ACH Helmet Recalls Hits 2nd Manufacturer

The ACH replaces the old PASGT helmet in the Army, and offers a number of improvements including exposed ears to improve hearing, a set mount for night vision gear, better protection against bullets in covered areas, and a system of internal pads that improve protection against blasts and their accompanying potential for brain trauma. That padding has been a source of controversy, as the US Marines’ Light Weight Helmets (LWH) have been criticized for lacking this feature. 

In May 2009, the Army recalled helmets from Gentex. Now, on May 13/10, they have issued a recall notice for 44,000 ArmorSource helmets in the field…

ACH manufacturers included ArmorSource, Gentex, Mine Safety Appliances, and Specialty Defense Systems (since acquired by BAE systems).

ArmorSource was formerly formerly Rabintex USA LLC, ad is based in Hebron, OH. They are 1 of 4 manufacturers who make ACH helmets for the US military, and their 102,000 manufactured helmets comprise a small percentage of the estimated 1.6 million ACH helmets in stock. The helmets affected by the recall were made from August 2007 – November 2009. About 44,000 of those helmets were in the field, another 55,000 were in bonded storage, and the Army refused delivery of an additional 3,000.

Brig. Gen. Peter Fuller, head of Program Executive Office Soldier at Fort Belvoir, VA, told Military.com that ballistics testing did not result in “lethal penetrations,” and that it would take a combination of worst-case scenarios to result in unexpected injuries. Program Manager Col. William Cole, added that the tested helmets “fell short on Army standards – not by much, but the standards are absolute.”

ArmorSource’s own statement [PDF] says only that:

”...ArmorSource received no notification of this recall from the government and has no additional information at this time regarding the recall other than that press release.

ArmorSource is committed to providing products that meet or exceed the government’s performance specifications with safety as its highest priority. To that end ArmorSource has a quality assurance program for the helmets that was reviewed by and approved by U.S. Government quality assurance representatives.

All Advanced Combat Helmets distributed to the field were accepted by the government after they passed independent, government-approved quality and lot testing. ArmorSource will cooperate fully with any governmental inquiries regarding its Advanced Combat Helmet and is seeking to obtain additional information to allow ArmorSource to address the government’s concerns.”

Timeline

ACH in action

May 14/10: The Us DoD issues a press release, announcing the recall. See also Military.com’s story, which is the source of much of the timeline information below.

May 13/10: The Army issues the recall notice within its ranks. Soldiers with ACH helmets made by ArmorSource are instructed to turn them in, and have them replaced by ACH helmets from other manufacturers.

May 12/10: The Army receives the preliminary results from the ballistics re-tests at Aberdeen, MD.

April 27/10: Contract termination proceedings begin between the US Army and ArmorSource.

Feb 2/10: The US Army issues a stop-work order to ArmorSource.

Jan 10/10: The US DOJ tells the Army it’s expanding its investigation to include ArmorSource’s ACH helmets, and recommends retests. 

Some of the 55,000 ArmorSource helmets in Army storage are subsequently pulled for additional ballistics testing at the Army’s test center in Aberdeen, MD. Army officials also visit the Hebron, OH plant.

December 2009: The Department of Justice informs the Army that it’s investigating UniCorps, who subcontracts the US Marines’ LWH construction to ArmorSource. 

November 2009: Soldiers notice that the factory-applied paint is peeling off of some ArmorSource ACHs.

HP developing Dick Tracy-inspired 'wristwatch' for military

By Trudy Walsh 

Dick Tracy long ago set the gold standard for gadgetry. The comic strip boasted the first popular depictions of jet packs and magnetic-powered space vehicles. 

And of course, the comic-strip hero’s two-way radio-TV wristwatch, which later became a two-way wrist computer.

Hewlett-Packard is evidently following Tracy’s lead by developing a wristwatch for the military that will run on solar energy and show maps and other strategic information.

The wristwatch will have a thin plastic display screen that’s flexible and doesn’t break, said Carl Taussig, director of information surfaces at HP Labs in Palo Alto, Calif., as reported by CNN.com.

The watch display will be printed with flexible solar panels that were developed by Power Film, which also makes solar-powered tents for military use.

Plastic display screens are lighter than glass displays and use less power. They cause less wear and tear on the environment too, as they use 40 times less raw material than glass, Taussig said.

Plastic-display technology is more popular than you might think. Sriram Peruvemba, vice president of marketing for E Ink, developer of the Amazon Kindle’s display technology, says that more than 20 million flexible plastic displays are currently on the market. 

Most of the available plastic screens go into small gadgets such as wristwatches and memory sticks, Peruvemba said. In a few years, these displays will be used for larger devices such as e-readers and laptops, he told CNN.

The plastic display screens are backed by a thin strip of metal-coated plastic that’s about 50 microns thick, which is about the width of a human hair. This thin layer is printed with transistors and treated with acid and metal coatings, so that it can conduct electricity and create sharp images.

Now all we need is for some company to get serious about making a feasible jet pack.

Z Microsystems Receives Multi-Year, Multi-Million Dollar Contract for Ground Control Displays

Z Microsystems, a leading provider of mission-ready computing systems, announced the first shipment of its ground control displays on a multi-million dollar contract to upgrade Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) ground stations. Acting as a sub-contractor to a major supplier of UAS, Z Microsystems displays will be used by ground control station operators and analysts in the US military to monitor live video feeds.

“Our ground control displays are built to help the military and aerospace UAS community focus on ‘seeing better’ and ‘seeing more’ through the application of real time image processing,” said Jack Wade, CEO of Z Microsystems. “This contract validates that our technology is meeting the need for higher fidelity visualization in UAS surveillance.”

Z Microsystem’s display panels are available with 17, 21 and 24-inch active display areas. The displays offer multiple PiP (Picture-in-Picture) windows and offer numerous mounting options. The ground control displays are designed to work in unison with the Any Image Anywhere (AIA) image enhancement system, which executes image enhancement algorithms in real time on live, full-motion video.

WIN-T: US Army’s Connection to the GIG

As the Army’s tactical portion of the USA’s Global Information Grid (GIG) network, WIN-T is designed to help deployed forces tap into that grid and its databases, collectors, and connections to national agencies. At present, this requires multiple private networks, or outright forward deployment of representatives from the agencies in question.

Win-T Increment One was formerly known as the Joint Network Node. It provides Internet capability to a small platoon on the ground, which can now communicate with the rest of the world. 

The node consists of vehicles and shipping containers (the Joint Network Node, the Battalion Command Post Node, the Ku SATCOM trailer and the Hub Node) equipped with systems that provide voice over IP, dynamic IP, videoconferencing and access to the military’s classified and unclassified networks…

Incremental Change

Increment One of WIN-T provides soldiers access to the GIG while stationary. Increment One is being used by more than half of the Army worldwide, including troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to prime contractor General Dynamics.

Increment Two, which General Dynamics is also under contract to provide, will enable soldiers to communicate on the move using satellite and radio communication links. 

