$24M to Elbit for Finnish Defense Communication System

Elbit Systems in Haifa, Israel received a contract valued at EUR 17 million ($24 million) to provide Finland’s Ministry of Defence with high speed radio and data transmission communication systems to be delivered between 2010 and 2012.

Finland is purchasing Elbit’s Tadiran family of communication systems, which include high frequency (HF) and very high frequency (VHF) tactical radio equipment designed for use by ground forces for data transfer and voice communications.

US Army Awards $8.6M in Environmental Remediation Service Orders

The US Army awarded a total of $8.6 million in performance-based task orders for environmental remediation services at Army facilities in the United States and Puerto Rico.

The Army has two environment remediation programs for active/operating Army installations – the Installation Restoration Program (IRP) and the Military Munitions Response Program (MMRP). The IRP is a program to identify, investigate and clean up hazardous substances, pollutants, and contaminants resulting from past US Department of Defense (DoD) operations and activities. The MMRP addresses the safety, health, and environmental issues caused by past DoD munitions-related activities. Congress established the MMRP to address unexploded ordnance, discarded military munitions and munitions constituents located at sites on other than operational ranges.

The recent Army task orders are for both types of remediation programs…

Boeing to Supply Data Transfer System to Arleigh Burke Class Destroyers

Arleigh Burke Class Destroyer
(click to view larger)

The Boeing Company received a $14.6 million US Navy contract (N00178-09-C-2003) to produce the information transfer system that controls mission-critical capabilities on guided missile destroyers. Boeing will supply 6 shipsets of the Gigabit Ethernet Data Multiplex System (GEDMS) AN/USQ-82(V) for the Navy’s modernization efforts on Arleigh Burke Class (DDG 51) destroyers.

The equipment will be retrofitted on the USS Barry (DDG 52), USS Stout (DDG 55), USS Benfold (DDG 65) and 3 foreign navy vessels. The US Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division in Dahlgren, VA manages the contract, which also includes spares.

The GEDMS for Arleigh Burke Class destroyers acts as a ship-wide data transfer network…

Boeing’s Skyhook Shot: Redefining the Aerial Heavy-Lift Market?

Skyhook concept

In April 2006, “WALRUS Hunted to Extinction By Congress, DARPA?” dealt with the cancellation of DARPA’s WALRUS ultra-heavy lift program. WALRUS aimed to develop an airship that could lift between 250-500 tons, offering capacity that rivaled ship-borne options, but offered the benefits of transport all the way to the front without requiring ports and related infrastructure.

The program would have developed a 30-40 ton capacity demonstration model in its early stages, which would have had a useful role of its own. “Walrus Heavy-Lift Blimp Rises, Falls” also noted the requests of combat commanders for airlift options that could be used with smaller airfields, that cannot accommodate the 20-ton capacity C-130 Hercules aircraft. Not to mention related items like pressure to lower fuel use at the Pentagon, and 2005 warnings from the Army Corps of Engineers about energy costs/supplies and future military operations.

Now a private consortium sees similar needs and trends in key civilian sectors. A Canadian/American partnership that includes Boeing has set itself the public goal of building the commercial equivalent of DARPA’s desired demonstrator…

Sysco to Provide Food Services at US Installations in Alaska

Sysco Food Services of Seattle in Kent, WA won a maximum $7.3 million firm-fixed price, indefinite quantity full-line food distribution contract modification to provide food services to US Army, US Air Force, and US Job Corps facilities in Alaska.

The original proposal was Web solicited with 3 responses. This contract is exercising the 4th option year of a 5-year contract, which includes 4 one-year option periods. The date of performance completion is Aug 26/10. The Defense Supply Center Philadelphia manages the contract (SPM300-08-D-3160).

Higher, Cheaper: RVSM Certifying the Super-Hornet

F/A-18Es over Afghanistan

It’s a seemingly small change. Allow US Navy F/A-18 E/F Super Hornets to cruise between 29,000 and 41,000 feet, where the thinner air would save the US Navy several million dollars per year in fuel costs – $250,000 for each of their qualifying Super Hornet squadrons. Unfortunately, that’s where passenger airliners fly, an altitude band called “Reduced Vertical Separation Minimum” (RVSM) airspace. Even worse, in 2005, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reacted to congestion by reducing RVSM separation, but compensated by requiring dual-altimetry systems to minimize the odds of catastrophic error. That rule neatly eliminated almost all military fighter jets.

A US NAVAIR release describes the 3-year process that led to RVSM airspace certification for the 340 Super Hornets produced in Production Lot 22 and beyond. Certification efforts for other Hornet family aircraft are also proceeding, including the F/A-18F-derived EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft, and smaller Navy/USMC F/A-18 A+, C, and D Hornets.