TEMPER Tries to Trim Titanium’s Tab

Titanium

May 25/11: Small disadvantaged business qualifier Universal Technical Resource Services in Cherry Hill, NJ wins a $9.6 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to support the Pentagon’s Titanium Extraction, Mining and Process Engineering Research Program. The effort builds on earlier commitments from the firm in evaluating alternatives to the standard Kroll method, which reduces titanium tetrachloride (TiCl4) with magnesium to form titanium.

Titanium’s strength and lightness have created a wide range of military applications. It’s found in modern infantry jock straps, is used extensively in the USAF’s top-end F-22A Raptor fighters, and gives M777 ultra-light 155mm howitzers their lightness. It has also become a critical resource for civilian aerospace companies like Boeing and EADS. The flip side is that it’s expensive to produce, and difficult to work with. The goal of the Pentagon’s TEMPER program is to identify and develop new extraction and mining technologies that will reduce cost of titanium and other strategic metals. It might also give key US producers an edge, which is important to the Pentagon because of the politically-charged 1973 Berry Amendment’s restrictions.

Work will be performed in Butte, MT, and Mount Laurel, NJ, with an estimated completion date of May 23/13. The bid was solicited through a Broad Agency Announcement, with 7 bids received by the U.S. Army Contracting Command in Picatinny Arsenal, NJ (W15QKN-11-C-0143). It should not be surprising to note that TEMPER is just one of a number of efforts the US government has funded in this area.

MCTAGS, You’re It: BAE Supplies USMC Transparent Armored Gun Shields

MCTAGS on Various Vehicles
(click to view larger)

US Marines deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan face numerous hazards in close-combat urban environments. Certainly, small arms fire and fragments from IED explosions are high on the list. To lessen those risks, the USMC turned to BAE Systems to develop a transparent, bulletproof shield that can be attached to gun turrets on a number of types of armored vehicles.

It is called the Marine Corps Transparent Armor Gun Shield (MCTAGS), and BAE Systems received a contract in 2005 to develop and produce MCTAGS to replace the Gunner’s Protection Kit used on most USMC armored vehicles.

Rapid Fire Evening 2011-06-06: Armored Vehicle Protection

• The latest companiesandmarkets.com report predicts that the global aerospace and defense sector will achieve revenues of $399 billion by 2015. While the United States will retain its position as the largest aerospace and defense market, the Asia-Pacific region will experience the fastest growth during the reporting period.

• The head of the French Navy tells The Telegraph that he was ‘stunned’ by the Royal Navy’s decision to axe its aircraft carriers and Harrier jump jets.

• Almost three months after RAFAEL’s ASPROA-/Trophy active protection system was used to intercept an anti-tank missile fired at an IDF tank in the Gaza Strip, reports suggest that the U.S. military is close to combining two active protection systems into a single defense for armored vehicles in Afghanistan.

• Turkey is reportedly nearing agreement on a limited sale, within its Dec 3/09 DSCA request for up to 14 CH-47F Chinook heavy-lift helicopters.

• South Korea has placed its 2nd KDX-III AEGIS destroyer, ROKS Yuglok Yi I, into operational service.

• Aéro Montréal, Québec’s aerospace cluster, launches the MACH initiative to help companies improve their performance and better position themselves in future aircraft program supply chains.

• Tognum AG welcomes Engine Holding GmbH, the joint venture between Daimler AG and Rolls-Royce Holding plc, as the new majority shareholder in the engine manufacturer.

• Rosvertol, the attack helicopter arm of Russian Helicopters, says it is in talks with Algeria concerning an export deal for its night-capable Mi-28NE.

Rapid Fire Morning 2011-06-06: UAVs in South America

• Elbit Systems wins contract to supply an unnamed Latin American country with its Hermes 900 Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). The contract also includes complementing ground control stations, payload systems and radars. Previous reports peg Chile as the customer for the type’s 1st export order.

• Poor management practices and a lack of procurement staff blamed for Canada’s Department of National Defence’s inability to spend more than $1.5 billion of its $21 billion budget for FY2010-2011.

• Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Defense Industry signs an agreement with NP Aerospace Jordan to jointly manufacture body armor and helmets.

• MCR LLC acquires JB&A, Inc., a company that provides strategic planning, programming and budgeting, manpower analytical support and other services to U.S. government agencies.

• Hampson Industries to continue with the disposal of its Hampson Precision Automotive Limited subsidiary to a private consortium in spite of a high court ruling that called for the sale to be abandoned amid claims of fraudulent misrepresentation.

• MBDA says that the recent launch of a naval configured Marte MK2 missile sought to qualify the new munition by checking canister behavior and ensuring that the missile and canister separated correctly.

• Second Line of Defense reports that Russian defense industries remain optimistic that China will remain a lucrative source of contracts despite its own industrial advancement.