Northrop Grumman to provide Theater Deployable Communications kits to Air Force
Officials at Denro Systems in Gaithersburg, Md., a component of Northrop Grumman’s Baltimore-based Electronic Systems sector, will build and install a voice, data, and multiplexing communications infrastructure for the U.S. Air Force. The Theater Deployable Communications (TDC) modules and kits program is a ground-to-ground communications infrastructure designed to transmit and receive voice, data, and video communications securely, to or from wireless, satellite, or hard-wired sources. “TDC provides much-needed flexibility,” says Asif Mossa, site director for the division’s Denro Systems business unit. “The program allows the Air Force to tailor systems to specific needs and to transport the systems anywhere in the world for military contingencies.”
Air Force looks to ITT for night-vision goggles
The ITT Industries Inc. Night Vision Division in Roanoke, Va., won a $40 million U.S. Air Force contract to provide AN/AVS-9 night-vision goggles for aircraft pilots, copilots, and other crewmembers aboard H-60 helicopters, KC-135 and KC-10 tankers, as well as C-17 and C-130 transport aircraft. Work will be finished by July 2007. ITT provides Generation 3 image-intensifier technology for U.S. and allied military forces as well as federal, state and local law enforcement. For more information contact ITT online at www.ittind.com.
Northrop Grumman wins Navy logistics contract for shipboard electronics
Officials at Northrop Grumman Corp.’s Sperry Marine in Charlottesville, Va., recently announced that the company won a $65.3 million performance-based logistics supply requirements contract for support of electronic systems on U.S. Navy ships and submarines. Officials at the Naval Inventory Control Point in Mechanicsburg, Pa., awarded the contract. “Performance-based logistics is the Department of Defense’s preferred method for buying material support for fleet weapon systems,” says Ed Smeriglio, program manager for Sperry Marine’s performance-based logistics programs. “It’s a relatively new concept and places increased responsibility on military contractors by tying their compensation to the delivery of their products or services.” Sperry Marine will provide life-cycle logistics support for its radar systems (AN/BPS-15J /H and AN/BPS-16) and ring-laser-gyro inertial navigation systems (AN/WSN-7/7A/ B).
Three contractors win DARPA Organic Air Vehicle contract
Officials at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., awarded money to three contractors for the first phase of the Organic Air Vehicle-II (OAV-II) program to develop a prototype ducted-fan class-II unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for the Army’s Future Force Unit of Action. The contractors are Aurora Flight Sciences Inc. of Manassas, Va., BAE Systems Aircraft Controls Inc. in Los Angeles, and the Honeywell International Inc. Defense and Space Electronics Systems in Albuquerque, N.M. The OAV-II program will build a company-level ducted-fan (UAV for missions such as complex environment reconnaissance and surveillance, path-finding for friendly ground vehicles (robotic and manned), maneuver force protection, and non-line-of-sight targeting. The prototype will weigh less than 112 pounds, not including fuel, and will demonstrate sensors for situational awareness and target designation, a non-line-of-sight networked communications capability, and collision avoidance. The vehicle will have acoustic signature reduction technology, and will help small units perform reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition (RSTA) missions of as long as two hours at ranges shorter than 60 miles.
Air Force awards speech-processing research to Oasis
Officials at the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Information Directorate in Rome, N.Y., awarded a $2.1 million contract to Oasis Systems Inc. of Bedford, Mass., for the “Audio/Speech Processing Testbed,” which will support research in the directorate’s Information and Intelligence Exploitation Division. “The testbed will include computer software to automatically recognize the dialect, recognize words and phrases, and remove noise and interference from audio communications,” says John G. Parker Jr., program manager. The new testbed will enable the development of technologies with civilian applications such as monitoring air traffic control signals, law enforcement crime analysis, and monitoring audio communications for homeland security applications.
Spectrum to develop software-defined RFID readers with Oak Ridge
Officials at Spectrum Signal Processing (USA) Inc. in Columbia, Md., joined hands with Oak Ridge National Laboratory to develop software-defined radio frequency identification (RFID) interrogators for military logistics, homeland security, and commercial transportation. The readers track military assets and monitor the location and status of intermodal cargo containers. The programs being supported include CFAST, the Collaborative Force-Building Analysis, Sustainment, and Transportation (CFAST) system; NEMAS, the NGA Emergency Management and Accountability System (NEMAS); and MTS, the Marine Transportation System (MTS). The interrogators will use the Software Communications Architecture (SCA) to operate with Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS), and will support complex waveforms designed to optimize the use of available frequency spectrum and to prevent the jamming and spoofing of security-sensitive RFID signals, Spectrum officials say. For more information on Spectrum go to www.spectrumsignal.com.
