29 Jan 04. General Dynamics Corp’s Electric Boat unit received an $8.4bn multiyear contract to produce five Virginia-class submarines for the U.S. Navy.
The DoD also announced the modified pact and listed the contract figure at just under $8.45bn. The new pact modifies and supersedes an $8.7bn so-called “block-buy” contract to produce six subs which Electric Boat received in August, and which General Dynamics said at the time was the largest submarine order in U.S. history.
16 Jan 04. Marconi-Selenia Communications – a Finmeccanica company, the global military communications systems provider – has been awarded a contract through its UK Division, to supply its CTL304 Long Range Radio Relay System to fulfil the MOD’s requirement for a DLOS (Direct Line of Sight) system. The contract from the MOD, on behalf of HQ ACE Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC), is worth over £1m and calls for rapid delivery of systems and support services – Marconi-Selenia is on schedule to deliver and install the radios in just four months.
Based on the highly successful CTM300 series radio, the CTL304 solution to the DLOS ITT offers significant operational and data handling advantages compared to alternative technologies. With an over-the-horizon range of over 100km, achieved by integrating an additional high power amplifier, optimising receiver sensitivity and gain optimised antenna systems, the CTL304 cuts in half the number of relays needed – reducing network vulnerability and manpower requirements. Data handling is boosted too – in field integration trials, the CTL304 demonstrated the ability to pass 2Mbps HDB3 trunk traffic across an operational link.
15 Jan 04. Lockheed Martin has received an $88.9m contract for the second LRIP II purchase of HIMARS for the U.S. Army and Marine Corps. HIMARS, combat proven in Operation Iraqi Freedom, will support lighter, more mobile Future Forces. During LRIP II the Army plans to purchase 25 HIMARS launchers, with the Marines purchasing one launcher. Current joint service acquisition plans call for procurement of more than 900 launchers, which can accommodate the entire family of Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) munitions, including the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missile and Guided MLRS rocket. The First Unit Equipped (FUE) is on schedule for early 2005. HIMARS is being produced at the company’s Camden, AR, production facility. The HIMRS baseline chassis is a Stewrat & Stevenson product based on its FMTV truck.
27 Jan 04. McDonnell Douglas Corp., St. Louis, Mo., is being awarded a $215,000,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract to provide for the integration of the Joint Direct Attack Munition weapon system on various foreign military sales aircraft platforms. The Air Force can issue delivery orders totaling up the maximum amount indicated above, though actual requirements may necessitate less than this amount. Various countries will be supported on individual orders issued under this IDIQ contract. No funds have been obligated. This work will be complete by December 2008. Solicitation began December 2003, and negotiations were completed January 2004. The Air Armament Center, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity (FA8681-04-D-0109).
27 Jan 04. Lucent Technologies, Whippany, N.J., is being awarded a $12,530,241 cost-plus fixed-fee contract to provide for development of architecture, components and prototype systems to demonstrate packet routing architectures for the optical domain and optical technologies for wavelength switching, optical buffering, sub-nanosecond switching and multi-channel regeneration. At this time, $32,221 of the funds has been obligated. Further funds will be obligated as individual delivery orders are issued. This work will be complete by January 2008. Solicitation began March 2003. The Air Force Research Laboratory, Rome, N.Y., is the contracting activity (FA8750-04-C-0013).
28 Jan 04. General Dynamics C4 Systems