Mil-Tech

Comtech AeroAstro Awarded $200M Air Force Contract.

A subsidiary of Melville-based Comtech Telecommunications Corp. has been awarded a contract valued at up to $200 million from the Air Force Research Laboratory for the development of standardized satellite technologies for space missions.

The five-year award received by Comtech AeroAstro Inc., based in Ashburn, Va., includes an initial order valued at $500,000. Additional orders are not expected until fiscal 2011.

Fred Kornberg, Comtech’s president and chief executive, said, “Plug and play technologies are changing the paradigm for space mission development.” The contract supports the company’s ongoing work to make it possible for satellites and other systems to be assembled and launched more quickly, he informed.

In a separate announcement Wednesday morning, Comtech informed another subsidiary, Comtech Xicom Technology Inc., based in Santa Clara, Calif., received orders valued at $1.8 million for power amplifiers.

The amplifiers will be used in transportable flyaway satellite terminals used by U.S. soldiers stationed overseas in remote areas.

Lockheed Martin, United Launch Alliance And U.S.A.F. All Set For DMSP Launch.

The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) F-18 Block 5D-3 spacecraft, built under contract for the U.S. Air Force by Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), is undergoing final preparation for a launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on October 18, 2009.

The Block 5D-3 series accommodates larger sensor payloads than earlier generations. They also feature a larger capability power subsystem; a more powerful on-board computer with increased memory — allowing greater spacecraft autonomy — and increased battery capacity that extends the mean mission duration. Starting with F-17, the attitude control subsystem has also been enhanced with the integration of a second inertial measurement unit using ring laser, versus mechanical, gyros to provide greater precision pointing flexibility.

DMSP is used for strategic and tactical weather prediction to aid the U.S. military in planning operations at sea, on land and in the air. Equipped with an extraordinary sensor suite that can image visible and infrared cloud cover and measure precipitation, surface temperature, and soil moisture, the satellite collects specialized global meteorological, oceanographic, and solar-geophysical information in all weather conditions. The DMSP constellation comprises two spacecraft in near-polar orbits, C3 (command, control and communications), user terminals and weather centers. The most recent launch of a DMSP spacecraft took place on November 4, 2006 from Vandenberg Air Force Base. DMSP F-18 will launch on a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket.

Additionally DMSP F-18 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, two satellites remain to be launched and are maintained at Space Systems’ operations in Sunnyvale, California, for storage, functional testing, and upgrading. The spacecraft are shipped to Vandenberg for launch when requested by the Air Force. Since 1965, 36 Lockheed Martin DMSP satellites have been launched successfully by the U.S. Air Force. Now in its fourth decade of service, the DMSP has proven itself to be a valuable tool in scheduling and protecting military operations on land, at sea and in the air. The Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles Air Force Base, California, manages the DMSP program.

Military Seeks $1.3 Billion For Projects in Afghanistan

While the Obama administration weighs whether to send additional troops to Afghanistan, the U.S. military is spending billions of dollars on construction projects to ensure the country’s infrastructure can support American and coalition personnel in 2010 and years beyond.

The military has already spent roughly $2.7 billion on construction over the past three fiscal years. Now, if its request is approved as part of the fiscal 2010 defense appropriations bill, it would spend another $1.3 billion on more than 100 projects at 40 sites across the country, according to a Senate report on the legislation.

At the main U.S. base in Afghanistan, Bagram, the military is planning to build a $30 million passenger terminal and adjacent cargo facility to handle the flow of troops, many of whom arrive at the base north of Kabul before moving onto other sites. Under the proposed schedule, those facilities will not be completed until late 2010 and go into operation early in 2011, according to military sources.

Officials say such projects are absolutely essential given the inadequate and dilapidated nature of the existing infrastructure.

Bagram is far from the only U.S. base being upgraded. The military is also spending hundreds of millions of dollars constructing facilities for the Afghan army and police. The U.S.-led coalition recently announced the opening of a $68 million, U.S.-financed forward operating base near Farah, in the western part of the country bordering on Iran. The base will house 2,000 Afghan soldiers and an American mentoring team.

Such bases can take a long time to build. The original solicitation for contractors on the Farah garrison project was dated Dec. 29, 2007. A proposal for an additional phase was offered in March 2008, and 18 months later, almost two years after it was first solicited, the garrison at Farah was opened.

Col. Thomas E. O’Donovan, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Afghanistan Engineer District, told reporters last March that his multibillion-dollar construction program is providing “underpinnings” for efforts at establishing security and stability across Afghanistan.

A Major SBSS Stutter.

The launch of a pathfinder space tracking satellite is on hold due to problems with equipment on its Minotaur 4 rocket, the Air Force said on Monday in a written statement.

Previously planned for late October, the mission’s launch date is now uncertain, according to the Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center. “There is a problem with the (government-furnished equipment) hardware that supports the third stage of the launch vehicle. There are several corrective actions being investigated,” the statement said. The issue affects the entire Minotaur 4 fleet, the Air Force informed.

