Out of its original purchase of 138 aircraft (98 single-seat CF18A and 40 dual-seat CF18B), Canada retains an operational fleet of 60 CF-18s, plus an additional 25 CF-18Bs in service with 410 Tactical Fighter (Operational Training) Squadron to train its fighter pilots.
In June 2006, Canada’s Department of National Defense began an arrangement with Boeing for the second and final phase the CF-18 Modernization Project. The upgrade will add a Link 16 system, a helmet-mounted sight, new cockpit displays and a new flare-dispensing electronic warfare system to 78 CF-18 Hornet fighter aircraft. Two additional aircraft were to be modified for the essential validation and verification of the planned upgrade, bringing the total to 80. The program delivered its 79th, and final, CF-18AM/BM aircraft in March 2010.
SAIC snags $26 million order to provide IT to Walter Reed Army hospital.
The Heritage Foundation calls on Congress for 1 day to walk to work, skip lunch, turn off Blackberries, and debate by candlelight, all to simulate an EMP attack. Like that’s going to happen (without another snowstorm).
USMC contract to Israel Military Industries for their Foot-Mobile Assault Bridge. For a better understanding of why that matters in Afghanistan, and the challenges faced by the USMC in theater, see below:
Fort Bliss, Texas is seeing a lot of activity these days, in part due to its convenient location near Biggs Army Airfield and White Sands Missile Range. In addition to hosting the US Army’s Center for Air Defense, Fort Bliss near El Paso, Texas will be relocating Brigade Combat Teams from their previous posts in Europe. One of those brigades will then assume a role as the Evaluation Brigade Combat Team tasked with testing and training with systems from the Future Combat Systems program. The Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) 2005 process added impetus to this expansion.
As one might gather, that means a lot of construction work etc. over at Fort Bliss, TX. This article shines a spotlight on announced contracts from September 2006 to the present day, adding contracts that have been issued since October 2008.
EG&G Defense Materials, a division of URS Corp., in Tooele, UT received a $181.3 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for Phase 2 chemical agent munitions disposal system (CAMDS) closure as well as CAMDS & Deseret Chemical Depot secondary waste and nerve gas tabun (GA)/Lewisite disposal.
The US Army’s CAMDS, located at Deseret Chemical Depot, ceased chemical munitions disposal in 2005. Initial closure activities were carried out by the Tennessee Valley Authority, who was replaced by private contractor EG&G Defense Materials.
The closure process is currently in phase II, with equipment already removed from the buildings. More detailed closure plans are being written for CAMDS and final closure is expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2012…
The US Navy is undertaking a bright star survey called the Joint Milliarcsecond Pathfinder Survey (JMAPS) mission. The survey will be carried out by a microsatellite containing a telescope set for launch in 2012. The JMAPS mission is intended to improve space situational awareness, in particular tracking space objects.
To build the telescope’s bus, the Navy is contracting with AeroAstro in Ashburn, VA. On March 25/10, the company received a $37.9 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to supply its low-jitter JMAPS spacecraft bus.
The bus will contain solar panels and will house the power, avionics, communications, thermal control, and inertial measurement units. The instrument/payload deck, which sits on top of the bus, will contain the optical telescope and electronics.
The AN/SPS-48E radar was introduced into the US Navy’s fleet in the mid-1980s. It is a medium-range, 3-dimensional (height, range, and bearing) air search radar whose primary function is to provide target position data to a weapon system and a ship command and control system.
Two decades later, the US Navy is upgrading the radar using AN/SPS-48G(V) radar modification kits [pdf] as part of its Radar Obsolescence, Availability Recovery (ROAR) program. ROAR is intended to extend the service life of AN/SPS-48 radar systems on aircraft carriers, amphibious assault ships, and land-based sites.
This ROAR program is upgrading more than 30 radar systems. The upgrades include adding a solid state transmitter, a digital receiver/ processor, open architecture, and a tactical integrated digital environment…
$7.2 million USMC order for VMMD spare parts. (March 24/10)
Detecting and defusing IEDs and mines has been a preoccupation of US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The South Africa-based RSD, a division of Dorbyl, has developed a vehicle mounted mine detector (VMMD) system that it is supplying to the US Army and US Marine Corps through its US marketing arm Critical Solutions International (CSI).
The VMMD system is a route-clearing system that includes a mine detection vehicle, detonation trailers with a prime mover, and support packages. The VMMD is based on the earlier Interim VMMD system, which consisted of a Meerkat mine-detection vehicle, and a Husky prime mover and detonation trailer system.
UK parliamentary panel says defense budget gap could reach GBP 36 billion, 6 times the MoD’s estimate. Defense programs could be slashed. Panel report | Reuters | Bloomberg | Telegraph | Daily Mail
US House of Representatives approves Rep. Skelton’s [D-MO] TRICARE Affirmation Act (H.R. 4887) 403 – 0. The bill explicitly deems that TRICARE and nonappropriated fund (NAF) health plans meet all of the minimum requirements under Obama’s new health care laws, and will not force military families to buy extra coverage or face fines.
