27 Mar 07. Australian Air Show: Teams line up for BAMS integration. Northrop Grumman, Saab Systems and Tenix Defence Systems have re-established their teaming arrangement for an industry capability partner (ICP) requirement to support the Royal Australian Air Force’s planned broad area maritime surveillance (BAMS) unmanned air vehicle acquisition. BAE Systems and L-3 Communications have also confirmed that they have teamed for the ICP contest, a formal competition that is expected to begin by the end of April. The requirement is also being contested by Boeing Australia, Lockheed Martin Australia and Raytheon Australia. Canberra plans to acquire the same UAV as that selected by the US Navy under a bilateral co-operation agreement finalised earlier this year (Flight International, 30 January-5 February). The ICP requirement calls for integration of BAMS aircraft and ground control systems into the Australian Defence Force’s common intelligence and command-and-control architectures. The USN is expected to downselect either the Northrop Grumman RQ-4B Global Hawk or a derivative of the General Atomics MQ-9 Predator B by September this year for the BAMS project. Northrop, Saab and Tenix initially announced the formation of their team in 2005, with this based on an anticipated Australian-only competition for a BAMS-class system. (Source: Flight International/Google)
26 Mar 07. General Atomics, San Diego, Calif., is being awarded a $9,388,153 firm-fixed-price contract. This action provides for five (5) Lynx AN/APY-8 Radars and associated spares. At this time, total funds have been obligated. Solicitations began January 2006 and negotiations were complete March 2007.This work will be complete April 2009.Headquarters Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA8611-05-G-3028-0008).