Rapid Fire: 2010-04-28

• Russian Novator’s promotion of its containerized SS-N-27 Klub-K CMS cruise missiles extend and highlight new dimensions of the terrorist threat as “the ultimate concealed weapon,” offers second-strike for smaller states outside the rules of war, and raises the priority for persistent cruise missile defenses.

• On a related note, the emergence of surveillance-strike complexes and missiles as the new coastal artillery, has far-reaching naval implications.

• Russian president says he’s interested in NATO proposal to develop a common missile defense system.

• Liquid-fueled rockets, or solid fuel? MBDA’s Bayern Chemie says don’t choose – use gelled propellant to get full safety and variable thrust.

• Raytheon and EAI finish ground tests of their TALON 70mm laser-guided rocket.

• 418th Flight Test Squadron paradrops 77,000 pound load out of a C-17A, at 25,000 feet, to test the parachutes for NASA’s Ares I solid rocket booster.

• Supermaaaan! US Army Golden Knight parachutist sets the official world distance record in a wing-suit.

• Picking soldiers’ brains: US OSD wants small business input on cognitive readiness in modern military operations.

• Harris snags a $35 million contract from the Defense Commissary Agency to provide IT support for distribution of commissary goods to US military personnel worldwide.

Modular Space: DARPA’s F6 Program

System F6 concept

Satellites are currently big, expensive to build and launch, vulnerable, impossible in practice to upgrade on-orbit, difficult to replace – and critical to military effectiveness. That’s a really bad combination. Now add program risk and cost inflation driven by those issues, as the military tries to launch the most advanced technologies it can, in a uniquely ‘no fail’ environment.

DARPA’s System F6 program aims at nothing less than a revolution in satellite technology, aimed at removing those constraints. If successful, it will develop and demonstrate the basic building blocks of a totally new space architecture, in which traditional integrated satellites are replaced by clusters of smaller, cheaper, wirelessly-interconnected space modules that form a “virtual” satellite.

• Fractionated Space: The F6 Program [updated]
  
• Contracts and Key Events [updated]
  
• Additional Readings [updated]
  

Up to $300M to 7 Firms for Military Utilities Construction in US Southwest

Climb that pole

The US Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Southwest in San Diego, CA awarded 7 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity multiple award construction contract for new construction and repair of dry utilities construction at US military facilities in the US Southwest.

The maximum dollar value for all 7 contracts combined is $300 million. The terms of the contracts are not to exceed 60 months, with an expected completion date of April 2015.

The work to be performed provides for new construction, addition, repair, or upgrade of electrical distribution systems, lighting systems, cable television lines, airfield lighting, and communication transmission lines.

The winners are:

$94.7M to Orbital Sciences for US Naval Spacecraft, Airborne System R&D

Orbital Sciences Corp. in Greenbelt, MD received a $94.7 million cost-plus-fixed-fee level of effort contract from the US Naval Research Laboratory for spacecraft and airborne systems research analysis and prototype development.

The work includes the analysis, design, development, test, operation demonstration, and transition of these prototype systems and subsystems.

The scope of the research efforts Orbital will carry out entails multi-disciplinary approaches to discovering and applying new knowledge and technologies to designing, building, and operating of airborne, space and other technology systems.

Northrop Grumman’s Move to Washington

A capital idea?

On Jan 4/10, Northrop Grumman Corp. announced that it would be moving its corporate headquarters from Los Angeles, CA to the Washington, DC area. The new corporate office will include approximately 300 people, and the firm plans to complete its location search by spring 2010, and open the new corporate office by summer 2011.

In response, the Washington Post’s Steve Pearlstein pens “When aerospace is under Washington’s wing,” which sees the move in a surprisingly negative light.