• The latest ASDReports study predicts that a total of 154 submarines are to be procured between 2011 and 2021, costing $186.3 billion. While North America is expected to constitute 47% of sales, regional hostility among Asian states will drive the submarine market over the forecast period.

• A Department of Defense report to Congress indicates that the Lockheed Martin F-35 has emerged as a candidate to replace Boeing’s F/A-18E/F Super Hornets as a carrier-based air dominance fighter for the US Navy after 2025.

• The U.S. Navy asks businesses to develop innovative approaches to make sea air safe for lasers.

• As Israel continues to develop David’s Sling, President Shimon Peres calls for the creation of a missile defense system that would surround Iran.

• Harris Corporation releases new software for the Falcon III AN/PRC-117G multiband manpack radio system

• Ricardo, Inc., U.S. subsidiary of Ricardo plc, announces the formation of a strategic business alliance with XRD Inc. (XRDi) and NW UAV to design, develop and manufacture a family of heavy-fuel engine solutions for unmanned systems.

• Flight International lists the likely competitors for USAF’s UH1-N replacement contract.

• A visit to SRI International’s Silicon Valley premises shows that while 67% of its research work is for the Department of Defense, profit margins for government agency projects are only 3 to 4%.

• Canada’s Public Works Minister’s reminder that companies bidding on National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy contracts have been asked not to employ lobbyists raises eyebrows at CANSEC.

YRH-70 w. Hydras

Order for surveillance – and targeting – turrets; EC635s will also be ARH. (June 12/11)

In July 2008, the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced Iraq’s formal request to buy 24 Armed Reconnaissance Helicopters that act as scouts, perform light close air support, and escort other helicopters on dangerous missions. The DSCA documents also included requests for airborne weapons – which would be a new capability for the nascent post-Saddam air force.

At the time of the requests, the IqAF relied on a small force of Russia’s popular Mi-8/17s, and a handful of refurbished Bell “Huey II” helicopters. While the Russian helicopters can be armed, their status as Iraq’s only medium utility helicopters makes them a poor fit for an ARH role. Instead, Iraq chose between 2 competitors: Bell’s 407, whose derivative ARH-70A won the competition in America but ran into trouble; and Boeing’s AH-6 “Little Bird” light attack helicopters used by US Special Forces. AH-6s are very effective in urban settings, and provided critical fire support during the 1991 “Blackhawk Down” incident. Iraq went on to pick its ARH winner – and issued production contracts. Now, details concerning its IA-407 helicopters are beginning to emerge…

• U.S. Army Acquisition chief Malcolm O’Neill resigns.

• Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ May 24/11 swan song speech at the neo-conservative AEI think-tank continues to echo. See the official transcript of his remarks, and the video.

• Vice Admiral John Blake tells Congress that a projected shortfall in the number of attack submarines may force the Navy to examine extending the lives of some subs. Shipbuilding expert counters it may be hard to extend service of fast-attack subs because of limitations on the lives of pressure hulls.

• Russia may begin purchasing Antonov’s An-70 military transport aircraft between 2012 and 2013.

• Cobham announce that its HeliSAS  Autopilot and Stability Augmentation System has been granted Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) status by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on the Eurocopter AS350 model series and EC130 helicopters.

• Boeing opens Exploration Launch Systems Engineering and Integration office near Kennedy Space Center to support the operational readiness of NASA’s next launch system.

• Israel may see David’s Sling as a wider air defense replacement for its MIM-23 Hawk missiles, not just a high-end rocket killer.

• As China’s first aircraft carrier moves closer to commencing sea trials doubts are raised about the ship’s ‘military impact’.

• As a British Government Minister declares that offensive cyber warfare is an integral part of the UK’s armory, the Ministry of Defence outline their new Materiel Strategy.

• Cassidian win contract to provide the Canadian Navy new technologies to detect and counter laser-based threats against its vessels.

• The US Navy announces that CVN 79, the 2nd Ford Class aircraft carrier, will be named the USS John F. Kennedy. It will continue the namesake legacy of the non-nuclear powered CV 67, retired in 2007.

• The U.S. Navy successfully tested the DDG 1000’s Integrated Power System (IPS) at full power at the Land Based Test Site located in Philadelphia, May 11.

