The Latest Word On Trends And Developments In Aerospace And Defense
Hornet Watch. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus says he expects the Pentagon to decide within “weeks,” during the month of April, whether it will enter into a multi-year contract with Boeing for F/A-18 Super Hornets. The Navy has vetted a multi-year contract offer from the company, which the Pentagon’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation office is reviewing now. “It should be done in just a few weeks,” Mabus tells reporters March 17. Boeing says it has offered a F/A-18 multi-year contract that would generate a 10 percent savings to the government compared to traditional annual contracts, which is the minimum savings sought by the Pentagon for a multi-year.
…Numbers, Numbers. Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter, though, tells the SASC March 11 he wants to see savings in the “teens.” “We’ve indicated that the threshold of interest is 10 percent, that’s just the threshold of interest and so we would look for savings in the teens in order for that to be an interesting proposition to the (Defense) Department and for the taxpayer given that it’s a multi-year commitment, there have to be savings there and the Department of the Navy is in discussions with Boeing over that very point,” Carter says. Asked if he wants to see savings in the teens or of 10 percent, Mabus on March 17 says: “Ten percent is the threshold. Obviously we want to see as much savings as we can.”
Super Stryker. The Army hopes to “quickly” build and test prototypes of General Dynamics’ Stryker vehicles outfitted with blast-deflecting “double-V” hulls, Maj. Gen. Thomas Spoehr, Army director of force development, tells two HASC subpanels March 17. “We’ve asked (the Office of the Secretary of Defense) OSD for permission to build prototypes of this vehicle,” he says. “As quickly as we get those prototypes, we intend to take them up to Aberdeen (Proving Ground in Maryland) and blow them up.” Such blast testing would show if the two V-shaped sections on the vehicle’s underside would channel the blast of the charge to where they meet. “Industry believes not,” Spoehr says about this charge- shaping scenario. “They’ve done some actual blast tests. They’ve done modeling as well. They say, because that apex is significantly higher than the floor of the Stryker used to be, that the exponential difference in height from the IED makes a huge difference in survivability.”
…Off The Line. Only new Strykers coming off the production line would have the new double-V hulls, and the current fleet of 2,000-plus vehicles cannot be retrofitted, Spoehr says. “It cannot be retrofitted currently,” he says. “We’ve asked the question, could we hypothetically saw a Stryker and put the top on back on it. That has not been the case so far. So, fortunately there is currently an active production line for Stryker. So if this improvement were to play out, we would ask the manufacturer to cut this improvement in and so it would become a part of new Strykers coming off the line.” HASC Air and Land Forces subcommittee Chairman Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) says “it’s important to emphasize that the existing Stryker fleet is still very very useful.” He adds: “We certainly don’t want to create the impression because we have a new variant that the old variant isn’t still very, very effective for the warfighter.”
Utah’s Constellation. Utah’s congressional delegation is urging President Barack Obama to rethink his plan to cancel NASA’s Constellation crew-capsule-and-rocket project and instead help private commercial companies develop human-spaceflight vehicles while pursuing new technology-development programs. Sens. Orrin Hatch (R) and Bob Bennett (R) and Reps. Jim Matheson (D), Rob Bishop (R), and Jason Chaffetz (R) say in a March 15 letter they “have strong trepidations the new proposal offered will lead to a decline in our nation’s preeminence in space.” They note investments in, and successful testing of, Constellation’s Ares I rocket. “Yet, under the proposed initiative, this investment will be largely discarded for a proposition (of) which true cost and safety are unknown,” they write to Obama.
Certified. The Joint Program Executive Office for the Joint Tactical Radio System (JPEO JTRS) announced last week that the Multifunctional Information Distribution System Joint Tactical Radio System (MIDS JTRS) has received National Security Agency (NSA) certification to provide secure distribution of situational awareness and command and control information among pilots. The NSA Certification was granted March 9, by Richard Schaeffer, director, NSA Information Assurance Directorate (IAD). This is the first JTRS product to be certified at this level of security by the NSA. The NSA Certification confirms that the MIDS JTRS terminal has met the highest standards in ensuring the confidentiality and integrity of the data and the availability of the system. NSA certification is a critical milestone in support of the Initial Operational Capability for MIDS JTRS on the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. The MIDS JTRS terminal is the first in a series of networking systems that will provide a single chassis, multiple channel capability to the military, significantly reducing the number of unique radios in the operational environment.
Vertical Landing. An F-35 Joint Strike Fighter B-model aircraft landed vertically for the first time last week, prime contractor Lockheed Martin announced. Test pilot Graham Tomlinson hovered for a minute then descended to a 95-foot square pad at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., the company said. Tomlinson began the roughly 14-minute flight with an 80-knot short takeoff. The Marine Corps expects to start using the short take-off/vertical landing (STOVL) version of the airplane in December 2012. The Air Force’s conventional take-off/landing A-model and the Navy’s carrier variant C-model are due to be ready for combat approximately four years after the Marines begin receiving the B model.
