KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa. , December 14th, 2011 – Lockheed Martin

Affordable ground C2 readiness to be tested during demonstration at MMSOC

Lockheed Martin  has signed a three-year Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the U.S. Air Force’s Space Development and Test Directorate and Air Force Research Laboratory to  improve the operation and affordability of satellite command and control.

“This agreement is a first step in opening up our architecture to the best ground station technologies in the private and civil sectors.” said Colonel John Anttonen, Chief of the Space Test and Operations Division at Kirtland AFB.  “We are bringing the smartphone concept to our next generation ground systems where satellites are flown as apps and new technology can be rapidly inserted.”

Lockheed Martin will leverage its best engineering technologies from across DoD, Intelligence, and Civil programs to meet the challenges of operationally responsive ground system configuration to achieve “lights out” operations.  Additionally, Lockheed Martin is scaling its ground station from a Space Operations Center down to a single laptop, and instantiating a ground system remotely from its host hardware (micro-cloud computing architecture), all while supporting multiple concurrent classified missions.

“Under the agreement, the parties are working to research, develop, demonstrate, and evaluate successful technologies to more quickly and affordably configure and autonomously operate satellite command and control systems,” said Bob Kramer, Lockheed Martin IS&GS-Defense vice president for Operational Systems and Services. “We look forward to working with the Air Force on this important operationally-responsive C2 project.”

The project will culminate with live demonstrations in the Multi-Mission Satellite Operations Center (MMSOC) at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., late this year, 2012, and 2013.

As the leader in USAF ground systems R&D, the Space Development and Test Directorate will provide access to space missions and the MMSOC for live experimentation. The Directorate will help guide the investigations, provide system configuration and flight operations support to experiments, and assess the potential technologies on behalf of the DoD.

source geopolintel.fr

Dec 14, 2011 ASDNews Source : The Boeing Company

WASHINGTON - The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] today submitted its proposal for the Combat System Engineering Agent (CSEA) contract for the U.S. Navy's Aegis Weapon System.

"Boeing has assembled a strong team to support the next evolution of the Aegis Weapon System with fresh, innovative solutions," said Boeing Network & Space Systems President Roger Krone. "Boeing recognizes the vital importance of the Aegis program to the nation's security, and we are prepared to support the Navy's goal of affordably enhancing the system's capabilities to meet future threats and challenges."

Developed by the Navy, the Aegis Weapon System is a surface-to-air integrated weapons platform designed to defend against airborne threats. The Aegis CSEA will provide systems engineering and development support for the modernization of the current system. Under the new contract, enhanced air and missile defense capabilities will be integrated on Flight III destroyers to help warfighters respond to advancing threats. The Navy is expected to award the Aegis CSEA contract in fall 2012.

photo Ahunt

14 décembre 2011 Marie Tison - La Presse

Le développement du F-35 devrait représenter un investissement de plus de 382 milliards US, ce qui en fait le programme de défense le plus coûteux de l'histoire.

(Montréal) Ce n'était pas une très bonne idée de commencer à produire le F-35 avant d'avoir fini de le développer et de le tester.

Un comité mis sur pied par le département américain de la Défense a recensé une série de problèmes qu'il faudra corriger sur les appareils déjà produits, ce qui augmentera les coûts du programme.

Dans un rapport confidentiel obtenu hier par le Star-Telegramm de Dallas-Fort Worth et la publication spécialisée Flight Global, le comité recommande de mettre la pédale douce sur la production d'appareils avant la fin de la période de développement et d'essais.

«L'impact combiné de ces problèmes remet en question la permanence du design de l'appareil, indique le comité. L'équipe conclut que ce doute, combiné aux conséquences que représentent les corrections nécessaires, milite en faveur d'une sérieuse révision de la planification de la production et de l'approvisionnement.»

Le comité note que dans pratiquement tous les programmes réalisés pour le département américain de la défense, le développement n'est pas tout à fait terminé lorsque la production commence. Or, cet empiètement est beaucoup plus marqué dans le cas du F-35, le Joint Strike Fighter.

«Une nouvelle génération d'outils de design, de simulation et d'essais virtuels introduits dans les années 80 et 90 promettait des designs beaucoup plus matures que ce que pouvaient accomplir les méthodes traditionnelles», note le comité.

