01 Mar 10. BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman Corporation have announced a teaming agreement to pursue the Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV) program. The GCV program is a development effort headed by the U.S. Army and is designed to develop the next generation Infantry Fighting Vehicle. “BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman have been pre-eminent suppliers of combat systems to the U.S. Army for more than 50 years,” said Mark Signorelli, BAE Systems’ vice president and general manager of Ground Combat Vehicle. “Our team looks forward to working side by side with the Army and its Soldiers in the development of the new Ground Combat Vehicle. Collectively we bring the proven experience, the latest technology and cultures of innovation and service to the Army’s effort to develop a new generation of fighting vehicles.” BAE Systems will serve as the prime contractor in this partnership. It is the world’s largest producer of combat vehicles, having fielded more than any other company in the world. The company is the top supplier to the U.S. Army’s Heavy Brigades, one of the largest suppliers to the U.S. Department of Defense and the second largest defense company in the world. Northrop Grumman will serve as the C4ISR (command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) lead, responsible for integration of command and control hardware and software, computers and communications equipment, sensors and sensor suites for intelligence gathering and force protection, and other functionality that requires ‘plug and play’ with the internal network or provides situational awareness across external networks. (Source: ASD Network)

01 Mar 10. Boeing today announced that the company’s partnership with rival Lockheed Martin to develop a next-generation bomber has been suspended, with limited likelihood for revival. “The teaming agreement now is on hold until we understand where the government is headed” with the next-generation bomber program, said Darryl Davis, presidentof Boeing’s secretive Phantom Works division, during a March 1 telephone call with reporters to discuss the company’s new Phantom Ray stealth drone. Such a move would likely lead to competition between Boeing, Lockheed and Northrop Grumman if the Pentagon decides to move ahead with building a new bomber. The two defense giants had pooled their resources to develop mission studies and a road map and share technologies that both were developing for a next-generation strike plane. Now, “I’m not sure that the agreement will endure; at this point, the jury is still out as to what we’re going to do” with long-range strike, Davis said. “The government, in the day and age we’re in, probably wants more competition, not less.” Last year, Defense Secretary Robert Gates put the Next Generation Bomber program on indefinite hold so that the Defense Department could study the need for such an aircraft. Davis said that he has not heard when or if the long-range bomber program will be restarted, nor who will receive the $200 million requested by the Pentagon in the 2011 budget to continue studies. Phantom Ray is Boeing’s internal effort to maintain the skills necessary to develop a high-end, stealthy UAV with relatively long range that can penetrate advanced air defenses and perform missions ranging from strike and electronic warfare to intelligence collection, Davis said. “One of our big concerns is that, at some point in time, will we end up forgetting those things we’ve learned over many development programs and have to relearn them when a new program starts,” he said. “From where I sit in Phantom Works today, there are no new start [strike] airplanes in development today.” Technologies developed for the fighter-sized Phantom Ray could easily be scaled up to fit a long-range bomber type aircraft, should the Pentagon decide to move forward with such a program, he said. The plane, derived from Boeing’s X-45 aircraft that was built for the now-cancelled Joint Unmanned