Navy Reversal Turns Partners Into Competitors
Last year the Navy shook up its plans to buy the new Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). This was a small, advanced ship that would operate close to shore...Long Term Aircraft Plan Includes 109 KC-X Tankers
Filed under: Congress, KC-X, KC-X Tanker News, Syndicated Industry News, U.S. Navy
The Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps released to Congress their “Aircraft Investment Plan”. This lays out how many fixed wing aircraft they intend to buy and maintain through 2020. The U.S.A.F. intends to buy 109 tankers by that year at an estimated cost of over $30 billion.
The Air Force also plans to maintain a force of 223 C-17 and 91 C-5 heavy lift aircraft. The core of the services aircraft though will be the F-35 JSF with about 600 planned for purchase at the current schedule.
Algeria seeks European stealth frigates
ALGIERS, Algeria, Oct. 2 (UPI) -- Italy's Fincantieri shipbuilders find themselves back in the running on a contract to supply the Algerian navy with four advanced stealth frigates in competition, a deal potentially worth $11.6 billion.
Brazil contracts navigation systems
WALTHAM, Mass., Sept. 21 (UPI) -- Brazilian defense authorities have selected Northrop Grumman Corp. to deliver its navigation technologies for integration in the navy's patrol vessels.
E-6B Mercury aircraft to undergo refit
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla., Aug. 31 (UPI) -- The U.S Defense Department announced plans to begin a refit program for the Navy's E-6B Mercury airborne strategic command aircraft.
JASM Under Threat
Filed under: Business Line, Companies, Events, Lockheed Martin, Military Aviation, Restructuring, Services, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, production program
The Joint Air-to-Surface Missile (JASM) is an air launched cruise missile used by the U.S. Air Force and Navy. It has been in production for several years and has been deployed for use in Iraq and Afghanistan. Despite this the Air Force is planning anew series of test the results of which may lead to the cancellation of the program.
In recent testing the missile achieved only a sixty percent success rate well below the goals set for it. The system is manufactured by Lockheed Martin and canceling would be a loss of significant work. There have already been over 600 of the missiles made.
There have been issues with the wiring and fuses and Lockheed is working on these. The fact that the system seems to be in steady rate production indicates that it successfully completed all testing required to move to that phase. The recent failures may be due to storage or problems in the manufacturing process or maybe with some suppliers.
The fact that the Air Force is threa
HASC Wants To Continue VH-71
Filed under: Business Line, Companies, Congress, Countries, Department of Defense, Events, Federal Budget Process, Finemeccanica, Italy, Lockheed Martin, Military Aviation, Services, U.S. Navy, development program
In their markup of the 2010 Defense Appropriations Bill the House Armed Services Committee added money for continued production of the F-22. It also recommended that the Navy and Defense Department continue production of the Increment One of the VH-71 New Presidential Helicopter.
They feel that this would be the best use of the over $3 billion already spent on the program. There is obviously still a requirement for this aircraft and a new program is planned. The HASC wants the first group of VH-71 to be used as “the normal transport for the President…” with other systems looked at for the more stringent requirements. Right now the President uses VH-3 for short range, normal duties and then longer ranged CH-53 and UH-60 for other missions. One of the problems faced by the VH-71 was the attempt to buy one aircraft to do all missions.
Finemeccanica had offered to just deliver Increment One aircraft at reduced price for the total program. Of course these did not meet all of the requirements that the Navy had levied. This was a major reason the program’s cost and schedule increased so much.
So far the HASC markup does not necessarily agree with the Obama Administration’s proposals in the area of the F-22 or the VH-71. The bill still needs to go through the process of other committee markups, the full House and Senate and then the Conference. This means that this language may or not make it to the final version but it does show support for the VH-71 program.
E-2D Program Moves Forward
Filed under: Business Line, Companies, Contract Awards, Countries, Events, Federal Budget Process, Florida, Israel, Japan, Military Aviation, Northrop Grumman Corp., Services, States, U.S. Navy, development program, missile defense, production program
The Navy’s new carrier based radar search and surveillance plane the E-2D had a successful Milestone C Low Rate Production Decision. The aircraft is an incremental upgrade to the existing E-2C. The Advanced Hawkeye program has made steady progress over the last several years and the production decision is a major advance for it and any defense acquisition program.
The company and its team has been awarded contract worth about $430 million to deliver the first four aircraft. The development aircraft had first flown back in late 2007. There has also been discussion of selling the aircraft to selected overseas customers. Right now the E-2C is used by Israel, Egypt, Japan and Singapore among others.
