Wednesday, August 11, 2010

DTN News: Northrop Grumman Awarded Contract For Laser Transmitter On Super Stallion

Defense News: DTN News: Northrop Grumman Awarded Contract For Laser Transmitter On Super Stallion
Source: U.S. DoD issued August 10, 2010
(NSI News Source Info) WASHINGTON - August 11, 2010: Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Rolling Meadows, Ill., is being awarded an undefinitized contract action with an estimated value of $77,655,380 for the procurement of 121 AN/AAQ-24(V) 25 Guardian laser transmitter assemblies for installation on CH-53D, CH-53E, and CH-46E helicopters, including associated technical data.
The guardian laser transmitter assembly, a component of the large aircraft infrared countermeasures, is a next-generation directable laser-based countermeasures system for protecting helicopters and some fixed-wing aircraft from man-portable air defense systems. Work will be performed in Rolling Meadows, Ill. (39 percent); Edinburgh, Scotland (16.8 percent); Goleta, Calif. (10 percent); Blacksburg, Va. (9.4 percent); Boulder, Colo. (7.1 percent); Dallas, Texas (5.5 percent); Lewisburg, Tenn. (2 percent); Apopka, Fla. (1.8 percent); Woodland Hills, Calif. (1.3 percent); Tampa, Fla. (1 percent); Santa Clara, Calif. (1 percent); Melbourne, Fla. (1 percent); Wheeling, W.V. (1 percent); and various locations throughout the U.S. (3.1 percent), and is expected to be completed in August 2012.
Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured.
The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River Md., is the contracting activity (N00019-10-C-0080).
The Sikorsky CH-53 Super Stallion heavy-lift helicopter first flew in 1974 and entered service with the US Marine Corps (USMC) in 1981. A total of 172 Super Stallions have been delivered and 165 are in service with marine corps squadrons in the Pacific Fleet and in the Atlantic Fleet. The helicopter is also in service with the marine corps reserve, training and experimental squadrons. The final Super Stallion for the USMC was delivered in November 2003.
The marine corps uses the Super Stallion in the amphibious assault role and for transporting heavy equipment. The US Navy also use the Super Stallion for vertical delivery and recovery of damaged aircraft on aircraft carriers.
In 2000, the USMC announced the CH-53X programme to upgrade the CH-53E and extend its service life to 2025. Upgrades would include a new engine, substantially increased payload capacity, all-composite rotor, elastomeric rotor head and glass cockpit with fly-by-wire controls.
In March 2004, a USMC analysis of alternatives (AoA) determined that a new-build airframe would be a more cost-effective solution. Sikorsky was awarded an initial system development and demonstration (SDD) contract for the new helicopter, which is designated CH-53K heavy-lift rotorcraft (HLR), in January 2006 and the full SDD contract in April 2006. The GE38-1B engine was selected to power the CH-53K in December 2006. Requirement is for 156 helicopters and service entry is planned for 2015.
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DTN News: General Tactical Vehicles Competing For Australia's JLTV

Defense News: DTN News: General Tactical Vehicles Competing For Australia's JLTV
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources including U.S. DoD issued August 10, 2010
(NSI News Source Info) WASHINGTON - August 11, 2010: General Tactical Vehicles, Sterling Heights, Mich., was awarded on Aug. 5 a $8,985,020 cost-share contract.
This effort is for the design and development of three joint tactical vehicles (JLTV) subconfigurations for Australia in the right hand drive and the delivery of two JLTV subconfiguration vehicles and one companion trailer for government testing.
Work is to be performed in Livonia, Mich. (47 percent); Sterling Heights, Mich. (41 percent); Muskegon, Mich. (9 percent); and South Bend, Ind. (3 percent), with an estimated completion date of May 19, 2011. Bids were solicited on the World Wide Web with seven bids received. TACOM Contracting Center, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (W56HZV-09-C-0108).
The joint light tactical vehicle (JLTV) is a new support vehicle programme being developed by the US forces, specifically the US Army, USSOCOM, and the Marine Corps to replace the rapidly ageing and outmoded high-mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicle (HMMWV), the design of which is over 25 years old.
The new JLTV vehicle range is expected to confer more survivability from insurgent attacks such as road-side bombings and will also have a greater payload. The HMMWV was not designed from the outset to be an armoured combat and patrol vehicle but nevertheless has been employed as one. In contrast the JLTV has been specifically designed for patrol and combat operations. The JLTV project has been able to benefit from some of the knowledge gained during the future tactical truck system (FTTS) project.
The JLTV range will contain five armoured versions including infantry combat vehicles, command vehicles, reconnaissance vehicles, and armoured utility vehicles.
There will probably also be an armoured personnel carrier and a number of other non-armoured versions for other purposes such as ambulances, utility vehicles and general purpose mobility.
There are several companies involved in the development of the JLTV project with several joint efforts having been established including Northrop Grumman and Oshkosh Corp, General Tactical Vehicle, a joint venture between AM General and General Dynamics Land Systems, Lockheed Martin and BAE (formerly Armor Holdings), BAE Systems and International Military and Government LLC, an affiliate of Navistar International Corporation (International Military and Government LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of International Truck and Engine Corporation), Boeing, Textron, SAIC, DRS Sustainment Systems Inc and Force Protection Inc.
The three contract awards for development of JLTV prototypes will be in October 2008 with a JLTV system development demonstration phase planned to begin in 2012. After this two contractors will complete the design and development of the JLTV FoV (family of vehicles) and companion trailers and then compete to produce the multiple JLTV variants.
The MRAP-mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicle development has been given priority but all authorities agree that this will not replace the JLTV as it does not have the payload or versatility of the JLTV.
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DTN News: Aerospace/Defense Headlines - News Dated August 11, 2010

