Missile and Aviation Systems Work
More than 200 engineers, scientists and technicians will be working on the design, development, testing, prototyping and integration of missile and aviation systems and subsystems as well as providing performance analysis and simulation of system designs for the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM), Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. The work, to be done primarily in Huntsville, Alabama, will be conducted by Computer Sciences Corporation’s (CSC’s) Defense Integrated Solutions and Services Division under a $500 million contract known as the Expedited Professional and Engineering Support Services blanket purchase agreement. CSC will lead a team of 76 companies to support AMCOM’s mission to develop, acquire, field and sustain aviation and missile systems to guarantee the Army’s technological superiority on the battlefield.
 
Geospatial-Intelligence Satellite
General Dynamics C⁴ Systems, Scottsdale, Arizona, will build the OrbView-5 satellite under a $209 million contract with Orbimage Incorporated, Dulles, Virginia. In September 2004, Orbimage secured the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency contract for the next-generation satellite to provide improved mapping and access to high-resolution satellite imagery for the U.S. military, the intelligence community and the commercial remote sensing industry. The satellite will be constructed at General Dynamics’ manufacturing facility in Gilbert, Arizona, which it acquired in July 2004 when it purchased Spectrum Astro Incorporated. The OrbView-5 will orbit 660 kilometers above the Earth in a sun-synchronous orbit and will collect imagery at 0.41-meter resolution in black and white and at 1.64-meter resolution in color. In addition to military and government applications, commercial uses for the imagery include pipeline routing, new construction planning, farming, forestry, environmental monitoring, news coverage and videogame three-dimensional fly-throughs.
 
Gaming Company Gets Serious
Aimed at building critical thinking and decision making in unit-level security and counterterror operations, a training tool is being developed to accurately simulate environments, challenges and missions for the U.S. Navy’s Mobile Security Group 2. Maryland-based gaming company BreakAway Limited will create a simulation that educates personnel and civilians in modern antiterrorism and counterterror operations. Envisioned as a multiplayer, three-dimensional game, the simulation will enable users to perform tasks and interact in real time with both synthetic and human-controlled sailors. BreakAway previously developed the U.S. Army’s war game, Unified Quest ’03. Other projects include Incident Commander, a game commissioned by the National Institute for Justice to help municipalities simulate and manage disaster scenarios, and A Force More Powerful, a game to train individuals and groups that seek nonviolent means to bring about change.
 
Implementing Innovative Interconnects
Wafer-scale interconnects for radio frequency and control signals will be validated and developed under a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Small Business Innovative Research phase-one award. The objective of the program is to develop an approach to wafer-scale integration of phased array antenna electronics for applications in early warning radar, ad hoc communications, point-to-point and point-to-multipoint wireless connectivity, radiometry and passive medical imaging, homeland security and surveillance, and collision avoidance systems. TiaLinx Incorporated, Irvine, California, will partner with Stanford University, Stanford, California, to explore the feasibility of implementing innovative interconnects using the company’s wafer-scale antenna module and distributed active antenna array technologies that offer small-footprint, low-cost, low-power and highly integrated beam-forming technology.
 
Night-Vision Company Acquired
Looking to enhance its position in the uncooled infrared sensor and thermal imaging systems market, DRS Technologies Incorporated, Parsippany, New Jersey, has acquired Night Vision Equipment Company (NVEC), headquartered in Allentown, Pennsylvania. NVEC manufactures and markets innovative night-vision products and combat identification systems and maintains research, development and production facilities in Prescott Valley, Arizona. The company has four major product lines: night vision, thermal imaging, combat identification and laser aimers/illuminators. It produces night-vision applications such as goggles, binoculars and monoculars; combat identification equipment such as infrared beacons and thermal panels; thermal imagers for weapon sights, handheld units, helmets and mobile or fixed surveillance units; and laser-based products, including handheld infrared illuminators, weapon- and helicopter-mounted infrared laser aimers and handheld infrared pointers. The purchase price was $42.5 million in cash.
 
Marines Order More Unit Operations Centers
In support of an urgent universal need statement for operation Iraqi Freedom, the U.S. Marine Corps has ordered 21 unit operations centers (UOCs) and has authorized a jump start on an additional 16 units by procuring long-lead items now. The mobile command and control operations centers have become the focal point of Marine decision making during all phases of ground warfare. The original contract for 15 UOCs was awarded in April 2002, and eight were deployed in operation Iraqi Freedom. The new UOCs will include upgrades to enable the units to interface with a wider variety of Marine Corps communications assets and have a smaller footprint. Deployable in 40 minutes, the units include a network of workstations supporting standard tactical data systems and other mission-critical software and have large-screen displays. The system integrates nonsecure and secret voice and data communications, voice over Internet protocol capabilities and networked servers. UOCs include tents, trailers, radios, power generation and other tactical hardware. General Dynamics C⁴ Systems, Scottsdale, Arizona, won the $20 million contract.
 
DynCorp International Sold
Increasing its focus on information technology, engineering and professional services to the U.S. federal government, Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), El Segundo, California, will sell its DynCorp International and DynMarine units and selected DynCorp technical services contracts. CSC purchased DynCorp in March 2003. The divestiture represents approximately 23 percent of CSC’s federal government work. DynCorp International and the other units being divested provide U.S. Defense Department aviation maintenance, physical and personal security, drug eradication, and shipboard logistics, training and staffing services. The businesses being sold employ approximately 14,000 people worldwide. Veritas Capital, a private equity investment group in New York, will purchase the units for $850 million.
 
Test Systems Consolidation
Government and defense contractors using systems to simulate the high-dynamic flight environment of missiles and missile targets will have available a more comprehensive line of inertial-guidance test/flight-motion simulators with Ideal Aerosmith Incorporated’s acquisition of Carco Electronics. Ideal Aerosmith designs and manufactures test solutions for the aerospace, automotive and petroleum industries. Carco Electronics produces missile flight-motion simulators and inertial navigation test systems. Ideal Aerosmith is headquartered in East Grand Forks, Minnesota, and has operations in Arizona, California and Pennsylvania. Ideal will continue operations at Carco facilities in Menlo Park, California, and Pittsburgh.
 
Modeling, Simulation and Analysis for the Navy
ManTech International Corporation, Fairfax, Virginia, will support the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) Naval Air Warfare Center, Aircraft Division Warfare Analysis Department, with modeling, simulation and analysis services. The support will be for anti-air warfare, amphibious warfare, antisurface warfare, mine warfare, naval special warfare, information warfare, noncombat operations, electronic warfare, mobility and homeland defense as well as command, control and communications. The $23 million contract includes modeling, algorithm and software development to assess joint capabilities, threats, readiness, force levels, costs, survivability and vulnerability factors. Work will be performed at NAVAIR in Patuxent River, Maryland.
 
Submit information about contract awards to the associate editor.