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07 Aug 12. Raytheon Company recently celebrated its fourth successful year of continued support to customers at more than 600 locations around the world on the Warfighter Field Operations Customer Support (FOCUS) program. The Raytheon-led Warrior Training Alliance team has processed more than 5,250 task orders since Warfighter FOCUS began in May 2008. The 10-year, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity U.S. Army Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation contract, with an estimated ceiling value of $11.2bn, consolidated the U.S. Army’s legacy live, virtual and constructive training programs. Highlights of the Raytheon-led capabilities provided to Warfighter FOCUS customers around the world since contract start include:
Training
* Robust support for the Army’s initial return to full-spectrum operations training and initiation of the Decisive Action Training Environment at the Army’s premier Combat Training Centers.
* Intelligence training and training support by more than 1,400 experienced professionals covering the human, analytical, imagery, signal and geological intelligence domains and the unmanned aircraft systems arena.
Logistics
* Centralized program management, with task orders competitively awarded (average of 30 percent to small businesses) among 140-plus pre-qualified suppliers and vendors, providing a streamlined acquisition process to deliver rapid, flexible, innovative, cost-effective and on-target support and services.
* Extensive depot and supply support through a Raytheon-run, 62,000-square-foot central warehouse that houses 26,000 different stock-keeping units; receives 40-50 purchase order packages per day; processes 30-50 materiel requests daily; and, working with 13 other repair depots worldwide, has supported nearly 750,000 work orders.
Engineering
* Substantial support of the Army’s first Exportable Training Capability deployment of the Exportable Instrumentation System, allowing full Combat Training Center capability at a non-CTC site.
* Development of an innovative software engineering solution — the Precision Real Time Location System, or PRTLS — for simplified tracking of large numbers of military participants, role players and exercise controllers at the Army’s Joint Multinational Readiness Center training areas in Grafenwoehr and Hohenfels, Germany.
02 Aug 12. USAF names Luke AFB as F-35A training location. Luke Air Force Base (AFB) in Arizona has been earmarked as the pilot training centre for the US Air Force’s (USAF’s) Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) force, the service announced on 1 August. According to USAF, the first of 72 aircraft will arrive at 56th Fighter Wing between late 2013 to mid-2014, “although exact timing will depend on production schedules.” (Source: Jane’s, JDW)
09 Aug 12. Going Private, Space Industry Eyes State’s Open Spaces. When XCOR Aerospace, a private California rocket-building company, was looking for a wide-open place to test rocket engines and space planes, it found an ideal site in Midland. . . . As home to the NASA Johnson Space Center, Texas has been central to the field of space exploration for decades. But XCOR’s announcement is only the latest indication of many that the state could be on its way to becoming a hub for a new space economy — one based in the private sector. Texas’ location and business-friendly policies make it appealing, industry experts say, and if the private space industry takes root, it could inject millions of dollars into the state economy. (Source: glstrade.com/New York Times.com)
02 Aug 12. US military base in Alaska kicks off landfill gas-to-energy project. The first landfill gas-to-energy project in Alaska began generating power on 31 July at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER) in Anchorage and is expected to save the United States military more than $30m over the facility’s expected operating life. Powered by four General Electri