$39.6M for Upgrades to US Marines’ AV-8B Harrier IIs
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DID has covered the changes made to the USA’s AV-8B Harrier IIs, which turned them from the most accident-prone aircraft in the fleet to a much safer jet whose hover capability and LITENING surveillance and targeting pods proved extremely effective in the urban warfare scenarios of Iraq. We’ve also covered the British experience with their similar GR7 Harrier II aircraft in Afghanistan.
Now Boeing subsidiary McDonnell Douglas Corp. has received an estimated $39.6 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for upgrades for the AV-8B Weapons System through a series of spiral System Configuration Set (SCS) developments. The contract also provides for investigation and documentation of current system anomalies, design and integration of system upgrades to include avionics and weapons, and development verification and validation of support software associated with these upgrades, which includes design and development and fleet utilization. Work will be performed in St. Louis, MO (95%) and China Lake, CA (5%), and is expected to be complete in October 2010. This contract was not competitively procured. The Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division in China Lake, CA issued the contract (N68936-05-C-0068).