Ces outils ont tenu une partie de leurs promesses: au cours de son examen du programme du F-35, le comité n'a trouvé aucun problème fondamental qui justifie un arrêt immédiat de la production. Toutefois, il a trouvé cinq problèmes sérieux qui n'ont pas encore trouvé de solution définitive: le système de vision inclus dans le casque du pilote tremble trop, la pompe de largage de carburant fuit, des pièces du groupe de puissance intégré se sont brisées et ont percé un carburant d'essence, et le crochet censé retenir le F-35 lorsque celui-ci atterrit sur un porte-avion ne fonctionne pas. Le cinquième problème est confidentiel.

Le comité a indiqué que trois autres problèmes sont susceptibles d'apparaître lors des essais qui n'ont pas encore été réalisés. Le comité a finalement énuméré cinq problèmes additionnels qui ne sont pas très graves en soi, mais qui posent un défi important lorsqu'on les additionne.

Selon le comité, il faut de six mois à deux ans pour incorporer un changement dans les avions déjà produits. Et ces corrections représentent du temps et de l'argent. Jusqu'ici, le gouvernement américain a dû payer environ 136 millions US pour mettre en oeuvre des changements sur les trois premiers lots appareils déjà produits, soit une trentaine d'avions.

Le Pentagone n'a pas encore déterminé les coûts de correction du quatrième lot, qui comprend 31 appareils. Pour réduire ses dépenses, il a décidé de réduire de 35 à 30 le nombre d'appareils du cinquième lot.

«L'équipe recommande que toute décision liée à la production du F-35 soit liée à l'obtention de données suffisantes pour accroître la confiance dans la permanence du design de l'appareil», conclut le comité.

Le développement du F-35 devrait représenter un investissement de plus de 382 milliards US, ce qui en fait le programme de défense le plus coûteux de l'histoire.

Dec 13, 2011 By Jim Wolfe/Reuters - AviationWeek.com

Washington - Even as the last F-22 fighter jet rolls out of flag-draped doors at a Lockheed Martin assembly plant today, the U.S. Air Force has taken steps that leave open an option to restart the premier plane’s production relatively cheaply.

The Air Force is preserving the hardware used to build the jet, not scrapping it, although it insists this is solely to sustain the fleet over its projected 30-plus years’ “lifecycle.”

The F-22 is “easily the most capable fighter aircraft ever built, period,” said Richard Aboulafia, a combat plane expert at the Teal Group aerospace consultancy.

“You don’t know what the economy and the strategic picture will look like in a decade,” he said. “And if one gets better and the other gets worse, you could see a restart.”

The last F-22 (Lockheed Martin tail number 4195) now moves into production flight check and will deliver to the Air Force in 2012. A ceremony today marked its emergence from the Marietta, Ga., plant, 14 years after the most advanced and most costly per-plane U.S. fighter began flight tests.

F-22 supporters maintain the program was terminated prematurely.

The fleet, as conceived during the Cold War, was to have been 750. That dropped to 381, then 243, before former Defense Secretary Robert Gates capped it at 187 in a belt-tightening move over program backers’ strong objections.

A total of more than 30,000 jigs, fixtures and other “tooling” used to build the plane are being logged into a database and tucked into containers, some custom built, for long-term storage at Sierra Army Depot, Herlong, California.

The hardware is valued at $2 billion to $3 billion, according to Lockheed, the Pentagon’s No. 1 supplier by sales.

The Sierra depot’s high desert climate, low humidity and mild temperatures, are optimal for systems that might be needed to build components to support the fleet, or perhaps one day resume production.

Arms production lines have shut in the past only to be brought back, including aircraft such as the submarine-hunting P-3, U-2 spy plane and B-1A bomber resurrected as the B-1B.

Lockheed is under Air Force contract also to preserve the shop-floor know-how used to manufacture the fighter. It is accomplishing this through a video library of “smart books,” DVDs designed to capture such things as how to hold a tool for best results.

The two-pronged preservation effort puts Lockheed in a “great position” to resume production if asked to do so, said Jeff Babione, the company’s F-22 program general manager.

But Lockheed, the Pentagon’s No. 1 supplier, has not been given any reason to think that such a request will come, he added in a telephone interview Dec. 9.

Bringing back the F-22 line would take less than $200 million, “a fraction of the costs seen in previous line restarts of other weapons systems,” Alison Orne, a Lockheed spokeswoman, said by email, citing preliminary analysis.

The Air Force said government-owned F-22 production is being stored “for the sole purpose of sustaining the F-22 fleet” over its lifetime.

“No F-22 parts, tooling or related items are being stored for the purpose of preserving the option of restarting F-22 production,” Jennifer Cassidy, an Air Force spokeswoman, said in an email.

