AV-8B attack run

Boeing subsidiary McDonnell Douglas Corp. in St. Louis, MO received a $5.6 million order against previously-issued basic ordering agreement N00019-05-G-0026. The order procures engineering change proposal 270-R2 1760 wiring kits to upgrade 30 AV-8B Harrier II aircraft. Work will be performed in St. Louis, MO (70%) and Samarate, Italy (30%), and is expected to be complete in November 2007. Contract funds in the amount of $882,424 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent River, MD issued the contract.

So why is new wiring important?

During Urban Resolve 2015 (UR2015), U.S. Joint Forces Command and partners from across the services and the government are aiming to examine the challenges which come with operating in cities. This 3-phase ‘experiment’/exercise is actually a distributed simulation of 19 sites and over 1,000 people. The Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps have integrated their systems into the U.S. Joint Forces Command system for it, and representatives from 12 other nations are participating. So are members of other US federal agencies, such as the State Department, Commerce and Justice. The template city for the experiment? Baghdad, Iraq.

USJFCOM Joint Futures Lab executive director Dave Ozolek said the experiment is enabling the command to get inside two concepts: First, how does the U.S. military operate in the new urban environment? Because “That’s where the fight is, that’s where the enemy is, that where the center of gravity for the whole operation is.” It’s more than the classic MOUT because ”...the environment is not only terrain, it’s infrastructure, it’s culture, it’s governance, it’s rule of law, it’s legality, food, water, fire and safety and all of those things that make up a complex environment of a city,” This feeds into the second concept, which is stabilization operations that can stabilize the situation in a city, then transition to local control.

The experiment is testing seven solutions for urban operations capability gaps, using a networked system that lets decisions and actions made by each participant operate in real time. These solutions are described in more detail in this article, and include:

Small business qualifier Packet Digital LLC in Fargo, ND received a $5.3 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for research and development into advanced power management for wireless systems. Packet Digital’s “On-Demand Power” technology is designed to increase the life of any military system powered by batteries; the company claims that their technology would allow soldiers to carry only one-half to one-fifth the amount of batteries they now require. Work will be performed in Fargo, ND and is expected to be complete by April 30, 2008. There were 11 bids solicited on June 23, 2006, and 2 bids were received by the Defense Microelectronics Activity in McClellan, CA (H94003-07-C-0702).

Packet Digital’s research is increasingly relevant given the proliferation of wireless systems and networks for field use, and the battery load and limitations corresponding to other powered devices have made battery improvements and substitutes a doubly urgent issue for advanced militaries around the world. DID’s “Infantry-21” coverage of Future Soldier Systems being fielded by several nations notes that these trends continue to pick up speed, further increasing the pressure to find solutions.

Landed, needs parts -
see 1983 story here
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Elbit Systems Ltd. subsidiary Cyclone Aviation Products Ltd. in Karmiel, Israel received a $19 million contract from Boeing for F-15 aircraft structural components. Cyclone’s components will include detachable fuel tanks, pylons, horizontal stabilizers and gun access doors; the components are scheduled for delivery during 2008 and 2009.

In Elbit Systems’ release, Co-General Manager Airborne and Helmet Systems, Yoram Shmuely, said that “We believe this contract will pave the way for further business in this fast-growing market characterized by advanced technologies and innovative composite materials.”

Tompkins Builders Inc. in Washington, DC won a $57.4 millionfirm-fixed-price contract for construction of an addition to the Langley Air Force Base Hospital. Work will be performed at Langley Air Force Base, VA and is expected to be complete by Nov. 15, 2008. Bids were solicited via the world wide web on Jan. 31, 2006, and 2 bids were received by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Norfolk, VA (W91236-07-C-0011).

UK MoD

Britain has made significant strides in changing its overall approach to defense acquisition over the past few years, from the proliferation of long-term support partnerships and a move toward true through-life equipment management for key military platforms to the SMART Acquisition initiative and the UK Defence Industrial Strategy released in December 2005. As part of those broader efforts, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) recently released their Defence Technology Strategy, which sets longer-term R&D priorities.

With an annual spend of approximately GBP 2.6 billion (about $4.9 billion), the MOD is a very large investor in Research & Development – everything from micro-satellites and battery augmentors/substitutes to an inhaled spray cures for bubonic plague. This new strategy sets out in detail those technologies which the MOD believes should be supported and brought from concept to front line delivery more quickly. It will also launch several initiatives designed to bring smaller enterprises into these R&D efforts and widen the range of potential programs…

Fresh from its EUR 75 million acquisition of telecom and next-gen IP firm LANData in Sept 2006, Amper group is announcing two new contracts with the Spanish Army to supply next generation radio equipment with PR4Gv3 (aka. F@stnet). The contracts amount to EUR 10.5 million (about $13.1 million)

These new software-defined radios bring a number of new capabilities to the table:

IGNAT-ER UAV

General Atomics-Aeronautical Systems Inc. in San Diego, CA recently a received $14.5 million modification to a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract, covering contractor logistics support for I-GNAT unmanned aerial vehicle operations. The I-GNAT is a long-endurance UAV that can operate for 40 hours at a time, and is used in a number of front-line theaters. Army Technology notes that “The US Army’s IGNAT-ER Extended Range unmanned air vehicle has been deployed in Iraq since spring 2004 and has recently increased the operational tempo from 12 hours to 20 hours per day, every day, on reconnaissance and surveillance missions. The system has successfully achieved a sustained full mission capability rate of 95%.”

Work will be performed in San Diego, CA (75%), Adelanto, CA (5%), Palmdale, CA (5%), and Salt Lake City, UT (15%), and is expected to be complete by Nov. 30, 2007. This was a sole source contract initiated on Sept. 6, 2006 by the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command at Redstone Arsenal, AL (DAAH01-03-C-0124).

Striker ARFF in action

Oshkosh Truck Corp. in Oshkosh, WI received the full delivery order amount of $5.4 million for its aircraft rescue and firefighting fire trucks. ARFF trucks are the ones used when something goes wrong at an airport, and Oshkosh’s Striker series has a number of features not commonly found on other fire trucks. Work will be performed in Oshkosh, WI and is expected to be complete by Sept. 25, 2008. Bids were solicited via the World Wide Web on May 15, 2006, and 4 bids were received by the U.S. Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command in Warren, MI (W56HZV-06-D-G015).

GDRS Concept

The U.S. Navy Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center in San Diego, CA awarded General Dynamics Robotic Systems a $12.7 million contract for 4 Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs) for the Littoral Combat Ship’s Anti-Submarine Warfare Mission Module.

As the prime contractor in this team effort, General Dynamics will provide the Navy with an 11-meter USV that can perform long endurance missions due to its efficiency. The USVs will employ towed arrays, dipping sonar sensors and acoustic sources as payloads to carry out their Anti-Submarine Warfare mission. General Dynamics’ teammates on this project include: