BAE Systems had some good news this past week when they announced that the company is developing the mission computer system suite for the P-8I aircraft for the Indian Navy. The aircraft is a variant of the U.S. Navy’s P-8A Poseidon.

Developed by a Boeing-led team, the P-8I is a multi-mission maritime patrol aircraft with a broader range of capabilities to operate over land or water while performing anti-submarine warfare; search and rescue; and long-range intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance.

“Maritime surveillance and patrol is becoming more and more important to effective defense,” said Donna Linke-Klein, director of mission computers and antenna solutions for BAE Systems. “The P-8I mission computer system provides superior interoperability for the future battle space.”

BAE Systems’ mission computer system suite for the P-8I is a flexible and ruggedized processing platform that can be configured to meet the general purpose, input and output, video, voice, and graphics processing needs for modern military battle management requirements.

The P-8A Poseidon is a long-range; anti-submarine warfare; anti-surface warfare; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft. The Indian government selected Boeing to provide eight P-8I aircraft to fill its maritime patrol needs, replacing Tupolev Tu-142M aircraft.

BAE Systems will begin deliveries to Boeing in 2011.

With the economy on the rebound, it is great to see aerospace stocks leading the way with shares of publicly traded companies making great strides for the first time in several years.

And one of the key reasons why these companies are growing is due to the defense contracts that the government is supplying to the industry. Forbes had this to say about the economic rebound,

“So, how to hedge your bet? With economic recovery now a fact, the mixed suppliers such as Boeing and Rockwell-Collins, which derive about half their business from defense programs, should do pretty well even under the big cut case. The 787 Dreamliner ramp should offset most defense stagnation, which in the case of Boeing came in the form of numerous big-ticket weapons system cancellations last year. Without a successful 787, Boeing would be in a world of hurt but it now looks full speed ahead.”

Some of the brigh spots in the aerospace industry are:

• United Technologies (UTX)
• Goodrich (GR)
• Precision Castparts (PCP)
• BE Aerospace (BEAV)
• Spring AeroSystems
• Hexel (HXL)

As the war expands, it appears that the current rebound is simply the start of a great expansion in the aerospace marketplace.

GE Aviation and AAI Corporation, in cooperation with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and U.S. Army performed the first “proof of concept” flight demonstrations of an Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) controlled with a GE Flight Management System (FMS) certified for use in commercial manned aircraft. These flights used the AAI Shadow® Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System controlled by the GE Aviation FMS as part of the UAS FAA & Industry Team (UFIT) Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRDA) to demonstrate an approach for the safe integration of UAS into the National Airspace System (NAS) as part of the FAA’s Next Generation Air Transportation System Program.

“The Shadow and the U.S. Army will benefit by using a derivative of this commercial-certified flight management system to provide precise, time-based navigation capability,” said Dr. Gerry Vossler, vice president of Strategic Initiatives for GE Aviation Systems. “Continued development of this technology approach offers a path to 4DT UAS operations in NextGen.”

The first flight took off at 2:50 p.m. CST on Thursday, December 3rd at the U.S. Army Redstone Arsenal Airfield This initial flight lasted 45 minutes and demonstrated both lateral and vertical control of the Shadow 200 UAS coupled with the GE FMS. On Friday, December 4th, a 3 hour demonstration was conducted that allowed for more rigorous testing of the FMS controlled Shadow 200. The results provide a variety of operational and technical assessments to demonstrate the ability to integrate a certified flight management capability into existing U.S. military UAS to support operations in national airspace.

This demonstration is in support of the UAS FAA & Industry Team (UFIT) Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRDA) between GE and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced on August 10, 2009. The research agreement is complemented by an agreement between AAI, an operating unit of Textron Systems, a Textron Inc. company, and GE including the demonstration flights of the AAI Shadow Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System. Simulation is being conducted at the FAA’s William J. Hughes Technical Center, which began this fall and will continue for two years.

Integration of the FMS with the One System® Ground Control Station (GCS) will enable the Army to fold this capability into all UAS that incorporate the One System.

GE certified their first flight management computer in November 1984. GE provides versions of its flight management systems for the Airbus A320/330/340, Boeing 767 Tanker, and U.S. Navy E-6 aircraft, the USAF E-4 and C-130, UK C-130, Spanish Air Force C-130s, C-130 AMP, UK Nimrod 2000, IL-96. GE’s FMS software will also be on the U.S. Navy P-8A aircraft which is currently in development.

The FMS optimized descent has qualified as an ecomagination product, having completed GE’s rigorous ecomagination Product Review (EPR) process. The evaluation focused on the operating and environmental benefits that the technology provides to customers, including demonstrated emissions reductions, fuel and costs savings.

