Industry News

Phacil has received a Capability Maturity Model Integration level 3 rating from the CMMI Institute for the company’s efforts in services and service system development. Arlington, Virginia-based information technology company Phacil said Tuesday Abridge Technology conducted the appraisal based on Phacil’s program support, personnel management, software development and help desk support for the U.S. Forest Service’s Resource Ordering and Status System. Phacil added […] More

The Aerospace Corp. has launched a study that aims to make position, navigation and timing services more resilient through the development of a user-device platform that will work to combine PNT signals from multiple sources. The nonprofit organization said Monday it will use an open-source method to develop a user-device system designed to collect PNT […] More

The U.S. Navy has signed an agreement with Canada’s defense department to establish the first-ever foreign military sales transaction for the RQ-21A Blackjack unmanned air system. The Navy and Marine Corps Small Tactical Unmanned Aircraft Systems Program Office plans to deliver one Blackjack UAS system to Canada’s army in 2017, the Navy said Monday. Marine Corps Col. Eldon Metzger, PMA-263 […] More

Huntington Ingalls Industries‘ Ingalls shipbuilding division has secured a potential $13.7 million contract to provide design services for the U.S. Navy‘s LX(R) amphibious warfare ship replacement effort. HII said Tuesday LX(R) will replace the military branch’s Harpers Ferry– and Whidbey Island-class dock landing ships and use the same hull design as the San Antonio-class amphibious transport docks. Brian Cuccias, Ingalls Shipbuilding president, said the […] More

The Ohio Aerospace Institute has won a $13.1 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to provide computational research and development services to the U.S. Air Force. The Defense Department said Monday OAI will work to integrate fluid dynamics, aerodynamics, physics, mathematics and computer science concepts to computationally simulate canonical configuration flows and real-world applications of current and future aerospace and weapons systems and […] More

Ensco and PositiveID will collaborate to produce a biothreat detection system for the Department of Homeland Security under the second phase of DHS’ SenseNet Program. PositiveID said Monday it will provide the company’s Firefly Dx automated threat detector while Ensco will perform system integration and decision support services under the program. The Interior Department awarded the Phase II contract to the team on behalf of DHS. William […] More

ManTech International has been awarded an $8 million contract to provide engineering and technical support services for all U.S. Navy aircraft platforms and associated systems. The company will conduct reliability, maintainability, testability, quality assurance, diagnostic and system safety analyses throughout the life cycle of naval aircraft systems, the Defense Department said Monday. Work will occur through May […] More

The U.S. Air Force has awarded Eccrine Systems a $3.96 million contract to help the military service branch’s research organization develop a non-invasive sensor technology that will work to monitor human sweat for specific molecular biomarkers. Eccrine said Wednesday it will collaborate with the University of Cincinnati on the project as well as use the Air Force Research Laboratory’s testing tools at […] More

United Launch Alliance is developing a reusable rocket stage that would stay in low Earth orbit and support activities in space, Quartz reported Saturday. Tim Fernholz writes ULA CEO Tory Bruno said a fleet of the company’s future Advanced Cryogenic Evolved Stage will work to support large-scale LEO activities as the company envisions a future in which humans […] More

The Defense Department has awarded a potential five-year, $99.4 million contract to the Utah State University Research Foundation to help the Missile Defense Agency develop and field an integrated, layered ballistic missile defense system. The USU Research Foundation and its affiliate Space Dynamics Laboratory will research, engineer, analyze and test systems designed to protect the U.S. and allies against ballistic […] More

SpaceX‘s Dragon capsule has returned from its ninth cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station, bringing back more than 3,000 pounds of experiment samples and other cargo home for NASA scientists. NASA said Saturday the unmanned spacecraft landed Friday in the Pacific Ocean at 11:47 a.m. Eastern Time and SpaceX personnel will ship the retrieved module to Los Angeles for the cargo […] More