US Navy continues production of Fire Scout

September 29, 2008 by Dagpotter · Comment
Filed under: Contract Awards, Military Aviation, Northrop Grumman Corp., U.S. Navy, development program

The MQ-8 Fire Scout UAV made by Northorp Grumman for the Navy entered LRIP last year with a successful Milestone C decision. The Navy has continued production by executing the second year of Low Rate production. The Fire Scout lands and takes off vertically and can operate from the helicopter decks of Navy ship. The system will enter Technical Evaluation this year. The contract is worth over $32 M and is the second of three years of LRIP. Once LRIP and testing is complete the Navy will conduct a Full Rate Production decision to allow the Navy to buy larger quantities with a proven system. The US military has invested heavily in USV over the last ten years with some successes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

See the press release at MarketWatch.com

Tags: 8b, decks, fire scout, grumman, helicopter, lrip, milestone, navy ship, news story, northorp grumman, Northrop Grumman Corp., production decision, proven system, quantities, scout story, technical evaluation

Marines buy new transports

July 19, 2008 by Dagpotter · Comment
Filed under: Contract Awards, Hawker Beechcraft, Military Aviation, U.S. Marine Corps, commercial aviation, logistics, production program

The USMC awarded a contract to Hawker Beechcraft for 6 new transport aircraft. See a story here. These will replace older UC-12 aircraft also made by Hawker Beechcraft that have been in service for a few decades. These will most likely be used for personnel transport in more benign environments. The Army has been working to buy larger tactical transports through the Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA) program but are struggling with the USAF on requirements and quantities.

Tags: benign environments, cargo aircraft, decades, hawker beechcraft, personnel transport, quantities, tactical transports, transport aircraft, U.S. Army, usaf, usmc

Even small contracts make a difference

April 6, 2008 by Dagpotter · Comment
Filed under: Contract Awards, U.S. Army, logistics, production program

Here is a little article about the Army buying safety gloves. Even this small contract, no value given, will allow the company to hire more workers and invest in machinery. Of course the problem with these kind of contracts is unless the supplier can find new commercial customers or get a continuous stream of DoD orders the jobs will end in a set period of time. Read more

Tags: budget, commercial customers, continuous stream, Contract Awards, dod orders, inflation, jobs, period of time, production contract, profiles, quantities, safety gloves, stable workforce, U.S. Army, ww ii

GAO slams multi-year procurement with Boeing

February 9, 2008 by Dagpotter · Comment
Filed under: Boeing, Federal Budget Process, GAO, production program

The GAO wrote a report at Senate behest about performance on multi-year aircraft procurement contracts. See Business Week here. In the three they looked at, C-17, AH-64 and F/A-18, all cost more than original projections and did not deliver the savings hoped. Read more

Tags: AH-64, aircraft procurement, behest, budgets, business week, Congress, gao, government money, procurement contracts, quantities, senate