06 May 04. General Dynamics Corp’s Electric Boat unit was awarded about $299m in submarine work and materials for the U.S. Navy. The work includes a $293m contract modification for design, engineering, material and logistics support for strategic and attack submarines, and research and development for submarine research vehicles. Initially awarded March 3, that contract could be worth more than $1.1bn over five years if all options are exercised and funded. The second portion of the $299m in work unveiled Thursday includes a $5.9m material order for the purchase of long-lead-time material required to support alterations on USS Michigan and USS Florida, which are undergoing conversion to a different class of sub.
07 May 04. Goodrich Corporation has been chosen to provide an electrically actuated braking system for production versions of a high-endurance, unmanned reconnaissance vehicle — Northrop Grumman’s Global Hawk. The electric braking system is based on an existing Goodrich wheel and brake design modified for electric rather than hydraulic actuation. Integration of the system will be performed by Goodrich’s Troy, Aircraft Wheels and Brakes division and will include electric actuators from Goodrich’s Actuation Systems division as well as a system control from the company’s Fuel and Utility Systems division.
07 May 04. The Department of the Army-Field Support Command, Rock Island, Ill., has awarded General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems the company a $15.7m firm-fixed-price contract to produce 1,468,550 rounds of 30mm PGU-15/B Target Practice (TP) Cartridges.
13 May 04. Northrop Grumman Corporation was awarded a contract from the DoD to continue providing on-site analytical support to the Joint Staff and Combatant Commands. The JASP contract is an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (ID/IQ) contract and its value has a potential ceiling of $220m over a five-year period that includes one base year and four one-year options. As part of this follow-on contract, Northrop’s IT sector will also provide analytical support services to the Army Training and Doctrine Command Analysis Center, Ft. Leavenworth, Kan. This includes operations research and systems analysis support; systems engineering analysis and implementation; modeling and simulation development; wargaming and defense issues analysis; data-mining support; and local area network design and implementation.
13 May 04. Raytheon was awarded a USAF contract to conduct a utility evaluation of the Lock-On-After-Launch (LOAL) variant of the AGM-65 Maverick missile. The $5.3m contract, awarded by the Air Force Research Laboratory¹s Munitions Directorate at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., includes up to six captive flight missions. The purpose of the flight missions is to evaluate the functional capability and utility of the newest Maverick missile concept, which provides man-in-the-loop end-game control for precise attacks at greater standoff range against stationary and moving targets. Flight missions will be conducted by the 46th Test Wing and monitored by the 53rd Wing, both at Eglin. The goal of the program is to conduct a user demonstration to evaluate the capability of the LOAL Maverick concept.
06 May 04. The UK Armed Forces’ Minister said that two systems had been selected to enter a competitive Assessment Phase for the ASM programme. The systems are produced by Dynamit Nobel of Germany and Saab Bofors of Sweden. The cost of the ASM Assessment Phase “is likely to be approximately £7m”. Comment: The ASM has previously been officially referred to as an Infantry Anti-Structures Weapon (IASW) and no reason was given for the change of nomenclature. The need for a ‘bunker-buster’ was recognised in 2000, with the expectation that such a weapon would be in service in 2005. As it is, dismounted Infantry fighting in urban areas will have to wait until at least 2007 before the ASM is available. The ASM is to be a one-person weapon, with a range of at least