Rapid Fire 2011-05-02: Mil Payloads to Piggyback Civ Sats

• Osama Bin Laden is killed by US Navy SEALs… in a Pakistani mansion about 40 miles outside Islamabad. No SEALs killed, but 1 American helicopter was damaged and then destroyed by the SEALs. A Pakistani helicopter may have also gone down. Unfortunately, Ayman-al Zawahiri, the brains of the operation, is still alive.

• General Dynamics Electric Boat receives $1.2 billion to begin construction of the 14th Virginia-class submarine, SSN-787, part of Block III with a revised bow design.

• Russia lays out its vision of European missile defense.

• Angola & Kenya may become the next customers for IAI’s Heron-1 UAV or UAV services, joining export customers like Brazil, India & Turkey, and rent-a-UAV customers like Australia, Canada & Germany.

• Saab sees potential Gripen jet fighter orders in Brazil, Romania, Croatia, Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. All are possible. Likely is another matter.

• Pentagon looks to place military payloads on commercial satellites in order to reduce costs. On the other hand, they’re not moving to take advantage of Iridium NEXT’s slots, which would seem to be a natural opportunity. But Iridium is just 1 of 7 firms in the new “Hosted Payload Alliance” lobby group.

• Wyle gets $14 million contract to provide IT services to support DARPA’s relocation in Arlington, VA.

• Atlas Air to begin providing passenger service for US military personnel in May, completing its existing military cargo service.

• “Why GE, Coca-Cola, and IBM Are Getting Into the Water Business.” Underlying these efforts: it’s becoming so important, that it will rival oil as a source of conflict in the 21st century.

Up to $167.4M to Intelsat for AFRTS Services

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April 27/11: Intelsat General Corp. in Bethesda, MD won a $142.9 million firm-fixed-price 7-year contract, with as not-to exceed ceiling of $167.5 million, to supply the American Forces Radio and Television Service’s Global Satellite Services Program with bandwidth. Intelsat’s worldwide commercial telecommunications services will include C- and Ku-band satellite resources, land earth stations, terrestrial backhauls, and bandwidth management services from April 22/11 through April 21/18, via a 1-year base contract with 6 one-year options. The solicitation was issued as a full and open competition on FedBizOpps, awarded to the lowest priced technically acceptable offeror. The Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization at Scott Air Force Bass, IL received 2 offers (HC1013-11-C-0101).

As of March 2011, Intelsat said that it had the world’s largest fleet of commercial satellites, operating a fleet of 52. They supply a number of military SATCOM services alongside their other deals, and even have a program that allows militaries like Australia’s to buy payload space on their satellites.