Defense News: DTN News: Aerospace/Defense Headlines - News Dated August 11, 2010
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - August 11, 2010: Comprehensive daily news related on Aerospace/Defense for the world of TODAY.

*Comprehensive daily news related on Aerospace/Defense for the world of TODAY.

Wednesday August 11, 2010

Tuesday August 10, 2010
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DTN News: US, Canada And Russia Having Unique Exercise In NORAD to Test Hijack Response

Defense News: DTN News: US, Canada And Russia Having Unique Exercise In NORAD to Test Hijack Response
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources
(NSI News Source Info) PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colorado - August 11, 2010: The United States and Russia, which have more bluster than cooperation in their often contentious history, will have their jet fighters take turns pursuing a civilian plane across the Pacific Ocean this week in a first-of-its-kind exercise to test their response to a potential international hijacking.
Aircraft and officers from Russia and the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, a joint U.S.-Canadian agency, are to track the civilian plane, an executive-style jet that was playing the role of a hijacked civilian airliner.
The goal is to test how well the two forces can hand off responsibility for the "hijacked" plane. The three-day exercise started Sunday in Alaska.
Also participating in Operation Vigilant Eagle were both countries' civil air traffic control agencies.
Officials on both sides of the trust-building military exercise chose a mutual, modern-day interest — the fight against terror — to create an incident that could entangle the two countries.
"We try to anticipate any potential areas in which it might be necessary for us to launch fighter jets," said Major Michael Humphreys, a NORAD spokesman.
A terrorist hijacking, he said, "is every bit as probable as any other" scenario.
Moscow faces terrorist attacks by radicals from the North Caucasus. In March, suicide bombers killed 40 on the Moscow metro, and an explosion in November derailed a Moscow-bound train, killing 26. More recently, on July 29, a man caused a hijacking scare at Moscow's Domodedovo Airport when he seized a plane with 105 passengers and crew for about two hours.
The United States is still wrestling with terrorist threats to airplanes and subways nearly nine years after the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackings. A Nigerian man is accused of trying to blow up a jetliner over Detroit on Dec. 25. Authorities thwarted a purported plot to carry out three suicide bombings on New York subways in September 2009.
It is unlikely that Vigilant Eagle was devised to deal with a specific threat, said John Pike, director of Globalsecurity.org, which tracks military and homeland security news.
The purpose is more likely a combination of confidence building and rooting out any communication and jurisdictional problems before they crop up in a real emergency, he said.
Pike cited the Korean Air Lines flight that the Soviet Union shot down in 1983, killing 269 people. There was an "interface" problem between the Americans and the Soviets because they were looking at different information, Pike said. "I could easily imagine [NORAD] looked at this and said, 'We don't know if we have the phone number of Russian air defense.' This is not something you'd want to improvise on the fly."
Progress has come in fits and starts since the Soviet Union collapsed, leaving Russia without the Soviet satellite nations. But the two countries have performed many joint exercises, including search-and-rescue scenarios, and have participated in multinational peacekeeping missions in places like Bosnia.
This is the first U.S.-Russian exercise involving NORAD, a U.S.-Canadian command that patrols the skies over North America, Humphreys said. NORAD's headquarters are at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado.
Vigilant Eagle calls for NORAD F-22s flown by U.S. pilots to follow the "hijacked" plane west across the Pacific until it gets closer to Russian airspace, where Russian MiG-31s take over. On the return trip east, the process will be reversed.
Airborne warning and surveillance aircraft from each country will also take part.
Officers from Russia, Canada and the United States were aboard the target plane to observe, along with an interpreter. For a short time during the handoff, fighter jets from both sides were to be alongside the target plane.
The exercise comes at a time of improving relations between Washington and Moscow, after a low point in August 2008 when Russia sent troops into Georgia to side with a secessionist movement, drawing U.S. criticism.
Also complicating the relationship was the U.S. plan to put part of a missile defense system in Central Europe. That drew objections from Moscow because of the proximity to Russia's western border.
Vigilant Eagle, originally planned for August 2008, was postponed indefinitely as relations soured.
In early 2009, the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama began pursuing a "reset" with Russia, and relations began to improve.
Both sides may have something to gain from military-to-military cooperation beyond the practical knowledge that comes from a joint exercise.
The United States benefits from having better integration and cooperation with the Russian military elite, a group often seen as anti-Western, said Andrew Kuchins, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
"The more we can do of that, the better the mutual understanding will be," he said.
Russia, which is overhauling its military structure, will benefit from the chance to see how the all-volunteer U.S. force works, with its strong corps of noncommissioned officers, said Alexander Golts, an independent military analyst in Moscow.
"The Defense Ministry quite a while ago rejected the idea of mass mobilization and woke up to the idea" of a professional army, Golts said.
The need for a permanent, professional force capable of rapid deployment became obvious in the 2008 war in Georgia, he said.
Russia "welcomes any experience the country can gather to strengthen the ability" of a noncommissioned officer corps, he said.
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DTN News: Russia TODAY August 11, 2010 - Burning Russia Battles To Defend Nuclear Sites