JSF Second Engine Fighting For Its Life
Filed under: Business Line, Companies, Congress, Contract Awards, Department of Defense, Events, Federal Budget Process, GE, Military Aviation, Pratt & Whitney, Restructuring, Rolls-Royce, Services, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Navy, UTC, development program
One of the programs cut by Secretary of Defense Gates’ in his proposed budget is the second source for the F-35 engine. This has been a controversial program since its inception. Now with the plan to end the program Rolls Royce and General Electric are arguing it is cheaper and more sensible to continue the program.
The Air Force and Navy have always been ambivalent about the program but Congress has kept it funded. The fact that Congress cuts aircraft production to find the funding has raised the hackles of some people. Now that the Defense Department has decided to end the program the contractors, and their allies in Congress, are arguing that most of the planned money has been spent and the program should at least complete development.
Of course if the engine did go into production and was used to power some of the JSF aircraft to be used by America and its allies the amount of revenue available to GE and Rolls Royce as well as Pratt & Whitney who make the primary engine would be quite substantial. The second source providers say that the bulk of the $3.5 billion allocated to the program has been spent so rather then terminating the program at some cost just complete it.
As with all of these programs recommended for termination it will be Congress who will have the last say in the budget. But since Gates moved quickly to halt the contracts for FCS and VH-71 it wouldn’t surprise me to see a stop work order on this one as well.
T-45 logistics contract awarded by the Navy
Filed under: Boeing, Contract Awards, L-3, Military Aviation, U.S. Navy, logistics, training
Vertex, a subsidiary of L-3 Company, was awarded a contract to provide logistics support to the Navy’s fleet of T-45 training aircraft. The contract, if all options are awarded, is worth over $500 M. The T-45 is used by both the Navy and Air Force to provide jet training for their flight personnel. Boeing teamed with L-3 to provide the parts management. The military has turned to Contractor Logistics Support (CLS) for a variety of systems – ground and air – in a bid to lower costs. One of the major areas is that the Department of Defense does not need to invest in a large pool of spare parts; relying on the contractor to do that.
See the press release at MarketWatch.com.
DoD buys vehicle parts management system
Filed under: Contract Awards, DLA, Department of Defense, IT, Lockheed Martin, logistics
Lockheed Martin was awarded yesterday a potential 10 year contract worth over $5 B to set up and manage a system to provide auto parts to the various services. The system will be able to provide, track and ship necessary vehicle parts all over the world to the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines. The system will utilize a proprietary software system that Lockheed Martin developed and is currently being used to support aircraft. Despite the size of the award the contract will employ only about thirty personnel.
See the Philadelphia Business Journal for more details.
Navy awards target contract
Filed under: Alliant Techsystems, CEi, Contract Awards, U.S. Navy, development program, training
The Navy uses a variety of targets to test new systems and also to train ship’s crew. Alliant Techsystems and CEi were awarded a contract to build the Multi-Stage Supersonic Target (MSST). This will simulate anti-ship surface-to-surface missiles. The press release says it cruises at sub-sonic speeds, but the name implies that at some point it is going over Mach 1. These kind of missiles are a dangerous threat to ships and they fly at low altitude and their speeds reduce reaction time by the air defense systems.
There is more at www.bizjournals.com.
House marks appropriations bill
Filed under: Bell, Boeing, Congress, Contract Awards, EADS, Federal Budget Process, Military Aviation, Northrop Grumman Corp., development program, logistics, production program
The House Appropriations Committee marked the FY09 budget before taking their August recess. See a story here. The Army’s struggling Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) program was marked to delete 13 aircraft, and the Navy’s Presidential Helo was also decremented. The House also ordered that consideration of jobs would be a criteria for the source selection of the KC-45 tanker. Boeing won its protest of the award to Northrop-Grumman and EADS and forced DoD to reconsider the contract. The Senate needs to also mark the bill and then there will be a Conference mark up as well.
Navy continues CEC work
Filed under: Contract Awards, IT, Raytheon, U.S. Navy, development program
Raytheon was awarded a contract today to continue work on Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC). See a press release here. CEC is a natural development of the work the Navy has done with datalinks for the last 50 plus years. By the Nineties the Navy was able to share the sensor picture from one ship with others over a tactical data link. Even during the Gulf War this was not good enough for targeting. CEC’s goal is to develope a netted sensor grid that will support providing a fire control solution good enough that one ship can guide a missile launched from another. The Navy was installing CEC on selected ships by the end of the Twentieth Century. For more on CEC see this.
