Mississippi Raytheon expanding

FOREST, Miss. -- Raytheon plans to increase the size of its Forest manufacturing facility by more than 20,000 square feet and hire more than 150 new workers. That's according to an announcement today by Raytheon and state officials. The expansion is to support anticipated growth in airborne radar and electronic warfare markets. At 340,000 square feet, the plant already is one of the largest defense manufacturing plants in Mississippi. This year, the Forest plant ramped up its fighter jet radar production rates 10-fold. It also delivered more than 500 Active Electronically Scanned Array aircraft radars. In addition to fighter jet radars, the facility makes the Sentinel air defense radar, with 57 additional ones in production for the U.S. Army. (Source: Raytheon via PRNewswire, 11/11/13)

X-47B tested on carrier Roosevelt

X-47B lands on Roosevelt. Navy photo

A third carrier has now conducted flight operations of the X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstrator (UCAS-D). The tail-less robotic aircraft built by Northrop Grumman conducted flight operations aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) Nov. 10. The aircraft performed touch-and-go maneuvers, flight deck handling drills, arrested landings and catapult launches. Carrier-based tests of the X-47B began in December 2012 with flight deck operations aboard USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75). Carrier testing resumed in May 2013 aboard USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), where the X-47B completed its first carrier-based catapult launch, followed by its first carrier-based arrested landing in July. (Source: NNS, 11/10/13) Gulf Coast note: Two other Northrop Grumman unmanned aerial systems, Fire Scout and Global Hawk, are built in part in Moss Point, Miss.

AF orders more Global Hawks

The U.S. Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman a $114 million advance procurement contract in preparation to build three more RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aircraft systems and associated sensors. The advance procurement of items associated with three Block 30 aircraft includes three enhanced integrated sensor suites, three airborne signals intelligence payload and two ASIP retrofit kits to be installed on previously purchased aircraft. Work under this contract is expected to be completed in 2015. (Source: Northrop Grumman, 11/08/13) Gulf Coast note: Central fuselage work on the Global Hawks is done in Moss Point, Miss.

Grant will help protect mission

NICEVILLE, Fla. -- The city was awarded a $25,000 grant to prevent future development from impeding missions at Eglin Air Force Base. The grant is from the Florida Defense Support Task Force. Niceville will use it to upgrade mapping software to track data on where the city should regulate development so as not to interfere with any base missions, especially regarding the F-35 fighter jets that fly over the city. (Source: Northwest Florida Daily News, 11/07/13) Related

St. Joe sells most of land

WATERSOUND, Fla. – The St. Joe Co. announced an agreement Thursday to sell more than two-thirds of its Northwest Florida landholdings. Utah-based AgReserves Inc. will buy 382,834 acres of rural timberland for $565 million, leaving St. Joe with about 184,000 acres of land primarily between Tallahassee and Destin. The acreage being sold is in Bay, Calhoun, Frankly, Gadsden, Gulf, Jefferson, Leon, Liberty and Wakulla counties. AgReserves intends to maintain timber and agricultural uses of the lands. (Sources: News Herald, St. Joe, 11/07/13) St. Joe, originally a paper company and second largest landowner in Florida, in recent years became a real estate developer. It donated land to establish Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport near Panama City. Previous: New Panama City airport set to open; Panama City airport gets Southwest

Contract: CTC, $14.2M

CTC Enterprise Ventures Corp., Johnstown, Pa., is being awarded a $14,205,582 firm-fixed-price modification to previously awarded contract (N61331-12-C-0007) for the production of 10 carriage, stream, tow and recovery system kits in support of the MH-60S Airborne Mine Countermeasures program. Work will be done in Johnstown and is expected to be completed by October 2016. The Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division, Panama City, Fla., is the contracting activity. (Source: DoD, 11/07/13)

Contract: Lockheed, $19.8M

Lockheed Martin Corp., Fort Worth, Texas, has been awarded a $19,763,075 option exercise (P0050) to an existing cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (FA8611-08-C-2897) to retrofit fielded mission training centers with visual systems upgrade and night vision goggles capability. Effort includes upgrades for F-22 training systems at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., Sheppard AFB, Texas, Langley AFB, Va.; Hickam AFB, Hawaii, and Elmendorf AFB, Alaska. Work will be performed at St. Louis, Mo., with an expected completion date of Dec. 31, 2016. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity. (Source: DoD, 11/07/12)

Pensacola gets cyber research grant

PENSACOLA, Fla. – The Greater Pensacola Chamber was awarded a $200,000 grant from the Florida Defense Support Task Force to establish a research center for information dominance. "The Center of Excellence is the culmination of our on-going relationship and collaboration with our federal partners at Corry Station," said Craig Dalton, Vice President of Armed Services, Greater Pensacola Chamber. Statewide, the task force awarded more than $2 million in grant initiatives to local community organizations supporting Florida military installations, according to a Nov. 6 press release from Gov. Rick Scott's office. The grants are designed to protect Florida's military bases ahead of any potential realignment or closure actions. The bases have a $73 billion economic impact on Florida. Nearly 760,000 jobs in the state are due to the defense industry. (Source: GCAC, 11/07/13) Previous

FAA releases drone roadmap

The Federal Aviation Administration has developed a roadmap for allowing widespread use of unmanned aircraft in the national airspace, but it will take longer than Congress wants. The FAA said that for the next several years access of robotic aircraft will be limited to permits the FAA grants on a case-by-case basis to operators who agree to procedures to reduce safety risks. Congress last year directed the FAA to grant drones widespread access by September 2015. Six sites nationwide will be chosen by FAA as test sites for the integration process. (Sources: multiple, including FAA, Bloomberg, AP, 11/07/13) UAS Roadmap; UAS Comprehensive Plan. Gulf Coast note: The I-10 region is heavily involved in unmanned systems. Fire Scout and Global Hawks are built in part in Moss Point, Miss., and the military uses drones in training, from hand-held types to full-scale target drones at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla.

States up R&D spending

A National Science Foundation study shows state government expenditures for research and development hit $1.4 billion in fiscal year 2011, up 11 percent from the previous year. Individual state government expenditures varied widely, with New York, Ohio, Florida, California and Pennsylvania accounting for 51 percent of all state government R&D. For states along the Gulf Coast, Florida spent $150.8 million, Texas spent $47.4 million, Alabama $19.7 million, Louisiana $9.2 million and Mississippi $7.4 million. (Source: GCAC, 11/07/13) Study

Blue Angels start new season

PENSACOLA, Fla. – The Blue Angels Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron will perform a flyover of Naval Air Station Pensacola Saturday at 2 p.m., marking the end of the team’s truncated 2013 season and the beginning of the 2014 air show season. The 2013 season was canceled for the team, based at NAS Pensacola's Sherman Field, as a result of sequestration. (Source: GCAC, 11/07/13) Previous

Contract: URS Group, $13M

URS Group Inc., Mobile, Ala. was awarded a $13,000,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery contract for architect-engineering services for the Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District, to support the Air Force KC-46C aircraft beddown in the continental United States. Estimated completion date is Nov. 14, 2018. Work location and funding will be determined with each order. Bids were solicited via the internet with 57 received. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile, Ala., is the contracting agency (W91278-14-D-003). (Source: DoD, 11/05/13)

Triton wing durability tested

The wings on the Navy MQ-4C Triton unmanned surveillance aircraft are strong enough to descend from high altitudes, even in poor weather, Northrop Grumman said Monday. Based on the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle, Triton's wings are made by Triumph Aerostructures - Vought Aircraft Division. Each wing, made of a single piece of composite material, was tested in Dallas by bending the wing to the point that it breaks. The process revealed that the wing is 22 percent stronger than the Navy’s requirement. The entire airframe will be fatigue tested in 2017. The Navy plans to buy 68 Tritons, plus two demonstrators. (Source: IHS Jane’s 360, 11/03/13) Gulf Coast note: Central fuselage work on the Triton is done in Moss Point, Miss.

Officer ousted over behavior

EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. – The maintenance commander of the 33rd Fighter Wing was removed from the post Monday for allegedly engaging in inappropriate behavior with subordinate female officers on his staff. Navy Capt. Lance Massey II oversaw about 400 maintainers who work on the F-35s. He held the position since January. An initial investigation determined he engaged in a pattern of inappropriate behaviors, including initiating personal conversations with female officers and sending unsolicited, off-duty, personal text messages. (Source: Northwest Florida Daily News, Pensacola News Journal, 11/04/13)

Airbus posts HR job

MOBILE, Ala. – Airbus is seeking its second on-site human resources employee for the final assembly line it's building at Brookley Aeroplex. Minimum qualifications include a bachelor's degree in business, human resources or a related field plus at least five years’ experience in human resources. The successful candidate will manage all recruitment activities and new employee orientation. The A320 assembly line will eventually employ 1,000 workers (Source: al.com, 11/05/13)

F-35A does first AMRAAM live fire

F-35 live fire test. Air Force photo

An F-35 executed its first live-fire launch of a guided air-to-air missile over a military test range off the California coast on Oct. 30. The AIM-120 advanced medium range air-to-air missile (AMRAAM) was fired from an F-35A conventional take-off and landing variant operating from the F-35 Integrated Test Facility at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The test pilot employed the AIM-120 radar-seeking missile from the internal weapons bay against an aerial drone target in restricted military sea test range airspace. Moments before the missile was about to destroy the target, a self-destruct signal was sent to the AIM-120 in order to preserve the aerial drone for use in future tests. The test occurred the day after an F-35B variant successfully dropped and air-to-ground 500-pound Guided Bomb Unit-12 (GBU-12) Paveway II laser-guided bomb over a test range. (Source: AFNS, 10/30/13) Previous

1 SOAOS activates at Hurlburt

HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. -- The 1st Special Operations Air Operations Squadron stood up during a squadron activation ceremony Nov. 1. The 1st SOAOS mission is to integrate 1st Special Operations Wing assets into Special Operations Forces training events, support U.S. Special Operations Command-direct missions, and execute tactical-level command and control of all U.S aircraft and deploying 1st SOW aircraft. Col. William West, 1st SOW commander, presided over the ceremony and passed the 1st SOAOS guideon to Lt. Col. Phil Forbes, 1st SOAOS commander. (Source: 1st Special Operations Wing, 11/01/13)

S. Korea Global Hawk buy nearing

South Korea plans to buy four Northrop Grumman Global Hawk unmanned aircraft for about $848 million, an official at the country's defense acquisition agency confirmed Monday. The contract will be signed next year, officials said. The U.S. Congress approved the export of Global Hawks to South Korea earlier this year. (Source: Reuters, 11/03/13) Gulf Coast note: Global Hawk central fuselage works is done by Northrop Grumman in Moss Point, Miss. S. Korea buying Global Hawks; NG sees global sales opportunities

Two hurt in T-45 crash

PENSACOLA, Fla. – Two people were hurt today when a military training jet crashed during landing at Naval Air Station Pensacola's Sherman Field. It happened around 10:30 a.m. when a T-45C Goshawk jet from Training Squadron 86 was doing routine training. The two people on board were taken to Baptist Hospital, one by Lifeflight, the other by ambulance. The plane belongs to Training Air Wing 6. (Sources: Pensacola News Journal, WEAR-TV, Chief of Naval Air Training, 11/04/13)

Contract: Cubic, $25M

Cubic Defense Applications Inc., San Diego, Calif., has been awarded a $24,999,949 firm-fixed-price contract for foreign military sales P5Combat Training System (P5CTS), combined hardware buy. Contractor will provide (P5CTS) hardware to provide an instrumented training capability that increases, maintains, and assesses combat proficiency in the following mission areas: counter air, close air support, strategic attack, air interdiction, and electronic combat. Work will be performed at San Diego, Calif., and Fort Walton Beach, Fla., and is expected to be complete by July 20, 2015. This award is a result of a sole-source acquisition. This award is for the governments of Singapore, Morocco, Oman and Saudi Arabia under the FMS program. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center/EBYK, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity (FA8678-14-C-0046). (Source: DoD, 11/01/13)