Raytheon Co., Tucson, Ariz., is being awarded a $152,454,637 firm fixed price modification to previously awarded contract N00024-05-C-5482, to procure 198 (ea) RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles (ESSM), 59 (ea) shipping containers and spares for the NATO Sea Sparrow Consortium. This modification procures ESSMs for Germany, Greece, Norway, Spain, The Netherlands, Norway, and the United States. The NATO Sea Sparrow consortium, which includes the United States and 9 other countries, will fund the effort. DID covered a similar, $162.8 million contract in May 2005.
Work will be performed in Tucson, AZ (38%); Andover, MA (10%); Camden, AR (5%); Minneapolis, MN (1%); Australia (13%); Canada (7%); Germany (7%); Norway (7%); The Netherlands (6%); Spain (3%); Denmark (1%); Greece (1%); and Turkey (1%), and is expected to be completed by October 2008. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington, DC issued the contract.
The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory in Cambridge, MA is being awarded a $9.5 million cost-plus-fixed-fee completion contract to provide engineering and technical services in the areas of system integration, implementation, and management, including hardware and software (see solicitation). CSDL will be providing its integration experience to the following technology development programs:
Military Flight Operation Quality Assurance Demonstration Project
Submarine Class Ship Control System
Work will be performed in Cambridge, MA and is expected to be complete by December 2010. This contract was not competitively procured by the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division in West Bethesda, MD issued the contract (N00167-06-D-0001). Among other projects, CSDL is also a major participant in the for the life-extension program for the Trident II D-5 submarine-launched nuclear missile.
According to an unofficial translation by defense-aerospace.com, DCN has received a contract for the total operational support of the 6 Rubis Amethyste Class nuclear-powered attack submarines operated by the French Navy and home-ported in Toulon, France. The deal is worth EUR 406 million (about $485 million) over four years, with a firm initial tranche worth EUR 80 million ($95 million). It extends the global contract approach adopted by the customer, the Service du Soutien de la Flotte (SSF, or Fleet Support Department) and consolidates all activities contributing to the operational support of French SSNs.
The submarine support deal extends DCN’s history in the area of fleet support, and also includes a number of innovative elements.
Following joint development between the United Kingdom and Sweden, the Swedish FMV defense procurement agency placed a SEK 500 million (about $63 million) purchase order with Saab Bofors Dynamics for the RB 57 NLAW(Next generation Light Antitank Weapon). NLAW was developed in Sweden and will be produced in the United Kingdom, where it is known as MBT-LAW. A number of British subcontractors are involved in production, and final assembly will take place at Thales Air Defence in Belfast. This order is for series production and delivery for the Swedish Armed Forces.
In the summer of 2002 the Swedish FMV and British Defence Procurement Agency (DPA) ordered development of NLAW for the United Kingdom and Sweden, plus series production and delivery for the British Armed Forces. The order was worth approximately SEK 4,000 million (about $430 million at the time), beating out the Predator/Kestrel from Lockheed Martin, MBDA and Insys.
Electric Boat Corp. in Groton, CT has received a $15.5 million modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-96-C-2100) for execution of the USS Virginia’s (SSN 774) Post Shakedown Availability to accomplish maintenance, repair, alterations, testing, and other work. Note that work of this type is routine with all new ships post-shakedown, and that first-in-class ships always represent additional work. The first-of-class USS Virginia is currently undergoing operational evaluation (OpEval), and is currently scheduled to be inducted into service in 2007-2008.
Work will be performed in Groton, CT (99%) and Quonset Point, RI (1%), and is expected to be complete in November 2006. The Supervisor of Shipbuilding Conversion and Repair, USN in Groton, CT issued the contract.
Now CASR reports that the competition has taken an interesting twist. New C-130Js will apparently be unavailable for delivery until 2010, which would break the must-replace deadline of 3 years. Meanwhile, EADS Airbus Military is reportedly floating a trial balloon around acquiring and refurbishing C-130Hs within the deadline, then offering them later as trade-ins for the Airbus A400M. Will Lockheed now follow suit with a similar offer?
BAE Systems Land Systems Hagglunds has won a DKr 1.675 billion (about $258 million) order to supply 45 CV90-35 MkIII Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFVs) to the Danish Army. The Danish ministry notes that the vehicles’ “main task will be international operations,” and that the purchase is intended to “increase firepower, mobility, ability to deploy, protection of the crews and the ability to operate in network centric warfare environments.” This contract also includes weapon systems, equipment for personal protection and a C4ISR system to be mounted on the vehicles.
This latest order brings the number of CV90 series vehicle customers to six (Sweden, Denmark, Finland, The Netherlands, Norway, and Switzerland) and total orders and deliveries to 1,170 vehicles. The CV90-35 MkIII, in service with The Netherlands and soon Denmark as well, incorporates a number of improvements over previous CV90-30 export versions.
Earl Industries LLC in Portsmouth, VA received a five year Multi-Ship Multi-Option (MSMO) cost-plus-award-fee contract with a total evaluated cost of $165.3 million. This contract covers work on four CVN-68 Nimitz Class Aircraft Carriers, which include Planned Incremental Availabilities, Docking Planned Incremental Availabilities, and scheduled/ unscheduled continuous maintenance repairs. The vessels involved are USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69), USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), USS George Washington (CVN 73), and USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75). The contract also allows for options to accomplish scheduled and unscheduled repairs on the USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) and the Enterprise Class carrier USS Enterprise (CVN 65), the world’s first nuclear carrier.
Back on December 8, 2005, DID ran a story about Forecast International’s market forecast for the $5.33 billion man-portable anti-armor and bunker buster weapons market over the next decade. We mentioned that the Russians were poised to dominate production with the RPG-26/27, and that the market itself was bifurcating into state-of-the-art, high cost designs (mostly from Europe) and cheaper, simpler weapons (mostly Russian and ex-Soviet) – but there was also a piece of interesting information embedded deeper in the report.
“Iran’s Defense Industries Organization (DIO) will be the most significant player involved in RPG-7 production during the forecast period. Iranian licensed production of the RPG-7 will account for 4.25 percent of all new man-portable anti-armor and bunker buster weapons production, worth 2.88 percent of the total market value, through 2014.”
That translates into a production total of over 80,000 weapons, with half of that estimated production occurring in the 2005-2008 period. Three guesses where many of those RPG-7s will end up… and have a look at “Phase Four Operations in Iraq and the RPG-7” by the US Center for Army Lessons Learned. Readers interested in the full report should contact FI.
BAE Systems Land & Armaments in York, PA received a $20 million cost-reimbursable contract for FY 2006 RESET of M2/M3 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles. Reset programs restore used vehicles to like-new condition, then return them to service.
Work will be performed in York, PA (83%), Aiken, SC (5%), San Jose, CA (8%), and Fayette, PA (4%), and is expected to be complete by Dec. 31, 2006. This was a sole source contract initiated on Oct. 18, 2005 by the Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command in Warren, MI (W56HZV-05-G-0005).