Navy orders training systems for the V-22
Filed under: Bell, Boeing, Contract Awards, Military Aviation, U.S. Navy, development program, logistics, production program
The Navy ordered from the Boeing-Bell team manufacturing the V-22 Osprey training devices and related equipment today. The contract is worth about $78 M. See a story here. The Osprey has just finished a successful deployment in Iraq where it carried out heavy lift missions, usually for logistics purposes. The contract will pay for the development and production of training equipment.
Navy awards environmental remidiation contract
Filed under: Contract Awards, Shaw Group, U.S. Navy, logistics
The Navy awarded the Shaw Group Inc a contract for up to 5 years that could be worth $150 M. See the press release here. This is the fourth award for this type of work to the company. They will do environmental remediation at various Navy and USMC bases on the East Coast. Similar contracts have or will be awarded for the other geographical areas of the country. Once again this demonstrates that the US military spends a great deal of money on things other then weapons and soldiers. Military bases are dirty places that have in cases decades of dirt to clean up, not to talk about spills or accidents that occur due to current operations. Work of this type is critical to keep the bases functioning.
Kratos wins Navy target support contract
Filed under: Contract Awards, Kratos, SETA, U.S. Navy, missile defense
Kratos Defense and Security Solutions won a contract to support the Navy’s missile test ranges. See the press release here. Along with its team member, Systems Applications & Technologies, Inc, Kratos will support surface and aerial target operations. This includes mission planning as well as target maintenance and launch. Kratos continues its support of the various services in the area of target production and support. The contract is worth $59 M.
Northrop Grumman wins BAMS SD&D contract
Filed under: Australia, Boeing, Contract Awards, Lockheed Martin, Military Aviation, Northrop Grumman Corp., U.S. Navy, development program
As reported yesterday the BAMS DAB was held. The Navy awarded the contract to Northrop Grumman for a version of the Global Hawk long range, large UAV. See a story here. Boeing and Lockheed Martin were the losing bidders. On top of the KC-45 contract this can be seen as a blow to Boeing by Northrop Grumman. Read more
Navy ready to award BAMS contract
Filed under: Boeing, Contract Awards, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman Corp., U.S. Navy, development program
According to this article the Navy had a successful DAB for the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) program. The system was approved to go into System Design and Development (SDD) phase and a prime contractor will be chosen to perform that work. Once that phase is completed then Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) can start. The BAMS is for a unmanned surveillance aircraft to replace the P-3 Orion in some of its missions. The Navy is also pursuing the P-8 aircraft based on the Boeing 737 to replace the P-3 in its Anti-Submarine Warfare role. Boeing, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin are bidders.
Boeing gets next V-22 production option
Filed under: Boeing, Contract Awards, Military Aviation, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, production program
The US Air Force and Navy gave Boeing and its team a contract for another 167 V-22 aircraft. See the story here. The contract is worth over $10 B and will also provide necessary support services. The V-22 is deployed to Iraq and conducting heavy lift cargo and personnel transport missions.
Defense Contract Awards for March 26, 2008
NAVY
URS Group Inc, Santa Ana, Calif.; CDM Constructors Inc., Carlsbad, Calif.; Shaw Environmental & Infrastructure Inc., San Diego, Calif.; Tetra Tech EC Inc., San Diego, Calif.; Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus, Ohio, and Weston Solutions Inc., Walnut Creek, Calif., are each being awarded a firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity environmental multiple award contract for environmental remediation services on Navy and Marine Corps installations at various locations and other DOD installations nationwide. The total aggregate amount for all contracts combined is not to exceed $100,000,000. Work will be performed at various federal sites within the Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southwest area of responsibility including, but not limited to Calif., (80 percent), Ariz., (10 percent), Ala.,(2 percent), Nev.,(2 percent), Wash.,(2 percent), N.M.(1 percent), Ore.,(1 percent), Utah (1 percent), and nationwide (1 percent), and work is expected to be completed Mar. 2009 (Mar. 2013 with options exercised). Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was issued as an unrestricted procurement on the NAVFAC e-solicitation website with 10 proposals received. These six contractors may compete for task orders under the terms and conditions of the awarded contract. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southwest, San Diego, Calif., is the contracting activity (N62473-08-D-8820/8821/8822/8823/8824/8825).
Read moreNavy awards AEGIS contract
Filed under: Contract Awards, General Dynamics, MDA, SETA, U.S. Navy, development program, missile defense, production program
General Dynamics won an engineering support contract from the Navy for support to the AEGIS missile system. See the story here. They will support the sea-based system that recently shot down the wayward spy satellite. The contract is worth $191 M.