Increment Three provides increased network reliability and capacity, smaller and more tightly integrated communications and networking gear. Increment Four, the last of the WIN-T developmental program elements, is a pending contract award.

General Dynamics C4 Systems leads a WIN-T team that includes Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Harris Corporation, L-3 communications, Juniper Networks and CISCO Systems

Contracts and Key Events

May 13/10: General Dynamics C4 Systems announces a $12.4 million contract modification to develop a line-of-sight communications payload for the Extended Range/Multi-purpose (ER/MP) UAV to serve as a node on the WIN-T Increment 3 network. The WIN-T communications payload will use the Highband Networking Waveform (HNW) to serve as a radio repeater while the UAS is in flight. This capability will be useful in an urban environment or on rugged terrain where there are barriers to ground communication.

 

April 5/10: General Dynamics C4 Systems in Taunton, MA received a $164 million firm-fixed-price contract for WIN-T Increment 2 low-rate production, urgent 1st order, for the procurement of equipment for 3 brigade combat teams, 1 division headquarters, 4 regional hub nodes, and one base equipment complement to support the initial operational test and evaluation for WIN-T Increment 2 for program manager, WIN-T.

Work is to be performed in Taunton, MA with an estimated completion date of June 30/10. The CECOM Acquisition Center at Fort Monmouth, NJ manages the contract (W15PT-10-D-C007).

June 5/09: General Dynamics SATCOM Technologies receives a $119 million modification to an existing delivery order (W15P7T-06-D-L219) to provide satellite communications earth terminals and support services for Increment One of the US Army’s WIN-T program.

Under the contract, General Dynamics SATCOM Technologies will provide 293 satellite transportable terminals (STT), 6 unit hub SATCOM trucks (UHST) and 534 Ka-band upgrade kits and spares. 

General Dynamics SATCOM Technologies’ work is being performed under an existing World Wide Satellite Systems delivery order, managed by the WIN-T program manager’s Commercial Satellite Terminal Program in Ft. Monmouth, NJ. This modification to the existing delivery order brings the contract’s total value to $378 million for 956 STTs and 17 UHSTs, which represent approximately half of the hardware quantities available on the 4-year program.

April 6/09: General Dynamics announces that the US Army’s 4th Brigade – 2nd Infantry Division in Fort Lewis, WA, and 3rd Infantry Division in Fort Stewart, GA completed a limited user test of WIN-T Increment 2. A General Dynamics-led team supported the testing, during which soldiers from the 2 units planned and executed multiple missions, sharing command and control information from the command post down to the company level using WIN-T.

March 4/09: A General Dynamics-led team completes a developmental testing of the WIN-T Increment 2 on-the-move broadband networking capability. The test included building and operating a network comprising more than 35 network nodes. In a tactical environment, a network this size would support an Army division and associated brigade, battalion and company elements.

Nov 3/08: General Dynamics C4 Systems announces delivery of the first WIN-T Increment 1 equipment to the US Army. Increment 1 builds on the former Joint Network Node-Network (JNN) and provides soldiers with a high-capacity communications network when they are stopped.

On schedule deliveries of WIN-T Increment 1 to the 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division Stryker Brigade Combat Team (SBCT) at Ft. Lewis, WA, includes networking hubs, network management suites and network nodes. The equipment serves battalion, brigade and division/corps command posts and Expeditionary Signal Battalions.

This article can be found in its original entirety here.

Too Much Information: Taming the UAV Data Explosion

TMI! That’s what US military commanders are saying about the explosion of data being collected and processed (or not) by thousands of UAVs. Because UAVs provide valuable information, the US military has been asking for more and more of them to be sent to Iraq and Afghanistan. Be careful what you wish for. You might just get it.

All that information needs to be processed so that it is useful for the commanders in the field. Software that can archive and retrieve information when needed and display it on a user-friendly interface is available in the commercial sphere. But the technology is not being developed and deployed fast enough in the military sphere.

As Lt. Gen. Deptula, USAF deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, said recently, “We are going to find ourselves in the not too distant future swimming in sensors and drowning in data.” This free-to-view DID Spotlight article examines the problem of the UAV data explosion, some possible solutions, and future challenges.

Proliferation of UAV Data: The Stats

New MQ-9 sensor soon

UAVs have played a crucial role in the US military’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. With all the useful information that UAVs provide comes the problem of how to sort through it all and find actionable data. The scope of the problem is apparent. There are thousands of UAVs deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2009, the USA’s UAVs alone generated 24 years’ worth of video if watched continuously. New UAV models are expected to produce 30 times as much information in 2011.

The USAF flies 39 orbits over Afghanistan and Iraq every day, and the service expects that number to increase to 50 by 2011. An orbit is a 24-hour combat flight by a single UAV. The USAF uses two shifts of operators per orbit for its high-flying, long-endurance UAVs (MQ-1 Predator, MQ-9 Reaper and RQ-4 Global Hawk), so increasing the number of orbits to 50 is expected to double the requirement for operators. 

New technological developments are expected to compound the data explosion problem. For example, the USAF is planning to add a wide area airborne surveillance sensor to its MQ-9 Reaper and, eventually, its other UAVs. This system is expected to add 50 video streams per sensor within a few years. The USAF is aiming to have a version deployed on the MQ-9 by the summer of 2010. Made by Sierra Nevada, the Gorgon Stare sensor system is named after the three sisters of Greek mythology who had a gaze that would turn anyone who beheld it to stone.

The USAF has increased the number of UAVs over the last 2 years by 330%. It also plans to shift 3,600 manpower billets to analyze data streaming from UAVs. It is also doubling the number of ISR liaison offers assigned to ground forces to assist with integration of UAV data collection and exploitation. 

The Deluge: Breaking Down Barriers

Predator GCS…Doesn’t share

In addition to the proliferation of UAVs and the exponential expansion of sensor capability, the Pentagon is engaged in an effort to break down proprietary barriers between UAV systems. This effort is intended to allow commanders on the battlefield as well as analysts back in CONUS to access important information no matter which system collects it.

For example, the popular MQ-1 Predator UAV system comes in a package with 4 vehicles, 1 ground control solution (GCS), and a data link suite that consists of UHF and VHF radio relay links, a C-band line-of-sight data link, and Ku-band satellite data links.

Unfortunately, the Predator GCS can only control and process information from Predator vehicles. The RQ-4 Global Hawk GCS controls and processes information from Global Hawks. And other UAVs use their own proprietary GCS systems.

In 2008, the Pentagon launched an effort to develop and demonstrate a common, open GCS architecture supporting everything from MQ-8 Fire Scout unmanned helicopter to long-range Global Hawk. The intent is to end the packaging of UAVs and GCS by manufacturers as 1 proprietary system. The Pentagon wants GCSs to be able to control multiple types of UAVs and share information across platforms. See “It’s Better to Share: Breaking Down UAV GCS Barriers” for more information.

While breaking down barriers sounds like a great idea, it adds to the data explosion problem. The good news is that there is a lot of information out there; the bad news is it’s hard to find the right information. If all of the UAV systems can share data, who or what is going to sort out the data so that useful information can emerge out of the raw feeds?

