Boeing Awards data link contracts for Small Diameter Bomb
Boeing in St. Louis awarded contracts to Harris Corp. and Rockwell Collins to participate in a supplier competition for the Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) Increment II data link. Following the competition period, Boeing will select one competitor as the data link supplier for its SDB Increment II offering. Boeing and Lockheed Martin won one of two U.S. Air Force contracts for the competitive risk reduction phase of the SDB Increment II program, which will provide the U.S. Air Force and Navy an all-weather capability against moving targets. Boeing, as prime contractor and system integrator, will supply the air vehicle and the data link system. Lockheed Martin, a principal supplier, will provide the multi-mode seeker. The data link enables the Increment II weapon to share data with either the launching aircraft or ground elements to assist in guiding the weapon toward moving targets. The Boeing SDB weapon system family, to which the all-weather, 250-pound SDB II will be added, quadruples the weapon load on every U.S. fighter and bomber aircraft. The SDB Increment I system, with its GBU-39 weapon, will be deployed on the Boeing F-15E Strike Eagle fighter-bomber later this year. The U.S. Air Force is expected to award a sole-source contract for the SDB II system design and development phase by late 2009.
BAE Systems Software selected for airport mapping project
GeoEye, a commercial remote-sensing imaging company in San Diego has selected the BAE Systems SOCET SET and ClearFlite software for a project that will create three-dimensional maps for hundreds of airports worldwide. Pilots and air traffic controllers will be able to use the new maps to guide aircraft into and out of airports. The National Geospatial intelligence Agency (NGA) awarded GeoEye a $3.7 million contract in June to complete the 3D mapping project, which involves the creation of airport mapping databases for 365 airports by June 2007. NGA and other international standards organizations define the database specifications for airport authorities. GeoEye will combine the 3-D capability of its IKONOS and OrbView-3 stereo imagery with the BAE Systems SOCET SET and ClearFlite software to create the detailed maps. An airport mapping database is a geospatial database that contains features-such as runways, taxiways, terrain, buildings, and obstacles-near an airfield. Operators use the information to develop safe and direct flight patterns that save time and fuel and increase the number of flights per hour. The BAE Systems SOCET SET geospatial analysis software creates digital elevation models, while ClearFlite, a SOCET SET module, extracts the information from stereo images required to build the mapping databases.
General Dynamics Amphibious Systems achieves SEI software capability maturity Level 3
General Dynamics Amphibious Systems in Woodbridge, Va., a business unit of General Dynamics Land Systems in Sterling Heights, Mich., has achieved a Level 3 rating on the Software Engineering Institute’s Capability Maturity Model (CMM). General Dynamics Amphibious Systems and KAMO Consultancy performed a joint appraisal of the software development processes used in General Dynamics Amphibious Systems software engineering organization. The appraisal team conducted a rigorous Standard CMM appraisal method for process improvement (SCAMPI) class-A appraisal. After reviewing representative projects, the team determined that the General Dynamics Amphibious Systems software engineering organization achieved Maturity Level 3-Defined. The Software Engineering Institute is a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense and operated by Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
Rockwell Automation awarded Navy control system and engineering support contract
The U.S. Navy awarded Rockwell Automation Inc. in Milwaukee a $16 million contract for engineering support and automation components for the Navy’s surface ships. The five-year contract will enable the Navy and other Department of Defense agencies to acquire engineered systems and services from Rockwell Automation that are vital for daily and strategic shipboard operations, domestically and globally. The contract is a milestone for Rockwell Automation as it marks the first time a long-term U.S. Navy contract has been directly awarded to Rockwell Automation as the prime contractor. The company will supply the U.S. Navy with a machinery-control system engineered and certified for shipboard use. The system will manage the machinery control and auxiliary operations on board U.S. aircraft carriers, mine warfare ships, and frigates. The system is based on the Rockwell Automation Integrated Architecture, which features the Logix multidisciplined control platform and FactoryTalk plant-wide information software. Together they deliver a seamless control and information environment that integrates with other on-board systems.
