DefPro l Harris Awarded $400 Million Contract for Falcon III Tactical Radios

The AN/PRC-152A handheld radio offers a broad set of capabilities.

Five-year contract to provide Falcon III radios and support to U.S. SOCOM

Harris Corporation, an international communications and information technology company, has been awarded an Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract with a potential total value of $400 million to provide the U.S. Special Operations Command with next-generation communication capabilities.

The new five-year IDIQ contract enables the Special Operations Command (SOCOM) to acquire the Harris Falcon III AN/PRC-117G manpack and AN/PRC-152 handheld radio systems and field support services as needed to address requirements for next-generation tactical communications. The contract is part of the Capital Equipment Replacement Program and represents an interim step in the modernization of the SOCOM tactical radio inventory.

“Harris Falcon radios will deliver transformational communication capabilities for SOCOM missions around the world,’’ said George Helm, president, Department of Defense business, Harris RF Communications. “Our Falcon III family provides enhanced situational awareness by providing a system solution that meets the need for integrated tactical communications and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities. The radios also deliver secure network connectivity to operators from anywhere in the world. Falcon III also is fully interoperable with other products developed under the Joint Tactical Radio System.”

The AN/PRC-117G is the first NSA Type-1 certified wideband manpack radio system. The AN/PRC-117G enables dismounted and vehicular warfighters to communicate via voice, video and data in real time. The wideband capabilities of the radio support network-enabled missions such as collaborative chat, video, e-mail, biometric enrollments and more from the field. The radio provides the highest level of information assurance connectivity to tactical units via NSA-certified High Assurance Internet Protocol Equipment encryption. Harris has shipped more than 20,000 AN/PRC-117G radios to U.S. and allied forces such as the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, other NATO countries and Australia. The AN/PRC-117G is the first radio to receive NSA Type-1 certification to operate the Soldier Radio Waveform, developed by the JTRS Joint Program Executive Office.

The AN/PRC-152A offers tactical users the broadest set of capabilities in any handheld radio. Wideband networking capabilities are initially provided by the Harris Adaptive Networking Wideband Waveform (ANW2). The Soldier Radio Waveform will be added to the radio later this year. The AN/PRC-152A also hosts SINCGARS, VHF/UHF Line-of-Sight, HaveQuick, IW for tactical satellite communications and other combat net radio waveforms. This makes the AN/PRC-152A the only Type-1 certified wideband networking handheld radio that is also fully interoperable with deployed DoD radios.

Harris Falcon III AN/PRC-152(C) multiband, multi-mode handheld tactical radios provide portable line-of-sight and beyond-line-of-sight voice and data communications. The AN/PRC-152(C) is the most widely deployed JTRS Software Communications Architecture-certified handheld radio, with more than 160,000 units shipped to U.S., NATO and other allied forces worldwide.

(Photo: Harris Corporation)

April 19th, 2012

DefPro l Harris Awarded $400 Million Contract for Falcon III Tactical Radios

AeroTech News l Air Force places $2.4 million order for AeroVironment Puma AE small UAS

AeroVironment received a firm fixed-price order valued at $2,431,440 April 5 from the U.S. Air Force for Puma AE™ small unmanned aircraft systems through an existing U.S. Army contract.

Delivery is scheduled within two weeks.

“More military services are choosing the Puma system because its longer duration and more precise imagery deliver enhanced organic reconnaissance, ” said Tom Herring, AeroVironment senior vice president and general manager of Unmanned Aircraft Systems. “The Air Force already employs our RQ-11B Raven and Wasp small unmanned aircraft systems. With the Puma small UAS they will have a more comprehensive set of capabilities for force protection and force multiplication, anywhere and at any time.”

The U.S. Special Operations Command selected the Puma UAS in 2008 for its AECV program after a full and open competition, the fourth U.S. Department of Defense competition for programs of record involving small UAS and the fourth such competition won by AeroVironment.

