Raytheon in El Segundo, CA received a $51.6 million modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract (N00019-06-C-0310) for 19 Full Rate Production Lot 6 Advanced Targeting Forward Looking Infrared (ATFLIR) pods. These ATFLIR pods will equip the Government of Australia (18, confirmed for its new F/A-18F Bock IIs, $35.6 million; 69%) and also buys 1 ATFLIR pod and long lead time items for the Government of Switzerland (flies F/A-18C/D Hornets and may be connected to the Hornet 25 program, $5.4 million; 10.6%), plus Units Under Test and one Electro-Optical Sensory Unit for the U.S. Navy ($10.5 million; 20.4%).
Work will be performed in El Segundo, CA (60%) and McKinney, TX (40%), and is expected to be complete in November 2010. The Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent River, MD administers the contract.
These are ATFLIR’s first international orders beyond the USA. According to Raytheon’s release, the Swiss government’s order allows the nation to purchase up to 14 more pods in 2009, in order to equip its Hornet fleet.
Australia uses Northrop Grumman’s LITENING AT pods on its F/A-18A Hornets, but Raytheon’s ATFLIR is currently the only pod qualified with the Super Hornet. Faced with the choice of buying a different pod off the shelf, or paying the integration costs and having a common fleet resource, Australia apparently decided that buying of the shelf was the better decision.
Honeywell International Inc. in Minneapolis, MN received a $7.4 million cost-plus-fixed fee contract to design and develop “new performance and design parameters for Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) hardware and software of tactical grade and Deeply Integrated Guidance and Navigation Unit hardware and software.” Work will be performed in Minneapolis, MN and is expected to be complete by Sept 28/12. One bid was solicited on May 22/08 by the U.S. Army & Aviation Command at Redstone Arsenal, AL (W31P4Q-08-D-0025).
Developments in this field may appear arcane and technical, but advances in this area have widespread military and even commercial applications.
IMUs are small, puck-shaped units that play a critical role in a number of advanced guidance and navigation technologies. Honeywell developed the ring laser gyro in the 1960s and 1970s for commercial, space and military systems, and these systems are now in widespread use. As one example among many, JDAM bombs receive a lot of attention for their GPS satellite guidance, but inertial navigation (INS) that doesn’t require a satellite plays an important complementary role. The firm is also pioneering super-miniaturized inertial navigation systems using Micro ElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS) technology. MEMS systems are smaller and can survive more intense shocks – like being fired from a gun. Raytheon’s M982 Excalibur GPS guided shells, for instance, depend on this complementary INS technology in order to function. See also Honeywell’s Inertial Measurement Units page.
The USA’s Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Atlantic in Norfolk, VA recently awarded $250 million in cost reimbursement plus award fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts Contractors will provide architect/engineer services in support of the US Navy’s Environmental Program at US Navy and Marine Corps installations, and various Department of Defense sites.
Tetra Tech NUS, Inc. in Norfolk, VA won a $125 million award for work in the Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, and Northwest Regions – predominantly in Maine (15%), R.I. (15%), Mass. (14%), Ind. (9%), N.J. (8%), Fla. (6%), Texas (6%), S.C. (6%), Penn. (5%), N.Y. (4%), Ill. (3%), Puerto Rico and Guantanamo Bay (1.2%), Conn. (1%), Ga. (1%), La. (1%), Minn. (1%), Miss. (1%), Wash. (1%), Ala. (0.1%), Alaska (0.1%), Del. (0.1%), Idaho (0.1%), Mont. (0.1%), N.H. (0.1%), Ore. (0.1%), Vt. (0.1%), Ohio (0.5%), and also in Tenn. (0.5%), and work is expected to be complete May 2009 (May 2013 with options exercised). Contract funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively negotiated via the Naval Facilities Engineering Command e-solicitation website with 3 proposals received (N62470-08-D-1001).
CH2M Hill, Inc. in Virginia Beach, VA won a $125 million award for work in the Mid-Atlantic Region including Va. (30%), N.C. (25%), Md. (10%), W.Va. (5%), D.C. (5%), and some other overseas locations in Africa, Europe, Southwest, Asia, Bahrain, and Vieques (25%). Work is expected to be completed May 2009 (May 2013 with options exercised). Contract funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively negotiated via the Naval Facilities Engineering Command e-solicitation website with 2 proposals received (N62470-08-D-1000).
Harris Corp., Palm Bay, FL has won a $15.1 million initial order under an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, firm-fixed price contract for “Multi-Band Shipboard Satellite Communications Systems; Force Level Variant.” Terminals delivered under this contract are most likely Harris’ AN/WSC-8V; they will allow the Program Executive Office-Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence and Space (PEO-C4I & Space) and Navy Communications Program Office (PMW-170) to provide commercial SATCOM connectivity capability to the Fleet. This contract includes 5 one-year ordering periods, and has a total estimated value of $85.4 million.
Work on the initial order will be performed in Palm Bay, FL, and is expected to be complete by January 2009. If delivery orders are placed throughout, work could continue until June 2013. This contract was competitively procured with using full and open competitive procedures via the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center E-commerce website, with 5 offers received by the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command in San Diego, CA activity (N00039-04-D-0004).
On May 19/08, “GCC C3 Market Projected at $9b from 2008-2015” discussed the potential for Command, Control and Communications contracts in the [Arabian] Gulf Cooperation Council countries, which includes extensive border security and first responder related contracts.
As one recent example, EADS recently announced a EUR 12 million (about $25 million) contract from the Qatar Ministry of Interior to operate its secured nationwide TETRA radio network for several years. EADS has established a solid global position in this area, with a number of country-wide TETRA network implementatios under its belt. This contract covers the full range of services managed by the Network Operation Centre (NOC), which acts as the single point of operation and maintenance for the network. The NOC will include Element Management System, a Network Management System, a Trouble Ticketing System, a Configuration Management Database, and Service Management to allow reporting, monitoring and evaluation vis-a-vis the Service Level Agreements. A Web Portal will provide access to those applications and processes in a unified way via a standard web browser.
The effort falls under the EADS Secure Networks Evercor family of solutions, and is a follow-on to the 2006 contract awarded to EADS Secure Networks partner Atlas Telecom. Deployment and implementation of that TETRA network which is almost complete. As a next stage, EADS SN and its partners will set up a dedicated TETRA competence center and Center of Excellence, which will include a training centre as well as a test bed for applications and services. This will be the first TETRA center of excellence in the Middle East.