The Minotaur 4 booster, comprising retired Peacekeeper missile and Pegasus rocket parts, is the next member of a military-run launch vehicle family based on stockpiled missile components. The third stage is similar to the design used on the Peacekeeper missile, but Air Force officials did not specify what equipment was causing the delay. In its debut mission, the Minotaur 4 will launch the first Space Based Space Surveillance satellite to track other objects in space — however, when the SBSS mission will actually start is unknown.

“A final design solution has not been identified, resulting in an indefinite delay of the SBSS launch. At this time we do not have a projected resolution date or total cost of a corrective action plan and launch slip,” the Air Force stated. The launch had already been delayed from this spring to give engineers time to evaluate whether the Minotaur could be struck by a similar payload fairing failure that doomed a Taurus mission in February. The 2,200-pound SBSS satellite includes an optical telescope to detect high-altitude satellites in the geosynchronous belt about 22,300 miles above Earth. The mission, also named SBSS Block 10, will join an array of of ground-based radars that track thousands of objects in space. The Department of Defense will use SBSS to monitor threats to the military’s space assets. Data could also be shared with NASA to warn of orbital debris threatening the International Space Station and space shuttle missions. The first SBSS satellite was built by Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. under the program management of Boeing Company.

Harris Has Handle On Combined Endeavor 2009.

Harris Corporation (NYSE: HRS) has linked deployed forces and their commanders through wideband battlefield communication networks that enabled real-time exchange of tactical voice, video and other data by participants in Combined Endeavor 2009 (CE-09).

Harris delivered wideband tactical radios, broadband satellite terminals, and other equipment and support for networking to CE-09, the world’s largest military communications information systems exercise. Combined Endeavor took place September 4 through the 17th and involved more than 1,200 participants from 40 nations spread over three European countries. The demo highlighted Harris Corporation’s leadership and capacity in providing advanced communications down to the soldier level for line-of-sight and beyond-line-of sight applications. The overall objective of Combined Endeavor is to allow nations to develop coalition plans and policies, common tactics and procedures, technical capabilities and familiarity with each other.

Harris delivered its Falcon III RF-7800M Multiband Networking Radio, the RF-7800S Secure Personal Radio, and the RF-7800W High-Capacity Line-of-Sight Radio. These radios were integrated into various system configurations along with Harris RF-7800B Broadband Global Area Network satellite terminals to form scalable mobile ad-hoc networking communications systems that connected widely dispersed troops. Significantly, the Harris demos involved applications of mobile ad-hoc networking (MANET), an important concept in tactical communications in which radios relay and route voice-and-data traffic themselves. This capability eliminates the need for dedicated switching and routing devices. In doing so, deployed forces are able to communicate to more personnel, over longer distances, without reliance on standard telecommunications infrastructure. This is first exhibition of mobile ad-hoc networking as part of Combined Endeavor.

Navigating Military Vehicles, Tactically, Is KVH.

KVH Industries, Inc., (Nasdaq: KVHI) has received a total of $2 million in new orders from multiple U.S. and international military consumers for its TACNAV® tactical navigation systems and Universal Multilingual Displays (UMDs). Shipments of these orders are planned to begin in the fourth quarter of 2009 with some extending into 2010. Due to contractual restrictions, additional details regarding the customers and platforms cannot be disclosed at this time.

KVH’s TACNAV military vehicle navigation systems provide unjammable, precision navigation, heading, and pointing data for vehicle drivers, crews, and commanders. TACNAV systems can also serve as a link between each vehicle and the overall digital battlefield, making each unit a node in a secure military network that consolidates a wide range of tactical data to provide detailed information to individual units and military commanders. TACNAV systems are currently in use on U.S. and allied vehicles participating in ongoing operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere. Military forces fielding TACNAV include the U.S. Army and Marine Corps, as well as many allied consumers, among them Canada, Sweden, Great Britain, Germany, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Malaysia, Switzerland, Botswana, Singapore, and Italy.

SNAPing SIPR And NIPR With VSATs Is TCS Award Win.

TeleCommunication Systems, Inc. (TCS) (NASDAQ: TSYS) has received $7.1 million in funding from the U.S. Army to deliver additional Secret Internet Protocol Router (SIPR) and Non-secure Internet Protocol Router (NIPR) Access Point (SNAP) Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) Satellite Systems with related Field Service Representative (FSR) support.

The SNAP systems will be deployed with the 10th Mountain Division (MTN DIV). The funded FSR positions will provide in-theater support to the 10th MTN DIV and enhance ongoing support to the Combined Security Transition Command – Afghanistan (CSTC-A). This award is part of the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Life Cycle Management Command (CECOM LCMC) order that was announced in August 2008, with a potential value of $232 million. This increment of SNAP funding is for TCS’ highly reliable SwiftLink deployable communications products. The U.S. Army Project Manager for the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (PM WIN-T) Commercial Satellite Terminal Program (CSTP) is funding these procurements through the Army’s $5 billion World-Wide Satellite Systems (WWSS) contract vehicle. The SNAP program includes options for approximately 1,500 terminals and supporting equipment, to be deployed in various sizes and configurations over the next few years, along with up to 30 field support positions.