The Madden Effect: Video Tagging and Retrieval

Monday Night Football – Not!

One solution to data explosion is to tag the data, store it, and retrieve it when needed. An application of this technique is used in coverage of NFL football games. 

A new $500 million computer system being installed by the US Air Force will enable it to use TV broadcast techniques and send out highlight reels of the greatest battlefield moments, i.e., the most important video feeds for the commander. The video is tagged with time, geographic coordinates, and other essential data.

Not to be outdone, the US Navy is climbing into networks’ broadcasts trucks located outside of football stadiums to get a first-hand view of the technology. Cmdr. Joseph Smith, a Navy officer assigned to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, told the New York Times that he and other officials learned a lot from watching the technology in action (besides the scores of their favorite teams).

“There are these three guys who sit in the back of an ESPN or Fox Sports van, and every time Tom Brady comes on the screen, they tap a button so that Tom Brady is marked.” Then, to call up the highlights later, he said, “they just type in: ‘Tom Brady, touchdown pass.’ ” This retrieves the video they need at that moment. 

The US military would like to implement a similar system for its UAV videos. However, tagging can be labor intensive. In addition, the right tags need to be used so that the person searching for the video in a time sensitive situation doesn’t get frustrated by not being able to find the video he needs. If the tags don’t make sense to the commander searching for the video, the technology will be useless.

Like John Madden, the US military is using telestrators, such as the one on the Remotely Operated Video Enhanced Receiver (ROVER), via systems like L-3’s companion VideoScout. This technology is similar to that used by Madden to mark and analyze football plays on the video screen. The telestrator enables US military commanders in the field to circle images of vehicles or individuals they want the UAVs to track. 

Data Fusion: Telling a Story

Data Fusion the Navy Way

Data fusion involves the use of techniques and software that combine data from multiple sources and analyze that data to make it useful for the end user. 

Data fusion can involve the combining of data (such as UAV video) with a geographical information system (GIS), which adds location and time data to the images gathered by UAVs. To accomplish this, the raw data has to be combined with metadata, which is information about the data that enables the data to be combined with a GIS. 

According to the Belgian Royal Military Academy, data fusion can provide the following military benefits:

• “improved confidence in decisions due to the use of complementary information (e.g. silhouette of objects from visible image, active/non-active status from infra-red image, speed and range from radar,etc.);

• improved performance to countermeasures (it is very hard to camouflage an object in all possible wave-bands);

• improved performance in adverse environmental conditions. Typically smoke or fog cause bad visible contrast and some weather conditions (rain) cause low thermal contrast (Infra Red imaging), combining both types of sensors should give better overall performance.”

An example of a basic data fusion system is the Link 16 standard embedded in the MIDS-LVTs carried by fighters. A target seen and identified by any fighter jet in a formation, or any linked ground station or ship, is seen and identified for all. 

Data fusion is a subset of information fusion, which is such an important issue that the US Navy has set up a center to tackle it – the NAVAIR Information Fusion Center. It is run by NAVAIR’s Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWD). 

Robert Reddit, NAWCWD’s Director of Information Fusion, describes the purpose of information fusion this way:

“Information fusion is the science behind Critical Infrastructure Protection, Homeland Security, ForceNet and Maritime Domain Awareness. Currently there are hundreds of rooms with hundreds of individuals all tracking tens of thousands of aircraft, maritime vessels, ground vehicles and individuals with everyone looking for the needle in the haystack. Information fusion reduces the rooms and individuals and finds the needle, pulls it out of the hay and puts it where it won’t hurt anybody.”

To get the ball rolling, in 2009 the center awarded a $95 million contract to General Dynamics to support the center’s work. The firm is helping with research and development, integration and testing, continual advancement and operation of the Information Fusion Center; training for newly developed software, hardware and other products; and independent verification and validation of sensors and systems relating to critical infrastructure protection and force protection. 

To support the center, General Dynamics is using its Quarterback Information Fusion capability and Story Maker fusion system. Story Maker provides an overall reconnaissance architecture that stresses multi-service/ multi-platform utility, interoperability among existing and planned airborne reconnaissance components, timely dissemination of intelligence information to operational forces, enhanced combat identification capability, and high payoff multi-use technology. Through the application of algorithms, Story Maker fuses and reasons with collected data, building evidence for track identification. Story Maker enables identification of 10 times as many tracks with 98.6% accuracy.

While Story Maker was originally developed to integrate information collected by the Navy’s EP-3E ISR aircraft, the technology used by the system can be applied to data fusion for a range of platforms. 

Googling the Enemy: Intelligent Search

Intelligent search is another tool that can be used to make UAV data more accessible. Probably the most famous and widely used intelligent search engine is Google. 

Google uses a patented algorithm called PageRank that ranks pages that match a given word search string. The algorithm, which is a list of well-defined instructions for completing a task, analyzes human-generated links, assuming that the web pages linked from many important pages are themselves likely to be important. This produces results that tend to be in line with human concepts of importance. The founders of Google, Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page, laid out their Google vision as researchers at Stanford University. 

Of course, searching for UAV video is a lot different than searching the web for a favorite recipe, but the technology is similar. Algorithms can be used to develop intelligence search engines for UAV video. 

To help users retrieve information, one promising method, called natural language processing [pdf], discovers user preferences and needs by either extracting knowledge from what users are looking for or interactively generating explanatory requests to focus users on the information they are interested in. In particular, using techniques for automatically generating natural language sentences allows the system to produce a useful dialog with the user and guide preferences.

The use of natural language to improve the performance of the intelligent search engines is one aspect of artificial intelligence (AI). Other AI technologies include object recognition and statistical machine learning.

Developer of the Powerset AI search engine Barney Pell describes the use of AI for intelligent search in the following way:

“Search engines try to train us to become good keyword searchers. We dumb down our intelligence so it will be natural for the computer…The big shift that will happen in society is that instead of moving human expressions and interactions into what’s easy for the computer, we’ll move computers’ abilities to handle expressions that are natural for the human.”

An intelligent search engine being developed for photos is called Riya, which looks “inside” photos to extract information about their qualities using AI. Riya uses algorithms to calculate a photo’s shape densities, patterns and textures and extract this information into a visual signature. Each photo is represented by 6,000 numbers; Riya uses AI to match one visual signature to another. 

This technology could be applied to UAV photos and videos so that related videos from different platforms or from a vast archive could be matched within seconds. This would enable commanders to search and retrieve valuable data in real-time on the battlefield.

Another application of AI in intelligence search is facial recognition. The USAF UAV Battlelab is working on software that can pick out face patterns in UAV video. The software is based on that used by the Nevada gaming industry to pick out problem gamblers.

The UAV Battlelab tested the software using the photo of a USAF captain’s face. The staff launched a Pointer UAV, which began beeping at a clump of trees 2 miles away. 