CPI Aerostructures announced that it has received an order from Lockheed Martin to produce aircraft structural assemblies for the U.S. Navy’s P-3 “Orion” aircraft, valued at $1.03 million. Work on this order will commence immediately and deliveries will run through mid 2011.

Edward J. Fred, CPI Aero’s CEO and President, stated, “This order from Lockheed, a long-term customer with whom we have had a solid relationship, diversifies the parts we produce on a platform for which we’ve already provided quality deliveries and enables us to continue to support a vital U.S. Navy program. This award enhances our current business and we believe it improves our prospects for future orders from Lockheed.”

Details on Lockheed Martin Corporation – Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 140,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The corporation reported 2008 sales of $42.7 billion.

McAfee has announced that it has joined Lockheed Martin’s Cyber Security Technology Alliance. “We are pleased to be a part of Lockheed Martin’s Cyber Security Technology Alliance,” said Mike Carpenter, senior vice president, Public Sector, McAfee. “As cyberthreats continue to thrive we must gather our resources together in order to more adequately protect our nation’s infrastructure.”

The Lockheed Martin Cyber Security alliance combines the strengths of market leading companies’ solutions and integrates their best practices, hardware, software and tools within a development and collaboration center called the NexGen Cyber Innovation and Technology Center. The NexGen Cyber Innovation and Technology Center will provide an environment where Lockheed Martin Cyber Security Technology Alliance partner companies and customers can work toward the development of cyberdefense capabilities and development of solutions.

The McAfee suite of comprehensive integrated end-to-end cyber security protection and compliance solutions is available in the NexGen Cyber Innovation and Technology Center. This offering includes the McAfee Total Protection Advanced, McAfee Foundstone, McAfee Network Security Platform, McAfee Data Loss Prevention, McAfee Endpoint Encryption, McAfee Secure USB, TrustedSource, McAfee Artemis Technology, and Network Threat Response technologies and software.

Nextreme Thermal Solutions and Lockheed Martin have entered into a cooperation agreement to develop new products based on Nextreme’s thin-film thermoelectric materials.

The agreement allows Lockheed Martin to use Nextreme’s thin-film thermoelectric products and thermal and power management design services in solutions it is developing for government and civil applications.

“Lockheed Martin is proud to enter into this cooperation agreement with Nextreme,” said Brad Pietras, Director of Nanotechnology Programs at Lockheed Martin. “The agreement gives us the opportunity to offer our customers new and differentiated products for enhanced thermal and power management.”

“Lockheed Martin is a global leader and engaging with them is a tremendous step forward for Nextreme,” said Jesko von Windheim, CEO of Nextreme. “They represent leading-edge technology and offer an exceptional channel into the government sector, both of which can accelerate the development of next generation products.”

Nextreme’s team of engineers offers thermal modeling, design and engineering services to deliver fully optimized microscale thermal and power management solutions using standard and customized products.

BAE Systems has received a contract from the U.S. Department of the Treasury for managed information technology services with a ceiling of $325 million over seven years. BAE Systems competed against major enterprise IT companies to serve the nation’s leading fiduciary agency.

BAE Systems will provide Treasury headquarters and participating bureaus with engineering, implementation, operations, administration, and maintenance services. The company will design and deliver these services at a firm, fixed price.

“Treasury is the federal agency at the center of our economic recovery, and fulfilling that critical mission demands nothing less than excellence in information technology solutions and support,” said Gene Glazar, president of BAE Systems’ Information Solutions group. “The award demonstrates our capacity to tackle enterprise-level projects for even the largest customers and to serve customers outside the U.S. Department of Defense and Homeland Security areas.”

The just-awarded contract is the successor to the Treasury Seat Management contract, which BAE Systems held for 10 years. Treasury Seat Management was a performance-based services contract to provide daily management and operation of IT infrastructure assets and processes for Treasury headquarters. Under the new contract, BAE Systems becomes a managed-services provider to the Treasury, providing end-to-end products and services.

Microvision announced today that it has been awarded a $1,000,000 subcontract by Lockheed Martin Corporation. This subcontract is part of DARPA’s Urban Leader Tactical Response, Awareness & Visualization (ULTRA-Vis) program, an advanced technology development initiative, whose objective it is to build a soldier-worn system that provides non-line-of-sight command and control in distributed urban operations for dismounted warfighters. Under the subcontract, Microvision will develop a daylight-readable, see-through, low-profile, ergonomic eyewear display.

