Four awards crossed the wire this week. One is a production order for a weapon the Army can’t buy fast enough. One is a small research bet on a radar band nobody fields yet. The other two are services contracts, the kind that keep the lights on for government programs and rarely make headlines. Together they cover most of the market in miniature: munitions, research, sustainment and IT.
Army orders $215 million of lightweight Javelin launchers
On October 19 the U.S. Army awarded the Javelin Joint Venture, the Raytheon and Lockheed Martin partnership, a $215 million production contract for the Lightweight Command Launch Unit. The LWCLU is the reusable sight and trigger assembly a soldier attaches to each Javelin missile tube, and it replaces the current Block I unit.
The companies say the new unit is 30% smaller and 25% lighter than Block I, doubles target detection and recognition performance, and works day and night with every past, current and future Javelin missile variant. The award comes about five months after the joint venture delivered the first LWCLUs to the Army. Raytheon builds Javelin in Tucson, Arizona, and Lockheed Martin works on it in Orlando, Florida. The partners have produced more than 55,000 missiles and more than 12,000 launch units to date.
Neither company disclosed quantities or a delivery schedule. The weight figure is the one infantry units will care about. A Javelin team carries the launcher on foot, and every pound shaved off the sight is a pound that can go to ammunition or water. Ukraine made Javelin the best-known anti-armor weapon of the decade, and refilling U.S. stocks plus allied orders has kept the line busy. A new launcher generation also means a fresh round of foreign sales once the Army fields it.
DARPA backs a terahertz radar from Riverside Research and Oklahoma State
Riverside Research, a not-for-profit defense research organization, and Oklahoma State University won a DARPA contract to develop a radar sensor that operates at terahertz frequencies, 10 to 100 times higher than typical radar bands. The team says the higher frequency lets the sensor detect and track objects smaller than an inch at long range, something current radars can’t do.
The proposal was picked through DARPA’s Expedited Research Implementation Series (ERIS) Marketplace, which selects work from short video pitches to get small contracts moving quickly. Rajind Mendis of Riverside Research is principal investigator, John O’Hara of Oklahoma State is co-principal investigator, and Josh Wetherington, Riverside’s director of spectrum warfare innovation, manages the program. Value and duration weren’t disclosed.
Terahertz has long been a lab curiosity because the signal fades fast in air and humidity. Tracking inch-sized objects points at problems the military actually has: small drones, debris and fragments that conventional radars either miss or lump into clutter. This is an early-stage research award, not a procurement program. Watch whether it graduates to a larger DARPA effort.
CSMI keeps the DHS mobile command vehicle work
CSMI, a Salem, New Hampshire service-disabled veteran-owned small business founded in 2002, won the recompete for operations and maintenance of the Federal Protective Service’s Mobile Command Vehicles. FPS, part of DHS, guards federal buildings and deploys these vehicles as rolling communications and command posts during incidents and large events. CSMI’s job is to keep them ready to roll and able to talk to partner agencies.
The company says the award starts its 16th year supporting FPS. The release gave no contract value, term or fleet size. Holding a services contract through several recompetes is the business model for small federal contractors. Customer continuity counts for a lot when the work is keeping specialized vehicles and radios working.
Chenega units join NASA SEWP VI
Chenega Systems and Chronos Operations, two subsidiaries in the Military Intelligence and Operations Support unit of Alaska Native corporation Chenega Corporation, were named contract holders on NASA’s SEWP VI. Both landed in Category C, which covers IT and mission services: software engineering, network operations, data analytics, digital government services, consulting, engineering support and cybersecurity.
SEWP is one of the most used government-wide acquisition vehicles for technology, open to any federal agency. Trade press counts more than 2,000 initial awardees across SEWP VI’s three categories. That number is the catch. A seat on SEWP is a hunting license, not revenue. Holders still have to win individual task orders against a very crowded field, and Alaska Native corporation subsidiaries bring sole-source and small business advantages that help them compete for those orders.
The headline number this week belongs to Javelin. The longer-term signal may be the terahertz radar, if it works. The two services awards show where most defense and homeland security money really goes: keeping existing equipment and networks running, year after year.