She said the Air Force had commissioned a RAND analysis to assess tooling preservation options at congressional direction. The study concluded that saving the hardware “may significantly ease the execution of future F-22 sustainment needs, and the storage of that tooling can be provided at relatively low cost.”

CUTTING EDGE

The radar-evading F-22 “Raptor” entered service in 2005, designed to own the skies on the first day of a conflict because of its low observability, high maneuverability plus sensor advances that make it the top gun for air-to-air combat.

Its cutting-edge capabilities, including agility, engine thrust and flight controls, “cannot be matched by any known or projected fighter aircraft,” according to a U.S. Air Force fact sheet on the plane, which has not yet been used in combat.

The F-22 represents the high end of a tactical fighter mix that advocates say is critical to defend worldwide U.S. interests over coming decades alongside the F-35, a less capable, less costly, Lockheed stealth fighter now in early production.

The Pentagon currently plans to buy more than 2,440 F-35s for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps at $382.5 billion through 2035, its costliest purchase ever.

The current “program acquisition unit” cost of the F-35A model for the Air Force is $111 million, including “mission systems” and sustainment.

By contrast, the last production lot of four F-22s cost $153 million each, according to Lockheed, not including amortized research, development and maintenance that experts say would add more than $200 million apiece.

RESTART BUTTON?

Advocates of a larger F-22 fleet have cited emerging Russian and Chinese stealth fighters as well as the spread of sophisticated surface-to-air missiles that can home in all but the hardest-to-detect fighters.

The F-22 was barred from export sales to protect its high-tech secrets.

Michael Wynne, who was forced out as Air Force secretary in 2008 after disagreeing with Gates over the production cap, said by email that Japan and Australia would “immediately partner” to restart the line if Congress lifted the F-22 export ban.

Operational F-22s are based at Langley AFB, Va.; Elmendorf AFB, Alaska; Holloman AFB, N.M .; and Hickam AFB, Hawaii. Air Force F-22 units have deployed to Kadena Air Base, Japan, and Andersen AFB, Guam, and they have conducted joint and coalition training both stateside and overseas, including the United Arab Emirates.

source defense.optronique.net

December 13, 2011 defpro.com

Goodrich delivers laser detecting capability to protect United States Army Aviation

CHARLOTTE, N.C. | Goodrich Corporation welcomed guests from the United States Army and State and Local Government officials to their facility in Danbury, Conn. to celebrate the delivery of the 1000th AN/AVR-2B(V) laser detecting set to the United States Army.

Customers and special guests included Brigadier General Harold J. Greene, program executive officer – Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors (IEW&S), U.S. Army; Colonel John Leaphart, project manager – Aircraft Survivability Equipment (ASE), U.S. Army; and Dannel P. Malloy, Governor of the State of Connecticut.

The event recognized the accomplishments of all Goodrich employees who are involved in the threat detection business at Danbury supporting the delivery of the 1000th AN/AVR-2B(V) laser detecting set to the United States Army and also celebrated 51 consecutive months of on time delivery of laser warning detection sets to the U.S. Army. In addition, a formal recognition ceremony was held which included honoring several active Army and Connecticut National Guard aviators and a remembrance of the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.

Andreas Nonnenmacher, vice president of Goodrich ISR welcomed guests and thanked employees for all their hard work and dedication. "It is our goal to produce the world's best laser detecting system in order to protect the world's best aircrews. This is truly a team effort and I thank both government and Goodrich employees who contribute to this each and every day."

Brigadier General Harold J. Greene, program executive officer – Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors (IEW&S) of the United States Army gave a keynote speech, in which he said how the work at Danbury had "allowed countless children, husbands, wives, mothers and fathers to come home to their families and for that I thank you (Goodrich). We salute you for your efforts to support our national defense."

Dannel P Malloy, Governor of the State of Connecticut spoke about how President George Washington had called Connecticut the "Provision State" during the revolutionary war, and that it is "the state that without whom the war would not have been won." He went on to say that Connecticut continues to be the "Provision State", and now Goodrich was one of the companies providing "the best laser detection systems, to keep our troops safe."

Goodrich has been developing and manufacturing the laser warning capability at the Danbury facility for the past 35 years and is the industry leader in laser warning systems. The AN/AVR-2B(V) is the latest embodiment of this capability and represents the very best in combat survival equipment for armed forces worldwide.

