House Considers NDAA. The House is set to take up its version of the fiscal year 2023 National Defense Authorization starting on June 13, where it will debate and consider a bevy of amendments on the floor. The House Armed Services Committee voted 57 to 1 to advance the legislation out of committee on June 23. HASC’s bill supports an $840 billion topline after voting to increase the topline by $37 billion during its markup.
It’s Official.
Aerojet Rocketdyne last week said the June 30 election by shareholders of its new board of directors was independently certified, allowing the eight directors to take their seats. The board includes four incumbents, CEO Eileen Drake, retired Air Force Generals Kevin Chilton and Lance Lord, and Thomas Corcoran, and new independent directors Gail Baker, Marion Blakey, retired Marine Maj. Gen. and former NASA Administrator Charles Boden, and Deborah Lee James.
Coyote. Northrop Grumman marked the 100th launch of its GQM-163A Coyote target vehicle on July 7. The U.S. Navy uses the Coyote as a threat-representative target to test, train, and qualify anti-cruise missile defense systems and crews aboard ships The company noted it originally designed the target for a Mach 2.5+ sea skimming target and later added the ability to reach Mach 3.5+ as a diving target for an altitude over 50,000 feet. “As the only supersonic sea skimming target produced in the United States, the Coyote is part of a family of tactical targets that ensures U.S. Navy systems are ready and capable to defend against threats,” Rich Straka, vice president of launch vehicles at Northrop Grumman, said in a statement. The Navy first awarded a contract for the program in 2000 and the Coyote was first launched in 2003. The total contract value is over $329 million as Northrop Grumman has delivered over 145 targets to the Navy. The company said the Navy has ordered 218 targets with more options remaining in the contract.
P-8. Boeing said on July 7 that it has now delivered 150 P-8 maritime reconnaissance aircraft with the newest one delivered to Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) One based at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. The company boasted the aircraft has accrued 450,000 mishap-free flight hours with 112 aircraft delivered to the U.S. Navy, 12 to Australia, 12 to India, nine to the U.K., and five to Norway. It also initially delivered six test aircraft delivered to the Navy in the initial program stages. Boeing said the initial deliveries to New Zealand, South Korea and Germany are scheduled for 2022, 2023, and 2024, respectively. The P-8 is designed for anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; and search and rescue operations.
T-ATS-11. Austal USA is planning to hold a ceremony on July 11 at its Mobile, Ala., shipyard to celebrate the start of construction of its first steel ship, the Navajo-class Towing, Salvage and Rescue ship T-ATS-11. The vessel is intended to provide ocean-going tug, salvage, and rescue capabilities to support fleet operations and will be a multi-mission common hull platform capable of towing heavy ships. Austal noted the Navajo-class is also able to support missions like oil spill response, humanitarian assistance, and wide area search and surveillance. It said the ships are also able to enable future capability initiatives like modular payloads.
Army TITAN. Artificial intelligence firm C3 AI said on July 6 it’s part of Raytheon Technologies’ team that will deliver a complete prototype for the Army’s Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Node (TITAN) program. C3 AI said it will specifically provide an application platform for AI and machine learning model operations “for best-of-breed third-party models across the TITAN enterprise.” In late June, the Army said it had picked Raytheon and Palantir for the TITAN competitive program after both companies participated in the first phase of TITAN to work through their designs for the future intelligence ground station. The Army will then select one vendor for production. “This work combines Raytheon Intelligence & Space’s expertise in aerospace and defense with C3 AI’s proven expertise in enterprise AI to support critical national security interests through next-generation technology,” Thomas Siebel, CEO of C3 AI, said in a statement. “We look forward to working with Raytheon Technologies to deliver this new AI-powered, mission-ready solution of the future.”
Centaur UGVs. Teledyne FLIR has received a $62 million order to deliver nearly 500 more Centaur unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) to the Army, Navy and “other command centers,” the company said on July 7. Orders for the Centaur medium-sized ground robots were placed under the Army’s multi-year Man Transportable Robotic System (MTRS) Increment II contract vehicle, which has now had its ceiling value raised from $190 million to $250 million. “Our Centaur platform continues to prove itself as one of the most versatile and sought after tactical Unmanned Ground Vehicles to support America’s military,” Tom Frost, Teledyne FLIR’s general manager for unmanned ground systems, said in a statement. “Our team is honored to play a role in providing technology U.S. warfighters depend on for risky and sometimes deadly missions. Centaur also can be used effectively for unexploded ordnance clearance in hotspots such as Ukraine, and with global security threats on the rise, allied nations can leverage this multi-purpose robot to support a wide array of manned/unmanned operations.”
Peraton Exec. Peraton has appointed John Coleman president of tis Citizen Security & Public Services (CS&PS) sector, a position he has held in an acting capacity since the start of 2022. Previously, Coleman was president of the company’s former Defense & Homeland Security sector. The CS&PS sector has more than 3,500 employees and contracts with the Departments of Homeland Security, State and Labor, the U.S. Senate, and state and local governments. Peraton says the sector has a multi-billion-dollar pipeline of business opportunities and is “positioned for significant expansion.”