Contract: Raytheon, $19M

Raytheon Missile Systems, Tucson, Ariz., is being awarded a $19,078,537 modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract for AIM-9X Sidewinder (Block II) missile obsolescence and engineering technical support for the Navy and Air Force. Work to be provided include missile obsolescence tasks, engineering technical support and software development. Five percent of the work will be done at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., but the majority, 90 percent, will be done in Tucson, Ariz. Another 5 percent will be done at China Lake, Calif. Work is expected to be completed in November 2010. This contract combines purchases for the Air Force and Navy. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md. is the contracting activity. (Source: DoD, 11/30/09)

NATO to fund spy system

NAPLES, Italy - Fifteen NATO nations will fund an air surveillance command and control system to be located at Naval Air Station Sigonella, a shared Italian-U.S. Navy base in Sicily. The Air Ground Surveillance system consists of eight Northrop Grumman RQ-4B Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles. The ground portion will be developed by Canadian and European industry, according to a NATO news release. The NATO surveillance project is expected to cost between $1.5 billion to $2.3 billion. Plans are for the project to be in place by 2012. (Source: Stars and Stripes, 12/01/09) Gulf Coast note: Global Hawks are made in part in Moss Point, Miss.

Airport begins renovations

NEW ORLEANS – Louis Armstrong International Airport has begun $755 million worth of projects to modernize its facilities. It includes construction of a new concourse and the eventual abandonment of two old ones. The airport has identified 16 projects, including new signs and lighting at the terminal curbside and rescue station. (Source: New Orleans Times Picayune, 11/29/09)

Contract: Composite Engineering, $37.6M

Composite Engineering Inc. was awarded a $37,551,848 contract which procures additional subscale aerial targets. At this time, $37,551,848 has been obligated. 691 ARSS/PK, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity. (Source: DoD, 11/25/09)

US won't share F-35 code

Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., could wind up with another F-35-related mission in addition to being the primary Joint Strike Fighter training center. Reuters is reporting that the United States plans to keep to itself sensitive software code that controls the F-35 fighter, despite requests from nations that have helped fund the JSF. The code is key to the plane's electronic brains, Jon Schreiber, who heads the program's international affairs, told Reuters. Instead, the United States plans to set up a "reprogramming facility," probably at Eglin, to further develop F-35-related software and distribute upgrades, he said. Software changes will be integrated there "and new operational flight programs will be disseminated out to everybody who's flying the jet," Schreiber told Reuters. (Source: Reuters, 11/25/09)

Teledyne recalling parts

MOBILE, Ala. - Teledyne Continental Motors is recalling and replacing an engine part in several hundred airplane engines after the part began to wear out more rapidly than normal. The Federal Aviation Administration grounded all the planes containing the hydraulic lifters until the parts are replaced. Rhett Ross, president of Teledyne Continental, said about 450 engines and parts sets were in question, and more than two-thirds have already been replaced. (Source: Mobile Press-Register, 11/25/09)

NASA honors Haise

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will present astronaut Fred Haise Jr. with NASA's Ambassador of Exploration Award during a Dec. 2 ceremony at the Gorenflo Elementary School in Biloxi, Miss. Haise, best known for the Apollo 13 flight, will present the award - a moon rock encased in Lucite - to Paul Tisdale, superintendent of the Biloxi Public School System, and Tina Thompson, the school's principal. Haise attended Gorenflo. NASA is giving the award to the first generation of explorers in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space programs for realizing America's goal of going to the moon. The moon rock is part of the 842 pounds of lunar samples collected during six Apollo expeditions from 1969 to 1972. (Source: NASA, 11/24/09)

Tanker does simultaneous refuel

An Australian A330 tanker has performed the first simultaneous fuel transfer with its all-digital hose-and-drogue system, fueling two fighter aircraft at the same time, according to EADS. The hose-and-drogue fuel transfers occurred Nov. 18 during a flight test sortie that utilized both the A330 MRTT's left and right under-wing pods. The plane conducted 11 simultaneous airborne refueling contacts with two NATO F/A-18 fighters and transferred more than 25,000 lbs of fuel. (Source: EADS, 11/23/09) Gulf Coast note: The tanker is the same type being offered by the Northrop Grumman/EADS team to the Air Force. The team wants to assemble the plane in Mobile, Ala.

Fire Scout production deliveries made

SAN DIEGO - Northrop Grumman completed the first three MQ-8B Fire Scout production deliveries to the Navy, which completes the first year of Low Rate Initial Production for the UAV helicopter. Two of the three Fire Scouts were deployed aboard the USS McInerney for use on a scheduled operational deployment. Fire Scouts have been aboard the USS McInerney four times since December 2008, completing 110 ship takeoffs and landings and 45 landings with the harpoon grid, accumulating over 47 hours of flight time. (Source: Northrop Grumman, 11/24/09) Gulf Coast note: Fire Scouts are made in part in Moss Point, Miss.