Air Force to decide on F-35 depot
Filed under: Lockheed Martin, Military Aviation, U.S. Air Force, development program, logistics
An interesting part of the entry of any new equipment into service is where to have its depot? If the military is using their traditional three level maintenance program the system will require a depot. According to this short article in The Salt Lake Tribune it sounds like the Air Force’s depots, here Hill in Utah, are competing to get the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) work. Read more
Australian government cancels the SH-2 contract
Filed under: Australia, Kaman Corp, Military Aviation, Restructuring, production program
In 1997 Australia decided to buy 11 upgraded SH-2 aircraft from Kaman to outfit their Navy. Unfortunately the work required to integrate the helicopters with the newer generation of equipment that the Navy possessed was harder and more complicated then originally thought. Imagine that? Anyway ten years and millions of dollars later the program is still not complete. According to this article the new liberal government has decided to axe the contract. There will obviously be some termination costs involved, and now they are back to square one on the aircraft. Perhaps they will look at the US Navy’s MH-60?
Marines order training devices
Filed under: Contract Awards, L-3, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Navy, logistics
L-3 Communications won a contract from the Navy to provide video and audio capture devices. See the article at Forbes here. These will be used to support pre-deployment training at various sites in the US. The contract is worth $326 M. The devices are quite sophisticated as the price indicates.
-
Search This Site
Custom Search -
-
-
-
-
Recent Posts
- Contracts for March 15, 2010
- Valley Forge Composite Technologies, Inc. Announces First Pending Sale of the THOR-LVX Cargo Scanner — Press Release
- MRAP-ATV Continues To Drive Work For Plasan Bennington
- Now Reports That EADS May Bid After All
- Wall Street Journal Says Trans Atlantic Defense Deal Falters
-
FREE Business Downloads
-
Latest Defense News
- Contracts for March 15, 2010
- Now Reports That EADS May Bid After All
- General Dynamics Awarded $9 Million Contract for U.S. Army Medical Command Lean Six Sigma Support
- Lockheed Martin Delivers 1,000th Vertical Launch ASROC Missile
- Raytheon’s Excalibur Ib Demonstrates Accuracy During First Guided-Flight Tests
- James Webb Space Telescope Core Completes Thermal Testing
- Sniper ATP Demonstrates Enhanced ISR Capability at Empire Challenge
- CNO Announces Flag Officer Assignments
- DOD CONTRACTS for March 12, 2010
- DOD News Briefing with Ashton Carter from the Pentagon
- Northrop Grumman Holds 3rd Annual International CEESIM Users’ Conference in the United Kingdom
- Lockheed Martin Awarded $23 Million for Production of JASSM-Extended Range Test Missiles
- Northrop Grumman Delivers Upgraded U.S. Navy Targets
- U.S. Army Receives First Lockheed Martin EQ-36 Counterfire Target Acquisition Radar System
- Manufacturing of Northrop Grumman’s First Low-Rate Initial Production E-2D Advanced Hawkeye Begins
- Raytheon and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Improve Flow of Commercial Imagery to Analysts and Warfighters
- Lockheed Martin Receives $60 Million Worldwide LANTIRN Depot Award
- General Dynamics Awarded Department of Homeland Security National Communications System Contract
- Northrop Grumman Plays Major Role in NASA’s Development of Alternate Astronaut Escape System
- Government of Canada Names General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada as Prime Contractor for LAV III Upgrade Program
- Northrop Grumman’s Second E-2D Advanced Hawkeye Enters Next Phase of Flight Testing
- Optex Systems Receives $3.4 Million Purchase Order from General Dynamics Land Systems
- Raytheon Completes Critical Milestone for Mobile X-band Radar System
- General Dynamics Awarded $22 Million by U.S. Navy for Repair Work on USS Hartford
- Military Base Realignments and Closures: DOD Needs to Update Savings Estimates and Continue to Address Challenges in Consolidating Supply-Related Functions at Depot Maintenance Locations. GAO-09-703, July 9
- House Armed Services Committee: schedule for the week of July 13 –17, 2009
- GAO Report: Overseas Contingency Operations: Reported Obligations for the Department of Defense. GAO-09-791R
- Raytheon’s AESA Radar for Boeing F-15E Receives New Designation
