Defense

 
The Titus unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) is smaller, lighter, faster and smarter than its predecessors in the Andros family of systems. Titus weighs 135 pounds and measures 27 inches long, 16 inches wide and 23 inches high. It retains the four-articulator design common to Andros vehicles and also features a unique operator control unit with a hybrid touch-screen and game system-style physical controls.
 
The Andros operating system provides greater information to the operator while easing user workload through more interactivity with intelligent payloads, such as chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear sensors. It also includes preset arm positions and the ability to more easily manipulate objects.
 
Titus was designed using a modular approach, which allows the robot to be adapted for a variety of mission scenarios. Removable articulators, wheels and tracks provide users with the capability to navigate passageways that are only 16 inches wide or race toward a threat at a top speed of 7.5 miles per hour. Industry standard interfaces such as Universal Serial Bus and Ethernet make it easier for users to maintain and upgrade Titus and to incorporate payloads and sensors.
 
The system was unveiled this week by Remotec Incorporated, Clinton, Tennessee, a Northrop Grumman Corporation subsidiary. Remotec is a Northrop Grumman subsidiary.

 
The Boeing Co., Seattle, Wash., is being awarded an $8,512,436 cost-plus-fixed-fee delivery order issued under basic ordering agreement to procure the update to the electronic support measures sensor digital measurement unit to overcome obsolescence issues in support of the P-8A Multi-Mission Maritime aircraft. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River Md., is the contracting activity.

Next Tier Concepts Inc., Vienna, Va., is being awarded an $8,980,601 firm-fixed-price contract for enterprise portal technical and strategic support services. The contract will provide strategic and technical support to mature the JIEDDO knowledge management governance model and architect; and build, operate and maintain the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) enterprise portal. The contracting activity is the JIEDDO Contract Operations, Arlington Va.

 
Northrop Grumman Corp., San Diego, Calif., is being awarded a $88 million cost plus fixed fee contract for logistics support for the RQ-4 Global Hawk fielded Block 30 weapon system. The contracting activity is the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Robins Air Force Base, Ga. 

Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation, Albuquerque, New Mexico is being awarded a $9,493,351 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for research and development for the Air Force Infrared Radiation Effects Laboratory. The contracting activity is the Air Force Research Laboratory, Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico.

QinetiQ North America Incorporated, Waltham, Massachusetts, is being awarded a $6,802,527 firm-fixed-price contract for Talon Generation IV robot vehicles, spares and accessories, depot level repair parts, shipping and training. Work will be performed in Waltham and Poland and is expected to complete by March 2013. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Indian Head Division, Indian Head, Maryland, is the contracting activity.

With the close of the fiscal year, the U.S. Department of Defense has officially shuttered the Joint Program Executive Office for the Joint Tactical Radio System (JPEO JTRS). In its place, the Joint Tactical Networking Center (JTNC), which opened on October 1, will now oversee the development of the Software Defined Radio (SDR) program, including waveforms and network management.

JTNC will build upon work already done to create a system capable of transmitting both voice and data over a secure radio communications network. Testing of new systems will continue to be performed by the U.S. Army’s Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC), the Navy’s SPAWAR systems center Pacific and other existing military facilities.

Passion and childhood inspiration are driving the chief information officer of JIEDDO to alter acquisitions through his innovation engine.

Bob Keeshan as Captain Kangaroo in 1970

Jim Craft has been the CIO and deputy director information enterprise management at the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) since March, bringing with him a passion for the mission and an energy to start making changes. Through what he dubs the "innovation engine," he is working to enhance rapid acquisitions by facilitating self-forming networks of people across government, industry and academia. You can read the ins and outs of the initiative in my article, "A Different Type of Self-Forming Network."

Craft's drive in this effort is tremendous and has roots in one of his favorite childhood television shows, Captain Kangaroo. From the program, he heard the story of stone soup, a folk tale that takes different forms, all focused on the benefits of cooperation, especially in times of scarce resources. "It made an incredible impact on me," Craft explains. "That's part of what the innovation engine is all about." In his previous roles in government and industry, Craft discovered that when applied, the lesson can create powerful results.