The Latest Word On Trends And Developments In Aerospace And Defense
Tanker Redux. The Joint Requirement Oversight Council (JROC) last week revalidated requirements for a new Air Force tanker fleet. The service drew up the requirements and the JROC, headed by Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine Gen. James Cartwright reviewed them. Sources say the list has been somewhat streamlined and “clarified” but is not significantly different from the requirements in place during the tumultuous competition between Boeing and Northrop Grumman that resulted in the program’s termination last year. Air Force and Pentagon officials now say a fresh competition could be opened within the next month, and a winner chosen by the end of the year. The tanker replacement is the top acquisition priority of both the Air Force and its Transportation Command, service officials say.
Mach 5+. NASA and the Air Force have designated three university and industry partners in California, Texas and Virginia as national hypersonic science centers. The new centers will advance research in air-breathing propulsion, materials and structures, and boundary layer control for aircraft that can travel at Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound, and faster. NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate in Washington and the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Office of Scientific Research in Arlington, Va., selected the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Texas A&M University in College Station and Teledyne Scientific & Imaging LLC of Thousand Oaks, Calif., from more than 60 respondents to a broad agency announcement. An allocation of $30 million over five years will support basic science and applied research that improves understanding of hypersonic flight, according to a NASA press statement.
On The Fence. The Air Force plans to award a concept development phase contract for its next-generation ground-based space-object detection system in July, according to the Defense Department. The “Space Fence” is a ground-based radar concept intended to replace the existing Air Force Space Surveillance System, according to a request for proposals released late last month. The Space Fence’s net-centric architecture will be capable of detecting 10 times the number of objects in low- and medium-Earth orbit as the legacy system and will be able to monitor objects five centimeters in diameter or larger, compared to the 30-centimeter limit of the current system. The Air Force plans to spend $90 million on concept development contracts for three companies. Two competitors will then be chosen this summer to receive a prototyping contract. The final development contract is expected to be worth some $3.5 billion, sources say. Potential contractors have until March 26 to submit technical and cost estimates. The winner is to deliver the initial, southern hemisphere coverage Space Fence sensor “no later than fiscal year 2015” and all expected blocks of coverage by FY ’20, according to the RFP.
Skipper Skelton. HASC Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) says there are not enough resources to build the ships in the Navy’s 30-year shipbuilding plan, and that decisions must be made now about the fleet’s makeup. “The debate about the future surface Navy needs to end this year,” he tells the American Shipbuilding Association on March 3. “A decision needs to be made. After a decision is made that both the Department and the Congress can support, we need to fund the surface construction program at the level necessary to restore our fleet. Whether that number is 313 ships or 340 ships, we need to get there.” Skelton says he wants 10 ships to be funded in FY ’10, and they must counter new threats to the fleet, according to his prepared remarks for the closed-to-press event.
Inouye On Defense. Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), chair of the SAC and SAC-D, touts defense programs that started as earmarks last Wednesday on the Senate floor, while defending the congressional practice of earmarking funds in spending bills. The C-17 cargo plane, he says, “is now the most productive and the best working aircraft we have to carry cargo and personnel.” The Predator drone “has helped to shorten the war, it has helped to save lives,” he adds. “It did not come out of the mind of the president of the United States or from the Defense Department. It came from the minds of the members of the committee. I dare anyone to suggest that these are evil products.”
The Stars Shine On LCS. Navy Secretary Donald Winter Friday named LCS-3 the USS Fort Worth, the Navy says. The selection of a name comes amid ongoing contract negotiations between the Navy and the two LCS teams represented by General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin.
New And Improved Super Hornets. Besides the potential for procuring new Super Hornets, the Navy has a very robust flight plan in place for new F/A-18E/F capabilities, says Bob Gower, vice president F/A-18 and EA- 18 programs. Among the capabilities being explored is a distributed target processor to enable the Super Hornet to get additional processing capability, he adds. Another program Boeing is under contract on now is Infrared Search and Track (IRS&T). In July 2007, Boeing selected Lockheed Martin to supply up to150 IRS&T systems for the Super Hornet Block II. “IRS&T is a passive, long-range sensor system that searches for and detects long-wave infrared emissions within its field of view. It can track several targets simultaneously and provide an effective air-to-air targeting capability, even when facing advanced threats with radar jamming equipment,” Gower says.