As the UAV approached the trees, the operators could detect a vehicle underneath the trees. As the UAV got closer, the operators were able to detect the captain sitting in the vehicle underneath the trees. Yet the UAV had indicated the captain was there from 2 miles away through foliage and a vehicle windshield using the facial recognition software.

Blind Men and an Elephant: Sensor Fusion

Blind Men and Elephant

One area of UAV autonomy that could help with the data overload is sensor fusion.

To better understand the concept of sensor fusion, it might help to recall the story of the blind men and the elephant. As the the story goes, a group of blind men examine an elephant and try to determine what it is. 

Each man grabs a different part of the elephant. One grabs the tail and believes the elephant is like a rope. Another grabs the trunk and believes that the elephant is like a snake. Another grabs the leg and believes the elephant is like a tree. Each has information about a part of the elephant, but no one has the whole picture.

UAVs are like blind men. They are able to collect information about a particular narrow area they are examining. UAV operators compare looking through a UAV camera to looking through a soda straw. The video is partial and needs to be combined with data from other UAVs to create a complete and accurate picture. That is the goal of sensor fusion. 

One application is to use a multi-sensor fusion algorithm that can bring together information from multiple UAVs about a particular target of interest in a unified display. Without sensor fusion, each UAV platform would track the target separately, which creates redundant capability and leads to less than optimal tracking results. Together, the UAVs can provide a full and accurate picture based on which the commander can take action.

In fact the USAF awarded a contract on April 23/10 to Aurora Flight Sciences Corp. for research on collaborative sensor fusion and management of multiple UAVs. 

Working with researchers from MIT, the Office of Naval Research, the Air Force Research Lab, and the Rome Labs, Aurora developed autonomy technologies for multi-unmanned vehicle coordination, sensor management and sensor fusion, to enable coordinated search, track and prosecute missions with various unmanned vehicles carrying a variety of sensors. 

Aurora’s multi-vehicle system can function either fully autonomously, in a distributed way, or with humans in the loop at the command level (to supervise the unmanned vehicles and make strategic decisions with the aid of a centralized planning interface) and/or at the sensor level (to assist with target identification and tracking). 

Future Shock

UAVs of the Future?

What does the future hold for the UAV data explosion? It seems that the US military will continue to demand more eyes in the sky to detect potential threats. And the need to sort through and integrate that information in a way that enables commanders in the field to save US lives and defeat the enemy will become more acute.

The industry will need to develop smart technologies that automate the process of archiving, tagging, retrieving, managing, and displaying UAV videos and other info gathered by increasingly sophisticated sensors. Machine-to-machine interfaces will need to become much more sophisticated to handle the data deluge.

Of course, there are other sensors beside UAVs collecting information about the battlespace. How to bring those thousands of ground, air and sea-based sensors, as well as human intelligence, together in a usable format will be a huge challenge for the military.

Perhaps the US military could take a cue from the commercial sector, which is facing a similar problem of data overload. The world is expected to create 1,200 exabytes (billion gigabytes) of information in 2010.

To tackle this data tsunami, industry is turning to such technologies as business analytics – performing statistical operations for forecasting or uncovering correlations – machine-learning, and visualization software; these are all technologies that have military applications.

The need is urgent, the solution complex. The coming years will see if the US military will be able to adopt UAV data management solutions used in the commercial world, while retaining the ability to protect information that needs to be protected. US soldiers’ lives depend on it.

This article can be found in its entirety here. 

Navmar’s LADAR and Probe Sensor SBIR Research

Navmar Applied Sciences Corp. in Warminster, PA is not the only firm to win “Laser Radar” related contracts, nor are they the only firm to invest in LADAR for various uses. But they have received a series of contracts dating back from 2000, and collectively worth over $240 million, in order to develop the technology into deployed systems.

 

Navmar’s contracts have been issued under the auspices of the US Navy’s Small Business Innovation Research program, under SBIR Solicitation Topics N92-170 (Laser Detection and Ranging Identification Demonstration) and N94-178 (Air Deployable Expendable Multi-parameter Environmental Probe).

SBIR Awards, and the Lure of LADAR

“Target acquired.”

 

A SBIR-III award generally means that a new technology has gone beyond proof of concept, and is a step away from commercialization. Navmar has been operating under Phase III contracts in these areas for a number of years, and their length and amounts are both unusual.

Topic N94-178’s (Air Deployable Expendable Multi-parameter Environmental Probe) technology objective appears to be sonobuoy-related, and has been described as “sensors capable of providing oceanographic/ environmental monitoring in time critical situations.” Properly adapted, some of these technologies might also be adapted for land-based use, but specifics are few at this point.

Topic N92-170 (Laser Detection and Ranging Identification Demonstration) has much clearer uses. Laser/Light Detection And Ranging (LADAR or LIDAR) is similar to millimeter wave radar, but uses lasers to scan and processes the signal echoed from targets, in order to create a 3-D virtual picture of the area. 

Most people encounter LIDAR as a method of traffic enforcement, but it has broader potential. Due to its ability to scan large areas with very high precision, and its ability to gradually build a detailed picture of the area under surveillance, LADAR sensors are usually employed on loitering systems that can look at the target from different angles, then match them to templates stored in onboard processors. 

As the technology progressed, people also realized that they could use the LADAR to look through cover such as trees, towers and camouflage. With conventional, 2-dimensional imaging, it’s possible to see only through the holes in a tree covering. But because it produces images from multiple angles and collates them into a single 3-D picture, a LADAR can essentially see around the trees.

This unique property, and the ability to rapidly scan a substantial area, makes LADAR a very attractive technology for surveillance. Modern counterinsurgency situations add to that attraction, which may explain why the Navy has devoted so many resources to this effort.

Contracts & Key Events

Unless otherwise noted, US NAVAIR’s Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, in Lakehurst, NJ issues and manages these contracts. Small business qualifier Navmar Applied Sciences Corp. in Warminster, PA is the contractor. 

To date, the firm has received $241.2 million in contracts, over 10 years, for these SBIR projects.

May 14/10: A $49.7 million cost-plus-fixed-fee Phase III (SBIR) project under 2 different topics, with $1.4 million expiring at the end of the current fiscal year.

This Phase III SBIR contract was competitively procured using SBIR Program Solicitation Topics N92-170, entitled “Laser Detection and Ranging Identification Demonstration,” (LADAR) and N94-178, entitled “Air Deployable Expendable Multi-parameter Environmental Probe.”

Work will be performed in Patuxent River, MD (30%), Yuma, AZ (30%), Afghanistan (30%), and Warminster, PA (10%), and is expected to be complete in May 2015. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division in Lakehurst, NJ issued the contracts (N68335-10-C-0045).

Jan 8/10: A sole-source $73.1 million cost-plus-incentive-fee contract for a Phase III Small Business Innovation Research project under Topics N92-170 and N94-178.

Work will be performed at various forward-deployed operating bases located in Afghanistan (86%); Patuxent River, MD (11%); and Yuma, AZ (3%), and is expected to be complete in January 2012. This Phase III contract was not competitively procured by the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division in Lakehurst, NJ (N68335-10-C-0101).

