UK MoD Begins $8-11B Communications Overhaul

Under the terms of an $8-11 billion deal, a consortium led by EDS will consolidate the U.K. Ministry of Defence’s existing information networks into a single infrastructure under the Defence Information Infrastructure (Future) plan. The strategic goal is to facilitate communication between military headquarters, battlefield support and front-line operations by linking roughly 150,000 desktop computers and 340,000 individuals in some 2,000 locations. The budget for all three stages is GBP 4 billion (USD $7.6 billion), and add-on work could total another USD $3 billion…

2005 Orders for SM-2 Standard Missiles: $266M

SM-2 Launch

Yesterday, we noted a $29.6 million contract (N00024-03-C-5330) to provide engineering and technical services in support of the Standard Missile-2 Guided Missile Program for Foreign Military Sales (FMS). As a follow-on to that contract, Raytheon Co. in Tucson, AZ received a $266 million firm-fixed-price modification for production of the FY 2005 SM-2 missile order to equip the U.S. Navy and the navies of Japan, the Netherlands, Germany, Taiwan, Canada, and Korea respectively. The SM-2 is the ultra-modern air defense missile on US warships equipped with advanced AEGIS radars, and a variant called the SM-3 is being tested as part of U.S. ballistic missile defense plans.

U.S. Navy orders include agreed quantities of Block IIIA All-Up-Rounds (AUR), Block IIIB AUR, Block IIIB ORDALT kits, AN/DKT-71A Telemetric Data Transmitting Sets (TDTS), and section level spares. The contract also includes procurement for other navies under the Foreign Military Sales Program of 99 SM-2 Block IIIA AUR, 64 SM-2 Block IIIB AUR, 51 AN/DKT-71A TDTS with Installation Kits, 25 various foreign military sales spare sections and 161 shipping missile containers. Work will be performed in Tucson, AZ (56%), Andover, MA (23%), Camden, AR (20%), and Farmington, NM (1%), and is expected to be completed by December 2007. The Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington, DC, issued the contract (N00024-04-C-5342).

Army Getting BUFFed with SGI System

SGI Prism System

SGI, a Mountain View company also known as Silicon Graphics that specializes in supercomputers to visualize scientific data, is working with the U.S. military. The research is part of the U.S. military’s Brute Force Fusion, or BUFF program to study ways to improve analysis on the battlefield. Using SGI’s Altix servers and Prism visualization technology, BUFF can receive 170,000 intelligence reports an hour adding up to 3 terabytes of data a day. The program is using the SGI systems to study how to quickly bring that vast amount of information into one usable source of information.

Paul Temple, a senior manager for business development with SGI, spent 20 years in the Army with duties including counter-intelligence and special operations. He sees the SGI system as a way for the Army to stay on top of data overload and cut the time between sensor and shooter. The Army began testing the SGI Altix servers and Prism visualization system in January at the Army’s Fort Huachuca battle command lab in Arizona. A prototype system could be ready for use in actual operations in Iraq by the end of the year, according to Temple. He said SGI hopes to eventually sell the Army about 500 servers, portable and fixed, to help analyze and show information to war planners. San Jose Mercury: Company helping coordinate information from battlefield

$4.4M for Lightweight Battlefield Radars

British MSTAR

Syracuse Research Corp. in North Syracuse, NY won a $4.4 million increment as part of a $5 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for Lightweight Surveillance and Target Acquisition Radar. As Global-Defence.com notes: “Platforms equipped with LMSRs provide wide-area surveillance capability during the day and night and in adverse weather conditions to differentiate between moving personnel, trucks, tanks and helicopters. The performance limitations that smoke, haze and moisture impose on electro-optic and infrared systems are overcome by using radars. In conjunction with multiple sensor systems, LMSRs provide rapid wide-area target detections and locations that are used to cue narrow field-of-view EO/IR sensors or provide spot fixed target imagery to enhance target recognition.”

Work will be performed in North Syracuse, N.Y., and is expected to be completed by March 18, 2007. Bids were solicited via the Internet on Aug. 26, 2004, and one bid was received. The U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command at Fort Monmouth, NJ issued the contract (W15P7T-05-C-P617).

Work Continues to Update BioChem Protection Gear

Mine Safety Appliances, Murrysville, Pa., was awarded on March 17, 2005, a delivery order amount of $2.6 million as part of a $29.6 million firm-fixed-price contract for Neutral, Clear, and Laser Outserts and the Left and Right Lenses for the M40/42 Chemical Biological Protective Masks. Work will be performed in Evans City, PA (78%), and Leominster, Mass. (22%), and is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2009. Bids were solicited via the Internet on Nov. 8, 2004, and one bid was received. The U.S. Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command at Rock Island, IL issued the contract (W52H09-05-D-0117).