A key House subcommittee wants the Pentagon to review Air Force and Navy plans to streamline acquisition for reconnaissance drones that both services are procuring but that are based on the same Northrop Grumman [NOC]-built platform.
The Air Force’s Global Hawk unmanned aerial system and the Navy’s Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) system were designed to have high commonality and interoperability. The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) Air and Land Forces subcommittee last week questioned the services’ resolve in streamlining unique requirements.
“The committee is concerned that differing, evolving service unique requirements, coupled with Global Hawk UAS vanishing vendor issues, are resulting in a divergence in each services’ basic goal of maximum system commonality and interoperability, particularly with regard to the communications systems,” the panel stated in its version of the fiscal year 2011 Defense Department authorization bill.
The HASC will weigh the subcommittee’s legislative proposals when it marks up its version of the bill tomorrow.
In its markup, the subcommittee directs Ashton Carter, the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, to certify and provide written notification to the congressional defense committees by March 31, 2011, that he has reviewed the communications requirements and acquisition strategies for both Global Hawk and BAMS. The subcommittee wants assurance that the requirements for each service’s communications systems have been validated and that the acquisition strategy for each system “achieves the greatest possible commonality and represents the most cost effective option” for each program.
Meanwhile, Global Hawk prime contractor Northrop Grumman announced that the Air Force has awarded it a $50 million firm fixed-price/cost plus fixed-fee contract to provide the program with an interim repair capability for its integrated sensor suite (ISS) and the enhanced integrated sensor suite (EISS).
The interim repair line, which will be separate from the current production line, will be located and operated at Raytheon [RTN] Space and Airborne Systems (SAS) in El Segundo, Calif. Raytheon SAS is partnered with Northrop Grumman to provide the EISS imaging system for the Global Hawk Block 20 and 30 systems.
The sensor interim repair line will be the first dedicated repair facility to be established by the Air Force for Global Hawk, and is expected to “significantly improve the availability of the critical ISS and EISS components in support of increased operations tempo,” according to Northrop Grumman.
The Air Force has predicted that theater requirements for Block 30 Global Hawk flight time will be much higher than previously planned. According to the company, the new interim repair facility will provide “an important bridge to a fully independent depot-level repair program” for the drones.
The Air Force is scheduled to begin test flights this summer of the first Block 40 Global Hawks at Edwards AFB, Calif. (Defense Daily, April 14). The newest Global Hawk variant carries an all-weather multi-platform radar technology insertion program (MP-RTIP) sensor, which will help the military detect, track and identify stationary and moving targets.
MP-RTIP-equipped Global Hawks will also provide NATO users with real-time data, intelligence, and target identification. Northrop Grumman earlier this year received the formal solicitation for the Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) system. The deal for eight Euro Hawk aircraft could be worth approximately $2.2 billion, company executives have said.
Last month, a NASA-operated Global Hawk aircraft began flying earth science study missions over the Pacific. The drone is equipped with special sensors for sampling the atmosphere at altitudes about twice those flown by commercial airliners.
Earlier this year, the Air Force’s 12th Reconnaissance Squadron out of Beale AFB, Calif., launched a Block 10 Global Hawk to assist with humanitarian aid in Haiti after the country suffered a massive earthquake in early January (Defense Daily, Jan. 25).