United Technologies subsidiary Sikorsky Aircraft in Stratford, CT received a $245 million contract to make 22 new generation UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters for the U.S. Army, company officials said Monday. First deliveries are set to begin in July 2006, and the contract contains options for another 8 helicopters.
Contracts for project systems management and for UH-60L “plus-ups” were also announced by the U.S. DoD.
Israel has launched an ambitious program to digitize its Command, Control, Communications, Computer, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) architecture to increase the operational speed and agility of its ground forces. Built around a wireless backbone supported by software programmable radios, this Digital Army Program (DAP, known as Tsva Yabasha Digitali in Hebrew, or “Tsayad”) will build a system of systems including a software-based data radio called Green Elad; a layer called TIGER (Tactical Intranet Geographic dissEmination) that will tie DAP into legacy systems; the TORC2H system which seems similar to the U.S. “Blue Force Tracker“; a lightweight tactical operations center; plus a number of other command and communications applications, some of which were put on hold while DAP was fleshed out.
The Army Small Computer Program spent $5 million to purchase 5,000 licenses of ProSight Portfolios and ProSight Fast Track software on April 21, 2005, in order to help implement project portfolio management servicewide. ProSight is compatible with Microsoft Project.
Army Chief Information Officer Lt. Gen. Steve Boutelle said he believes the products will help better track the service’s 4,500 systems and better spend its annual IT budget ($6.1 billion requested for FY 2006), becoming the U.S. Army’s system of record for IT investments and systems and helping the service identify inefficient or redundant IT systems or investments.
Two F136 engine prototypes are reaching static-test milestones under a 10-year-old General Electric/ Rolls-Royce project to produce the second engine option for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). Both conventional engines and Short Takeoff/ Vertical Landing (SToVL) variants are being tested. The JSF engine program has brought together the expertise of the three major U.S. and British manufacturers, resulting in unprecedented levels of coordination to make the F136 and F135 engines interchangeable across the three F-35 variants, with common hardware compatible with each engine’s systems.
The GE/Rolls-Royce team is two to four years behind (see full timeline) Pratt & Whitney’s F135, a derivative of the F119 engine fitted on the F-22 Raptor. The F135 will power the JSF through its first 3 production lots of about 75 aircraft. Meanwhile, the F136 team is just completing work associated with the $411 million Phase III System Development and Demonstration (SDD) contract to evaluate an engine for the three versions of the JSF. As the 2002 contract ends in coming months, GE/Rolls is anticipating a $2 billion full SDD contract by the Joint Strike Fighter project office to develop and build 15 engines through 2012. The deadline for the final proposal is Apr. 30, 2005.
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Ready for static test
Two F136 engine prototypes are reaching static-test milestones under a 10-year-old General Electric/ Rolls-Royce project to produce the second engine option for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). Both conventional engines and Short Takeoff/ Vertical Landing (SToVL) variants are being tested. The JSF engine program has brought together the expertise of the three major U.S. and British manufacturers, resulting in unprecedented levels of coordination to make the F136 and F135 engines interchangeable across the three F-35 variants, with common hardware compatible with each engine’s systems.
The GE/Rolls-Royce team is two to four years behind (see full timeline) Pratt & Whitney’s F135, a derivative of the F119 engine fitted on the F-22 Raptor. The F135 will power the JSF through its first 3 production lots of about 75 aircraft. Meanwhile, the F136 team is just completing work associated with the $411 million Phase III System Development and Demonstration (SDD) contract to evaluate an engine for the three versions of the JSF. As the 2002 contract ends in coming months, GE/Rolls is anticipating a $2 billion full SDD contract by the Joint Strike Fighter project office to develop and build 15 engines through 2012. The deadline for the final proposal is Apr. 30, 2005.