In 2011 the U.S. Army assumed management of the AECV program. Each Puma system consists of three air vehicles and two ground control systems. The air vehicle carries an integrated electro-optical and infrared gimbaled video camera, is designed for enhanced survivability in land and maritime environments, and can operate effectively in foul weather and over rugged terrain.

Its quiet operation, stabilized imagery and precision landing capability make Puma systems easy to operate and recover.

The Puma air vehicle weighs 13 pounds, is battery powered and has a flight endurance of two hours.

April 18th, 2012

AeroTech News l Air Force places $2.4 million order for AeroVironment Puma AE small UAS

UPI l SAIC opening cyber security center

A research and development center for cybersecurity in Australia is on the board for U.S. company Science Applications International Corp.

The center will be in Melbourne and is part of SAIC’s larger plan to expand its presence in the country, it said.

“SAIC’s research efforts in Melbourne will enable us to offer innovative products and solutions to our customers and to further expand into the global marketplace,” said Steve Rizzi, SAIC vice president and regional manager.

The center will conduct research and development on new technologies and applications for protecting critical data and establish a comprehensive defense against cybersecurity attacks for commercial and public sector networks worldwide.

Specifically, researchers will focus on data mining and analysis systems and software applications associated with CloudShield Technologies Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of SAIC, and TeraText product lines.

“The cybersecurity R&D center will enable SAIC to better support its efforts for Australian government and industry clients, while also focusing on new initiatives and opportunities around the National Broadband Network,” the company said.

April 19, 2012

UPI l SAIC opening cyber security center

Washington Business Journal l ITT Exelis, L-3, BAE Systems team for $3B Air Force contract

ITT Exelis , BAE Systems Inc. and L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. will team up to bid for a much anticipated Air Force contract worth as much as $3 billion, the companies confirmed Tuesday. They will compete against The Boeing Co. and other contracting mainstays for the opportunity to operate and maintain space launch ranges on both coasts of the Untied States.

The news that these three companies will establish a joint venture to compete for the contract, likely be to be awarded in 2013, doesn’t come as an enormous surprise. They were among the potential prime offerors announced by the Air Force in January, along with Bechtel National Inc., Boeing and Raytheon Technical Services Co., among others.

“We looked at the costs associated with the opportunity, and the joint venture offered the most streamlined approach for taking advantage of all the experience” that these three companies had to offer, said Pat Carr, vice president and general manager of C3 Systems at McLean-based ITT Exelis.

The Launch and Test Range System Integrated Support Contract will consolidate three current contracts that support the Air Force’s space launch ranges:

Operation of the Western Range at Vandenberg AIr Force Base in California, which is currently held by Indyne in Reston.
Operation of the Eastern Range at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, held by a joint venture between Falls Church-based Computer Sciences Corp. and Raytheon Technical Services in Dulles.
Maintenance and repair of both ranges, held by ITT Exelis with subcontractor support from New York-based L-3 and BAE Systems in Arlington.

“We have proven performance for 50 years working on ranges at different times,” Carr said. “Since 2000, our team has supported over 280 launches” of satellites, as well as missile tests.

A request for proposals will be released this year for the contract, which will call for launch vehicle command destruct, communications, weather monitoring, radar operations, telemetry, data handling and modeling and simulation. The Air Force is expected to incorporate a requirement for the winning contractor to divvy up as much as 25 percent of the work to small business subcontractors, Carr noted.

by Jill R. Aitoro, Senior Staff Reporter
April 17, 2012

Washington Business Journal l ITT Exelis, L-3, BAE Systems team for $3B Air Force contract

WSJ l Space Shuttle Discovery Embarks on Final Flight

http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/VideoPlayerMain.swf

Space Shuttle Discovery Embarks on Final Flight

Space shuttle Discovery embarked on its final flight Tuesday, atop a Boeing 747 specially adapted by NASA to be used as a shuttle carrier. Landing at Washington’s Dulles airport, it is headed to its new home at the Smithsonian Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA.