Spirit Mods. Northrop Grumman has begun installing the first set of hardware–EHF Increment 1–that will allow the Air Force’s B-2 Spirit stealth bomber to send and receive data up to 100 times faster than its present satellite communication system. The first upgrade kit will include a new integrated processing unit designed by Lockheed Martin to replace up to a dozen current stand-alone avionics computers on the aircraft; a new disk drive unit that will enable transfer of EHF data onto and off of the B-2; and a network of fiberoptic cable that will support the high speed data transfers within the aircraft. The system is expected to undergo ground testing later this year, according to a Northrop Grumman statement. The second kit, Increment 2, involves installation of a new communications terminal and antennas that will allow the B-2 to transmit and receive information securely via satellite. Increment 3 will integrate the bomber into the Pentagon’s Global Information Grid, a worldwide network of information systems involved in collecting, storing, managing and disseminating information to military and civilian officials. The Air Force maintains a fleet of 20 B-2 bombers.
New Exec. Lee Ann Schwope joins Battelle to help expand its armor and related defense and homeland security business. As a business development manager for Battelle’s Industrial & International Market Sector, Schwope will work with DoD as well as companies that develop and manufacture vehicles and components. Battelle is a longtime developer of armor technology for tanks, personnel carriers and other vehicles. Today, Battelle has one of the few private research facilities that operates under a Tier 1 rating at its High Energy Research Laboratory. That accreditation allows Battelle to conduct Explosive Formed Projectile (EFP) testing using the government provided surrogate EFP devices for third-party armor developers.
Specialty Trailers. Oshkosh Specialty Vehicles (OSV) announces it has received a contract from Boeing Defense, Space & Security for two specialty device trailers to be used with AH-64 Apache Helicopter Longbow Crew Trainer simulators. The simulators could be deployed in theater to provide comprehensive, high fidelity training for Longbow aircrews and maintenance personnel. The total value of the contract is $2.6 million and the specialty device trailers will be delivered in September. “We’ve seen a growing demand for our specialty trailers such as those specified by Boeing,” said Tony Ellis, Oshkosh Specialty Vehicles general manager and vice president of finance. The 53-foot long and 8.5-foot wide enclosures are engineered with twin pop-out extensions to provide a larger training area and a richer teaching experience.
New Leader. Thales Communications Inc. appoints Michael Sheehan as the company’s new CEO and president. Sheehan’s appointment follows the planned retirement of Mitch Herbets, CEO and president of the business since 2000. Thales Communications, Inc., is a Thales USA company operating under a proxy agreement with the U.S. Department of Defense. Most recently, Sheehan was a senior executive with Cobham’s Avionics business. He also held positions with DRS Technologies, Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems, where his 18-year tenure included senior management positions in engineering, program management and business development.
Successful PDR. Boeing announces it successfully completed the preliminary design of the Navy’s Free Electron Laser (FEL) weapon system, a key step toward building a FEL prototype for realistic tests at sea. During the preliminary design review held March 9-11, the company presented its design to more than 30 U.S. government and National Laboratory representatives. This electric laser will operate by passing a beam of high-energy electrons through a series of powerful magnetic fields, generating an intense emission of laser light that can disable or destroy targets. “The Free Electron Laser will use a ship’s electrical power to create, in effect, unlimited ammunition and provide the ultra-precise, speed-of-light capability required to defend U.S. naval forces against emerging threats, such as hyper-velocity cruise missiles,” says Gary Fitzmire, vice president and program director of Boeing Directed Energy Systems.
Ranging Shots. Boeing’s Airborne Laser Testbed faces more tests in the coming years to build on the success of the Feb. 11 demonstration engaging and destroying a boosting ballistic missile with its speed-of-light airborne laser. Michael Rinn, Boeing vice president and ALTB program director, says each test will increase the engagement range moving out to three and four times the range of the successful initial shoot-down test. “I can’t talk about the exact range” of the first shot, but it was at a “significant” range, he says at a recent briefing.
Expanding. Oshkosh Corp. plans for its Defense Division to expand technical operations in Michigan and move into a new leased state-of-the-art technical facility in Warren, Mich., replacing its existing Warren office. The announcement was made at a press conference with the Governor of Michigan and the Michigan Economic Growth Authority (MEGA) Board which announced funding for Oshkosh and other companies. The MEGA Board has approved a state tax credit of $6.4 million spanning 12 years for Oshkosh. The new facility will provide advanced system technical support and systems engineering for the Defense division’s work on the Army medium and heavy truck fleets. Oshkosh Corp. anticipates a capital investment in the new site of approximately $6.5 million over a five-year period. The site also will support Oshkosh Defense’s work on the five-year Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles rebuy contract.