Photo Lockheed Martin

December 13, 2011 By Stephen Trimble – Flight Global

A special review by the US Department of Defense has identified 13 ongoing or likely future design problems with the Lockheed Martin F-35 and recommended further cuts during early production.

The "concurrency quick look review", dated 29 November, is timed to influence the DoD's final reviews for the contracting fiscal year 2013 budget, with the F-35 programme facing a production freeze after peaking so far at 34 aircraft in 2010.

The review discovered no "fundamental design risks" large enough to recommend halting new F-35 production altogether, according to the 20-page report, which is stamped "[for official use only] - US only" and signed by five DoD officials, led by deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategic and tactical systems David Ahern.

But the report identifies and provides new details of eight design problems described as "major" risks and five design problems classified as minor risks.

Moreover, Lockheed still has 577 change order requests pending from previous design changes, representing an 18- to 24-month backlog that must be cleared before dealing with fixes for the new design problems, the report said.

The backlog of change orders and the ongoing design problems prompted the review team to challenge the F-35's "concurrent" acquisition strategy, which calls for building hundreds of jets during the decade between first flight in 2006 and the end of development after 2016.

The most challenging phase of the flight test schedule, which includes high angle-of-attack flight, mission systems and weapons release, lies ahead.

As a result, the review team "recommends that further decisions about F-35 production be event driven, based on the achievement of sufficient test data to support increased confidence in design maturity and of a well-controlled process for executing and minimizing design changes across concurrent production", the report said.

Among the eight major design problems, one is classified and not described in the leaked version of the review team's report.

The helmet-mounted display, fuel dump subsystem, integrated power package and arresting hook for the carrier-based F-35C variant remain "major" problems with no root cause or permanent fix identified so far.

The review also found three areas where major problems are "likely", but have not yet been fully studied in ground or flight tests. These include sharp buffeting at high angles of attack, the discovery of more life-limited parts and the minimal tests completed.

Finally, the review also identified five areas with "moderate" risk of increasing production costs as new areas are discovered in development. Software, weight management, thermal concerns, the autonomic logistics information system and lightning protection are on the list.

The review's findings appear to show the five major problems identified last year with the F-35B short take-off and vertical landing variant have been resolved or entered the backlog of change requests.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 13 (UPI)

The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency reports it managed $34.8 billion in sales of equipment and services to allies in 2011.

Included in the total for the fiscal year, through Sept. 30, was $28.3 billion under the government-to-government Foreign Military Sales program and $6.5 billion in non-FMS sales "under various security cooperation authorities."

The total for fiscal 2011 marks the fourth consecutive year that sales surpassed $30 billion, DSCA said.

The agency estimated sales for fiscal 2012 will be around $30 billion but noted that official sales projections hadn't been calculated.

The top customers for fiscal year 2011 were: Afghan Security Forces ($5.4 billion); the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States ($4.9 billion); India ($4.5 billion); Australia ($3.9 billion); Saudi Arabia ($3.5 billion); Iraq ($2 billion); the United Arab Emirates ($1.5 billion); Israel ($1.4 billion); Japan ($500 million); and Sweden ($500 million).

December 13, 2011 defpro.com

The United States is facing a continued and growing cyber threat, which has the potential to jeopardize our national security, public safety and economic competitiveness. This threat makes securing cyberspace one of the most important missions facing the homeland security community today.

The Department of Homeland Security’s 2010 Quadrennial Homeland Security Review (QHSR) established the safeguarding and securing of cyberspace as a critical mission of DHS, with the goals to create a safe, secure and resilient cyber environment and promote cybersecurity knowledge and innovation. The Blueprint for a Secure Cyber Future (see http://goo.gl/dEMDz) proposes a path forward to achieve these goals.

The Blueprint calls for a coordinated effort across the homeland security community to protect our nation’s critical information infrastructure and build a safer and more secure cyber ecosystem. Specific actions range from hardening critical networks and prosecuting cybercrime to raising public awareness and training a national cybersecurity workforce.

Cyberspace forms the backbone of our modern economy and society. The Internet is an engine of immense wealth creation and a force for openness, transparency, innovation, and freedom. Information and communication technologies allow generators to turn, businesses to operate, and families and friends to communicate. Cyberspace is vital to our way of life, and we must work to make this domain more secure—the safety of our critical infrastructure, the strength of our national security, our economic vitality and public safety depend upon it.

The Blueprint outlines an integrated and holistic approach to protecting our nation’s cyberspace. It is a map – a guide – to enable the homeland security community to leverage existing capabilities and promote technological advances that enable government, the private sector and the public to be safer online.

