Contract Awards

BAE Systems Land and Armaments, Ground Systems Division, has been awarded an $8.7 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the scope line-replaceable units for the Paladin integrated management program. Awarded by the U.S. Tank-Armaments Command  (TACOM), the company will perform the work with an estimated completion date of June 2012.

Iridium Communications Inc. has awarded a $492 million contract to Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) for satellite space launch services. Under the terms of the contract, the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle will carry multiple Iridium NEXT satellites per vehicle, inserting the satellites into a low-Earth orbit as Iridium replaces its current satellite constellation. Efforts will take place over a two-year period starting in early 2015.

EADS Defence and Security and Thales have received a contract worth 26.1 million euros from the French defence procurement agency to produce and support two sets of deployable geographic modules (MGPs) for the French army's 28th Geographic Group. The program will develop a deployable system that can rapidly  produce, maintain and distribute military geography information. The MGP modules will supply geographic data updated in the field to operational land forces via a single cartographic access point.

General Dynamics has been awarded a $20 million contract by The Boeing Company to produce composite components for the C-17 Globemaster III airlifter. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in February 2011 and end by April 2012.

The European Space Agency has awarded Astrum, a subsidiary of EADS, a 105 million Euro contract to build the Sentinel 2-B optical satellite. When complete the Earth observation satellite will join the Sentinel 2-A spacecraft to cover all of the planet's land masses in five-day cycles, sending back data and images for at least 15 years.

Northrop Grumman Corporation has been awarded a contract to supply machinery automation systems for two mine countermeasures vessels being sold by the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence to the Lithuanian Navy. The contract was awarded to Northrop Grumman's Sperry Marine unit by Thales U.K., the prime contractor for the refit and upgrade. The two ships will be fitted with Sperry Marine's commercial machinery automation system, which provides an integrated and flexible network for monitoring and controlling the ships' engines and auxiliary systems.

Northrop Grumman Corporation has been awarded an $18 million contract by General Dynamics Land Systems to supply LRS-2000 Rate Sensor Assembly units for the Stabilized Commander's Weapon Station on U.S. Army M1A1 Abrams Tanks. The LRS-2000 is a two-axis rate sensor developed to support gun and turret stabilization applications with low random drift and high reliability.

While many conferences suffer from waning interest as panel session after panel session present valuable information over two days, this year's AFCEA Homeland Security conference proved to be quite the opposite. Discussions about upcoming contracting opportunities was at least part of the reason.

The ITT Corporation has awarded Northrop Grumman a contract to provide flight cryocoolers for the sensor payloads of two international satellites. The geostationary satellites will provide round-the-clock weather forecasts and sever weather alerts. The cryocoolers are used to reduce thermal noise in space-based sensors.

The U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Defense Department has selected an engineering and contracting team composed of the OAK Group, L. Robert Kimball & Associates, and Henderson, Inc., to design and build a $22.8 million U.S. Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer Training Faciltiy in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. Under the agreement, the OAK Group, which assembled the team, will provide construction services and manage the overall project; L.R. Kimball will oversee the design, architecture and building engineering for the facility; and Henderson, Inc. will support the facility with day-to-day contracting and subcontractor management activities.