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.
JLENS is an early warning and surveillance system installed in an aerostat and positioned at an altitude of up to 15,000 feet for extended periods, to offer wide-area surveillance and over-the-horizon detection and tracking of aircraft, helicopters, UAVs and especially the elusive cruise missiles. Such targets may go undetected by surface-based sensors because of terrain masking and line-of-sight locations of targets. Other sensors on board will also detect and track moving targets on the ground.
Lockheed Martin has successfully completed a major system design review on the Airborne, Maritime and Fixed Station (AMF) Cluster of the military’s Joint Tactical Radio Systems (JTRS) program. During the review, held from May 17-19, 2005, the company demonstrated key technologies that comprise the core of its proposed AMF JTRS solution, and laid out its planned architecture and design approach for the system. Officials from all four military services as well as the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the National Security Agency attended the review. Thus far, Lockheed claims that its multi-company team is on schedule and on budget.
DID has covered the U.S. Army’s ongoing efforts to maintain, refurbish and upgrade its medium-lift CH-47 helicopter fleet. The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command in Redstone Arsenal, AL has issued a series of delivery orders for mechanical transmissions and rotary wings worth a combined $60.4 million, as part of various firm-fixed-price, sole source contracts to Boeing Helicopter in Ridley Park, PA worth a total of $119.4 million.
While order amounts, completion dates and contract amounts vary, all orders were placed under contract designation DAAH23-02-D-0307.
Raytheon’s Network Centric Systems in St. Petersburg, FL received an $8.4 million modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-03-C-5118) for investigation and study of the radio waveform used by the Navy’s Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) Program. Work on this radio waveform research contract will be performed in St. Petersburg, FL (65%); and Largo, FL (35%), and is expected to be complete by February 2006. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C issued the contract.
CEC is a sensor netting system that allows many ships to pool their radar and sensor information together, creating a very powerful and detailed picture that is much finer, more wide-ranging, and more consistent than any one ship could generate on its own. The data is then shared among all ships via secure frequencies. DID has covered one element of this system, the UGS-2 planar arrays.
Yet CEC is far more than a mere data-sharing program, or even a sensor fusion effort. Indeed, it may well be the most revolutionary capability available to the modern US Navy…
L-3 Communications Corp.’s Ocean Systems Division in Sylmar, CA received a $49.1 million cost-plus-fixed-fee, firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity contract to support, repair, and upgrade the TB-23/BQ thinline towed array system and support equipment. Towed array sonars are kind of like Christmas lights, except each light is a sonar emitter. They trail in the water behind moving ships, which accept the data they generate and collate each emitter’s data into a powerful underwater picture.
Work will be performed at L-3 Communications Ocean Systems Division, Sylmar, Calif. and is expected to be completed September 2010. The contract was not competitively procured. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C issued the contract (N00024-05-C-6237). Parent Company L-3 Communications has recently made headlines for its multi-billion dollar acquisition of Titan, and also for the criminal investigation aimed at one of its subsidiaries over the CESL emergency radio scandal.
Stewart & Stevenson Tactical Vehicle System LP in Sealy, TX received a $79 million modification to a cost-reimbursement and firm-fixed-price contract for Family of Medium Tactical Vehicle Trucks. Work will be performed in Sealy, TX and is expected to be complete by Nov. 15, 2008. There were two bids solicited on Aug. 15, 2002, and two bids were received. The U.S. Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command in Warren, MI issued the contract (DAAE07-03-C-S023).
We’ve certainly covered a lot of FMTV-related contracts. Basically, the U.S. Army is buying an awful lot of high end, objects-of-drooling-longing from-truck-aficionado type vehicles to replace the mainstay of its land transport fleet. Our ongoing coverage of these modifications is meant to accurately reflect the ongoing nature and priority of the contracts.
BAE Systems Applied Technologies, Inc in Rockville, MD received a $7.4 million modification to a previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (N00421-01-C-0077) exercising an option for technical and engineering support services for all phases of the shipboard communication systems life cycle; the development and integration of like systems at shore sites; and the development, testing and integration of mobile and airborne communication systems designed to work with those systems. The estimated level of effort for this option is 125,300 man-hours.
Work will be performed in California, MD (80%); St. Inigoes, MD (10%), Bath, ME (5%); and Pascagoula, MI (5%), and is expected to be complete in December 2009. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division in St. Inigoes, Md. issued the contract.
