MELBOURNE, Fla. L3Harris Technologies has been chosen to design an autonomous surface ship concept for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as the agency seeks to demonstrate the reliability and feasibility of an unmanned ship conducting lengthy missions.

HERNDON, Va. Federal contractor Akima announced that its Aperture subsidiary won a contract to support the Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic’s Command Wide 8(a) Programmatic Engineering Logistics Support Incubator program. The indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (ID/IQ) contract runs over five years and if all options are exercised could have a total value of $113.8 million.

FALLS CHURCH, Va. BAE Systems has signed a contract option worth $184 million with the U.S. Marine Corps to provide more amphibious combat vehicles (ACV) under full-rate production.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa. Collins Aerospace and project teammate Leonardo DRS announce the successful initial flight of the TCTS Inc. II Air Combat Training program on an operational F/A-18E/F Hornet by pilots in the U.S. Navy. The initial flight took place out of Naval Air Station Patunxet River (Maryland).

U.S. NAVY NAVAL SURFACE WARFARE CENTER CRANE DIVISION, CRANE, Ind. The U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division, has partnered with VOS Systems to promulgate U.S. Navy use of VOS Systems' product AlertTrace, a COVID-19 contact-tracing solution with user-friendly software, encrypted and secured anonymous data for maximum privacy protection, and no tracking or GPS capabilities.

ARLINGTON, Va. A U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) unmanned surface vessel (USV) -- part of the Ghost Fleet Overlord autonomous-vessel partnership between the DoD's Strategic Capabilities Office and the U.S. Navy -- recently traveled a distance of more than 4,700 nautical miles (5,409 miles), almost entirely autonomously. After this transit the ship participated in an exercise called "Dawn Blitz," where it again spent nearly all of its time operating autonomously. 

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems has won a $34.2 million contract from the U.S. Navy for engineering and test support services for the AN/ALQ-249 Next Generation Jammer (NGJ), currently in development for the Navy EA-18G Growler aircraft.