Rapid Fire: 2010-04-30

• USMC Gen. James Mattis: “Power Point makes us stupid” – including on the front lines. If you must use it, but don’t want Microsoft to be worth a division or 2 to the enemy, “Preparing More Powerful Presentations” has some tips.

• 40% of the 9,000 additional NATO troops pledged in December 2009 have arrived in a stabilizing Afghanistan, according to a US DoD report to Congress [PDF].

• Testimony lists surveillance shortfalls as biggest handicap in dealing with Latin america’s narco-terrorists. A growing armada of semi-submersible smuggling vessels don’t make that job any easier.

• Strategy Analytics: US defense industry demand will represent 50% of $376 million GaN microelectronics market by 2014.

• 6 issues in military robotics.

• First KC-130J “Harvest Hawk” gunship kit completes Phase 1 testing; laser/GPS-guided “Viper Strike” now part of initial combat fielding for summer 2010.

• French legal team arrives in Kuala Lumpur to probe corruption charges over the 2002 sale of Scorpene-class diesel submarines to the Malaysian government.

• Former Malaysian general, 4 other retired senior officers file $1.6 million lawsuit for wrongful dismissal over the theft of 2 F-5E fighter jet engines.

• The Defense Information Systems Agency is holding the Customer Partnership Conference May 3-7 in Nashville to get US military service and industry input.

Up to $45.9M to GD for USMC AccessNet Voice Conferencing System

AccessNet system

General Dynamics C4 Systems in Columbia, MD received a ceiling $45.9 million indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity contract from the US Marine Corps Systems Command for life cycle logistics for the AccessNet digital switching system and LongArm software.

This contract includes software licenses, training, technical services, and spare and repair parts.

AccessNet is a digital switching system that supports voice conferencing (internal and external) and radio communications. The LongArm software package provides remote control capabilities for a variety of communication devices…

Rapid Fire 2010-04-29: US Nuclear Posture

• NATO chief proposes common funding pool for NATO missions and country-specific specialization in major weapon system procurement.

• US CSBA rips “flawed logic” [PDF] of USA’s recent nuclear posture review. April 2010 backgrounders also include the related “Meeting the Challenge of a Proliferated World,” [PDF] and “Understanding the Threat of Nuclear Terrorism” [PDF].

• Russia places a military satellite, believed to be a Parus navigation and communications satellite, into orbit aboard a Kosmos 3M rocket.

Australia’s Intelsat-Hosted IS-22 Satellite

(click to visit)

Intelsat is a commercial satellite provider, who launches and maintains global coverage for its customers with over 50 satellites. One interesting wrinkle is a program that lets customers pay to host partial or full payloads on Intelsat’s birds, locking in recurring service revenues and defraying the cost of deployment.

Australia is a US military partner for the Wideband Global SATCOM program, buying WGS-6 and gaining access to the constellation’s services under Joint Project 2008, Phase 4. In April 2009, a decision was made to add a partial communications payload on Intelsat’s IS-22 UHF satellite, under JP 2008, Phase 5A. That is now a full UHF payload, under a revised contract – and the USA will benefit, as well…

Modernizing the USMC’s TPS-59 Radars

At the twilight’s
last gleaming
(click to view larger)

A $70 million contract for TPS-59 radar maintenance and sustainment. (April 28/10)

Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems and Sensor in Electronics Park, Syracuse, NY is responsible for developing, maintaining, and upgrading the AN/TPS-59(V)3 Long Range Radar System. The TPS-59 is an all solid-state L-Band, 3-dimensional air defense radar which is tactically mobile and provides long-range surveillance and ground-control intercept capability. It supports enroute traffic control to a distance of 300 nautical miles, and its 740 km/ 400 nautical mile range and full 360 degree azimuth scan results in a surveillance volume of 603 million km3 for tactical missile defense. The TPS-59 is in service with the USMC, Bahrain, and Egypt, and is the only long range 3D Radar in the Marine Air-Ground Task Force. The related FPS-117 family of solid-state radars is in service with the USAF, and 17 countries around the world.

