Northrop Grumman receives contract for ICBM Propulsion Replacement program
The U.S. Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman Mission Systems in Reston, Va., a $225 million contract for 27 months to continue the full-rate production phase of the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) Propulsion Replacement Program (PRP). The program will replace aging solid-rocket motor sets, for stages 1, 2, and 3, in the Minuteman III missile arsenal with remanufactured motors to maintain alert-readiness status through 2020. PRP is one of eight large modification programs currently managed by Northrop Grumman’s Mission Systems sector, prime integration contractor for the program. The company assists the Air Force in activities required to sustain the U.S. ICBM arsenal. ATK is producing all three stages at full rate and expects to deliver all production motors by August 2009. Minuteman stage 1 motors are manufactured by ATK at their facility in Promontory, Utah, and stage 2 and 3 motors are manufactured at the ATK Bacchus facility in Magna, Utah, with components provided by the ATK Promontory and Clearfield, Utah facilities.
ESC awards $79.5 million DEAMS System Integrator task order
The U.S. Air Force’s Electronic Systems Center’s (ESC) Development and Fielding Systems Group at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, awarded a $79.5 million task order for System Integration support to configure, deploy, and conduct training for the Defense Enterprise Accounting and Management System program to Accenture LLP in Reston, Va. This decision follows a recent ESC award for the DEAMS commercial off-the-shelf software to Oracle Corp. for their e-Business financial and accounting software. As the system integrator, Accenture will integrate DEAMS requirements into the Oracle E-Business Suite. Accenture LLP initially will develop and conduct a technology demonstration of a capable DEAMS system at Scott Air Force Base, Ill. An early operational assessment of the system will be completed and the results presented back to the Office of the Secretary of Defense before additional development and deployment of the DEAMS system is authorized for U. S. Transportation Command, Air Force, or defense agencies. The DEAMS team, comprised of members from the Air Force, United States Transportation Command and Defense Finance and Accounting Service, conducted its evaluation at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass.
Michigan deploys statewide interoperable communications from Codespear
The Michigan State Police (MSP) Emergency Management Division (EMD) has selected the software platform from Codespear in Birmingham, Mich., to coordinate emergency alert notifications and communications with state, county, and municipal emergency managers and first responders. The software will augment the current State Emergency Operations Center (EOC) incident command system, enhancing incident response, emergency preparedness, and continuity of operations. SmartMsg, Codespear’s flagship solution, works by enabling fully integrated two-way communications and alerting between multiple agencies, communities and first responders regardless of communication devices. “Not only will Codespear’s solution provide immediate alert notification to key state agency, county and municipal personnel upon entering incident details into our incident command system, SmartMsg will also provide for the establishment of secure communication links and information sharing between the state and the homeland security and emergency management personnel of Michigan counties and municipalities,” said Daniel Sibo, section manager for Michigan State Police Emergency Management Division. For more information visit www.codespear.com.
BAE Systems RAD6000 pilots Stardust on comet collection
The RAD6000 computer from BAE Systems in Manassas, Va., played a key role in the recently completed Stardust spacecraft mission, which returned to Earth with dust and carbon-based samples from Comet Wild 2. The RAD6000 computer was essential for command and control of Stardust, processing key navigational data during the spacecraft’s nearly seven-year journey. “With the assistance of BAE Systems microprocessors, Stardust stayed on course, connected with Comet Wild 2 and returned home safely,” says Vic Scuderi, manager of space products for BAE Systems. The RAD6000 is a high-performance 32-bit reduced-instruction-set computer that operates in the heavily radiated space environment. For more information see www.na.baesystems.com.
DRS Technologies acquires Engineered Support Systems
DRS Technologies Inc. in Parsippany, N.J., announced today that it has completed its acquisition of Engineered Support Systems Inc. In the transaction, a wholly owned subsidiary of DRS was merged with Engineered Support Systems (ESSI), forming DRS’s third operating segment-the Sustainment Systems and Services Group. “The combination of the two companies firmly establishes DRS Technologies as a leading total solutions provider of defense products and services with $2.9 billion in annual revenues,” says Mark S. Newman, chairman, president and CEO. “Our expanded capabilities position the company as a major supplier in armed forces modernization, personnel mobility, and operations and maintenance (O&M) support, while providing new opportunities for growth in intelligence and homeland security markets.” For more information about DRS Technologies, visit www.drs.com.
ARINC 653 for RTLinuxPro released
Officials at FSMLabs announced ARINC 653 scheduling is now available in RTLinuxPro. Designed for avionics control and advanced hardware-in-loop simulation, ARINC 653 provides a protected and partitioned scheduling environment configured using a standard XML format. The ARINC scheduler has been added to FSMLabs’ PSDD real-time product for executing real-time threads in the address space of Linux or BSD processes. The specification requires both time and space (memory) partitioning and calls for XML scheduling configuration. It is coupled with RTCore’s POSIX-compliant OS interface. It offers specific scheduling windows, easy configuration, and application isolation, plus POSIX threads, semaphores, shared memory and other standard interfaces, company officials say. The system supports, “C,” C++, and FORTRAN. For more information see www.fsmlabs.com.
