Contractor intelligence aircraft needed for Marine Corps training exercises

The Regional Contracting Office-MCI WEST, Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif., has a requirement to provide a manned, fixed-wing propeller driven aircraft with intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities to support semi-annual three-day training exercises for Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron-1 (MAWTS-1), Marine Corp Air Station, Yuma, Ariz.

The service requested is to provide real-time electro-optical and infrared sensor full-motion video while integrating with close air support aircraft to locate and simulate attacking opposing forces, simulated by live role-players. The aircraft must have capability of five hours on station time at an altitude of 24,000 feet.

“The intent of this effort is to provide familiarization of flight characteristics, capabilities and limitations of ISR aircraft for MAWTS-1 instructors and prospective instructors,” Marine Corps officials said in contract documents released Wednesday. “This is a pre-solicitation notice that a solicitation is scheduled to be released on or around March 24.”

Video: U-2 Programmed Depot Maintenance

The U-2 Dragon Lady goes through Lockheed Martin Programmed Depot Maintenance (PDM) every 4,800 flight hours or every seven years. PDM involves the complete disassembly, inspection, repair and reassembly of the entire aircraft; ensuring its longevity and ability to fly at today's record-high operational rates. This thorough maintenance allows Lockheed Martin to collect data on airframe integrity, confirming that nearly 80 percent lifespan remains on the aircraft.

The U-2 collects critical targets no other platform can, flying faster, deeper and with greater reliability compared to any high-altitude intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance aircraft since the SR-71.

Modern Technology Solutions awarded Air Force ISR contract

Modern Technology Solutions Inc. (MTSI), Alexandria, Va., has been awarded a $25 million Small Business Innovation Research III sole-source contract for the Rapid Intelligence Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) Technology Integration Program effort.

MTSI will extend the sensor resource management system developed in Phase I for the Missile Defense Agency and apply it to the integration of air, ground and space sensor systems and their associated platforms to provide ISR data products.

The work will be performed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio; Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M.; and Alexandria, Va., and is expected to be complete by Sept. 17, 2019.

The Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, managed the contract award.

Air Force orders three Global Hawk drones

The U.S. Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman Corp. a $114 million advance procurement contract in preparation to build three more RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aircraft systems and associated sensors. The intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft allows military commanders to receive high-resolution imagery, survey vast geographic regions and pinpoint targets on the ground.

This contract provides for advance procurement of three Block 30 aircraft, including three enhanced integrated sensor suites, three airborne signals intelligence payload (ASIP) and two ASIP retrofit kits to be installed on previously purchased aircraft. The work under this contract is expected to be completed in 2015.

The Global Hawk can remain airborne for more than 30 hours at high altitudes while gathering multiple types of intelligence data. Combined with Global Hawk's ability to fly for long periods at altitudes up to 60,000 feet, the aircraft's 12,300 nautical mile range makes the system ideally suited to take on many different ISR missions.

The system has logged more than 100,000 flight hours and has been used over battlefields in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. The system has also supported ISR efforts following the devastating earthquakes that struck Haiti and Japan.

In addition, NASA has been using Global Hawks for scientific and environmental research, recently flying over two hurricanes in September as part of a broader project studying how tropical storms develop over the Atlantic Ocean.

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Beechcraft Baron, eye in the sky for ISR missions

Military and law enforcement agencies across the globe will find the mission persistence of the Beechcraft Baron ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) to be efficient and effective.

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