The University of North Dakota (UND) is getting ready to launch an unusual joint program with the Grand Forks County Sheriff’s Department that it hopes will establish a template for law enforcement use of small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). Planned to begin in early October, pending FAA approvals, the program will see UND Department of Aviation personnel operating up to four small fixed- and rotary-wing UAS in support of the police anywhere within 16 counties in northeast North Dakota.
The U.S. Army is asking industry to present concepts for an Iron Dome-like system that can counter rocket, artillery and mortar threats. The request for information issued last week follows months of Obama administration and congressional support for helping Israel and Rafael to further develop the technology, which has helped to protect Israeli civilians against attacks.
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) has awarded the Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) a contract to develop an unmanned vessel that can shadow a submerged submarine throughout its patrol. The contract follows disputed reports that a Russian submarine cruised around the Gulf of Mexico undetected for a month (Aerospace DAILY, Aug. 20).
NAVY W.M. Robots, L.L.C., Colmar, Pa., is being awarded a $11,479,743 modification to previously awarded firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (N00174-11-D-0015) for the procurement of Vallon mine detectors and consumable spares. Work will be performed in Colmar and is expected to be completed by September 2012. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Indian Head Division, Indian Head, Md., is the contracting activity.
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Sen. James Inhofe (Okla.), a senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, sees many of President Obama’s defense choices as a threat to U.S. security. With every budget, Inhofe tells Aviation Week in a recent interview, the president is disarming America. “In the first budget he took away our only fifth-generation fighter, our C-17 lift capacity, the Future Combat Systems and the ground-based interceptor in Poland. That was just the first year, and then it got worse,” Inhofe says.
ARMY BAE Systems, York, Pa., was awarded a $306,171,558 firm-fixed-price contract. The award will provide for the modification of an existing contract to convert Operation Desert Storm (ODS) vehicles into the ODS situational awareness configuration. The work will be performed in Lemont Furnace, Pa.; Aiken, S.C.; Texarkana, Texas; and York, with an estimated completion date of May 30, 2014. One bid was solicited, with one bid received. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (W56HZV-10-G-0003). AIR FORCE
ARMY Thales Raytheon Systems, Fullerton, Calif., was awarded a $21,668,448 firm-fixed-price contract. The award will provide for the modification of an existing contract to procure Improved Sentinel Kits. The work will be performed in Fullerton, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2014. The bid was solicited through the Internet, with one bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (W31P4Q-11-C-0314).
The draft solicitation for the Joint Multi-Role advanced-rotorcraft technology demonstration (JMR TD) has been released by the U.S. Army’s Aviation Applied Research Directorate, making it clear the service’s goal is to achieve performance, reliability and affordability well beyond what today’s helicopters provide.
RUSSIANS COMING: Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) is asking the nation’s top naval officer for more information about reported patrols by a Russian nuclear attack submarine in the Gulf of Mexico that had not previously been detected. The ship-killing Akula-class submarine can come equipped with torpedoes and cruise missiles and is among the quietest in the Russian fleet. “This submarine activity reportedly occurred in June and July, simultaneously with incursions by Russian strategic bombers into restricted U.S. airspace,” Cornyn says in an Aug. 17 letter to Adm.
NEW DELHI — India’s air force has received the first of three Embraer 145 Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) aircraft from Brazil’s Embraer Defense and Security. The delivery follows the successful completion of ground and flight tests which met the operational targets of Embraer and the Center for Airborne Systems (CABS) of India’s Defense Research & Development Organization (DRDO).
The U.S. Air Force should consider stealing a page or two from the Navy and Army playbook for managing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) programs, a National Research Council (NRC) panel says. Both the Army and Navy follow procedures that foster strong ISR program management, according to the report, “Capability Planning and Analysis to Optimize Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Investments,” released earlier this month.
Pennsylvania State University is to lead fabrication of the ground combat vehicle planned to be produced through a series of crowd-sourced design challenges under the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Adaptive Vehicle Make (AVM) program. Penn State has received a $47.5 million contract to develop an Instant Foundry Adaptive Through Bits (iFAB) that can be automatically configured to manufacture the Fast, Adaptable Next Generation (FANG) ground vehicle resulting from Darpa’s competitions.
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol has awarded SRCTec a contract, potentially worth almost $100 million, to supply systems to detect slow- and low-flying ultralight aircraft used to smuggle drugs into the U.S. The indefinite-quantity/indefinite-delivery Ultra Light Aircraft Detection (ULAD) contract includes options for up to 50 systems for deployment along the southern border. The request for proposals (RFP) called for the first test article to be delivered to the CBP’s Tucson, Ariz., sector within 120 days of contract award.
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The U.S. Army is exploring whether a short-range missile defense target, designed to be one-third the price of using Patriot missiles in such a role, can feasibly be added to its arsenal to reduce the cost of flight testing. The Economical Target makes use of surplus rocket motors, coupled with a rudimentary rocket body to effectively form a sounding rocket suitable for some missile defense tests, says Thomas Webber, acting director for rapid transition at Army Strategic Command.
Add the Boeing CH-47 Chinook heavy-lift helicopter to the list of 50-year-olds still going strong. It has become the company's longest continuously produced aircraft since the first H-47 was delivered to the U.S. Army on Aug. 16, 1962. Boeing is nearing completion of a $130 million renovation of its Chinook facility in Ridley, Pa., near Philadelphia, for producing the latest model, the CH-47F. Thus far, more than 1,200 Chinooks have been produced for 18 operators, with more than 800 in service for combat, cargo and humanitarian relief missions.
The aeronautics and defense (A&D) business of Paris-based Air Liquide started in the 1980s as little more than a liquid-oxygen tank supplier for fighters and freighters. But over the past decade, the French industrial gas giant's A&D unit has profited from growth in the commercial airline market and has insinuated itself into some of the world's most high-profile defense programs, despite declining budgets in Europe and the U.S.