WSJ l Space Shuttle Discovery Embarks on Final Flight

New York Times l Discovery Shuttle Makes Final Flight

Final Take Off for Space Shuttle Discovery

Before being permanently brought down to Earth, the space shuttle Discovery hitched a final ride on Tuesday to its new home at the Smithsonian on the back of a 747.

Many in Washington took a break to scan the sky and snap pictures of the crafts, oddly conjoined like two springtime dragonflies, as they made a series of ceremonial flyovers of the capital.

Spectators stopped their cars or headed to rooftops to catch a glimpse, exclaiming on Twitter after each successful sighting.

On the Twitter account of the Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA posted pictures, some with Instagram’s age-imitating filters, giving the final flight a bit of the feel of its first, in August 1984.

The shuttle arrived from its final airborne journey at Washington Dulles International Airport late on Tuesday morning. After being carefully prepared — with an aerodynamic tail cap — and attached to the jumbo jet over the weekend, it was set to dismount for a last ride, by land, to the Virginia annex of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

NASA provided a sunrise photo of the four-wing, two-tail craft — described as a modified 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft — along with a short history of the space shuttle program on its Web site:

NASA’s space shuttle fleet began setting records with its first launch on April 12, 1981 and continued to set high marks of achievement and endurance through 30 years of missions. Starting with Columbia and continuing with Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour, the spacecraft has carried people into orbit repeatedly, launched, recovered and repaired satellites, conducted cutting-edge research and built the largest structure in space, the International Space Station. The final space shuttle mission, STS-135, ended July 21, 2011 when Atlantis rolled to a stop at its home port, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Below is video of from Discovery’s final launch into space in February of 2011:

NASA Space Shuttle Discovery Launch

By J. David Goodman

April 17th, 2012

New York Times l Discovery Shuttle Makes Final Flight

UPI l GenDyn supporting U.S. Central Command

U.S. Central Command’s 160th Signal Brigade will receive technological support from General Dynamics Information Technology under a five-year contract.

The award from the Army’s Network Enterprise Technology Command carries a potential value of $64.5 million.

“General Dynamics has a strong history with the 160th Signal Brigade and significant experience delivering advanced communications capabilities,” said Zannie Smith, senior vice president of the National and Homeland Security Division for General Dynamics Information Technology.

“We understand the importance of the brigade’s mission and the critical role it plays in supporting U.S. troops in the Middle East.”

U.S. Central Command is responsible for U.S. military operations in the Middle East and Southwest Asia. The 160th provides it with enterprise communications capabilities.

Under the award, General Dynamics will perform administrative, information assurance, cybersecurity and operations tasks. It will also provide power and facilities engineering, logistics services and IT networking and transmission expertise.

General Dynamics will perform its tasks in Kuwait, Qatar and Afghanistan.

April 13, 2012

UPI l GenDyn supporting U.S. Central Command

Air Force Times l Military, contractors look to high schools for cyber talent

A gaggle of high school students huddled around a cluster of computers is unlikely to garner much attention.

But in late March, a steady stream of Air Force generals, Pentagon officials and defense industry executives visited several dozen students, all wearing matching green T-shirts emblazoned with the names of defense contractors, as they sat in small groups in a Washington-area conference center.

The groups were teams competing in the finals of the fourth CyberPatriot competition, and the draw was simple but dramatic: the military’s desperate need for more cybersecurity experts.

Confronted with a severe shortage of talent, government and defense contractors are spending time and money on programs designed to interest students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, with the hope that some will find their way into cybersecurity.

But while contractors and the military have long recruited talent, their targets have changed. First, they recruited graduate students, but that source lacked the volume to meet demand. Then they recruited college students but found that many STEM students are not U.S.-born, making clearances an issue. Now, companies are focusing on high school students as an important investment target, and they may not stop there.

“I’ve talked to the Air Force Association about doing something like this at the middle school level,” said Diane Miller, program director for CyberPatriot and director of operations for the cybersecurity group at Northrop Grumman, the competition’s lead sponsor for two years. “We’ve even been asked to work with elementary school kids. So we did a session on password protection.”

