laser

Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation, Systems Engineering Solutions, Boulder, Colorado, is being awarded a $15 million contract modification for laser effects vulnerability research. The Air Force Research Laboratory, Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico is the contract authority.

MZA Associates Corporation, Albuquerque, New Mexico, is being awarded a $9,787,624 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for a Phase III Small Business Innovation Research project under topic N091-009, entitled "Tactical Beam Director for Airborne High Energy Laser Applications." This contract provides for the finalized design for the MH-60S helicopter beam director and beam control system, fabrication of all components, and integration into a high-power beam director and beam control system. The Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, China Lake, California, is the contracting activity.

Northrop Grumman Corporation, McLean, Virginia, recently announced that it has been awarded a $334 million firm-fixed-price contract from the U.S. Air Force to provide Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasure (LAIRCM) systems and support. The LAIRCM system functions by automatically detecting a missile launch, determining if it is a threat and activating a high-intensity laser-based countermeasure system to track and defeat the missile. Northrop Grumman will deliver LAIRCM hardware and provide associated support to the Air Force beginning immediately and continuing through April 2014.

General Atomics, San Diego, California, is being awarded a $12,288,073 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for research and development activities associated with integrated power systems power load modules design and pulsed power loads for future surface combatants. General Atomics will provide the research and development of an advanced integrated power systems power load module that may be used for pulse forming networks that could power future lasers, railguns or radars. The initial effort will include further refinement of their unique approach to the concept, documenting how the approach could be eventually implemented in a shipboard configuration to meet projected pulsed loads powering needs. The concept will also be used to implement energy storage on the future design that may be used in a multi-purpose manner, allowing the energy to be used for the weapon system and for shipboard powering. General Atomics will apply their unique concept approach to a set of notional performance expectations developed by General Atomics in conjunction with the Navy.  The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.

Raytheon Company, Integrated Defense Systems, Tewksbury, Massachusetts, is being awarded a $10,110,934 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for research and development activities associated with Integrated Power Systems power load modules design, and pulsed power loads for future surface combatants. Raytheon will provide the research and development of an advanced Integrated Power Systems power load module that may be used for pulse forming networks that could power future lasers, railguns, or radars. The initial effort will include further refinement of their unique approach to the concept, documenting how the approach could be eventually implemented in a shipboard configuration to meet projected pulsed loads powering needs. The concept will also be used to implement energy storage on the future design that may be used in a multi-purpose manner, allowing the energy to be used for the weapon system and for shipboard powering. Raytheon will apply their unique concept approach to a set of notional performance expectations developed by Raytheon in conjunction with the Navy. The Naval Sea Systems Command is the contracting activity.

The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, was awarded a $34,077,057 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the research and development services in support of electro-optical and infrared technologies; night vision technology; and laser technologies and payloads for unmanned platforms. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, is the contracting activity.

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Incorporated recently announced that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded the company a contract for development of the complete Demonstrator Laser Weapon System (DLWS) for the agency's High Energy Liquid Laser Defense System (HELLADS) program. The contract award follows the successful development and test of the company's HELLADS weapon class unit cell under a previous contract. The HELLADS laser concept combines the high-storage density of solid-state with the efficient heat removal of flowing liquids. The HELLADS program seeks to demonstrate a 150-kilowatt laser weapon that weighs less than 2,000 pounds and could be mounted to military platforms as small as patrol ships, fighter and surveillance aircraft, armored combat vehicles, and perhaps even unmanned aircraft.

NASA has selected Fibertek of Herndon, Virgina, to design, develop, fabricate, test and deliver laser systems to be used for the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) mission scheduled to launch in 2016. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the ICESat-2 Project. The total estimated value of the contract is $26 million. The contractor will provide four spaceflight lasers and one test laser for the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System instrument on the ICESat-2 Observatory. The spaceflight laser systems consist of the optical, electrical, mechanical, material, wire harnessing, thermal control, flight software, flight firmware and support equipment.

The Boeing Company, St. Louis, Missouri, is being awarded a more than $10 million delivery order against a basic ordering agreement for the procurement of 741 Honeywell model GG1320 ring laser gyros for F/A-18E/F and EA-18G aircraft for the U.S. Navy (714) and the government of Australia (27 spares). The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.