Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems and Solutions in San Jose, CA received a $2.02 billion cost-plus award fee contract for the Transformational Satellite (TSAT) Communications’ ground-based Mission Operations System (TMOS).
Consortia led by Raytheon and Northrop-Grumman had also been competing for this award. So what’s TMOS all about?
Eight months after the contract was signed, BAE Systems Hagglunds has delivered the first of 74 armored BvS-10 Viking armored all terrain vehicles to the Dutch Army. The purchasing process was accomplished in less than three months, and the lead-time between contract and serial delivery has been only 8 months. “We are very content with Hagglunds and the company’s ability to keep to the time agreed for the first delivery. A key to the success has been the unconventional but flexible way of working, regarding the processes of development, purchase and production” said Brig.Gen. Paul Opgenort.
The BvS-10 is the successor to the wildly popular Bv-206, 11,000 of which have been sold to 40 countries around the world – including the USA (M978). Singapore has developed and manufactured an improved variant of its own called the Bronco ATTC, and Finland and Norway have their own local Bv-206 variants. What makes this unusual-looking vehicle family so popular?
See DID’s Focus Article for this family of vehicles, and find out.
Boeing subsidiary McDonnell Douglas Corp. in St. Louis, MO received a $19.75 million firm-fixed-price delivery order (0037) under previously awarded basic ordering agreement contract (N00383-02-G-001H) for avionics repair facility support. This contract provides for repair of various F/A-18 Hornet and AV-8B Harrier II aircraft components, and includes a foreign military sale for Malaysia, Kuwait, and Spain (less than 1% of the total effort). Malaysia, Kuwait, and Spain all operate F/A-18s, and Spain also operates the AV-8B.
Work will be performed in Lemoore, CA (54%); Cecil Field, FL (43%); and Philadelphia, PA (3%), and is expected to be complete by September 2006. This contract was not competitively procured by the Naval Inventory Control Point.
The Headquarters Human Systems Group at Brooks City-Base, TX recently issued contracts for advisory and assistance services which includes management and professional studies, analyses and evaluations, and engineering and technical support to supplement government organic resources of the Human Systems Group and 311th Human Systems Wing. They are firm-fixed-price, time-and-material and cost-plus fixed-fee contracts of the indefinite delivery/ indefinite quantity type. The US Air Force can issue delivery orders totaling to the maximum amount indicated below, although actual requirements may be less. Solicitations began August 2005, negotiations were complete in January 2006, and work will be complete by January 2012.
According to its Statement of Commander’s Intent, the 311th Human Systems Wing is to be “the birthplace, home, and future of aerospace medicine.” It sits within the Brooks City-Base Project, an innovative joint partnership with the City of San Antonio, TX.
L-3 Vertex Aerospace LLC in Madison, MS received a $27 million indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity contract for logistics services in support of the E-6B Mercury fleet (aka. TACAMO, as in TAke Charge And Move Out). With the exercise of four, one-year options, the total value of the contract could reach $142.3 million.
Services will be provided to the Commander, Strategic Communications Wing ONE (CSCW-1), and three TACAMO squadrons at Tinker Air Force Base, OK (70%). Support for operations will be given at Travis AFB, CA (10%); Naval Air Station (NAS) Patuxent River, MD, including the Systems Integration Lab (10%); and Offutt AFB, NB (10%), and are expected to be complete in October 2006. This contract was competitively procured via an electronic request for proposals; one offer was received by the Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent River, MD (N00019-06-D-0011). Sources: DefenseLINK, L-3 corporate release.
See DID’s FOCUS Article on the E-6 Program. These “survivable airborne communication system” airplanes support the US Navy’s SSBN ballistic missile submarine force and overall strategic forces. With the advent of the new “Tactical Trident” converted Ohio Class special operations subs, their unique capabilities become even more useful. The E-6B version also has a secondary role as a “Looking Glass” Airborne National Command Post.
N.B. A minor typo in transcription led DID to report originally on the EA-6B, which is the Prowler electronic warfare aircraft. DID salutes reader Robert Frost of the VQ-4 “Shadows” for catching the error, and sending us the improved TACAMO picture.