Defense News: DTN News: Russia TODAY August 11, 2010 - Burning Russia Battles To Defend Nuclear Sites
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources including AFP
(NSI News Source Info) MOSCOW, Russia - August 11, 2010: Russia fought a deadly battle Tuesday to prevent wildfires from engulfing key nuclear sites as Prime Minister Vladimir Putin took to the air in a water-bombing plane to join the firefighting effort.
Two soldiers were killed by blazing trees as they strove to put out a fire dangerously close to Russia's main nuclear research centre, while workers were also mobilised to fight blazes near a nuclear reprocessing plant.

After almost two weeks of fires that have claimed over 50 lives and part destroyed a military storage site, the authorities said they were making progress in fighting fires that still covered 174,035 hectares of land.
Putin visited the Ryazan region south of Moscow, one of the worst hit, and jumped into a Be-200 jet to scoop up water from local lakes and then dump it on the fires, state media said.
State television showed the Russian strongman, headphones clamped against his ears, confidently taking the co-pilot's controls as the plane zoomed over the water.
"We hit it!" exclaimed Putin as his colleagues confirmed the water had struck the target.
The emergencies ministry said that over the past 24 hours, 247 new fires had appeared, more than the 239 had been put out, and 557 fires were still raging across the affected region.
The authorities have come under pressure to explain the magnitude of effects of the heatwave, which meteorologists have said is the worst in the 1,000-year history of Russia.
The head of forestry for the Moscow region, Sergei Gordeichenko, was sacked after President Dmitry Medvedev noted he had stayed on holiday as the fires burned, a spokesman told AFP.
"He was awaited but he never came... Why do we need such forest specialists? Let them take their holidays on the Canary Islands," Medvedev said Tuesday.
Two members of the Russian armed forces were killed Monday fighting wildfires around Russia's main nuclear research centre in Sarov, a town in the Nizhny Novgorod region still closed to foreigners as in Soviet times.
Rifle battalion member Vasily Tezetev, 22, "died the death of a hero" while dealing with the fire burning in a nature reserve close to the town, the local emergency centre said Tuesday, Interfax reported.
Vasily Veshkin, 27, who usually worked at a local prison camp, died fighting the fire on the same day, it added. Both were killed when they were hit by burning parts of trees that fell to the ground.
Officials said meanwhile that fires burning within 15 kilometres (10 miles) of Snezhinsk in the Urals, home to another of Russia's top nuclear research centres, had been reduced to a five-hectare area and there was no risk for the town.
The acrid smog from wildfires 100 kilometres (60 miles) out in the countryside that descended over Moscow eased Tuesday but forecasters said the air quality was still dangerously poor.
The Moscow authorities acknowledged for the first time on Monday that the daily mortality rate in Moscow had doubled and morgues were overflowing with bodies but the federal government has yet to confirm those figures.
Carbon monoxide in the Moscow air was 1.4 times higher than acceptable levels Tuesday, the state pollution watchdog said, a slight improvement from the day before. On Saturday they had been an alarming 6.6 times worse.
Sweden Tuesday advised its citizens against travelling to Moscow and regions ravaged by wildfires, in part because of the possible health consequences.
On Saturday Denmark also warned against travelling to the Russian capital unless strictly necessary.
Britain and Italy have issued lighter warnings against travelling to the region with children and for anyone who is pregnant, elderly or has health problems.
The heatwave has had a huge impact on all areas of Russian society and economists warned Tuesday the record temperatures could have cost the country up to 15 billion dollars and undercut a modest economic revival.
Worst hit has been agriculture, which has seen 10 million hectares of land destroyed.

AFP News Headlines

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