Britain Ordering More Chinooks

RAF CH-47 & 42 Cdo
(click to view larger)

As part of a significant re-balancing of Britain’s immediate-term defense spending, Gordon Brown’s Labour Party government planned to buy 10 new CH-47 Chinook helicopters for delivery in 2012-2013, with the intent to buy another 12 Chinooks later. The RAF’s Chinook fleet would increase in size from 48 – 70 airframes, including 8 “Mk3 Chinooks” which will finally enter service after a costly and controversial program, plus replacements for 2 Chinooks destroyed during operations.

Those plans survived mostly intact after the new coalition government replaced Labour. The new Chinooks will displace the Medium Helicopter Replacement project, which aimed to field successors to 46 or so H-3 Sea Kings that are still operated by the British Army and Royal Navy, as well as Britain’s 34 Puma HC1 medium helicopters when that type goes out of service in 2022. Britain’s decisions to buy the Chinooks, and make a number of other immediate adjustments to planned defense spending, stemmed from 2 difficult imperatives facing its defense establishment.

• Britain’s Helicopters: Fuss and Futures [updated]
  
• Britain’s Helicopters: The Silent Influencer
  
• Contracts & Key Events [updated]
  
• Additional Readings
  

UAE’s 30-Helicopter Apache Upgrade Program Underway

Before: AH-64A

The United Arab Emirates is best known for its city of Dubai, an ultra-modern port city that has become the trading and commercial hub of the Middle East. As a May 2005 article in National Defense Magazine notes, however, it has also acquired a reputation for a strong and respected military procurement system.

One of their current initiatives involves the Boeing AH-64 Apache attack helicopters the country acquired in 1991 and 1994. The plan involves remanufacture and modernization of 30 AH-64A aircraft to the current AH-64D Longbow Block II standard. Deliveries to the UAE were scheduled to begin in May 2008 and continue through November 2009, with support activities continuing through November 2010. Ancillary equipment requests also come with that effort. DID presents a timeline that extends back to the original 2002 DSCA announcement.

Boeing Wins CNS-ATM Upgrade Contract for USAF’s KC-10 Tankers

KC-10 & F-22A

International CNS/ATM standards are currently in the beginning stages of a profound change. The FAA has mandated changes by 2015 that will tighten requirements for flying in civil airspace without a special permit, and the ICAO is working to a similar timeframe. Since the ability to fly in civil airspace significantly affects mission routes and fuel consumption, the US military is pushing to make its critical KC-135 and KC-10 tanker fleets fully compliant.

Boeing has been doing similar CNS/ATM work for the Dutch RNLAF’s 3 aircraft KDC-10 fleet, but lost its hold on the multi-billion dollar KC-10 long-term maintenance contract in 2009, putting its status for the KC-10 CNS/ATM project in question. Boeing won that contract, though, and will work with Rockwell Collins and ARINC…

Small Is Beautiful: US Military Explores Use of Microsatellites

TacSat-1 Concept
(click to view larger)

At a time when defense budgets are being cut, the era of the multi-billion dollar military satellite program might be over. Witness the fate of the massive $12 billion TSAT program, which was shut down in 2009. As a much cheaper alternative, governments are exploring the possibility of using microsatellites to perform many of the functions currently performed by expensive large satellite systems: GPS navigation, communication, surveillance, and earth imagery.

At a 10th of the cost of their larger cousins, microsatellites are much easier sell to budget conscious procurement officers. They are much cheaper and faster to build and launch. For key military missions, however, their reliability and longevity are an issue. They might be cheaper, but if the military has to use 10 times as many to do the job of traditional satellites, would that be a cost savings?

This DID Spotlight article will focus on the US military’s microsatellite development and launch programs, as well as the Army’s development of nanosatellites for battlefield communication, and take a brief look at the problem of space debris.

• Microsatellites: Definitions and Technologies
  
• Pentagon’s TacSat Program
  
• TacSat-2 and Beyond [updated]
  
• One MiDSTEP for DARPA
  
• Army’s Nanosatellites: Smaller Is Better
  
• Tracking Space Debris
  
• Future: Faster, Better, Smaller, Cheaper
  
• Key Contacts
  
• Additional Readings
  

DoD Cybersecurity Spending: Where’s the Beef?

24th Air Force

As the US defense budget is seeing targeted cuts, one area that seems to be getting more money is cybersecurity. The US military has announced plans to spend billions on technology to secure its networks.

In response to this shift in priorities, traditional defense contractors, such as BAE Systems, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman have been on a buying spree, snatching up cybersecurity firms left and right. At the same time, a number of these companies have proven vulnerable to cyber attacks themselves, with some analysts seeing a tie to a security breach at RSA, which provides technology for remote access of employees to their corporate networks.

This article examines this shift in the US defense industry and defense spending regarding cybersecurity. In particular, the article examines where the money being earmarked for cybersecurity is going and what kind of initiatives are being undertaken by the US military.