This release shifts the focus slightly, describing it as “services and materials for the design and development of a persistent ground surveillance system for the Army and the Marine Corps.” The natural place to mount such sensors in Afghanistan is on UAVs, King Air 350-ISR turboprop planes, and aerostats, but for true persistence, LADAR sensors may also substantially improve the effectiveness of systems like RAID surveillance towers.

Sept 29/09: A $9.3 million modification to a previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (N68335-08-C-0470) to provide additional funding for continued work on Phase III SBIR projects N92-170 and N94-178. “This effort will transition the technologies developed into near-term and long-term advanced surveillance, reconnaissance, and force protection.” 

Work will be performed in Patuxent River, MD (30%); Yuma, AZ (25%); Warminster, PA (20%) and various OCONUS (Outside the CONtinental US) locations (25%), and is expected to be completed in September 2011. Contract funds in the amount of $100,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year.

Sept 17/08: A $10 million cost plus fixed fee contract for a Phase III SBIR contract under topics N92-170 and N94-178 for “near term and far term advanced surveillance, reconnaissance, and force protection systems.” 

Work will be performed in Patuxent River, MD (39%); Warminster, PA (24%); Yuma, AZ (16%); Afghanistan (14%); and Iraq (7%), and is expected to be completed in September 2010. Contract funds in the amount of $1.5 million will expire at the end of the current fiscal year, on Sept 30/08. This SBIR Phase III contract was not competitively procured, under FAR 6.302-5 (N68335-08-D-0470).

Aug 7/07: A $24.7 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for a Phase III SBIR Program contract covering Topics N92-170 and N94-178. The goal, stated in the US DoD release, is to:

”....transition technologies into near and far term advanced surveillance, reconnaissance and force protection systems. These systems will address Navy operational requirements of surveillance, reconnaissance, detection, classification and targeting, and the coordinated Fleet Consolidated Command Technology issues of combat identification and battle damage assessment.”

Work will be performed in Warminster, PA, and is expected to be complete in July 2012. Contract funds in the amount of $5.5 million will expire at the end of the current fiscal year, on Sept 30/07. This contract was competitively procured using the SBIR Program Solicitation process under Topics N92-170 and N94-178; respectively, 3 and 6 offers were received (N68335-07-C-0324).

Sept 25/06: A $9.8 million cost-plus-fixed-fee delivery order against a previously awarded indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity contract (N68335-05-D-0020) for a Phase III SBIR Program under Topics N92-170 & N94-178. 

“The contract is to develop and produce new and improved sensors and communication systems to improve surveillance, detection, classification, and targeting capabilities for manned and unmanned air and sea vehicles.” 

Work will be performed in Chester, PA and is expected to be complete in September 2008. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division in Lakehurst, NJ. 

June 23/05: A not-to-exceed $14.6 million indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity contract, under a Phase III SBIR program for Topic N92-170 entitled “LADAR (Laser Radar) Identification Demonstration” and Topic N94-178 entitled “Air Deployable Expendable Multi-Parameter Environmental Probe.” The DoD release states that:

“The objective for Phase III is to address a totally integrated system approach, including the modification of Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance aircraft with Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance and enhanced communications packages employing technologies developed under Phase I and Phase II. Additionally the Navy mission requirement for low cost/expendable standoff surveillance, reconnaissance, and targeting will be addressed through the development of medium and long endurance Unmanned Air Vehicle systems with re-configurable payloads.” 

Work will be performed in Chester, PA, and is expected to be complete in June 2007. This contract was competitively procured using SBIR program solicitation under Topic N92-170 and Topic N94-178, and 4 offers were received. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division in Lakehurst, NJ manages this contract (N68335-05-D-0020).

Sept 26/02: A not-to-exceed $25 million indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity contract, under a Phase III SBIR program for Topic N92-170 entitled “LADAR (Laser Radar) Identification Demonstration” and Topic N94-178 entitled “Air Deployable Expendable Multi-Parameter Environmental Probe.” A SBIR-III award is given for technology that’s close to commercialization. The DoD release states that:

“Topic N92-170 technology has matured into technology highly desirable and directly applicable to the Navy warfighter for portable surveillance and remote target identification systems. Topic N94-178 technology objective is to provide sensors capable of providing oceanographic/ environmental monitoring in time critical situations.” 

Work will be performed in Warminster, PA (40%); Lexington Park, MD (30%); and Annapolis, MD (30%), and is to be complete by September 2007. Contract funds in the amount of $960,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured using the SBIR program solicitation process, with 6 offers received for each by US Naval Air Systems Command’s Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division in Lakehurst, NJ (N68335-02-D-0030). 

Aug 23/2000: A not-to-exceed $25 million indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity contract for the Tactical Acoustic Measurement Decision Aid (TAMDA) prototype buoy development effort. The TAMDA program is intended to meet the requirement for improved anti-submarine warfare through on-the-scene collection and analysis of environmental data. 

Work will be performed in Warminster, PA, and is expected to be complete by August 2005. This contract was competitively procured using the Small Business Innovative Research solicitation provisions under Topic #N94-178, with 6 offers received by the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division in Lakehurst, NJ (N68335-00-D-0396)

This article can be found in its entirety here.

Black Fox Active Adaptive IR Stealth System from Israel could usher in new age in warfare

Cloaking and stealth systems have long been the stuff of fantasies for many a military general, although they are commonplace in regular sci-fi movies. Well, the gap between fiction and reality could be bridged soon with Israeli start-up firm Eltics Ltd. releasing their Black Fox Active Adaptive IR Stealth System which is touted to pull off a David Copperfield - simply by letting a helicopter, tank or ship, vanish into thin air. Or at least, that is what it looks like to the naked eye, where the system features a camera which will capture a snapshot of the environment where the unit is operating. Following that, the equipment will get to work by analyzing the thermal signature of the environment, while screening a similar signature on to plates fitted on to the machine. Currently, Black Fox is in the advanced prototype stage and could very well be the turning point in night warfare by offering the army armed with such technology an obvious advantage.

General Dynamics Wins MRAP Orders of Its Own

BAE OMC’s RG-31 was the first mine-resistant vehicle fielded by US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, where it was used by the 101st Airborne (and reportedly by SOCOM) as a patrol vehicle. Since hostilities began, a series of orders have been placed by US forces through an odd triumvirate: General Dynamics Land Systems Canada was partnered with BAE OMC of South Africa and its GDLS parent in the USA. All contracts are signed through the Canadian Commercial Corporation, a Crown Agency of the Canadian Government (who also use RG-31s). 

General Dynamics did reap 50% of every Cougar MRAP order to Force Protection, via the Force Dynamics partnership, but the RG-31 had been MIA (Missing In Action) in the MRAP competition. An August 2007 order for 600 more vehicles put General Dynamics back in the game as a distant 4th place producer, and other orders followed. Hopefully, US forces will be able to avoid the initial maintenance issues that have given Canadian RG-31s problems in Afghanistan. Thanks to 2 sets of new suspension upgrades, they also hope to mitigate the off-road issues created by a v-hull’s higher center of gravity.

GD’s Other MRAP Entries: The RG-31 Family

RG-31 Mk5E by Pedro Lucio

According to General Dynamics, as of August 2007, U.S. forces had ordered 492 RG-31 vehicles, including 309 of the improved RG-31 Mk5 variant for the U.S. Army and Special Operations Command (SOCOM). Almost none of these orders had come through the MRAP program, however – just 20 vehicles as of July 2007, even as competitors like Navistar and Force Protection had seen order book totals approaching 2,000.

They would finish the competition with just under 1,400 MRAP program orders, while the top 3 contenders each finished in the 3,000-6,000 range.

The MRAP Category I MRUV (Mine-Resistant Utility Vehicle) specifies a 6-person vehicle (including both front seats), with blast-resistant design, ballistic glass, gun turret, undercarriage armor and a raised chassis. 

Category II JERRV vehicles must seat at least 10, and offer larger mine-protected patrol and specialty vehicle functions for troops and Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) teams.

The CCC – GDLS – BAE OMC team entered the RG-31 Mk5 as its CAT I entry, or RG-31A2 as it’s known by the US Army. RG-31s are one of the lighter MRAP vehicles on the roster, with a combat weight of about 18,500 pounds, as opposed to the Cougar 4×4’s weight of 31,000 pounds empty. The RG-31 MK3 4×4 Mine Protected APC is built from an all-steel welded armor monocoque hull; dismounting is provided via a large rear door for rapid exits and 2 front doors. The RG-31A2 is the latest version of the “Charger,” as the Americans call it, delivering a significant increase in power and payload to meet emerging requirements. 

The team’s CAT II entry is the RG-31 Mk5E (“Extended”), a stretched and heavier variant of the RG-31 Mk5 that can carry more troops and/or cargo.

Many RG-31s are currently used by the US Army and US Marine Corps as pathfinder vehicles that take lead convoy roles, or act as specialty vehicles for Explosives Ordnance Disposal teams. The US 101st Airborne uses these vehicles the same way the Canadians do, as proven blast-resistant patrol vehicles whose protection level, mobility and multiple firing ports make them small but formidable opponents. As one report notes:

“On 26 September 2006, a suicide bomber attacked a Canadian convoy 2km from Kandahar Airfield. The bomber detonated a explosives-laden minivan while trying to ram an RG-31 Nyala Armoured Patrol Vehicle. The result differed dramatically from earlier attacks on armoured [Mercedes] G-wagons. Instead of charred wreckage, the blast- resistant [BAE Systems OMC] Nyala limped home with little damage. Instead of wounded or dead, no-one was injured inside the APV.”

No vehicle is invincible, however; a July 2007 land mine attack near Kandahar left 7 crewmen dead. The July 4/07 Edmonton Sun article also notes a series of mechanical issues the Canadian Forces have had with the RG-31 and its independently-manufactured remote weapons system:

RG-31 in Iraq w. 101st

“Army records show that at the height of fierce fighting in Afghanistan last summer, more than a quarter of the RG-31 fleet were in the shop with maintenance problems.

The vehicles had a series of electrical and software glitches, many relating to the roof-mounted remote-controlled machine-gun [DID: the Kongsberg Protector M151 RWS, also used on US Stryker vehicles].

Nyala maintenance logs, obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act, show the vehicles arrived with a series of minor defects.

Records show that between mid-June and mid-July last year, 13 of the 50 Nyalas – some with as few as 550 km on them – were deemed “non-mission capable” by the army.

The ratio has since improved, with only one or two of the current complement of 75 RG-31s down for maintenance at any time.”

MRAP: The Broader Picture

The overall MRAP competition breaks down as follows:

Manufacturer	CAT I	CAT II	Notes
Navistar	MaxxPro MaxxPro AF MaxxPro Dash MaxxPro Plus	MaxxPro	Top finisher in number of MRAP orders.
BAE Systems	RG-33 RG-33 SOCOM Caimin	RG-33L RG-33-Ambulance Caimin	Won MMPV with RG-33L derivative.
Force Protection	Cougar 4×4	Cougar 6×6	Buffalo MRAP CAT-III sole-source. Also received orders before MRAP began.
General Dynamics	RG-31 Mk.5/ RG-31A2	RG-31 Mk.5E	Partnered with BAE OMC, Canadian government CCC. Also received orders before MRAP began.
Oskkosh	Alpha (w. PVI)	Bushmaster (w. Thales)	No MRAP orders, but sole winner of related M-ATV program with its own design.
PVI	Alpha serve w. US Border Patrol	Golan (w. RAFAEL)	Alpha failed MRAP testing; 2008 firm bankruptcy & fire-sale acquisition
Textron	M1117 ICV	M1117 ICV	Failed MRAP testing; no MRAP orders, but ASV variant widely ordered by Military Police and fire targeting units.

Of the envisaged 15,771 vehicles in the MRAP-I program as of March 31/08, all have now been ordered – and follow-ons have grown the total further, even as related programs like the more mobile M-ATV and the Army’s MMPV engineer vehicle have grown the overall fleet of blast-resistant platforms.

Thus far, General Dynamics’ 3-way arrangement for the RG-31 has won US MRAP contracts for 1,643 vehicles, in addition to over 400 orders for the smaller RG-31 4×4 that predated the MRAP competition.

This places them a distant 4th in the competition as the last manufacturer to win significant orders, behind Navistar, BAE Systems, and Force Protection.

RG-31 MRAP Contracts

RG-31 w. LROD armor

Unless otherwise specified, all contracts are issued by the US Marine Corps Systems Command (MCSC) in Quantico, VA. Contracts are signed with the Canadian Commercial Corporation, a Crown Agency of the Canadian Government in Ottawa, ON. General Dynamics Land Systems – Canada manages the contracts, and works with partner BAE OMC in South Africa to deliver the vehicles. RG-31 Delivery orders include:

#0001: Test vehicles
#0002: 10 4×4 Category I and 10 6×6 Category II
#0003: 600 Category II
#0004: 773 Category I
#0007: 250 Category I

May 18/10: A $29.7 million firm-fixed-priced modification under a previously awarded contract (M67854-07-D-5028) for 79 field service representatives to perform RG-31 maintenance and repair services throughout the Afghanistan and Iraq areas of operations. 

Work is expected to be complete by May 31/11. This contract modification was a sole-source procurement, and contract funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year, on Sept 30/10.

April 6/10: A $28.6 million modification to delivery order #0007 under contract (M67854-07-D-5028). The procurement is for MRAP vehicle engineering change proposal upgrades and associated non-recurring engineering costs to support the 250 LRIP Lot 17 MRAP RG-31A2 vehicles ordered. Work will be performed in Centennial, CO, and Boston, MA, and is expected to be complete no later than Dec 31/10. 

March 3/10: A $41.5 million modification to delivery order #0007, covering various associated RG-31 kits. They include the authorized spares list, the prescribed load list, and battle damage repair kits that will support 250 LRIP Lot 17 MRAP RG-31A2 vehicles ordered (the wording of the DefenseLINK release was mangled, this is correct). See also Feb 16/10 entry. 

