2020/21 should give the ministry a “firm footing” to tackle long-term challenges.

• BRAC complete at Joint Base San Antonio (JBSA) in Texas – the largest installation in the US military.

• Can a US Army Program Manager get his USMC pals to benefit from his program even if it’s not a designated joint one? The answer is yes, through a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the 2 services.

• DFARS Case 2011-D013 on what to do when acquisitions using competitive procedures receive only one offer is received has been reopened for comments until October 7. The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) objects to the unlimited waiver currently in the planned regulatory change, as well as to the exception provision for contingency operations, given the track record in Iraq and Afghanistan.

• US DoD Performance Based Logistics (PBL) 2011 award winners were announced recently:
• System Level “Gerald Beck” Award: Joint STARS Total System Support Responsibility Team/Northrop Grumman – USAF C2ISR Aerospace Sustainment Directorate/Warner Robins Air Logistics Center (WRALC)
• Sub-system Level Award: AH-64D Apache Sensors/Lockheed Martin – USA PEO Aviation/Apache Project Management Office
• Component Level Award: Tire Performance-Based Logistics Team/Michelin Aircraft Tire Company – USN Naval Supply Command Weapon Systems Support (NAVSUP WSS)

• Forthcoming hearings at US House Armed Services Committee: National Defense and the U.S. Military Ten Years After 9/11: Perspectives from Former Service Chiefs and Vice Chiefs (Oct. 4), Is the Financial Management Workforce Positioned to Achieve DOD’s Financial Improvement Goals? (Oct. 6). The latter should be fun for people who like to watch glaciers move, but it may beat the non-news that so far have emerged from the Super Committee.

• The Stimson Center notes contrasting visions of the future of the US Navy: stick to a strategy of forward presence and projection, or scale back to a position of “security guarantor of last resort.” The two approaches definitely come with a different price tag. Admiral Roughead argued in favor of the more asserting strategy in a roundtable at the Aspen Institute earlier this month (video below):
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• India is planning to boost its defense spending by 11.6% in the next fiscal year to counter China’s growing military capabilities.

• How was the Stuxnet attack on Iran targeted?

• But a recent IAEA report says enrichment and production has continued at Natanz despite the Stuxnet slowdown, and adds that Iran continues to prepare military delivery vehicles etc. for nuclear weapons.

• Steel cut to begin CVN 79, the 2nd carrier in the Gerald R. Ford class. If only budgets and funding could be as certain.

• According to Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, Russia is still planning to supply supersonic P-800 Yakhont anti-ship cruise missiles to Syria, despite US and Israeli opposition.

• Advanced Russian S-300 anti-aircraft missiles are also on their way to Venezuela, now that a timeline has been agreed. There have been rumblings for a few months now that Iran’s requested missiles could be headed that way instead.

• Oshkosh job fair attracts over 1,700 applicants to fill between 650 and 750 positions to build US Army tactical vehicles.

• On the other hand, Frost & Sullivan expects a steep drop in US military tactical vehicle market, from $4.45 billion in 2010 to just $740 million in 2015.

• SAIC gets $25 million contract to provide management planning and systems integration services to the US Navy Strategic Systems Programs Command.

• Harris secures $14 million order from Brazil to provide Falcon III RF-7800V VHF handheld combat net radios and Falcon II AN/PRC-150-C [PDF] HF manpack radios.

• Expand your intellectual horizons a bit, and meet Gene Sharp... the unsung, mostly-unknown thinker whose ideas and approaches have underpinned many modern non-violent uprisings. You might want to read former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky’s current thoughts after that. Both can provide insights into counterinsurgency and the “3 block war.”

• America’s under-performing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) education is widely seen as a slow-motion crisis by the industry. Former hedge fund manager Sal Khan and The Khan Academy say… YouTube to the rescue!

FALCON HTVs

HTV-2 failure: some answers, and new plans; Article restructured. (Nov 16/10)

The path toward a hypersonic space plane has been a slow one, filled with twists and turns one would expect given the technological leap involved. Speeds of Mach 8+ place tremendous heat and resistance stresses on a craft. Building a vehicle that is both light enough to achieve the speeds desired at reasonable cost, and robust enough to survive those speeds, is no easy task.

Despite the considerable engineering challenges ahead, the potential of a truly hypersonic aircraft for reconnaissance, global strike/ transport, and low-cost access to near-space and space is a compelling goal on both engineering and military grounds. The question, as always, will be balancing the need for funding to prove out new designs and concepts, with risk management that ensures limited exposure if it becomes clear that the challenge is still too great. In October 2008, the US Congress decided that FALCON/Blackswift had reached those limits. That decision led to the program’s cancellation, though some activities will continue.