• Buying Spree
  
• Where’s the Money Going?
  
• US Cyber Command
  
• Pentagon’s Cyber 3.0
  
• Is the Boom a Bust?
  
• Key Contacts
  
• Additional Reading
  

Ride on the Ray: Boeing’s X-45 UCAVs

X-45C, F/A18F, F-15E

In 1998, Boeing began a revolutionary development program: create an unmanned aircraft that was about the size of the USAF’s F-117 stealth fighter, with similar performance, better stealth, and better range. DARPA’s J-UCAS program launched Boeing’s X-45A and Northrop Grumman’s X-47B Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles (UCAVs), which went on to perform tests that included multiple UCAV flights, bomb drops, and other aviation firsts.

J-UCAS was effectively killed in 2006, though it went on to spawn the Navy’s UCAS-D competition. NGC’s X-47B Pegasus won, but the Pentagon’s back-and-forth over the USAF’s Next-Generation Bomber program gave Boeing an incentive to remain active. The bomber program will either create a big opening for UCAVs, or allow Boeing to lever any new advances in stealthy UCAV design for its bomber bid. Not so coincidentally, Boeing is using company funds to put its X-45C back on track, as the “Phantom Ray”.

RESET of the US Army’s Vehicle Fleet, 2005-2010

USMC M1A1 settles a
firefight in Fallujah

The RESET process takes used vehicles apart, inspects the parts, then replaces any defective parts and refurbishes the equipment to like-new condition. Sometimes upgrades are also performed. RESET and related processes like remanufacture/upgrades are being performed on M1 Abrams tanks, Bradley IFV/CFVs, HMMWV jeeps, and even helicopters. It usually takes place when the vehicles return from the front lines in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other locations, where sand damage and increased wear have taken their toll.

In truth, many of these vehicles were produced in the 1980s, and are reaching an age where “deep maintenance” is a wise and necessary measure. Note that this is not a complete list of RESET contracts.

• RESET Programs and Procedures
  
• RESET Contracts, Delivery Orders & Developments, FY 2006-Present [updated]
  
• Vehicle Fleets and Maintenance Overhangs
  
• Additional Readings
  

Japan Orders Upgrades for its 4 E-767 AWACS

Japanese E-767

In May 2006, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of a possible Foreign Military Sale to Japan of four sets of Airborne Early Warning (AEW) and Command, Control and Communications (C3) mission equipment/Radar System Improvement Program (RSIP) Group A and B kits, plus spares and services to ensure complete AWACS mission equipment supportability, for subsequent installation and checkout in 4 previously procured E-767 Airborne Warning and Control Systems (AWACS) aircraft.

Boeing delivered the 4 AWACS E-767s to Japan between 1998-1999; they have been in service since 2000.

USAF Awards MPEC-I & II for Mission Planning Electronics & Support

Latest updates[?]: Northrop Grumman gets $26M order to provide B-1 bomber aircraft mission planning capability.

In some core ways, mission planning hasn’t changed all that much since World War 2. The technology has changed radically, however, and now involves loading computerized data sets into mission planning systems, with data showing up on moving map displays for use and even pre-flight rehearsal. In June 2010, the 951st ELSG/PK at Hanscom Air Force Base, MA handed out a 10-year, $919.6 million multiple-award contract called Mission Planning Enterprise Contract-II (MPEC-II).

The USAF began the original MPEC program in 2004, to shift from existing USAF, Navy and Army systems into a single Joint Mission Planning System (JMPS). The USAF is moving to JMPS from its PC-based PFPS(Portable Flight Planning System) and Unix-based MPS(Mission Planning System), while the Navy will move from its TAMPS(Tactical Aircraft Mission Planning Systems) and the Army from its MPS(Mission Planning System).

MPEC-II extends that effort. Major MPEC I/II awards, and some delivery order examples, include:

Dutch Upgrading Their AH-64Ds

AH-64D Blocks

In August 2009, the US DSCA announced a request from the Netherlands to buy kits that would upgrade their AH-64D Apache attack helicopter fleet, which is seeing significant use in Afghanistan. Dutch AH-64Ds lack the mast-mounted Longbow millimeter-wave radar common on similar models elsewhere, but the requested “AH-64D Block II” upgrade would otherwise move them to the same configuration as the vast majority of the American fleet. It will also gives them more advanced Arrowhead MTADS sensors, color cockpit displays including moving digital maps, updated self-protection suites, and several features designed to improve maintenance and lower operating costs.

That will make coalition operations and maintenance sharing easier in places like Afghanistan. There, the Americans operate their AH-64D fleet with Longbow radars removed, while the British WAH-64Ds have made good use of those radars thanks to their more powerful Rolls Royce engines. All are in high demand thanks to their flexibility, and their 30mm cannon. The question is whether the helicopter block type upgrades will be fielded in time to matter on the ground…