Enertec America in Alpharetta, GA received a $15.3 million firm-fixed-price modification to provide digital video and data recorders for the A-10 Thunderbolt II (aka. “Warthog”) close support aircraft. Total funds have been obligated. This work will be complete by November 2006. Negotiations were completed June 2005. The Headquarters Ogden Air Logistics Center at Hill Air Force Base, UT issued the contract (FA8202-04-C-0023, P00005).
Honeywell International Inc. in Redmond, WA received a $12.1 million firm-fixed-price contract for C-130 Hercules aircraft Terrain Collision Avoidance Systems. The contract covers 75 Terrain Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) TPS-81A processors, 131 TCAS Mode S/IFF Control Panels, 85 TCAS AN/APX-119/RT-1853 Mode S/IFF Digital Transponders without Crypto, 75 TCAS Displays and 100 TCAS Antenna. This equioment is especially valuable to special operations forces, who frequently have to fly their MC-130 Combat Talon II aircraft in nap-of-the-earth profiles in order to avoid radar detection.
Yesterday, DID covered a $34M Canadian request for 97 Multifunctional Information Distribution System-Low Volume Terminals (MIDS-LVTs). 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 19 platforms, making it an interoperability success story.
Recently, the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command in San Diego, CA issued another $93.6 million in firm-fixed-price delivery orders for MIDS-LVTs. The systems will be installed in U.S. Navy, Air Force and Army platforms, and are also destined for a number of foreign militaries.
The Government of Canada has requested a possible sale of 94 Link 16 Multifunctional Information Distribution System (MIDS)/Low Volume Terminals (LVT), 1,000 MIDS batteries, plus testing, integration and other related elements of program and logistics support. The estimated cost is $34 million. The prime contractor will be the BAE/Rockwell Collins joint venture Data Link Solutions of Wayne, NJ.
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 The operational advantages provided by at-a-glance portrayal of targets, threats and friendly forces, on an easy-to-understand, relative position display, are obvious. The MIDS LVT 1 was developed by a multinational consortium to provide Link 16 capability at a lower weight, volume and cost than the Joint Tactical Information Data System (JTIDS).
Boeing Co. in St Louis MO is being awarded an $82 million contract modification for full rate production of the Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS) for the USAF F-15, and F-16, the Navy F/A-18 platforms, and foreign military sales to Australia, Finland, Oman, Poland, and Switzerland.
The JHMCS system is provided to Boeing by Vision Systems International, LLC, a joint venture between Elbit Systems Ltd. Subsidiary EFW Inc. and Rockwell Collins. VSI is also working on the more advanced HMDS system for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. in Stratford, CT received a $16.8 million modification to a firm-fixed-price contract for Elbit A & B Kits for the UH-60 Black Hawk Helicopters. The Israeli firm Elbit Systems is the Weapon Management System (WMS) supplier and weapons integrator for Sikorsky, providing armament control systems, observation and targeting systems, stores management, and helmet mounted sights with Line of Sight (LOS) cueing.
Work will be performed in Stratford, CT, and is expected to be complete by Dec. 31, 2007. This was a sole source contract initiated on Dec. 10, 2004. The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command in Redstone Arsenal, AL issued the contract (DAAH23-02-C-0006).
The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, MD is exercising an an $8.8 million option on a previously awarded indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract (N00019-03-D-0004) for engineering, logistics and program management services that support the development and low rate initial production activities associated with the Advanced Mission Computer and Displays system for the F/A-18 Hornet and AV-8B Harrier II platforms. The estimated level of effort for this option is 42,951 man-hours from McDonnell Douglas Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of The Boeing Co. in St. Louis, MO. Work will be performed in Minneapolis, MN (47%); St. Louis, MO (30%); and Albuquerque, NM (23%); and is expected to be complete in June 2006.
The Boeing Co. in Ridley Park, PA recently received a pair of sole-source contracts related to the CH-47 medium transport helicopter. The contracts include both a remanufacturing contract and advanced avionics for new-build aircraft. Both contracts were issued by the Army Aviation and Missile Command in Huntsville, AL.
A $186.2 million firm-price-incentive-fee contract for CH-47F Improved Cargo Helicopters is expected to be completed by March 31, 2007 (W58RGZ-04-G-0023), while a $25.9 million modification to a firm-price-price and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for Cut In Common Avionics Architecture System and Digital Advanced Flight Control System to the CH-47 New Build Production Effort is expected to be completed by July 31, 2008 (W58RGZ-04-C-0012).
Northrop Grumman Systems Corp. in Bethpage, NY received a $10.2 million modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract (N00019-03-C-0044) to upgrade 10 E-2C Group II Hawkeye carrier-based airborne early warning & control aircraft to the Group II navigation upgrade configuration. Work will be performed in St. Augustine, FL and is expected to be complete in November 2007. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md. issued the contract.
The U.S. Air Force (USAF) recently decided to recompete the lion’s share of a $4 billion contract to update guidance, navigation, communications systems, and cockpit displays for about 670 C-130 Hercules medium transport aircraft. Michael Dominguez, acting secretary of the Air Force, announced his decision in an April 26, 2005 letter to U.S. Comptroller General David Walker, two months after a government agency concluded that the 2001 contract award was tainted by service-acquisition chief Darleen Druyun.
Pentagon officials said on Feb. 14, 2005 that Druyun, who went to work for Boeing in January 2003 and also secured jobs for family members in return for influence over military procurement decisions, may have improperly influenced up to eight contracts.