- Northrop Grumman Successfully Demonstrates Capabilities of LITENING Targeting System on U.S. Navy F/A-18E/F
- Raytheon’s GBU-53/B Small Diameter Bomb II Completes Risk Reduction
- Hawker Beechcraft, Lockheed Martin Team to Compete for U.S. Air Force Light Attack and Armed Reconnaissance Aircraft
- Lockheed Martin C-5M Super Galaxy Sets World Aviation Records
- Northrop Grumman Advanced Composite Mate Joint Passes Stringent Tests for NASA’s Composite Crew Module Demonstration Program
- Lockheed Martin Team Passes Critical Design Review for Solar Ultraviolet Imager for GOES-R Satellite Series
- UK Awards Javelin Joint Venture $176 Million for Javelin Missile Rounds
- Contracts for March 12, 2010
- Lawsuit Successfully Defends Contract Against Inroads of In-Sourcing
- Two Helicopter Programs Start Over
- EADS-NA Says Not Comfortable Priming KC-X Contract
- Spirit AeroSystems Named to Boeing Tanker Supplier Team — Press Release
- Contracts for March 11, 2010
- Northrop Grumman Names Paul Russell to Lead Space Navigation Business Area
- Northrop Grumman Awarded U.S. Army Europe Linguist Contract
- Aegis Weapon System Tested During International Multiple Ship Demonstration
- Raytheon, Motion Reality Ink Agreement For Virtual Applications
- Lockheed Martin Awarded Arizona Support Center Contract for M-TADS/PNVS
- Lockheed Martin and Aegisound Honored With Defense Department’s Nunn-Perry Award
- GeoEye Selects Lockheed Martin to Build Next-Generation Commercial Remote Sensing Satellite System
- STOVL Jet Prepares for Vertical Landing
- DOD CONTRACTS for March 11, 2010
- US Navy: Flag Officer Announcement
- US Army: General Officer Announcement
- Today in the Department of Defense, Friday, March 12, 2010
- US Navy Flag Officer Assignments
- Still Some Support For Northrop
- Contracts for March 10, 2010
- Raytheon Announces Executive Appointments
- House Armed Services Committee: Skelton Statement on Earmark Changes
- Today in the Department of Defense, Thursday, March 11, 2010
- Today in the Department of Defense, Wednesday, March 10, 2010
- Press Release — Statement on US Refueling Tanker Program Announcement
- DOD CONTRACTS for March 9, 2010
- US Navy Flag Officer Announcement
- Contracts for March 09, 2010
- Raytheon, PlantCML Conduct Joint Civil Communications Open Architecture Demonstration
- Raytheon Awarded $152 Million for Patriot Engineering Services
- Department of Defence Reacts To Northrop’s Decision Not To Bid on KC-X
- Statement From Northrop Grumman on U.S. Air Force Aerial Refueling Tanker Program — Press Release
- Contracts for March 08, 2010
- Reports That Northrop Won’t Bid
- SPAWAR Selects Lockheed Martin for Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services Development Phase
- SELEX Galileo wins UK MoD CDAS Pointer-Tracker competition
- General Dynamics Awarded $41 Million for RG-31 MRAP Spare Parts
- Statement From Northrop Grumman on U.S. Air Force Aerial Refueling Tanker Program
- Northrop Grumman Names Tony Spehar Vice President, Program Manager Of ICBM Prime Integration Contract
- DOD CONTRACTS for March 8, 2010
- Today in the Department of Defense, Tuesday, March 09, 2010
- Raytheon Mourns the Passing of Jon C. Jones
- Statement by Deputy Secretary William Lynn on Northop Grumman Tanker Announcement
- Long Term Aircraft Plan Includes 109 KC-X Tankers
- Lockheed Martin Receives $213 Million Contract for 20 New F-16s for Egypt
- Press Release — Boeing Selects Pratt & Whitney to Power Boeing’s Proposed NewGen Tanker to be Offered to U.S. Air Force
- Contracts for March 05, 2010
- Northrop Grumman Team Awarded CANES Development Contract
- House Armed Services Committee: schedule for the week of March 8 – March 12, 2010
- House Armed Services Committee: Skelton Announces Committee Staff Appointments
- DOD CONTRACTS: March 5, 2010
- US Navy to Commission Guided Missile Destroyer Dewey
- USAF: General Officer Assignment
- Boeing Will Submit Proposal Based on K-767
- Contracts for March 04, 2010
- Lockheed Martin Delivers 11th C-130J Super Hercules to Ramstein Air Base
- Northrop Grumman Names David A. Drabkin Director of Acquisition Policy
- General Dynamics Announces Senior Leadership Changes
- DOD CONTRACTS: March 4, 2010
- Secretary of Defense Announces Flag Officer
- US Army General Officer Announcement
- US Navy Flag Officer Assignments
- First Flight For Canada’s New Airlifter
- General Dynamics Board Increases Dividend
More Defense News -->
-
Content from our trusted partner BNETGet your own CBS Interactive Widget.>GET IT NOW
get your job site
at simplyhired.com