NASA picks small biz projects to develop

STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss. - NASA has selected for development 368 small business innovation projects that include research to minimize aging of aircraft, new techniques for suppressing fires on spacecraft and advanced transmitters for deep space communications. Chosen from more than 1,600 proposals, the awards are part of NASA's Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs. Six of the awards will develop technologies for the Innovative Partnership Program at Stennis Space Center. (Source: NASA, 11/23/09)

Goodrich to lay off 80

FOLEY, Ala. – Goodrich in Foley will lay off 78 people in January. The layoffs are from the maintenance, repair, and overhaul division. A representative from the company blamed it on slow demand and the global recession. Company leaders say employees will be offered severance packages and will be eligible to keep their health insurance for six months. Goodrich employs about 800 people in Foley. (Source: WALA-TV, 11/23/09)

Arms buyer spurns including WTO ruling

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon's chief arms buyer spurned pressure from Boeing allies in Congress to factor a World Trade Organization ruling against Airbus into the competition to build aerial tankers to the Air Force. Ashton Carter told reporters the Pentagon addressed the trade issue when it put out draft bidding rules in September for a tanker rematch between Boeing and the team of Northrop Grumman and Airbus parent EADS. The Pentagon said the WTO findings were preliminary. (Source: Reuters, 11/23/09)

Passenger count up in New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS - Passenger levels were up nearly 9 percent last month at Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans. Figures show there were 704,686 passengers, compared to 648,544 in October 2008. It’s attributed to concert-goers, conventioners and football fans. (Source: AP via Times-Picayune, 11/22/09)

Navy seeks UAV anti-collision system

ARLINGTON, Va. - Navy researchers are asking industry to develop a collision avoidance system to enable unmanned aerial vehicles to operate in civil airspace. The Office of Naval Research issued a broad agency announcement for the Unmanned Air System Autonomous Collision Avoidance System to enable UAVs to sense and avoid other aircraft while operating in the National Air Space System. Initial research to develop a UAV collision-avoidance system will focus on the Navy Fire Scout unmanned helicopter and Army Tier 2 Shadow fixed-wing UAV. Air Force researchers are pursuing a similar initiative. (Source: Military and Aerospace Electronics, 11/20/09) Gulf Coast note: Fire Scouts are built in part in Moss Point, Miss.

Contract: Sierra Nevada, $9.1M

Sierra Nevada Corp., Centennial, Colo., was awarded a $9,103,824 contract which will provide aircraft weapon integration. At this time, the entire amount has been obligated. AAC/PKES, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity. (Source: DoD, 11/20/09)

Contract: DTS, $13.9M

DTS Aviation Services Inc., Fort Worth, Texas, was awarded a $13,893,827 contract which will provide aircraft backshop maintenance, munitions and equipment support services for the Air Armament Center and for their command and control, communications, computers and intelligence systems testing for a 12 month period. 96 CONS/PKB, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity. (Source: DoD, 11/20/09)

Global Hawk gets airworthiness certificate

SAN DIEGO - Northrop Grumman said the Air Force has granted the RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle a military Airworthiness Certification, a step on the path to routine unmanned flight within the United States. The AWC process verifies an aircraft design has met performance requirements within the mission profile to safely fly in national airspace and assures operators and mission managers that the production articles conform to the design. The certification process evaluated more than 600 airworthiness criteria. (Source: Globe Newswire, 11/20/09) Gulf Coast note: Global Hawks are built in part in Moss Point, Miss.

Politicking continues on tanker

MOBILE, Ala. - Mobile Mayor Sam Jones, in the wake of a lobbying trip to Washington this week, expressed hope that lawmakers are open to the possibility of buying new aerial refueling tankers from both Boeing and the Northrop Grumman/EADS team. Jones said the Mobile group met with nine lawmakers Wednesday and Thursday. Earlier this week, a group of more than a dozen lawmakers who are Boeing supporters began a push to have the Pentagon factor a World Trade Organization dispute over aircraft subsidies into the tanker competition. (Source: Mobile Press-Register, 11/20/09, 11/19/09)

Global Hawk contract awarded

SAN DIEGO – The Air Force awarded Northrop Grumman a $302.9 million contract for five RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial systems. Under the Lot 7 production contract, the company will build two Block 30 systems and three Block 40 systems for the 303d Aeronautical Systems Group at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. The award includes a ground station consisting of a launch and recovery element and a mission control element, plus two additional sensor suites that will be retrofitted into previous production aircraft. The contract runs through 2011. (Source: Northrop Grumman, 11/20/09) Gulf Coast note: Global Hawks are built in part in Moss Point, Miss.

Boeing laser downs UAVs

Unmanned aerial systems may be the rage, but Boeing has just announced the successful test of a mobile laser system to bring them down. The just-announced test was conducted in May, and demonstrated the ability of mobile laser weapon systems to track and destroy small UAVs. During the tests at the Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake, Calif., the Mobile Active Targeting Resource for Integrated eXperiments (MATRIX) used a single, high-brightness laser beam to shoot down five UAVs at various ranges. (Source: Boeing, 11/18/09) Gulf Coast note: Boeing has operations in the Gulf Coast; the Gulf Coast has several unmanned systems operations.