…A New Use. “We now use our AESA radar as a big antenna, and we bring in the data from the radar, we run it back through the algorithms in our EW (electronic warfare) system, so now we can identify threats at a farther distance than we could before, because we have this huge aperture in the front of the airplane,” Gower adds.
New Incarnation. Former Army Special Forces soldier and DHL vice president Joseph Yorio is the new president of XE, the new name of the reorganized Blackwater security company. Danielle Esposito is named as Xe’s new CEO and executive vice president. Xe founder Erik Prince steps down and will not be part of the new organization. Instead, he will focus on an unrelated private equity venture. Prince founded security contractor Blackwater in 1997. Xe was unveiled last month as the new corporate entity for the businesses previously operating under the name Blackwater Worldwide. The group provides world-class training and logistics services in the United States and abroad. These appointments follow departures of other key personnel, the company says.
…New directions. After a yearlong review, XE’s organization will include the addition of an independent committee of outside experts charged with supervising Xe compliance structures; the expansion of a quality program in support of ISO 9000 certification; and the creation of a corporate governance and ethics program modeled on Defense Industry Initiative standards.
New Executive. Oshkosh announces that R. Andy Hove has joined the company as executive vice president and president, Defense. Hove will be responsible for all aspects of the company’s approximately $2 billion defense business segment, including tactical wheeled vehicle programs, technology development and aftermarket parts and service. Hove succeeds John Stoddart, who retired in February after 14 years with the company. Robert Bohn, Oshkosh chairman and CEO says: “We look forward to the growth and expansion of the Oshkosh Defense business and product offering under Andy’s leadership.” A former Army officer, Hove was most recently vice president, Combat Systems Programs at BAE Systems. Previously, he was employed with United Defense, FNSS Defense Systems and Vinnel Corp.
…New Vehicles. Oshkosh delivers to the Army two production-ready MRAP All Terrain Vehicles (M-ATV) under a $1 million Army contract. The award is one of the required phases of the military evaluation of the M-ATV submissions. The contact came after the vehicles met the government’s initial design requirements. “With the first milestone behind us, we look forward to further government evaluation that will prove the Oshkosh M-ATV is an exceptional solution for the challenges facing our soldiers and Marines in Afghanistan,” Hove says. Upon completion of successful military testing, Oshkosh could be awarded an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract for three more production- ready vehicles for further testing.
Tough Duty. A national security exercise in the Bahamas and Dominican Republic runs through March 18, drawing together the United States, Great Britain and 16 Carribean nations for the 25th annual Tradewinds exercise. The exercise is to improve coordination among nations in areas such as search and rescue and maritime interdiction operations. U.S. Southern Command sponsors the exercise and the U.S. Marine Corps South leads it.
New Leader. BAE Systems names Gene Glazar president of its newly formed Information Solutions business, based in Reston, Va. Glazar previously was vice president of business development for the company’s former Customer Solutions operating group. BAE’s Information Solutions is among the 10 largest IT providers to the U.S. government. It also provides network-centric command, control, computing, and intelligence solutions to the U.S. military; wideband networking radio systems; information systems for the U.S. intelligence community; and geospatial information services.
No More With Less. The Coast Guard has to get away from the notion of doing “more with less,” says Commandant Adm. Thad Allen. “I’ll tell you this, and I said this last year, this notion of doing more with less needs to leave our lexicon,” he says at the annual State of the Coast Guard address. “You can only do what you can with what you’ve got. And if you have mission creep or you have additional demands placed on you that you increase your risk position of what you don’t do, and that’s the discussion we have to have.” Allen was answering a question regarding a decision about how big the Coast Guard should be in terms of manpower. He says that while the service has the capacity to take on more personnel that may not be easy in the current fiscal environment. This will have to be worked with the Obama administration, Allen says.