Lockheed Martin to integrate armed Navy helicopter
U.S. Navy officials selected Lockheed Martin in Owego, N.Y., to integrate the Armed Helicopter mission kit for the MH-60S helicopter. The award represents Phase III of the U.S. Navy’s Armed Helo program. The Armed Helo mission kit includes sensors, avionics, weapons, integrated self-defense (ISD), and survivability. Initial operational capability of the Armed Helo is scheduled in September 2006. The MH-60S will replace the CH-46 and HH-60H helicopters, and will perform combat search and rescue, maritime interdiction, and surface warfare. The Armed Helo program will carry Hellfire missiles and forward-looking infrared (FLIR) sensors, and enables the crew to fire laser-sighted 7.62-mm guns from the port and starboard cabin windows and laser-sighted 0.50-caliber guns from the port and starboard cabin doors.
Honeywell�s Astreon LED exterior lighting selected for Boeing 7E7
Officials at Honeywell Air Transport Systems in Urbana, Ohio, will supply Boeing with the Astreon light-emitting diode (LED) systems for flight-critical exterior lighting on Boeing’s new 7E7 jetliner. This is the fourth 7E7 system that Boeing has awarded to Honeywell. “LEDs have dramatically longer lives than traditional lights, so Astreon lights will provide airlines a welcome reduction in operating costs,” says Frank Daly, president of Honeywell’s Air Transport Systems. The contract provides for incorporation of Astreon anticollision and navigation lighting systems.
MTC to improve F-15 aircraft systems interface
Officials MTC Technologies Inc. in Dayton, Ohio, won an Air Force contract to improve the systems interface between F-15 aircraft Fighter Data Link (FDL) and TACAN (Tactical Air Navigation) transmission signals. MTC has two teammates: ARINC, in Annapolis, Md., and Sensor Systems Inc. in Chatsworth, Calif. MTC will build prototype antennas and modify systems to retrofit the F-15 aircraft fleet, as necessary, MTC officials say. For more information see www.mtctechnologies.com.
Raytheon wins $48 million contract for JSOW-A bombs
The U.S. Navy awarded Raytheon Missile Systems in Tucson Ariz., a $48 million contract modification for the Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW-A). Raytheon will provide 216 JSOW AGM-154A variant weapons, containers, technical and financial data, and special tooling/special test equipment. The JSOW is an air-to-ground glide weapon with global positioning system/inertial navigation system that guides the weapon to the target, and is for the F/A-18, F-16, F-15E, F-22, B-1, B-2, and B-52 aircraft.
BAE Systems microprocessor guides Swift Mission
Radiation-hardened RAD6000 computers from BAE Systems Information & Electronic Warfare Systems in Manassas, Va., launched from Kennedy Space Center, Fla., as part of NASA’s Swift Mission - a multiwavelength observatory to study brief but powerful gamma-ray bursts that occur about once a day above Earth’s atmosphere. Scientists hope to discover the rays’ origin and nature. BAE Systems provides the four RAD6000 high-performance 32-bit Reduced Instruction Set Computers (RISC) that will process data and guide Swift in the heavily radiated space environment. The RAD6000 is based on the IBM PowerPC architecture.
Northrop Grumman wins network-centric solutions work
The Northrop Grumman Information Technology Sector in Herndon, Va., won a $1 million U.S. Air Force contract for technical support for computer hardware and software updates and upgrades. The work is part of the Network Centric Solutions (NETCENTS) program. Northrop Grumman will provide a SMARTnet maintenance plan for Cisco hardware and software, including access to rapid problem diagnosis and resolution. Northrop Grumman’s overall NETCENTS team includes Computer Sciences Corp., in El Segundo, Calif.; SAIC in San Diego; BearingPoint Inc. and RS Information Systems Inc. in McLean, Va.; Siemens AG in Munich, Germany; T-Systems in Frankfurt, Germany; Verizon Communications and AT&T in New York; Dell Inc. of Round Rock, Texas; and SI International Inc. in Reston, Va.
Lockheed Martin delivers net-centric communications to Iraq
Lockheed Martin Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications in Clarksburg, Md., finished installing the Coalition Multinational Network (CMN) network-centric satellite communications system for coalition forces in Iraq. Developed for U.S. Central Command, the CMN provides satellite-based, bandwidth on-demand services, with voice capabilities and secure broadband data communications. Coalition users at division, brigade, and battalion levels will have high-speed access to the enterprise servers, databases, and applications such as e-mail, file transfer protocol download, online meeting forums, whiteboard collaboration, and instant messaging. This service is also for streaming audio and video applications. For more information contact Lockheed Martin online at www.lockheedmartin.com.