The document complements the President’s International Strategy for Cyberspace, the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace and the recently released Department of Defense Strategy for Operating in Cyberspace. Together, these documents provide a whole of government approach to the many opportunities and challenges the nation faces in cyberspace.

Cybersecurity is a shared responsibility, and each of us has a role to play. DHS will work with federal, state, local and private sector partners across the homeland security community to achieve the goals outlined in the Blueprint. Implementing the Blueprint will be an inclusive, participatory effort to make cyberspace a safe, secure and resilient place where the American way of life can thrive.

 maintaining continuous surveillance of the operational area.

A Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is shown in this undated handout

photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO- Lockheed Martin

12/12/2011 By: Murray Brewster, The Canadian Press

OTTAWA - The ability to defend the skies and operate overseas at the same time would be in peril if the Harper government buys fewer stealth fighters than planned, the head of the Royal Canadian Air Force said Monday.

Lt.-Gen. Andre Deschamps said the air force would have to review how much "concurrent activity" it could handle if the number of radar-evading F-35s drop below the 65 aircraft the government has promised.

"The air force will live with whatever the government procures for us," said Deschamps in an interview with The Canadian Press.

"In the end, it's all about managing risk in delivering the defence mission. The number 65 gives us the capacity to cover all our missions with confidence."

The minister in charge of buying equipment for the military, Julian Fantino, said in an interview with Montreal-based L'actualite that the number of stealth fighters Canada intends to purchase is not carved in stone.

"We still talk about it; it is (being) analyzed. There is still time, until 2013, to decide the final number," said Fantino, the associate defence minister. "Could be under 65? Maybe. At some point, we make a decision."

Deschamps acknowledged that the number of F-35s is "subject to review," but warned that the air force would be challenged to carry out missions "if the number of aircraft changes dramatically."

The Harper government committed itself in July 2010 to the current number of multi-role fighters, but does not expect to begin taking delivery until 2016.

It is the smallest fleet the air force is able to live with given its current commitments to North American air defence, which requires at least 36 fighters to be set aside for NORAD missions. The initial joint-strike fighter proposal said Canada was prepared to buy 80 aircraft, replacing the current fleet of CF-18s almost one-for-one.

Deschamps said the decision to move to 65 jets was based on a mixture of "affordability" and what numbers the air force believes "it needs to deliver on our numerous defence missions."

Both Fantino and Defence Minister Peter MacKay have insisted the $9 billion set aside for the initial purchase is a hard figure and will not be exceeded.

The price tag Canada and other nations will pay per aircraft is unclear despite intense speculation, and Fantino did not elaborate whether the Harper government could buy fewer F-35s.

The government has insisted it will pay roughly $75 million per aircraft when it begins placing orders for delivery in 2016.

But in figures released over the weekend for initial production batches, the U.S. and Britain are expected to fork out between $140.9 million and $144.9 million per aircraft.

The price tag fluctuates year-to-year, depending on the number of aircraft ordered. If the current figure holds, the government would be forced to either take fewer planes — or increase its capital budget.

Matthew Kellway, an Ontario New Democrat MP, said he sees Fantino's comments as the government's back-door admission that it can't meet its target and that critics were right in focusing on the enormous cost.

"It's an acknowledgment they can't get the plane for the number they said they could," he said. "I think just about everybody else in the world has acknowledged that is the case."

The Norwegians have been more pragmatic by laying out a range for the F-35 price, Kellway said.

There has been speculation in the defence community that a potential shortfall in manned stealth fighters could be made up with the planned Harper government purchase of unmanned aircraft, such as the U.S.-made MQ-1 Predator.

But Deschamps says drone technology, while rapidly evolving, does not allow it an air-to-air combat role, which is the primary requirement of the stealth fighter.

He also questioned the ability of remotely-operated aircraft to conduct air-to-ground attacks against heavily defended targets.

Currently, drones do an excellent job in surveillance and strikes against targets that don't shoot back, said the air chief.

December 12, 2011. David Pugliese - Defence Watch

The F-35 file continues to churn along.

In an interview with the Montreal-based L’actualite, a French-language political magazine, Assistant Defence Minister Julian Fantino now says the number of F-35s that Canada will purchase is not carved in stone. The Harper government announced 65 planes would be bought.

But that number is still being analyzed, says Fantino.

“We still talk about it; it is (being) analyzed. There is still time, until 2013, to decide the final number,” he told the magazine.

“Could be under 65? Maybe. At some point, we make a decision.”