• The FALCON Hypersonic Vehicle: Technical Challenges
• The FALCON Hypersonic Vehicle: Industrial Teams
• The FALCON Hypersonic Vehicle: Program History & Changes [NEW]
• FALCON Hypersonic Vehicle: Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings & Sources
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B-52H CONECT 1st flight

The B-52 Stratofortress remains the mainstay of the U.S. strategic bomber force, and in-theater combat communications improvements may allow it to make better use of advanced weapons like the JDAM. The B-52H, which went into service in 1961, is the only remaining B-52 model in use by the USAF. It flies slightly faster than a 767, operating at high subsonic speeds and altitudes up to 50,000 feet, and carrying either nuclear or precision-guided conventional weapons. On-going modifications have added global positioning system compatibility for the aircraft and weapons, targeting pods like the LITENING, heavy stores adapter beams for carrying 2,000 pound munitions, and an array of advanced weapons.

Under the B-52 combat network communications technology (CONECT) program, the B-52H fleet will receive will new computers and color displays, key datalinks, an advanced wideband satellite terminal, and a series of tie-ins to existing USAF systems that will allow them to receive new missions, or even re-target weapons during flight. The total development contract could run to $500 million, and CONECT could roll out to the entire 76-plane B-52H future fleet…

Message received…

Rockwell Collins, Inc. of Cedar Rapids, Iowa received a cost plus award fee, firm-fixed price, cost plus fixed fee and time and material contract modification for $27.5 million. The award will “rebaseline” system development and demonstration completion, low rate initial production (LRIP), and production and deployment of the USA’s KG-3X cryptographic modernization program.

KG-3X units are used in the Minimum Essential Emergency Communications Network (MEECN) and the Fixed Submarine Broadcast System (FSBS) for strategic transmission of Emergency Action Messages (EAMs). The program entails box replacements, card set replacements, and reprogramming of 921 units Of these, 445 units will require organic service reprogramming, while industry will be contracted to handle 476 units. Funds will be allocated as needs arise by Air Force Materiel Command’s Electronic Systems Center, 653rd Electronic Systems Wing at Hanscom Air Force Base, MA (FA8722-04-C-0004, P00026).

Stage 3…

The Headquarters 526th ICBM Systems Wing at Hill Air Force Base, UT has issued a pair of cost-plus fixed-fee contract modifications. Their R&D effort is aimed at technologies that might be used in a replacement to the third stage of the USA’s existing LGM-30 Minutemean III nuclear ICBMs. The 30+ year old missiles are undergoing upgrades that will keep them in service, now that the newer and more advanced MX Peacekeeper missiles have all been retired under arms control agreements. See all DID coverage of the Minuteman missiles.

Phase II involves detailed design test and manufacturing reviews of motor hardware to be fabricated. The reviews shall include detailed drawings, analysis, and any data generated to support the design of hardware to be test fired. The contractor will fabricate motor and test hardware and conduct any checkout testing identified in the preliminary Phase II test and instrumentation plan and coordinate test requirements with the Air Force. This action exercises the Phase II Option of the contract and implements a period of performance form 1 June 2006 through 31 May 2010.

• ATK Thiokol Propulsion in Corinne, UT received $17.6 million (FA8204-06-C-0013/P00001)
• Aerojet General Corp. in Sacramento, CA, received $17.5 million (FA8204-06-C-0014/P00001)
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Layered ABM defense

Defense Update editor Tamir Eshel writes to let us know that Raytheon Company and Rafael Armament Development Authority have been selected by the Israel Ministry of Defense’ Defense Research and development Directorate (DDRD) to develop a new terminal missile defense interceptor for low-cost, short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) threats. Israeli planners see SRBMs as cheap, plentiful, easily concealed, largely exempt from international arms control accords, and capable of being transformed into deadly threats if/ when fitted with unconventional warheads and deployed in large quantities.

Accordingly, Israel and the US have agreed to jointly develop a new Short Range Missile Defense (SRMD) capability that will complement its existing Arrow and Patriot PAC-2 GEM+ systems, one optimized via its design and cost to defend against rockets with ranges of 70 – 200 km….

Into darkness:
the final stage

The Headquarters Ogden Air Logistics Center, Hill Air Force Base, UT has issued a pair of contracts to Northrop-Grumman Space and Mission Systems in Clearfield, UT. The contracts are related to the LM-30 Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM).

With the recent treaty-driven retirement of the more-modern MX Peacekeeper missiles, the Minuteman III missiles remain as the land-based leg of the USA’s nuclear triad. In order to keep them viable significant refits, upgrades, and other measures are underway. These two modifications are part of that effort, under contract # F42610-98-C-0001…

Minuteman III launch

Northrop Grumman Mission Systems in Clearfield, UT received a $225.2 million cost-plus-incentive-fee, cost-plus-award-fee contract modification re: the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) propulsion replacement program. Full Rate Production (FRP) options FRP5, FRP6, and FRP7 restructure modification for two-hundred and twelve (212) stage 1, 2 and 3 rocket motors, production quality assurance, ordnance production, and contractor cost data reports. Since this is the USA, the motors will be placed on its Minuteman III missiles as part of the overall modernization program to keep them in service. See all DID coverage related to the Minuteman III.

Negotiations were complete in May 2005, and work will be complete in March 2008. The Headquarters 528th ICBM Systems Wing at Hill Air Force Base, UT, issued the contract (F42610-98-C-0001, no modification number assigned yet).