Coast Guard Awards GE $16M for HC-144 Engine Repairs
General Electric’s [GE] Aviation division has received a $15.6 million contract from the Coast Guard for repair work on the company’s CT7-9C3 turboprop engines that power the service’s HC-144 maritime patrol aircraft. The contract has a two-year base period and three one-year options.
IARPA Awards Block MEMS $10M for Standoff Detection of Chemical Threats
Block MEMS has received a $9.8 million contract from the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency (IARPA) to develop a system that can detect trace quantities of chemicals at standoff distances of at least 100-feet. The award was made under IARPA’s Standoff Illuminator for Measuring Absorbance and Reflectance Infrared Light Signatures program and is managed by the Air Force Research Laboratory. Block says it will develop a new class of widely tunable, high-pulse energy Quantum Cascade Lasers and also next-generation detection algorithms to detect and identify hundreds of chemicals on a wide range of surfaces. “Block has strong capabilities in developing sophisticated standoff chemical detectors and deep, decades long understanding of infrared spectroscopy,” says Petros Kotidis, Block’s CEO.
FEMA Awards Ideation $7M for Programmatic Technical Assistance
Ideation, Inc. has received a $7 million contract from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to provide programmatic technical assistance for the Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration (FIMA)/Risk Reduction Division. FIMA is responsible for creating safer communities by reducing loss of life and property, protecting investments and advancing long-term sustainability, enabling individuals to recover more rapidly from floods and other disasters and lessen the financial impact of disasters on the nation. The technical assistance will include programmatic support, enhancement of FEMA benefit cost tools, loss avoidance methodology, mitigation grants business process streamlining support, and enterprise data analytics needs for Hazard Mitigation Assistance programs.
Uruguayan District Contracts with Elbit Systems for Surveillance System
Elbit Systems [ESLT] has received a $19 million from Uruguay’s Maldonado District Administration to provide a Safe District project that will span six municipal authorities over 2,000 square kilometers. The project will include more than 1,000 cameras and sensors, including vehicle traffic control, laid out at strategic points. The sensor data will be transferred to a control center, which will include command and control systems with unique analytics capabilities. The sensors and camera infrastructure will allow operators to obtain real-time data from the field and alert law enforcement officials, including logistics and emergency personnel, in conjunction with the nature of the event. The project will be deployed over two years.
SWIFT Contracts with BAE, Fox-IT for Cyber Security Services
In the wake of recent cyber security heists of tens of millions of dollars via a global financial messaging system, the cooperative that manages the system has hired Britain’s BAE Systems and the Dutch firm Fox-IT to provide cyber security services and expertise. The values of the contracts were not disclosed. The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) says the contracted services and its in-house cyber security experts will work with its newly created Customer Security Intelligence team to support the Belgium-based cooperative’s customer information sharing initiative and bolster cyber security across the SWIFT community. SWIFT is owned by its global members who consist of banking and securities organizations and enables them to communicate securely through standardized financial messages to facilitate global and local financial transactions.