Developed for the United States Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO), the Missile Defense Agency’s predecessor, and the United States Marine Corps, the TPS-59 (V)3 is designed to operate with Patriot missile batteries. These radars have been modernized and upgraded several times during their lifespan, in order to keep them on the cutting edge of technology. In August 1996, at White Sands Missile Range, the AN/TPS-59(V)3/HAWK system completed a test program in which it intercepted and destroyed a LANCE short range theater ballistic missile and 2 air breathing drones simultaneously in an operational test. Those kinds of improvements and modernizations continue today…

$20.5M to Aegis for AFMSTT Air Warfare Simulation System Support

Aegis Technologies in Huntsville, AL received a $20.5 million contract to support the Air Force Modeling and Simulation Training Toolkit (AFMSTT).

AFMSTT is a collection of computer-based simulation systems and mission controller workstations used to train senior US military commanders and staff for joint air warfare.

AFMSTT supports a range of live US military exercises, including Flexible Leader, Terminal Fury, Unified Endeavor, Austere Challenge, Joint Expeditionary Forces Experiments, and Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration…

Harris Gets Additional Order for HYDRA Aircraft Carrier Comm System

Can you hear me now?
(click to view larger)

Harris Corp. in Lynchburg, VA received a $9.2 million modification to a previously awarded indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity, firm-fixed-price contract (N65236-07-D-5115) for land mobile radio (LMR) systems and equipment for the Hierarchical Yet Dynamically Reprogrammable Architecture (HYDRA) wireless communications program.

The cumulative value of this contract, including this modification, is $39.2 million.

On April 27/10, the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR), which manages N65236-07-D-5115, published a pre-solicitation notice indicating that it plans to award a follow-on contract to Harris. Responses to this notice are due by May 4/10.

The Harris HYDRA system provides wireless communication for crews on aircraft carrier flight decks…

Rapid Fire: 2010-04-28

• Russian Novator’s promotion of its containerized SS-N-27 Klub-K CMS cruise missiles extend and highlight new dimensions of the terrorist threat as “the ultimate concealed weapon,” offers second-strike for smaller states outside the rules of war, and raises the priority for persistent cruise missile defenses.

• On a related note, the emergence of surveillance-strike complexes and missiles as the new coastal artillery, has far-reaching naval implications.

• Russian president says he’s interested in NATO proposal to develop a common missile defense system.

• Liquid-fueled rockets, or solid fuel? MBDA’s Bayern Chemie says don’t choose – use gelled propellant to get full safety and variable thrust.

• Raytheon and EAI finish ground tests of their TALON 70mm laser-guided rocket.

• 418th Flight Test Squadron paradrops 77,000 pound load out of a C-17A, at 25,000 feet, to test the parachutes for NASA’s Ares I solid rocket booster.

• Supermaaaan! US Army Golden Knight parachutist sets the official world distance record in a wing-suit.

• Picking soldiers’ brains: US OSD wants small business input on cognitive readiness in modern military operations.

• Harris snags a $35 million contract from the Defense Commissary Agency to provide IT support for distribution of commissary goods to US military personnel worldwide.

Modular Space: DARPA’s F6 Program

System F6 concept

Satellites are currently big, expensive to build and launch, vulnerable, impossible in practice to upgrade on-orbit, difficult to replace – and critical to military effectiveness. That’s a really bad combination. Now add program risk and cost inflation driven by those issues, as the military tries to launch the most advanced technologies it can, in a uniquely ‘no fail’ environment.

DARPA’s System F6 program aims at nothing less than a revolution in satellite technology, aimed at removing those constraints. If successful, it will develop and demonstrate the basic building blocks of a totally new space architecture, in which traditional integrated satellites are replaced by clusters of smaller, cheaper, wirelessly-interconnected space modules that form a “virtual” satellite.

• Fractionated Space: The F6 Program [updated]
  
• Contracts and Key Events [updated]
  
• Additional Readings [updated]
  

Up to $300M to 7 Firms for Military Utilities Construction in US Southwest

Climb that pole

The US Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Southwest in San Diego, CA awarded 7 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity multiple award construction contract for new construction and repair of dry utilities construction at US military facilities in the US Southwest.

The maximum dollar value for all 7 contracts combined is $300 million. The terms of the contracts are not to exceed 60 months, with an expected completion date of April 2015.

The work to be performed provides for new construction, addition, repair, or upgrade of electrical distribution systems, lighting systems, cable television lines, airfield lighting, and communication transmission lines.

The winners are: