The Boeing Company and the U.S. Army signed a $549 million contract in December for 17 new-build CH-47F Chinook helicopters.

"The contract underscores the importance of the Chinook to U.S. Army aviation and validates the steps we've taken to improve the aircraft's cost, quality and performance," said Jack Dougherty, Chinook program manager. "Our ability to respond rapidly to customer needs has made the Chinook more attractive in domestic and international markets."

The contract, the largest Chinook order by any domestic or international customer since the mid-1980s, includes seven aircraft authorized in December 2003 as part of the FY '03 supplemental defense appropriation bill and 10 aircraft approved in the current fiscal year defense budget. Manufacturing preparations have continued since the FY '03 authorization under an undefinitized contract agreement. Deliveries of the 17 new-build Chinooks will begin in September 2006 and continue through the end of 2008.

The U.S. Army Systems Acquisition Review Council, the Army's highest acquisition review panel, approved a new acquisition plan that increases the Chinook fleet from 463 to 513 aircraft. Under the plan, the Army will modernize its entire fleet of 397 CH-47D Chinooks to the new F-model configuration and procure at least 55 additional new-build CH-47F Chinooks. The U.S. Army Special Operations Command will increase its inventory of 34 MH-47D/E Special Operations Heavy Assault Chinooks to 61 MH-47Gs, with an option for future growth.

The CH-47F and MH-47G feature numerous upgrades over earlier models, including reduced vibration, improved avionics and more powerful engines to help improve mission performance and reduce operation and maintenance costs. The aircraft's improved cockpit design offers improved situational awareness to support interoperability requirements.

Boeing is strengthening its position as a leading provider of network-centric operational (NCO) solutions by realigning its Strategic Architecture unit. The reorganization will build upon the established success of the unit and improve customer support by better leveraging advances in NCO technology across the enterprise.

"The Strategic Architecture team under Carl O'Berry has done a tremendous job creating and evolving architectural tools that will enable Boeing systems and platforms to operate on a global network," said Jim Albaugh, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems CEO and president. "Realignment is the logical next step allowing us to seamlessly integrate the architectures, tools and products developed by Strategic Architecture into our system-of-systems engineering process."

As part of the reorganization, the Boeing Integration Centers (BIC) in California and Virginia, and the Virtual Warfare Center in St. Louis, will be managed by Integrated Defense Systems' Analysis, Modeling and Simulation organization under Vice President Guy Higgins. Strategic Architecture's engineering and NCO program support groups will be integrated into the Company's Phantom Works' Integrated Defense Advanced Systems (IDeAS) organization.

"The reorganization strengthens the role of the BICs and their contribution to Boeing and its customers by bringing together Boeing's entire network of NCO-enabling modeling, simulation and analysis capabilities," said Albaugh. "We will be able to better coordinate and leverage these capabilities when providing solutions to our customers."

IDeAS NCO Programs and Technologies, under Vice President and Deputy General Manager Rick Baily, will be the conduit for transitioning NCO technologies to the businesses within Integrated Defense Systems and for creating and capturing new NCO programs.

Carl O'Berry, who led the Strategic Architecture group, will remain with Boeing as vice president of Network Centric Architectures, reporting into Albaugh and continuing to serve as executive chairman of the recently established NCO Industry Consortium.

The U.S. Air Force recently awarded Boeing two GPS IIF contract options valued at $172.3 million.

"These award options indicate exceptional customer confidence in our work on the GPS program, "said John Fuller, vice president for Boeing Air Force Space Systems. "Last December one of our GPS II satellites completed its 15th year on orbit, which is well beyond its 7.5 year design life. This is the type of program execution and performance the customer wants and that we plan to deliver."

The first award is a $143.9 million contract modification to the existing Navstar Global Positioning System (GPS) Block IIF contract that exercises the option to begin production of three satellites, Space Vehicles (SV) 07 through 09. These satellites will be completed by June 2008.

A second contract for $28.4 million exercises an option for long-lead hardware for the production of an additional three GPS IIF satellites, SV-10 through 12. The first three GPS IIF spacecraft currently are in various stages of assembly, integration and test at Boeing Satellite Systems in El Segundo, Calif.

The GPS IIF satellites are designed for flexibility and growth, have improved anti-jam capability and secure operational military codes. Additionally, the IIF satellites built under this contract option will enable the Air Force to sustain the overall GPS constellation at peak performance to support global military needs. The first GPS IIF launch is scheduled for 2007.

The Space and Missile Systems Center manages the GPS program through a joint program office at Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif.

Boeing recently completed upgrading the first of four French E-3F AWACS aircraft with a Radar System Improvement Program (RSIP) kit, ahead of schedule. The modification is part of a $133 million foreign military sales contract with Hanscom, Air Force Base, Mass. "This is the most significant upgrade to the French AWACS fleet since its delivery in the early 1990s," said Nigel Lo, Boeing RSIP program manager. "It also will bring France 's surveillance capability up to same standards as its NATO allies."

The other three AWACS aircraft will receive upgrades by mid-2006 to improve the E-3F's surveillance capability by increasing the sensitivity of the pulse Doppler radar so the aircraft can detect and track smaller targets. It also improves the radar's electronic counter-countermeasures capability.

Air France Industries, under subcontract to Boeing, performed the installation and checkout at its facility in Le Bourget, France. Boeing flight-tested the upgraded aircraft at the main operating base for the French AWACS in Avord, France.

RSIP kits, built by Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems, upgrade the surveillance radar's existing computer with a new high-reliability multi-processor. New radar software is easier to maintain and enhance in the future. The modification also upgrades the radar's antenna, receivers and transmitters.