For contractors, the talent math is simple and disconcerting.

“Cyber is our business, and we’re invested in building that pipeline because we need the workforce,” Miller said. “We have positions open. A lot of positions open.”

Those openings, possibly in the tens of thousands nationally according to some reports, reflect a serious danger, said Alan Paller, director of research at the SANS Institute.

“What you’re seeing is an element, a pretty important element, of a national initiative to build a pipeline of talent that can help the nation compete in cyberspace,” Paller said. “It’s a big existential issue for countries, because in the next war, the tanks will be people. In the last war, the guy with the big cadre of tanks could beat the guy with the small set of tanks. This war, because your weapons can’t be reused and can be turned against you, everything depends on people’s ability to create new tools on the fly and to create new defenses on the fly, and that’s all talent.”

Developing interest

For many of the students in the CyberPatriot competition, the idea of cybersecurity as a career, or even going to college, was not previously part of their plan.

“It really got me thinking about going to college because I never really thought about going to college,” said Jeromy Miller, a student on a team from Reseda High School in the Los Angeles school system. “I just thought I’d finish high school and just go on with my life. Now I’m thinking about going to college to expand my knowledge and maybe get a job at one of these famous corporations.”

That interest in working for a contractor, and the creation of a talent pool that likely would not have entered the sector, offers a chance for a return on the $1.4 million investment Northrop has made in the program the last two years. The investment covers the national competition and a training program designed to teach basic cybersecurity skills to students exploring the topic for the first time. The program includes paper materials and online resources coaches can use to train local teams. The company also manages a mentoring program with its employees participating.

“There’s no guarantee that the folks that you invest in through CyberPatriot are going to come back and work for Northrop Grumman,” said Michael Papay, vice president for cyber initiatives at Northrop’s information systems division. “It’s not an easy connection to make the return on investment, but we work pretty hard to hire them as interns, the ones that we can have access to, and then getting them aware that Northrop Grumman is a company that invests heavily in cyber and knows a lot about cybersecurity.”

For some of the students, the connection is clearly made. Dante Mabin, who competed in the 2011 competition and took time off from college to coach students from his alma mater in 2012, said the competition made him aware of Northrop.

“I’d never heard of them before, but I realized how serious of a company they are, their expertise and how well they do,” he said. “Right now, I am hoping to get an internship with Northrop, and maybe work for them.”

Early interest key

Part of the push to reach kids at an earlier age comes from the recognition that early decisions, even if those decisions don’t focus on cybersecurity specifically, shape potential career paths.

“If you look at the STEM pipeline, deciding to go into a science, technology, engineering or a math field unfortunately requires early decisions, especially about grade eight to make sure that the students are taking algebra at grade eight,” said Ray Johnson, chief technology officer at Lockheed Martin. “That puts them on the pathway to complete calculus in high school and then gets them well prepared for a college STEM curriculum. So what we want to do is talk to students pre-grade eight, get them in grades five, six and seven, get them excited about STEM education.”

To create early interest, Lockheed is sponsoring the USA Science & Engineering Festival on April 28-29 at the Washington Convention Center in the District of Columbia. The event is aimed at creating excitement for kids and includes stage shows with flamboyant demonstrations of scientific concepts.

While there are no guarantees that sponsorship will directly benefit the company’s recruiting efforts, Johnson said there may be some effect.

“It’s probably not too far a stretch to say that when they see the Lockheed Martin name, and they remember being exposed to things, that does present a little bit of an attractive draw when it comes time for them to enter the workforce,” he said.

Benjamin Donnelly, a senior from Spokane, Wash., competing in the CyberPatriot competition, said he did not feel attached to a particular contractor because of his participation in the event. But the event did greatly influence his thoughts on cybersecurity as a career. The competition even caused him to end his forced separation from computers.

