22 Mar 04. DRS Technologies, Inc. was awarded a $24.3m subcontract to provide major subsystems for the U.S. Army’s Long Range Advanced Scout Surveillance System (LRAS3). LRAS3 provides the U.S. Army Brigade Reconnaissance Troops, Armor and Infantry Battalion Scout Platoons, and the Stryker Brigade Combat Teams (SBCT) with a long-range detection, recognition, identification and far-target location capability. The contract was awarded to DRS by Raytheon Company’s Network Centric Systems business in McKinney, Texas. The company’s DRS Optronics unit in Palm Bay, Florida, will perform all work associated with the award at its state-of-the-art electro-optical design and production facilities. Product deliveries are expected to commence in May and continue through May 2005. Including the latest award, DRS received more than $88m in orders on the LRAS3 program.
22 Mar 04. NetFires LLC, a limited liability company established by Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Company, has received a $1.1bn contract for System Design and Development (SDD) for the Non Line-of-Sight — Launch System (NLOS-LS), previously known as NetFires. NLOS-LS is a family of artillery missiles fired from a vertical launcher that can be deployed by ground or air assets throughout a theater and networked to quickly engage an enemy. The two NetFires LLC partner companies will evenly split the SDD contract. The sole-source, six-year SDD contract includes design and development of the Loitering Attack Missile (LAM), the Precision Attack Missile (PAM) and an autonomous Container Launch Unit (CLU). Raytheon is developing the PAM, Lockheed Martin is developing the LAM and together they will produce the CLU. The NLOS-LS Task Force, U.S. Army Aviation & Missile Command, Huntsville, AL, is the contracting agency.The contract covers developing common missile components and equipment that can be used by both the LAM and PAM, resulting in lower cost in development, production and throughout the life-cycle of the program. The LAM will search wide areas for targets and relay their location back to commanders, who can then direct PAMs or other assets to the target. The commanders may also ask the LAM to break off its search and attack other targets.
24 Mar 04. Lockheed Martin reached an agreement to sell 22 Raptor jet fighters to the US air force after the Pentagon decided to proceed with operational testing of the controversial aircraft next month. The company is understood to have agreed to a price tag of just less than $110m per aircraft. The air force plans to buy 277 of the fighters. The aircraft has become a pawn in a battle between the uniformed leadership in the Pentagon and Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary of defence, who wants to shift the military away from Cold War-era weapons systems. (Source: FT)
24 Mar 04. Oshkosh Truck Corporation and American Truck Corp., (ATC), are each being awarded a $5,586,033 contract by the U.S. Marine Corps for a Phase I System Development and Demonstration Contract to each supply three Logistic Vehicle System Replacement (LVSR) trucks. Under this contract, which is the first phase of a two-part acquisition competition for up to 1,022 vehicles, the three trucks will be delivered to the Marines for extensive durability and performance testing within 12 months.
19 Mar 04. A consortium led by Bombardier Inc. won a C$200m ($150m) contract to provide training systems for Canada’s CF-18 fighter pilots, using technologies from U.S.-based L-3 Communications Holding Inc. The eight-year contract includes two five-year options, which would bring the value of the contract to C$270m.
23 Mar 04. The U.S. Navy on Tuesday said it was delaying a $1.6bn award for the next presidential helicopter, defusing for now a politically sensitive competition. Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., a unit of Connecticut-based United Technologies Corp., has described its offer of the VH-92 “Superhawk” as an “all-American” solution, in contrast to a three-engine design offer