U.S. Government To Invest In Biomass Fuel Production
Filed under: Business Line, Companies, Contract Awards, Events, Military Aviation, S&T, SAIC, Services, development program, logistics, production program
The U.S. Government’s Energy Department awarded SAIC a contract to provide engineering and support services for a biomass ethanol refinery. The total value of the contract could be $21 million if all options are exercised.
The U.S. Government and military are investing in developing different ways to make gasoline out of plant matter. Ethanol is already common but this program is to look at other biomass feedstocks as well as the traditional corn. The U.S. Air Force and DARPA are researching into using algae to make carbon based fuel.
Defense Deals Have Dried Up–for Now
PriceWaterhouseCooper released a report showing that the total value of defense M&A fell precipitously in 2009. They feel that the recession...Taiwan Continues Buying Foreign Weapon Systems
Filed under: Business Line, China, Companies, Contract Awards, Countries, EADS, Events, Military Aviation, Taiwan, production program
Taiwan fresh off announcing deals with the U.S. for modern weapons followed it up by purchasing twenty Eurocopter EC225 aircraft. These systems will be used for search-and-rescue missions. The total value of the contract if all options are executed could be worth over $100 million. Unlike with the U.S. deals which China has protested strongly there has been no reaction to this deal.
Taiwan has always had the ability to purchase weapons from any source but has relied mainly on its U.S. ally to provide most of them. The Asian nation also has a strong domestic industry to support is military. The EC225 are a capable system and were bought rather then a competing Sikorsky S-92 aircraft.
Navy Orders Nuclear Powerplant Components
Filed under: Business Line, Companies, Contract Awards, Department of Defense, Events, Services, U.S. Navy, logistics, production program
Babcock & Wilcox (B&W) an operating unit of McDermott International announced yesterday that it was awarded a contract by the U.S. Government for various nuclear components for defense programs. These include U.S. Navy power plant parts and systems. The U.S. Navy continues to operate several nuclear powered aircraft carriers and submarines. B&W has made these kind of systems for decades and prior to that provided steam power plants for U.S. Navy and other ships. The total value of the contract if all options are exercised is $450 million.
In December 2009 McDermott International announced plans to separate B&W from itself due to new tax laws. This plan has not yet been executed but when it is complete B&W will be able to bid on Federal contracts without McDermott International being forced to incorporate in the United States.
Australia’s First F/A-18 Delivered
Filed under: Australia, Boeing, Business Line, Companies, Congress, Contract Awards, Countries, Department of Defense, Events, Federal Budget Process, Military Aviation, Missouri, Services, U.S. Navy, production program
Boeing delivered the first F/A-18 Super Hornet for Australia on July 8. This is the first of twenty-four. The aircraft will provide a stop gap until either the F-35 JSF or the F-22 aircraft Australia has expressed interest in buying. The total value of the contract to Boeing is about $3 billion.
The F-18 for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps is facing the end of production as the Obama Administration has proposed accelerating deliveries of the F-35 for those services as well as the U.S. Air Force. This is tied in to the ending of F-22 production. Congress has not received these proposals well and have included continued F-22 deliveries in the appropriation and authorization bills working their way through both Houses. The House has also looked at increasing planned F-18 deliveries as well as exploring the award of another multi-year production contract. Multi-year contracts have to be specifically authorized and have been used for large aircraft contracts in a bid to keep overall costs down. If there is a consistent buy profile over several years it makes it easier for the contractors to manage supplies and material ideally reducing costs.
European Union Limits Offsets
Offsets are the practice of when one country buys a system or services from a company in another they require that company to invest in their economy. They are not uncommon in the defense business. Right now India especially has very strict offset rules that have led to some controversy.
The European Union announced yesterday some rules to make offsets more targeted and defense related among its member countries. In the past some country’s have requested offset investment in their civil economy rather then in defense work. Normal procedure is to buy services, parts or maintenance related to the contract awarded.
The new rules require that the offsets be defense related. They also limit the total value to no more then equivalent to the awarded contract. Most often offsets are some percentage of the value so these rules are not to onerous. The EU has moved recently to tighten up competition among the various countries penalizing Italy for favoring their own internal industry over other available sources for example.
The offset rules announced will probably have limited effect since many of the projects are already shared among a variety of suppliers such as the Typhoon. If there is a decline in defense spending and the number of large contracts available there will probably be more efforts to expand competition and restrict protectionist policies.
DARPA Money Flows to Large Contractors
Filed under: Business Line, Companies, Contract Awards, DARPA, Events, IT, Northrop Grumman Corp., SAIC, Services, development program
One would expect an organization like the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to be funding small companies that possess breakthrough ideas and technologies. Often it does as it looks to provide seed money to jump start ideas that can then go on to be fully developed and produced. The Agency just announced major contract awards to two of the largest defense contractors in the U.S. Northrop Grumman and SAIC each will work on developing tetrahertz frequency amplifiers. Northrop actually received two contracts. Total value of these awards are $57 million.
There are some things that the large contractors have already done a lot of work in or possess the necessary facilities. These contracts are for an incremental development in a known technology — microchip integration. Moving forward to the higher frequencies that are required for advanced transmitters and receivers will require this kind of development.
The Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program provides funding to a variety of companies each year to look at developing advanced concepts or technologies that DoD requires. This fund is generated through a portion of all R&D funding and will continue despite DARPA’s efforts to fund other efforts.
Alion Awarded TARDEC Omnibus Contract Supporting Life Cycle of Manned and Unmanned Ground Vehicles
Filed under: Syndicated Industry News
DynCorp International Wins $20 Million AFRICAP Task Order in Liberia
Filed under: Syndicated Industry News
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