U.S. National Guard Bureau Awards SAIC Construction Management Contract

October 20, 2009 by Matthew Potter · Comment
Filed under: Air National Guard, Business Line, Companies, Contract Awards, Events, IT, SAIC, Services, logistics 

The U.S. National Guard Bureau (NGB) coordinates and manages resources for the fifty states and territories National Guard forces. This includes the Army and Air Force Guard units. The states provide a great deal of funding for operations but the Federal Department of Defense helps buy equipment and training for the forces. The NGB helps manage this equipment as well as numerous facilities across the United States.

SAIC was awarded a contract to provide construction support for the NGB. The two year base contract could last five years and be worth up to $95 million. This contract is a renewal of an earlier one the company had.

SAIC’s Benham subsidiary primary job under the contract is to manage architectural design and engineering services for structures, roads and airfields. The structures involved include hangers, maintenance, munitions and supply shops as well as infrastructure on the bases such as fire and police stations, mess halls and medical buildings.

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EADS Sells More A330 Tankers To Saudi Arabia

July 28, 2009 by Matthew Potter · Comment
Filed under: Australia, Boeing, Business Line, Companies, Congress, Contract Additions, Countries, Department of Defense, EADS, England, Events, Japan, Military Aviation, Northrop Grumman Corp., Services, U.S. Air Force, UAE, United States, commercial aviation, development program, logistics, production program 

EADS announced today that Saudi Arabia had doubled their order for aerial tankers by buying three more A330 MRT aircraft. This means that the Kingdom will now have six of the advanced tankers. They along with the U.K., Australia and the U.A.E. have ordered the aircraft. As part of the buy of the new aircraft Saudi Arabia has ordered logistic and parts support for the tankers although no contract value was announced.

The big contract for military refueling aircraft is the new tanker for the United States Air Force (USAF). EADS and Northorp Grumman had won the contract for the KC-X last year only to see it overturned on a Boeing protest. Now the new Obama Administration and the USAF will try again with a completely new RFP. That contract would be for over one hundred aircraft and would dwarf previous orders. There is still discussion of possibly splitting the contract between the two suppliers with a goal of maximizing the number of aircraft delivered in a short time. The USAF and Defense Department are against that as the two aircraft would require their own substantial support tail of parts, maintenance and training which would be quite expensive.

The A330 is a bigger aircraft then the 767 proposed by Boeing last time but requires larger airfields and more gas to fly a comparable mission. The bigger aircraft can carry more fuel for other aircraft so there has to be a balance struck there. It is definitely conceivable that the loser of the next contract will protest anyway so there may be further delays to the acquisition of the greatly needed capability.

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Raytheon Get Civil Air Traffic Control Contract

March 13, 2009 by Matthew Potter · Comment
Filed under: Business Line, Companies, Contract Awards, Events, Raytheon, Services, commercial aviation, development program 

The Department of Transportation awarded Raytheon a contract to develop a system to track airline flights in flight. The AP reports that the goal of this system is to better utilize available air space as more and more aircraft fly commercially. No value for the contract was given. Raytheon has been making air traffic control radars for military and civil applications for years and this work seems to be an extension of that. The U.S. government has been investing over the last several years in new systems for installation at airfields for air traffic control. One of the goals of this new contract is to integrate a variety of existing surveillance and tracking systems. The amount of aircraft flying in the U.S. air space has grown considerably over the last few decades and some busier airports have issues with fitting in all of the planned flights.

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Newest Conspiracy Theory on Why Boeing Lost The KC-45 Tanker Contract

March 12, 2008 by admin · Comment
Filed under: Airbus, Boeing, Contract Awards, U.S. Air Force 

In an article in the Asia Times Online, Julian Delasantellis argues that Boeing lost the KC-45 tanker contract, because the Bush administration’s foreign policy requires the ability to bomb far-away countries at any time:

What if, stripped of all the flowery rhetoric you deliver once a year at the United Nations, the essence of your foreign policy is simply a never-ending search for new countries to bomb?

You need a way to get the benefits of land-based aircraft for power projection, without the drawbacks of needing to find friendly countries willing to host your local airfields.

In short, you need really good airborne refueling tankers – the coaling stations of the modern age.

Read more

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