Work will be performed in Fairfield, OH; Buffalo, NY; and Ogdensburg NY, and is expected to be complete no later than December 2010. This contract delivery order was a sole-source procurement.

March 2/10: General Dynamics subsidiary AxleTech International in Troy, MI announces that will supply 250 new RG-31 MRAP vehicles with its proprietary 4500 Series ISAS independent suspension systems. They will be delivered to BAE Systems’ Land Systems South Africa division in South Africa.

The company’s ISAS technology already deployed in Textron’s M1117 Guardian ASV armored cars and Thales Australia’s blast-resistant Bushmaster, and will be used to upgrade Navistar Defense’s top-selling MRAP, the MaxxPro. AxleTech says that “major components” are common to BAE’s RG-31, RG-33 and Husky blast-resistant vehicles, as well as Oshkosh Defense’s serving HET and the Palletized Load System (PLS) heavy trucks.

Note that many of these vehicles are US Army platforms, as opposed to the TAK-4 suspensions in wide use among US Marines platforms like the MTVR, and modified Cougar MRAPs. GDLS has no visibility into final customers, however, and could not confirm a service-specific split between RG-31s upgraded with AxleTech 4500s, and those upgraded with TAK-4 suspensions. They could confirm that RG-31 operator Canada hasn’t begun discussions to acquire similar off-road capabilities for its own RG-31s in Afghanistan.

Feb 18/10: A $29.2 million modification under a previously awarded firm-fixed-priced, indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity contract (M67854-07-D-5028, #0006) will buy 127 TAK-4 independent suspension system (ISS) upgrade kits and associated support. 

Installation will take place at the MRAP sustainment facility in Kuwait. But the suspensions themselves are Oshkosh’s TAK-4s, and will be made in Oshkosh, WI. The TAK-4 already equips the Marines’ MTVR trucks, the M-ATV MRAP, and is available as a retrofit kit for other MRAP models like Force Protection’s Cougar and the RG-31. Work is expected to be complete by May 1/10. This was a sole-source procurement, as the vehicles and ISS manufacturers are pre-determined. 

Feb 16/10: A $227.4 million firm-fixed-priced delivery order for 250 MRAP RG-31A2/ RG-31 Mk5E vehicles and associated engineering change proposal upgrades to include an independent suspension system.

Work is expected to be complete no later than Oct 30/10. As is customary under the 3-way sole source arrangement for RG-31s, major production and assembly work takes place in South Africa, subassemblies will be purchased from companies in Fairfield, OH; Buffalo, NY; and Ogdensburg, NY; and finishing takes place in London, ON, Canada (M67854-07-D-5028, #0007). 

Aug 24/09: A $6.4 million firm-fixed-priced modification to delivery order #0004 for battle damage repair parts to support repair of damaged RG-31 MRAP vehicles. Work will be performed in London, Ontario, Canada, and is expected to be complete in May 2010.

April 9/09: A $15.4 million firm fixed priced modification to a previous delivery order (M67854-07-D-5028, #0004) for RG31 Mk5 technical manuals. Work will be performed in London, Ontario, Canada, and is expected to be complete by Dec 9/10.

Feb 5/09: A $26.8 million firm fixed priced modification to a delivery order under a previously awarded contract (M67854-07-D-5028, #0004) for the purchase of Authorized Stockage List and Prescribed Load List parts to support 673 MRAP vehicles. 

The staging of these parts allows vehicles that have been damaged to be brought back to full mission capability quickly. GDLS-C uses a multitude of suppliers for these parts, both U.S. based and abroad.

Dec 4/08: An $8.4 million firm fixed priced modification to a delivery order under previously awarded contract (M67854-07-D-5028, #0003: 600 CAT II MRAPs for $338.7 million) for the purchase of Battle Damage Sustainment Kits and associated Non-Recurring Engineering costs. Work will be performed in London, Ontario, Canada, and is expected to be completed no later than July 29/09. 

Nov 19/08: A $49.5 million firm-fixed-priced modification to a delivery order under previously awarded contract (M67854-07-D-5028, #0004: 773 RG-31 Mk5E MRAP Category I) for the purchase of technical service representatives and trainers in Afghanistan and associated areas. Work is expected to be complete no later than Jan 2/10.

Oct 29/08: An $8.1 million firm fixed priced modification to a delivery order under a previously awarded contract (M67854-07-D-5028, #0004) for the engineering changes and upgrades for enhanced maneuverability, and associated non-recurring engineering costs to 100 RG-31 vehicles. Work will be performed in Durban, South Africa, and is expected to be complete by April 24/09.

Oct 24/08: Defense News reports that more mine-resistant vehicles could be in the order pipeline. The U.S. Army and Marine Corps reportedly plan to rapidly develop and buy a fleet of lighter 7-10 ton vehicles that offer better mine resistance than Hummers, but better off-road mobility than MRAPs. Afghanistan is seen as an especial focus for these vehicles. 

Oshkosh’s Sandcat and Force Protection’s Cheetah vehicle are mentioned as potential candidates for that bridge buy. Other competitors are likely, and the RG-31 may also be in this category given recent the orders for maneuverability modifications and its previously favored position in the Afghan theater (vid. Sept 4/08 entry). 

Defense News places potential military demand at 2,000- 5,000 bridge buy vehicles – assuming that issues with JLTV don’t lead to the bridge becoming the road. General Dynamics may be covered either way, however; its GTV partnership with Hummer manufacturer AM General won one of the 3 JLTV development contracts.

Sept 4/08: Despite the statements in the Pentagon’s Juy 2008 report re: MRAP demand in Afghanistan, it appears that competitor Navistar has won with an 822 vehicle, $752 million contract for a “MaxxPro Dash” variant optimized for Afghan conditions.

The CCC/BAE/General Dynamics firm-fixed-priced delivery order (M67854-07-D-5028, #005) is for $7.7 million, and covers 5 “test vehicles with engineering change proposal upgrades for enhanced maneuverability and associated non-recurring engineering costs.” This is the exact same language used to describe the MaxxPro Dash, and could indicate interest in future conversions or production, but DID’s spreadsheet shows an MRAP program that has reached its stated overall limit of 15,771 vehicles with the MaxxPro order.

Work will be performed in Durban, South Africa (80%), and London, Ontario, Canada (20%), and is expected to be complete no later than Jan 31/09.

Sept 2/08: General Dynamics closes a EUR 64.6 million ($102 million) contract from the Spanish Government to supply 100 RG-31 Mk5E vehicles for the Ejercito de Tierra.

July 24/08: A $15.8 million firm-fixed price contract for MRAP sustainment spare parts. Work will be performed in Guateng, South Africa; Trenton, N.J.; and Ontario, Canada, and is expected to be complete by July 5/09. One bid was solicited on June 17/08 by U.S. Army TACOM in Warren, MI (W56HZV-08-C-0514).

