Tern Update. Tern, an unmanned, tail-sitting, flying-wing aircraft being developed by DARPA and the Office of Naval Research, has made “significant advances on numerous fronts” since last year, according to DARPA. The program has begun wing fabrication, opened a software integration test station, finished testing a modified General Electric engine for its first test vehicle and asked prime contractor Northrop Grumman to build a second test vehicle, the agency says. In addition, a 1/5th-scale model is undergoing wind-tunnel testing at NASA Ames Research Center in California. The program plans to begin at-sea flight tests in late 2018. Named after a family of seabirds, Tern is intended to operate from small-deck ships but provide the long endurance of fixed-wing, runway-using unmanned aircraft.
LCS-10 Tested. The future USS Gabrielle Giffords, the Navy’s 10th Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-10), completed its acceptance trials Nov. 18 in the Gulf of Mexico, paving the way for the ship’s delivery to the Navy later this year. The trials tested the ship’s handling, propulsion plant and auxiliary systems. The Independence-class ship, built by Austal USA in Mobile, Ala., will be homeported in San Diego. It is named after a former Arizona congresswoman who was shot and seriously wounded in a 2011 assassination attempt.
New Parsons Fed Head. Parsons has appointed former Honeywell defense and space business chief Carey Smith as president of its federal business, giving her responsibility for serving customers in the government defense, environmental, infrastructure, and intelligence services markets. “Carey is a respected leader in our industry, and her diverse experience makes her the right choice to contribute to our continued success,” says Chuck Harrington, Parsons’ chairman and CEO. Honeywell’s defense and space division had $4.7 billion in sales last year. Thomas Roell, who has been serving as interim president of Parsons’ federal unity, will resume his role as vice chairman, Chief Risk Advisor.
Counter UAS Testing Continues. The Federal Aviation Administration last week continued its Pathfinder counter Unmanned Aircraft System tests with Nevada and North Dakota UAS Test Site officials at Denver International Airport this month. The FAA is using the Pathfinder program to evaluate technologies and concepts for detecting UAS and protecting airspace around airports. For the most recent tests, Eye in the Sky UAS, UAUSA, and ISight RPV Services provided UAS and pilot services for the testing.
Green Card Snafus. The Department of Homeland Security Inspector General reports that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services continues to struggle with the issuance of Green Cards, saying that over the past three years the agency has produced at least 19,000 cards either with incorrect information or issued in duplicate. The IG also says that USCIS mistakenly issued cards with 10-year expiration dates to more than 2,400 immigrants only approved for 2-year conditional resident status. Most of the card problems are due to the “flawed design and functionality problems in the agency’s Electronic Immigration System,” the report says. IG John Roth says “It appears that thousands of Green Cards have simply gone missing.”
Trump Transition. President-elect Donald Trump continues to add to his Defense Department transition landing team this week. He announced the addition of Trae Stephens, a principal at Founders Fund, which invests in tech startups and was launched by celebrity investor Peter Thiel. According to his bio on the Founders Fund website, Stephens was an early employee at data management firm Palantir after working as “a computational linguist building enterprise solutions to Arabic/Persian name matching data enrichment within the U.S. intelligence community.” Stephens is working on the transition on a volunteer basis. Joining him on the DoD transition team is Greg Gardner, chief architect of government and defense solutions at NetApp. Gardner has worked previously for the Director of National Intelligence from 2009 to 2011, for the Joint Chiefs of Staff as chief of superiority joint warfighting capability assessment from 2002 to 2003 and as executive assistant to the commander in chief for U.S. Pacific Command from 1999 to 2001, according to his LinkedIn page. He is a 23-year veteran of the Army and was most recently from 1997 to 1999 commanding officer of the 3rd Infantry Regiment.
NASA SWOT Launch. NASA awarded SpaceX a roughly $112 million contract for its Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) launch mission, according to an agency statement. Launch is targeted for April 2021 on a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. The total cost includes launch service; spacecraft processing; payload integration and tracking and data and telemetry support. An industry source tells Defense Daily United Launch Alliance (ULA) also bid for this contract. Designed to make the first-ever global survey of earth’s surface water, in addition to high-resolution ocean measurements, the SWOT mission will collect detailed measurements of how water bodies on earth change over time. The SWOT spacecraft will be jointly developed and managed by NASA and the French space agency Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES).
RTN AZ Expansion. Raytheon plans to expand its southern Arizona operations by adding nearly 2,000 jobs at the missile systems business headquarters over a five-year period, according to a company statement. Raytheon’s missile systems division includes the following capabilities: precision weapons like missiles, torpedoes and precision guided munitions; missile defense like Patriot, SM-3 missile and the Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV); command and control (C2), sensors and imaging and electronic warfare (EW).
Polaris MRZR. Polaris Defense received an order from the Marine Corps to deliver 144 four-seat diesel MRZR vehicles as part of the utility task vehicle (UTV) program, according to company statement. The UTV program provides MRZR-D4s to each of the Marine Corps’ active-component infantry regiments. The contract also includes spare parts blocks in support of the vehicles.
Lockheed Martin TACMS. Lockheed Martin’s first modernized Tactical Missile System (TACMS) missile completed a successful first flight test, according to a company statement. The missile was launched from a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launcher at a target area more than 130km away, precisely hitting the target with a proximity sensor-enabled detonation. Lockheed Martin says all test objectives were achieved. As part of the Army’s TACMS Service Life Extension Program inventory refurbishment effort, the modernized missile includes updated guidance electronics and added capability to defeat area targets without leaving behind unexploded ordnance.
root9B Cyber Contract. Root9B announced a contract extension worth over $790,000 with an unnamed Fortune 500 company to extend the company’s cyber defense operations in its HUNT Operations through October 2017. It will continue to provide Manned Information Security services utilizing its ORION Hunt platform from the Adversary Pursuit Center (APC). The APC is a 24/7/365 manned operations facility that offers real-time remote computer network defense. The root9B operators use the OPRION platform to remotely detect, pursue, and remove cyber adversaries.
Virginia Australia Cyber. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) announced the signing of a memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP) and the government of Victoria, Australia for a comprehensive collaboration on cybersecurity opportunities. The MoU allows the two governments to collaborate and promote sharing of best practices related to a global workforce, promoting entrepreneurship, enabling innovations through research, and enhancing cybersecurity policy. The MoU also facilitates the sharing of in-market investment and trade resources related to the cybersecurity sector.