Big Money. Since Fincantieri committed to investing $100 million in Marinette Marine Corp.’s shipyards, more than $70 million of that will go to the Marinette Wisconsin facility, Paul Lemmo, business development director for Lockheed Martin, tells Defense Daily. “They have owned [Marinette marine] for over a year now. They have been making investments in ‘low hanging fruit,’ things that were obvious,” he adds. For example, Fincantieri has improved crane capacity, installed some pipe bending machines, and added new steel cutting machines, Lemmo says. “Over that year they have studied that [yard] in detail, the layout, the flow, the capacity, and they have developed a detailed plan, which they just kicked off, of significant investment,” Lemmo adds. That plan includes extending the main indoor ship construction building. Fincantieri broke ground on that project earlier this month, he says.
…A New House. When Freedom was being built at Marinette Marine, the ship actually extended out beyond the indoor ship construction building. “When the ship was completed, from stern to bow, she stuck out of the building because the building wasn’t long enough,” Lemmo says. “They are extending the building well beyond the length of the ship.” And once the expansion project is completed, Fincantieri will be able to build two complete LCS indoors. “Subsequent to that there will be other pieces of the facility that will be renovated or new,” Lemmo says. “For example, the panel line, the paint facility…they did a whole analysis of throughput so they know exactly what they need to do to get the shipyard up to the capacity and the efficiency that they want.”
New Facility. The Navy opens the new P-154 Joint Aircrew Escape Component Center March 1 at NSWC Indian Head. The facility centralizes NSWC Indian Head’s Cartridge Actuated Device/Propellant Actuated Device (CAD/PAD) activities at one site, cutting the time needed to get products to the warfighter, the Navy says. The center brings together stock point operations, magazine operations, shipping, and ammunition distribution and control functions in a campus-like complex of three modern buildings. The old facility occupied several buildings in different areas of the base, requiring days to weeks to move components from one site to another, the Navy adds.
Energy Savings. NAVSEA’s Incentivized Energy Conservation (i-ENCON) initiative announces that Navy ships realized 354,000 barrels of fuel avoidance during the first quarter FY 10. The savings represent an increase of 4.9 percent from the previous quarter, NAVSEA says. “These efforts increase fleet readiness by enabling sailors at sea to train or deploy longer while spending the same amount of money on fuel,” Hassan Pehlivan, i-ENCON program manager says. These savings also increase Fleet readiness by providing enough fuel to support six Arleigh Burke-class destroyers (at an average of 2,500 underway hours) per year, the NAVSEA adds.
Heping Freedom. NSWC Crane assists in the early deployment of USS Freedom (LCS-1), the Navy reports. NSWC Crane provides engineering and electronic warfare (EW) system integration support to the LCS Program Office in PEO Ships, the Navy says. Accomplishments included installing the Master Threat Library aboard LCS-1, and providing in-depth training to the ship’s crew., the Navy says. NSWC Crane personnel completed delivery and installation of the Master Threat Library Feb. 10-11. The Master Threat Library provides emitter classification, identification and situational awareness capabilities in support of tactical operations. NSWC Crane was also responsible for both the development of, and testing for, the library, the Navy adds.
Advanced Studies. While aboard Freedom, NSWC Crane experts provided advanced training to the ship’s crew, ensuring the warfighters could correctly operate complex systems. Trainers also supplied the crew with a quick reference user’s guide. NSWC Crane will continue to provide acquisition, engineering, and integration support to the Master Threat Library on all future LCS ships, the Navy adds. “This is the first of many Littoral Combat Ships that will require state-of-the-art EW technology onboard. And we are now also just starting our assignment to support the EW and Decoy Launching systems aboard USS Independence (LCS 2),” said Dennis Gries, LCS EW task manager. “We will continue to provide support to ensure the next generation warfighters’ EW needs are met.”
Upgrading The FAA. General Dynamics Information Technology, is awarded a contract to support and modernize the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Administrative Voice Enterprise Services (FAVES) program. The single-award contract is valued at $228 million over ten years. General Dynamics will provide managed services support that includes operations and maintenance, technology refresh and upgrades to existing administrative telephony systems and provide new administrative telephony systems and services. The company will sustain FAA legacy systems until replaced, plan and design for future needs and implement operations and maintenance of an enterprise solution to meet the FAA’s administrative telephony services requirements, the company says. Through FAVES, the FAA will migrate from their current PBX-based environment to a modern infrastructure based on a Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) and IP telephony technologies.