July 17/08: The consortium receives delivery order #0004 under a previously awarded firm-fixed-priced, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (M67854-07-D-5028). They will produce another 773 RG-31 Mk5E Category I vehicles for the MRAP vehicle program, including Engineering Change Proposal (ECP) upgrades and associated Non-Recurring Engineering (NRE) costs. The order has a total potential value of $552.1 million.

Part of the reason for General Dynamics’ success is rising demand for MRAPs in Afghanistan. There are roughly 800 MRAPs in Afghanistan, and Army Maj. Gen. Jeffrey J. Schloesser, commander of Combined Task Force 101 at Bagram Airfield, relayed his request for more to Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Navy Adm. Mike Mullen during Mullen’s recent visit to Afghanistan. Commanders in Afghanistan wanted the RG-31 in particular because it’s smaller and lighter than many other MRAP vehicles, without being to small and light to have survivability issues. They also reportedly believe that the RG-31’s design is well suited for Afghanistan’s unimproved roads and rugged terrain. Those requests, and their urgency as violence intensifies in Afghanistan, are driving an accelerated production schedule that has forced a slight change in work arrangements. Work will be performed in South Africa (57%); Lansing, MI (22%) and Anniston, AL (21%). 

The GDLS press release adds that:

“Work will be performed by General Dynamics employees in Anniston, AL and by Demmer Corporation of Lansing, MI. Additional production will come from BAE OMC of Benoni, South Africa, in order to meet the urgent production schedule. Deliveries will be completed by April 2009.”

This contract is in addition to the 624 RG-31 Mk5 vehicles already supplied under the MRAP program, bringing GDLS’ total to 1,397 – just over 9% of total MRAP orders to date. Another 566 RG-31s have been ordered under other programs by the U.S. Army TACOM Life Cycle Management Command. 

June 11/08: The U.S. Army’s Program Executive Office for Combat Support and Combat Service Support (PEO CS&CSS), has awarded a USD $67.3 million modification to a previously awarded contract for RG-31 Mk5 vehicles to General Dynamics Land Systems – Canada, via US Army TACOM Life Cycle Management Command (LCMC).

The contract orders 111 RG-31 Mk5E Mine Protected Vehicles, and deliveries will occur from August – October 2008. Yet this is not an MRAP order. 

Since February 2005, the TACOM LCMC has ordered RG-31 vehicles based on Operational Need Statements (ONS) by the U.S. Army for route clearance vehicles. This is the 3rd ONS requirement,folowing ONS 1 (148) and ONS 2 (307) RG-31 Mk5 vehicles. The RG-51Mk5E is the larger variant recently purchased by Spain, and predominates in the American MRAP program as the Category II variant. This order brings the total of RG-31 vehicles bought under ONS requirements to 566; the 610 RG-31s ordered under MRAP are additive.

April 28/08: Looks like some design changes are underway. A $28.6 million firm-fixed-priced delivery order modification is received under previously awarded contract M67854-07-D-5028. RG-31 vehicles will be brought to Durbin, South Africa for a battle damage assessment repair list, removal of gun ports in the ballistic windows, a revised statement of work, and a related contract data requirements list. Further work will be performed in a combat area of operations operating in an austere environment (35%); Lansing, MI (35%); and Texarkana, TX (30%), and is expected to be complete by April 2009.

March 11/08: A $7.2 million for firm-fixed-priced delivery order modification under previously awarded contract (M67854-07-D-5028). The funds will pay for OCONUS (Outside the CONtinental US) Field Service Representatives (FSR) in the Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) areas of operation, and is expected to be complete in April 2009.

Feb 21/08: The stretched RG-31 Mk5E wins the second phase of the Spanish MRAP competition, for 100 squad level vehicles at a cost of about EUR 100 million ($150 million). Spain’s General Dynamics Santa Barbara Sistemas will be the vehicle integrator, and armament will include RAFAEL’s Samson remote weapon system that can be fired from inside the vehicle. Deliveries are expected to begin in 2008, and end in 2009.

Jan 24/08: A $6.1 million delivery order under a previously-awarded firm-fixed-priced, indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity contract (M67854-07-D-5028, #0001) for the purchase of Objective Gunner Protection Kit Parts. The equipment will be installed on RG-31 Mk5 MRAP Category I vehicles. Work will be performed in Ontario, Canada, and is expected to be complete by February 2009.

Nov 5/07: A $60.2 million firm-fixed-price delivery order modification under previously awarded contract (M67854-07-D-5028) for the purchase of field service representatives, Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) University, new equipment training, logistics and engineering requirements, logistics demonstration at Red River Army Depot, level of repair analysis, and PLL/ASL (prescribed load list/authorized stock level) sustainment parts. 

Work will be performed in combat areas of operations in an austere environment, and in Lansing, MI and Texarkana, TX, and is expected to be completed October 2008.

Oct 9/07: BAE Systems and the Red River Army Depot (RRAD) signed a Memorandum of Intent for a partnership to support production of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles during the Association of the U.S. Army’s (AUSA 2007) Annual Symposium and Exhibition in Washington, DC.

The memorandum states that RRAD and BAE Systems have agreed to enter into a Public Private Partnership for MRAP production and follow-on support, similar to the existing M2/M3 Bradley public-private remanufacture program undertaken with RRAD. BAE notes that they are “contracted to build three of the five MRAP variants,” and imply that the agreement covers all of them – if so, General Dynamics’ orders would also be covered. Further specifics were not included in BAE’s Oct 31/07 release

Out the back door

Aug 7/07: $338.7 million for firm-fixed-priced delivery order #0003 under previously awarded contract (M67854-07-D-5028) to produce 600 RG-31 Category II MRAP vehicles. The 600 RG-31s will be manufactured by Demmer Corporation of Lansing, MI, with additional production coming from BAE OMC of Benoni, South Africa, in order to meet the urgent production schedule. Deliveries will be completed by March, 2008. 

July 17/07: BAE Systems announces a lightweight form of “cage armor” for the RG-31. An initial contract will also see LROD installed on installed on U.S. Army RG-31 vehicles; the first 2 kits have been installed, and the US Army will procure 12 additional LROD kits for 2007 delivery to operational units in response to an Army Operational Need Statement. The Army has also expressed interest in procuring additional kits for the entire RG31 fleet. 

Feb 14/07: The Marine Corps Systems Command in Quantico, VA issued Limited Rate Initial Production (LRIP) orders for a number of MRAP contender vehicles. These firm-fixed-price delivery orders under previously awarded indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts are not destined for the testing range – they are being issued to accelerate the production of “lower risk” (i.e. more complete and tested) vehicle designs for deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan. As part of the order, logistics support will continue up to two years after fielding [emphasis DID’s] for test and any production vehicles. Work will be performed by the manufacturers, and is expected to be complete in June 2007.

Feb 23/07: An $11 million delivery order for 10 Category I and 10 Category II MRAP vehicles (M67854-07-D-5028, order #002). Support will be provided from York, PA.

This article can be found in its original format here.