The TCS SwiftLink VSAT systems used to fulfill SNAP program requirements deliver multimedia communications capabilities which convey encrypted voice, video and data. TCS SwiftLink products are highly transportable and ruggedized, with a graphical user interface that facilitates easy set-up and operation. The modularity and “plug and play” interfaces between all RF and Baseband configurations inherent in the SwiftLink product line result in communication solutions tailored to the end-user’s specific needs.

Thales Communications Inc Has A New Business Development Manager for the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Navy.

Thales Communications, Inc. (Thales) has appointed Mr. Patrick J. Allison to the position of Business Development Manager for the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Navy.

Mr. Allison’s primary focus is developing and promoting engineering programs for the company’s tactical ground communications products and developing Thales derivatives that directly impact the communications capabilities of the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Naval organizations. He cooperates closely with system level prime contractors and industry partners to bring solutions to the service organizations. Prior to joining Thales, Mr. Allison served as a Senior Program Manager for International Command and Control solutions with Raytheon Company in Fort Wayne, Indiana. In this capacity, he takes responsibility for execution, management, and business development in the Pacific Rim countries of Australia, Korea, and Malaysia.

General Dynamics Works For U.S. Air Force.

General Dynamics C4 Systems has received a $37 million contract to supply the U.S. Air Force with Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) Mode 5 (KIV-78) cryptographic modules and spare parts.

The IFF cryptographic modules enable precise identification of ‘friendly’ aircraft by ships, ground forces and other aircraft operating in increasingly large and crowded battlespaces. Deliveries from the five-year Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract begin in May 2010; the initial delivery order is valued at approximately $3.5 million. The Air Force Cryptologic Systems Group is the contracting authority.

The KIV-78 modules are part of the Mark XIIA Identification Friend or Foe system, which is currently used by the Air Force and the Navy. The Mark XIIA system works alongside other U.S. military force-protection systems including Blue Force Tracking and Battlefield Combat Identification Systems. The encryption technology used in the IFF system is part of the General Dynamics “Family of Advanced Core Cryptographic Technologies” (FAC2T). FAC2T is a broad offering of embeddable cryptographic technologies that address a variety of military and government requirements for high-assurance, low-power, small-size, multiple-level, wireless, high-speed communications information-security solutions.

DISA Ramps Up Cloud-Computing Platform.

Military program managers frustrated by having to wait six months to get a server provisioned might want to take a look at the Defense Information Systems Agency’s new cloud-computing offering. The agency is boasting that can provide a NIPRnet-connected, production-ready virtual server within 72 hours.

DISA informed that it has expanded the scope of its Rapid Access Computing Environment (RACE) to incorporate production-ready services.

DISA launched RACE a year ago as a self-service environment for defense developers to provision virtual servers and test new applications in a safe environment. Now the agency has expanded the offering as a production platform.

“It’s not just a test-and-development environment anymore,” said Henry Sienkiewicz, technical program director of DISA’s computing services. “It’s also a production environment.”

All branches of the military services can provision servers through RACE for their production-ready applications. The applications that are best served by that environment are lighter ones that could run easily in a standard Microsoft Windows or Linux environment. Convoy control systems, satellite controls or even smaller command-and-control systems would work well. “It would almost be the same sort of applications that you would [deploy] within a commercial hosting company,” Sienkiewicz informed.

One advantage that DISA offers over commercial hosting companies is its familiarity with meeting defense security standards. In the new environment, accreditation for production systems takes only about 40 days, or about half the time it normally takes to get a new system audited and accredited for military use, Sienkiewicz said.

The agency has assembled a package for users called Pathway to Production, which includes integration with the Defense Department’s Vulnerability Management System, the Enterprise Mission Assurance Support Service (eMASS) and associated documentation. DISA has also prepared the virtual environment to conform as closely as possible to the DOD Information Assurance Certification and Accreditation Process and the DISA Security Technical Implementation Guides.

DISA officials hope to cut more time from the accreditation process by further integrating RACE with eMASS and other accreditation processes. Users can also save time by developing applications right in the RACE testing environment.

“Applications developed in the RACE testing environment inherit all the information assurance controls in the production environment, and that streamlines a great deal of human intervention,” which shortens accreditation time, Sienkiewicz said.

The service offers Windows Server and standard Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP stacks. The basic service runs $1,200 per month per server. Users can provision up to 1T of storage. The provisioned servers will be accessible via the Unclassified but Sensitive IP Router Network and, beginning in the second quarter of fiscal 2010, the Secret IP Router Network.

Although DISA is using virtualization to maximize server use, end users do not need expertise in virtualization management. To them, the service appears as “a preloaded, preconfigured server,” Sienkiewicz said.

Once commissioned, virtual servers can be operational within 72 hours, and agency officials hope to shorten that time to less than 24 hours. The agency has maintained an uptime of 99.999 percent with its hosted offerings and plans to offer that level of service to RACE users, Sienkiewicz said.