DARPA has created the ULTRA-Vis program to bring real-time tactical see-through heads-up information to ground soldiers in order to increase their safety and situational awareness in urban environments. Although tactical information is available to ground soldiers today, existing head-mounted displays and legacy system architectures have prevented this information from being delivered in a low-profile, see-through iconic mode. When integrated to an advanced information management system, Microvision’s eyewear display could enable users to receive visual commands, view geo-registered iconic representations, and receive other full-color image content overlaid on their view.

“Microvision is very pleased to work with Lockheed Martin to advance the development of see-through eyewear displays in support of the DARPA ULTRA-Vis program,” said Ian Brown, Microvision’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “By designing Microvision’s ultra-miniature PicoP® Display Engine and our thin, clear Substrate Guided Relay (SGR) Optics into a wearable display, we have the potential to bring battery operable, low-profile, see-through, full-color eyewear displays to users. This eyewear display development could enable information content to be overlaid in the user’s field-of-view in operational environments, providing a critical information advantage. Additionally, this display could be used in other applications, where real-time content is needed to improve situational awareness, such as combat support and logistics.”

Argon ST, a systems engineering, development and services company providing full-service C5ISR (command, control, communications, computers, combat systems, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) systems and services to a wide range of defense and intelligence customers, today announced that it has received a $6.2 million award for engineering development in support of the U.S. Navy’s Surface Ship Torpedo Defense (SSTD) program.

The award, a modification to an existing contract, was received from the U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command to complete the engineering development model design, through critical design review, for the SSTD program’s AN/SLQ-25D system. The SSTD program is a defensive system development to counter specific undersea weapon threats to high value surface ships. The system consists of detection, control, and counter weapon subsystems.

Since 2006, Argon has served as the lead contractor in designing, developing and fielding the Torpedo Countermeasures Transmitting Set AN/SLQ-25 — commonly referred to as Nixie. Initially contracted to design and field the AN/SQL-25C, a passive, electro-acoustic decoy system used to provide deceptive countermeasures against acoustic homing torpedoes, Argon will now focus on creating the upgrade to this important system.

“The AN/SLQ-25D is the next generation of the AN/SLQ-25C,” commented Joe Carlin, Senior Vice President, Argon ST. “The basis of the specification for the AN/SLQ-25D is an open architecture. This new requirement is very strategic to the Navy’s ability to ensure interoperability with all of its ships subsystems. Additionally, the new AN/SLQ-25D will be able to serve as a host to other systems thereby supporting other information gathering and threat detection.”

Commenting on the strategic nature of the award to Argon, Kerry Rowe, President and Chief Operating Officer, Argon ST said, “We are proud that the Navy continues to rely on Argon for one of its most critical programs. This new open architecture requirement will directly align Argon with the Navy’s future procurement strategy. Argon will not only have the opportunity to field the newly upgraded AN/SLQ-25Ds but will also be in a strategic position to use our work to develop new projects. Once widely deployed on the Navy surface ships, these systems will provide us a path to expand our footprint into other ship subsystems.”

Work under the contract will primarily be accomplished at Argon ST’s Lemont Furnace, Pennsylvania facility with support from the corporate headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia and the Smithfield, Pennsylvania production facility. The effort is expected to be completed by September 2012.

Semantic Designs announced that Northrop Grumman has acquired an Enterprise Software Modernization License to apply SD’s JOVIAL2C direct translation tool to the U.S. Air Force’s B-2 Spirit Bomber Operational Flight Program (OFP) Refresh Project. The project will enhance and extend the lifetime of the B-2, the flagship of the nation’s long range strike arsenal.

Although the B-2 is the Air Force’s newest bomber, its computers and processors require upgrade to keep up with integration efforts. Expanded and more reliable systems are necessary to maintain the B-2’s leading edge combat capabilities.

As the Air Force’s B-2 prime contractor, Northrop Grumman contracted Semantic Designs to construct cost-effective, automated tools and translation methods to modernize the flight management computer system software applications, beginning with the OFP, by converting the legacy JOVIAL code to C. Northrop Grumman applied its system engineering methodologies to integrate new hardware and used the JOVIAL2C translator to convert the flight software to operate in the new processing environment.

“Semantic Designs’ automated JOVIAL2C direct translator allows Northrop Grumman to modernize the OFP and other software avionics components included in this B-2 refresh project,” said Ira D. Baxter, Semantic Designs’ chief executive officer. “Our translator provides a fast, reliable conversion to C at a lower cost than a manual conversion. It also gives the B-2 a modern software language that will support the operational and mission needs of the aircraft throughout its lifetime.”