“A couple of years back, I realized that my vision might be damaged by looking at computers for too long, so I took out a minivendetta against them,” he said. “That lasted for about six months, and it was ended by CyberPatriot.”

He is seriously considering a career in IT, although he also has a passion for aircraft.

CyberPatriot

CyberPatriot, which included more than 1,000 teams in its first round, is not the only high school competition. The U.S. Cyber Challenge is another. But what separates CyberPatriot is that the competition, created by the Air Force Association and also sponsored by SAIC, was initially open to Air Force Junior ROTC teams. That ensured a diverse group of kids competed, as JROTC attracts students from different socioeconomic backgrounds.

Now that a second division has been created for other high schools, that diversity remains. Some of the students had never owned a computer before becoming involved. A stroll through the competition room showed students representing a variety of ethnic groups, as well as a team in which four of the six members were girls. According to organizers, the participation of the girls in the competition was encouraged by Maj. Gen. Suzanne Vautrinot, commander of Air Force Network Operations, who spent time mentoring them.

The competition was designed to create a gamelike environment that would be fun for the kids, part of creating interest that might trigger further academic pursuit. Most of the time was spent defending a network from a team of professional cybersecurity experts who tested the kids with a variety of exploits. The competition also had a “Bradley Manning simulation,” as one organizer called it, where students were expected to search a mannequin for small hidden storage devices that might contain classified data.

The need for talent is so desperate that companies need to invest, said Paller of the SANS Institute.

“It’s a survival issue for them,” he said. “This is a field where if you have 20 people on a contract, usually only one or two are really good, and if somebody steals those one or two, there’s just no way to recover.”

The students seemed oblivious to the critical role they may play in the future of the military and defense companies. As Air Force Secretary Michael Donley and Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary for Cyber Policy Eric Rosenbach strolled the competition ballroom, some of the students wrote messages on large pads behind their tables. One particularly precocious team that had finished a task early left a message for competitors: “You’re all jealous,” it read.

By Zachary Fryer-Biggs

April 16th, 2012

Air Force Times l Military, contractors look to high schools for cyber talent

National Defense l Boeing to Jump into the Mobile Phone Business

The Boeing Co. is developing a mobile phone based on the Android operating system that will compete with other manufacturers offering highly secure communication devices, company officials said April 10.

Roger Krone, president of Boeing Network and Space Systems, told reporters in Arlington, Va., that this was probably the first time the aerospace and defense industry giant will offer a communication device designed to use cellular networks.

The company is near the end of the development cycle and getting ready to launch what he called “the Boeing phone” in late 2012, said Brian Palma, vice president of the company’s secure infrastructure group.

Competitors offering similar secure, encrypted devices are charging $15,000 to $20,000 per device and are using proprietary software and hardware, Palma said.

“We are going to drive down towards a lower price point, but … not mass-market price point,” he said referring to iPhones, BlackBerries and other consumer market smartphones.

“We believe that there is significant interest in the defense side as well as the intelligence side and in the commercial world as well,” Palma said.

Boeing sees a larger business trend where employees once went to work to take advantage of information technology because it was far superior to what they had at home. Nowadays, it is the opposite. The consumer products have outstripped the office IT, and they wonder why their work has far less robust computers and phones.

This is why an Android-based system was chosen. The users of these high-end phones want the same ability to use popular applications while knowing that their business communications are secure, Palma said. The company also sees opportunities for the phone in the emergency responder market.

The phone will “give them what they are used to seeing [on consumer market smartphones] and give them the functionality from the security perspective,” Krone added.

“We are all living off this thing,” Krone said while holding up his smartphone. “And we’re not going back. In fact the next one I have is going to be thinner, smaller and have more capability.”

Whether “the Boeing phone” will carry the company’s brand name has not been decided, Krone said. Palma also declined to reveal Boeing’s partners in the program.

