Persistent surveillance news

Raytheon has been awarded an $86.6 million contract to provide Rapid Aerostat Initial Deployment (RAID) elevated sensor systems to the U.S. Army as part of the Base Expeditionary Targeting and Surveillance System program.

RAID provides persistent surveillance using infrared sensors elevated on a stationary platform. Raytheon first developed RAID to respond to the U.S. military's critical need for persistent surveillance in support of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.

The RAID system is currently in wide use throughout Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom and will be an integral part of the BETSS effort.

Work will be performed at Raytheon IDS' Integrated Air Defense Center, Andover, Mass., and Warfighter Protection Center, Huntsville, Ala.

Source: Raytheon

Catching up on your reading

Here are some items of general interest that we have found or have had brought to our attention by readers. Thank you!

• Mahdi Army uses “flying IEDs” in Baghdad - The Long War Journal


• Persistent Surveillance a Key Topic at DHS Conference - Amy Zalman


• USAF agency deploys alert system - GCN


• Russia's 'Cans of Whup Ass' - Wired


• Cyber B52 strikes mooted as response to Chinese infowar - The Register


• A faltering thin red line of 'eroes - Asia Times

Sources: As cited

A little extra reading ...

Here are some items of general interest that we have found or have had brought to our attention by readers. Thank you!

Skynet military launch postponed - BBC

Explosives Search Dog in Afghanistan - Ares

Gen. Speakes: FCS will work and helps troops now - DefenseTech

Army Installing $1.5B Worth of Sensor Towers - Defense News

Inspector General swamped - POGO

Minot flunks nuclear inspection - Air Force Times

Sources: As cited

Vehicle command and control transformation

Eagan, McAllister Associates, Inc., has been awarded a $22,071,517 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity performance-based contract with hybrid pricing arrangements to provide production engineering, integration product improvement, test and evaluation, and maintenance support as well as the capacity to modernize or introduce transformational technologies into systems and technical support services of various C5ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cryptology, Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance) programs for fielding on platforms such as: Marine Corps Up-Armored HMMWV, Joint Explosive Ordnance Disposal, Rapid Responded Vehicle, Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, other Department of Defense vehicle platforms, Navy C5ISR tactical vehicles, and Marine Corps C5ISR tactical vehicles, in addition to other tactical vehicles.

This contract includes four one-year options and three-award terms, which if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $221,972,342. Work will be performed in Charleston, S.C., and is expected to be completed by May 2009 (May 2016 with all options and award terms exercised). The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, Charleston, S.C., is the contracting activity.

Source: DoD

Editor's Note: Eagan, McAllister Associates is wholly owned by SAIC

L-3 expands its' EO business

L-3 Communications has announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire Northrop Grumman's Electro-Optical Systems (EOS) business for $175 million in cash. EOS is a leader in night vision technology and electro-optical products for military, commercial and public safety customers. The EOS business generated approximately $190 million of sales for the year ended Dec. 31, 2007, and is expected to be immediately accretive to L-3's earnings. The acquisition should be completed in the second quarter of 2008, subject to standard regulatory approvals.

"Our strategy is to acquire businesses that expand our core offerings," said James W. Dunn, president of L-3's Sensors and Simulation Group. "There is strong demand worldwide for image-enhancing products, and the addition of EOS' products and technologies enhances our ability to meet that need. Including EOS, L-3's EO/IR businesses will generate approximately $800 million in annual sales, with growth exceeding 10 percent."

L-3 currently offers fully integrated imaging solutions, including EO/IR (electro-optical/infrared) sensors, high-definition turrets, tactical sights and laser designators for air, land and sea applications. EOS' portfolio includes night vision goggles, weapons sights, driver viewers, image intensification tubes and applied optics products. The business will be integrated into L-3's Specialized Products segment within the Sensors and Simulation Group.

Source: Press Release

US Army gets robotic security

"The Mobile Detection Assessment and Response System (MDARS) is a joint Army-Navy development effort to provide an automated intrusion detection and inventory assessment capability for use in DoD warehouses and storage sites."

"The Exterior Program, initiated in 1993, awarded a BAA contract for the development of the outdoor mobility platforms to Robotic Systems Technology (RST, now GDRS), Westminster, MD.

"The mobility base is a rugged four-wheel hydrostatic-drive diesel-powered vehicle equipped with active-laser, ultrasonic-sonar, millimeter-wave-radar, and stereo-vision sensors for collision avoidance."

The U.S. Army has awarded General Dynamics Robotic Systems a contract with a total potential value of $40 million for production of the robotic Mobile Detection Assessment and Response System (MDARS).

GDRS will produce the semi-autonomous vehicles, provide spare parts, training and technical services for a five years.

Hawthorne Army Depot in Nevada will receive the first four robotic security vehicles produced under this program. Since 2005, the MDARS demonstration vehicles have been evaluated at the depot logging more than 8,000 hours and 28,000 miles of service.

Sorces: SPAWAR and GDRS

Visibuilding moves forward

Visibuilding is a program inside the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Strategic Technology Office (STO). "VisiBuilding will develop technology that will re-establish surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities into buildings to perform three main functions:

• Determine building layouts,
• Find anomalous quantities of materials,
• Locate people within the building.

VisiBuilding's approach to this addresses three main areas of technical concentration:

• Phenomenology of signal penetration into buildings,
• Sensor positioning and utilization to maximize information about the building,
• Model-based 3-D building deconvolution that operates in a multipath-rich, diffractive environment."

Science Applications International Corp., (SAIC) has been awarded a $5,270,000.00 cost-plus contract to develop and test the VisiBuilding concept.Work will be performed in San Diego, CA and is to be completed by Aug. 15, 2009. There were 70 bids received.

Sources: As cited and DoD
Photo: STO