BAE Systems/Navistar Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) demonstrator.

December 12, 2011 Daniel Goure, Ph.D. / Early Warning Blog , Lexington Institute – defpro.com

Over the past several years, the relationship between the Department of Defense (DoD) and private industry has grown increasingly strained. In part, this is a consequence of efforts by the Pentagon to control the rising costs associated with the acquisition of new weapons systems and the sustainment of existing ones. DoD complains not merely that it pays too much for products and services but that its programs never seem to benefit from the kinds of improvements in productivity and, as a consequence, reductions in price that have become the norm in many parts of the private sector. The private sector is equally vociferous, albeit not always in public, in its expressions of unhappiness at the challenge of dealing with a single, somewhat quixotic, buyer and 535 backseat drivers on Capitol Hill.

Another factor that added to the widening breach was the Pentagon’s efforts to increase the arms length relationship between itself and industry. To some degree this effort reflected hoary notions of the existence of a so-called military-industrial complex, a beast with two bodies but one mind. But it also was a consequence of DoD leaders’ desire to create a more competitive environment among the array of potential suppliers of goods and services. A third influence on the decline in communications was the increasingly litigious atmosphere surrounding defense contracting. It is hard now to even remember a time when a losing bidder did not file a protest. If one was a DoD official, the safest policy was to keep industry at arms length or farther.

Certainly, government officials have to exercise care when they engage industry, particularly if there is an expectation that a competitive proposal will be released at some point. Nevertheless, dialogue between the government and the private sector is not merely valuable, it is crucial in an era of declining defense budgets. How else will DoD be able to understand how military requirements impact a program's cost, schedule and even long-term sustainment? Only through open dialogue can industry come to appreciate how its customers think and where a program or solicitation fits into broader considerations of strategy, force planning and budgets.

An example of the importance of dialogue is the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) program. This was an attempt to replace the existing fleet of Humvees with a more survivable and capable family of tactical vehicles. Teams led by Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics/AM General and BAE Systems/Navistar were selected to compete in the program’s technology demonstration phase. When it came time to award contracts for the next or engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) phase, the two services changed the rules. The decision was taken to reduce significantly the requirements for the JLTV in order to bring down the price. DoD altered the potential value of an award by both reducing the number of vehicles it was planning to buy in the initial phase of production and proposing to significantly reduce the award period of future contracts. Given the reduced requirements, it seemed quite possible for new entrants who had not spent the time and money in the demonstration phase to now enter the JLTV competition with an extremely low bid. Finally, the draft request for proposal for the EMD phase proposed a very low dollar award to the winning teams. As a result, several potential bidders signaled the possibility that they might choose not to participate in the EMD competition.

In response to the warning signs from industry, the Army and Marine Corps did the right thing: they opened a dialogue with the private companies. As a result of the feedback received, the dollar value of the awards for the EMD phase was increased to reflect the costs associated with performing the specified work. In addition, parts of the draft request for proposal were recast to guarantee the winner of the initial production contracts a certain number of vehicles annually for a specified period of years.

The JLTV program still faces a number of hurdles, most notably the desire of some in Congress to kill the program outright. But at least the customer and industry are talking to one another and trying to figure out the best way to craft a proposal that meets the basic needs of both sides. This is a win for the Army/Marine Corps JLTV team and for the defense industry.

12 December 2011 - by the Shephard News Team

The Modernized Target Acquisition Designation Sight/Pilot Night Vision Sensor (M-TADS/PNVS) on the AH-64D Apache attack helicopter has been selected for the 2011 US Secretary of Defense Performance Based Logistics (PBL) Award, according to a 12 December 2011 Lockheed Martin announcement.

The US Army Program Executive Office Aviation, the Apache Program Management Office and Lockheed Martin received the sub-system level PBL award, given annually to recognise outstanding achievements in providing warfighters with exceptional operational capability.

According to Lockheed Martin, the Apache M-TADS/PNVS PBL programme provides efficiencies in supply chain management that have increased reliability and system readiness for the warfighter.  This PBL programme is a comprehensive sustainment solution that enables outstanding fleet mission capability, improves reliability and maintainability, and reduces sustainment costs using innovative supply concepts.

Known as the ‘eyes of the Apache’, M-TADS/PNVS modernizes the US Army's TADS/PNVS by upgrading the infrared sensors and associated electronics.  It provides Apache pilots the most advanced long-range, electro-optical precision engagement and pilotage capabilities, ensuring safe flight during day, night and adverse-weather missions.