April 13th, 2012

by Stew Magnuson

National Defense l Boeing to Jump into the Mobile Phone Business

Aviation Week l Large Displacement UUV Steaming Ahead

The U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research plans to take robot submarines to a new level. Current Navy unmanned underwater systems (UUS) are small vehicles controlled by an operator nearby, for missions lasting a few hours. The Large Displacement Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (LDUUV) will be large and highly autonomous, carrying out missions at long distances for months. It will act as a mothership, deploying and operating static and mobile sensors for persistent surveillance in coastal waters. Ultimately, it is likely to be armed. The program sounds ambitious, but much of the technology has already been proven.

Boeing’s Echo Ranger is setting the pace for LDUUV technology. Originally built in 2001, the Echo Ranger is a 5.5- meter (18-ft.), 5-ton craft that can dive to 10,000 ft. “In terms of autonomous operation, we’re pretty much there,” says Mark Kosko, program manager for Boeing’s Unmanned Undersea Systems group.

The Navy’s autonomy requirements call for it to operate without human assistance in shallow water littered with obstacles. In the first 18-month phase the craft will work at shallow depths of as little as 100 ft., calling on an operator via satellite link in challenging situations. The second phase, which will take up to three years, will extend operations to open ocean and working without any human intervention.

The LDUUV will have to detect and avoid surface and submerged vessels, and other hazards such as marine mammals and fishing nets. It will sense and maneuver around fixed obstacles, including piers, moorings and underwater terrain, and plot an efficient course to take.

Echo Ranger has already worked in this type of environment. Sonar gives it short-range obstacle sensing, and acoustic sensors warn of approaching vessels from several miles away. The vehicle then moves out of the way to avoid collision. Echo Ranger’s developers have also learned how to avoid static obstacles, sometimes the hard way—on one occasion it got stuck in a kelp bed.

“You only have to learn that lesson once,” says Kosko.

Another element of the LDUUV program concentrates on endurance, aiming to boost the amount of energy stored per-pound by 10 times. Again, there will be two phases: the first, taking two years, will see the LDUUV operating for up to 30 days at a stretch, increasing to 70 days in the second phase.

Echo Ranger is powered by batteries with an endurance of 28 hr., although Kosko says diesel engines or fuel cells could prolong that time. These technologies might be difficult to apply on small unmanned vessels, but the LDUUV power unit will weigh 3.5 tons, and Kosko says it is largely a matter of packaging existing technology.

A third development effort addresses reliability needed for longer missions. Again, Kosko says this has been explored with Echo Ranger. Drawing on Boeing’s expertise with satellites to airliners, developers have looked at redundant systems, improved component reliability and also self-monitoring capability. The craft needs to be able to compensate for the loss of a sensor, and gauge the seriousness of other problems.

“It has to be able to sense a leak and say ‘Hey, it’s time to go,’” says Kosko.

The LDUUV will have a large payload bay, making it capable of releasing sensors, communication buoys, smaller UUS and weapons. The Navy’s current emphasis is on persistent surveillance “over the horizon.” However, its most significant impact could be in mine warfare, both offensive and defensive.

In the counter-mine role, the LDUUV will be able to detect and locate mines, then engage and neutralize them safely. And the LDUUV could make offensive mine laying more controllable and clandestine. In the transformational mine concept, the LDUUV lays networked sensors across a wide area. These track and identify every vessel within range. Depending on the situation, any vessel can be engaged, by either an anchored weapon or a torpedo from the UUV itself. The advantage of using an LDUUV is that the minefield can be switched on or off, or changed in size. It can be emplaced in advance, and never activated. De-mining and clear-up do not pose the major problem that they do with traditional mines.

The Navy plans to release a request for proposals for the LDUUV in 2014. Last October Rear Adm. Barry Bruner, the Navy’s undersea warfare director, indicated that up to 10 LDUUVs would be procured. The LDUUV is being pitched as a helper to complement manned submarines. However, if it achieves the technology goals for endurance and autonomy, it will pose serious questions of what exactly large unmanned craft could not ultimately do.

By David Hambling

April 12, 2012

Aviation Week l Large Displacement UUV Steaming Ahead