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Britain/U.K. | Canada | Daily Rapid Fire | Fighters & Attack | France | L3 Communications | Logistics | Raytheon | Scandals & Investigations

Rapid Fire March 26, 2013: Handling and Costing the Logistics Flow Back from Afghanistan

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* The UK-based Guardian quotes US Brigadier General Steve Shapiro, director of the Materiel Enterprise Integration and Retrograde Operations Center, as saying he’s been “hearing about $6B in transportation costs” out of Afghanistan. Given such high exit costs, there’s a strong incentive to leave as much low-value stuff in the country as possible. Out of […]

* The UK-based Guardian quotes US Brigadier General Steve Shapiro, director of the Materiel Enterprise Integration and Retrograde Operations Center, as saying he’s been “hearing about $6B in transportation costs” out of Afghanistan. Given such high exit costs, there’s a strong incentive to leave as much low-value stuff in the country as possible. Out of a total of about 100,000 containers and 30,000 vehicles, it’s not worth shipping it all back.

* The flow of vehicles out of Afghanistan began last month. Picture a 25-container convoy on Pakistan’s roads! On the receiving end, the Army’s Surface Deployment and Distribution Command (SDDC) has started handling returning Stryker Brigade Combat Team vehicles and containers.

* Raytheon has announced a reorganization that among other things merges its Intelligence and Information Systems and Technical Services divisions, leading to a reduction of their workforce by about 200 people. Prime contractors have found for the last couple of years that their IT services were easier to be cut in the short term than multi-year armament contracts. Buzzword-compliant press release.

* The US Marines announced its FY14 voluntary separation and early retirement programs.

* The US Navy Warfare Development Command recently held an online wargame focused on the electromagnetic and cybernetwork domain. Participants thought it would be a good idea to maintain low tech communication capabilities such as using lights for ship-ship signaling, in case use of the fancy new tech is denied by the enemy.

* The UK announced its JSFs will be based at RAF Marham in Norfolk.

* When even left-wing Le Monde editorializes [in French] that bringing France’s defense spending to 1.2% of GDP would lead to an “amputated military” and guarantee the loss of the country’s standing in world affairs, you know there cannot be a compromise beyond the executive branch, let alone a national “consensus” around that number. Leaks and alarmed statements have multiplied in the French press as the services and contractors try to preemptively protect their turf.

* France’s President Hollande may be under pressure from his finance ministry to balance the books, but some members of parliament from his own Parti Socialiste, concerned with defense jobs as well as France’s ability to preserve its sovereignty and projection capabilities, have already been drawing lines in the sand. Each side is trying to anchor where budget negotiations will start in the fall, but they will have to find a compromise [in French] and drastic defense cuts is not one.

* Canada’s defense watchers were also holding their breath in expectation of the 2013 budget [PDF] (or not). Mark Collins at the Canadian Defence & Foreign Affairs Institute has a link round-up of what can be parsed so far. Not much is really clear yet, since the budget plan presented by Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty to the House of Commons last Thursday looks more like the sort of macro-economics memos published by central banks than an actual budget submission.

* A US federal judge from the district of New Jersey sentenced Sixing Liu, a former engineer at L-3 Communications Space & Navigation to almost 6 years in prison. According to US officials, Liu, a Chinese national, downloaded thousands of files describing the performance and design of missiles and other systems to then present the material in his country of origin.

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