Honeywell completes testing of ACARS ground systems
Honeywell announced at the Farnborough Air Show in Farnborough, England, that it has conducted tests of a secure Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) ground system. The ground system, when coupled with Honeywell’s Secure ACARS avionics application, represents a total solution for aeronautical datalink security. “The Secure ACARS System is the first security technology in the aeronautical datalink arena to use strong, international standards-based cryptography,” says Dean Flatt, president of Honeywell Aerospace Defense & Space. “Now, our airline and military customers can have the same level of protection for their sensitive air-ground communications that we take for granted with wireless or Internet communications.” The Secure ACARS ground system will be located at airline and military operation centers and at ACARS datalink service providers. As demonstrated, the ground system manages Secure ACARS sessions with as many as 10,000 aircraft simultaneously. It is hosted on a high-availability server with built-in hardware and software features that automatically recover from system failures and restore the system to operational status without operator intervention.
SAIC Accredited Testing and Evaluation Labs launch cryptographic module testing lab
Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) in McLean, Va., announced the opening of a cryptographic module testing Lab (CMTL). This new lab has been accredited by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to carry out Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-1 and 140-2 testing and will reside within SAIC’s Accredited Testing and Evaluation Labs, which are recognized as market leaders in Common Criteria (ISO/IEC15408) certification. The federal government requires that cryptographic modules be certified as compliant with FIPS 140-2 before the hardware or software they reside in can be used in federal information systems. SAIC’s CMTL will provide a range of FIPS 140 testing and support services, including FIPS 140 validation testing, initial assessments, security policy documentation guidance, FIPS 140-2 cryptographic module testing for Security Levels 1-4, and algorithm validation testing. The CMTL will also provide documentation strategy and support for security policies, user and crypto-officer manuals, design documentation, design assurance, and attack mitigation. More information on FIPS 140 is available at csrc.nist.gov/cryptval/140-2.htm and information on SAIC’s Accredited Testing and Evaluation Labs can be found at www.saic.com/infosec/cmtl.
Northrop Grumman’s Stellar Navigation System makes first flight on RC-135 aircraft
The new LN-120G stellar navigation system developed by Northrop Grumman in Woodland Hills, Calif., has successfully completed its first flight test on RC-135 aircraft. The LN-120G is a GPS-augmented stellar inertial navigation system that tracks stars day and night. It uses the information about a star’s location to refine the positioning information provided by the aircraft’s inertial navigation systems. Repeating this process enables the LN-120G to provide heading information accurate to 20 arc seconds. Aided by the high positional accuracy of the Northrop Grumman LN-120G, hostile targets detected by the RC-135 can be accurately pinpointed and transmitted to Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) aircraft and, ultimately, to fighter aircraft. “The LN-120G can also be adapted to address the needs of other aircraft requiring extremely precise navigation for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and other applications,” says Mike Borck, Northrop Grumman’s Stellar-Inertial Navigation program manager at the Navigation Systems Division.
Saft receives battery order to power military communications devices
Saft in Valdese, N.C., won a $4 million order from the U.S. Department of Defense for its enhanced BA 5590 lithium-sulfur dioxide (Li-SO2) batteries. The BA 5590A/U model features a new state of charge indicator (SOCI), which is an addition to the existing BA 5590B/U battery. Both versions will continue to be available to meet the needs of military field communication applications. The U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Life Cycle Management Command recently standardized the specifications for the BA 5590A/U battery to include the state of charge indicator. Saft is currently the first, and only, manufacturer to offer a qualified BA 5590A/U with SOCI, based on the new standardization in MIL-PRF 49471B. The state-of-charge indicator allows the soldier to determine the amount of capacity that remains in the battery and will prevent waste of partially spent batteries. Without this technology the soldier would typically use a new battery every time he or she went on a new mission to ensure that there would be enough power. For more information, visit Saft at www.saftbatteries.com.