• The U.S. Navy also approves ATK’s Hostile Fire Indication (HFI) capability upgrade for the AAR-47 Missile Warning System.

• Singapore’s ST Engineering announce the formation of a joint venture (JV) company with Nanyang Technological University and DSO National Laboratories. The JV will design, develop and produce advanced earth observation satellites.

• India’s Mahindra and Mahindra report a 6.4% year-on-year rise in fourth quarter net profit.

• Cartwright’s rumored x-out for the pending Pentagon Chief of Staff slot is likely to have wide implications for future Pentagon buys. Even as it raises questions about the nature and origins of the whisper campaign that covertly works to do him in.

• “The [US] Department of Defense (DOD) is currently conducting the largest transformation of military posture in the Pacific region since the end of World War II.” But the GAO says that the Pentagon is significantly understating costs to transform facilities and infrastructure in Asia. Costs that will run in the tens of billions.

• Northrop Grumman spinoff Huntington Ingalls Industries provides a slew of shipbuilding updates. Updating their LPD-17 amphibious ship progress, moving the USS Theodore Roosevelt out of RCOH drydock, and moving a 945-ton superlift section in place for the first-of-class Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier.

• Key defense firm you’ve never heard of: Blackbird Technologies. Short version: their stuff helps track people. Specific people.

• The first steel is cut for the HMS Prince of Wales, the second of the Royal Navy’s Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers. Due to lower build-in costs, the future HMS Prince of Wales is likely to be the only catapult-equipped, fully operational British carrier.

• Harris gets US Navy contract worth up to $59.7 million to supply the KIK-11 tactical key loader with the Sierra II cyptographic module to encrypt communications between military radios.

• Up to $15 million to Advanced Technology International for support of the US Navy’s National Shipbuilding Research Program, which works to improve efficiency in building, operating and repairing Navy ships.

• Israeli UAV maker Aeronautics is busy. They’ve received Missile Technology Control Regime compliant export clearance for their long-range Dominator XR UAV (co-marketed by Boeing), begun development work on a 5,000 kg jet-powered UAV that can fly in civil airspace, and opened a factory in Spain to make Orbiter 2 & 3 mini-UAVs.

• US Supreme Court throws out lower court ruling that would have required Boeing and General Dynamics to repay $3 billion to the federal government for the cancelled A-12 Avenger fighter program.

• Does SpaceX have lessons to teach NASA? After it spends under $400 million to do what would have taken NASA around $4 billion, Congressional testimony says “yes!”, and SpaceX underscores its cost positions. Next step? Falcon 9 Heavy, which aims to challenge the current Boeing/Lockheed EELV heavy lift platforms on cost and payload.

• FLIR Systems, a supplier of thermal imaging and threat detection systems, agrees to pay $39 million to two former executives to settle litigation related to its 2004 acquisition of Indigo Systems.

• L-3’s Systems Field Support division gets contract worth up to $300 million to provide C-12 aircraft logistics support and maintenance to the US Navy and USAF.

• SAIC snags contract worth up to $85 million to provide fighter operational test and evaluation services at the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center.

• US Army honors the MQ-5B Hunter UAV as “the little program that could,” with a history going back to 1989. Hunters still serve on the front lines, and some are now armed with GBU-44 Viper Strike mini-weapons.

• Smiths Detection receives $30 million order to provide battlefield chemical agent detectors for the US DoD’s Joint Chemical Agent Detector program.

• China’s submarine buildup is creating pressure on Asian countries to improve their anti-submarine capabilities – and add subs of their own. Given the volume of Chinese shipping that must pass through narrow chokepoints in and around Indonesia, it’s not a good strategic trade for China.

• Crews for India’s ordered Scorpene diesel-electric submarines are due to begin training in France, soon. The goal is now delivery by 2015, with all 6 delivered by the end of 2018.

• Loose or broken bolts caused South Korea to suspend operations for its 3 type U214 subs through much of 2010, and into 2011. The problem was fixed, and contracts to build its next set of 6 more U214s continue.

• US Army Corp of Engineers unveils $5 billion Civil Works plan for FY 2011.

• Nearly 1,000 workers at 3 defense contractors in the Washington, DC area – General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman – are being laid off this year, the Washington Examiner reports.

• A number of projects are working to free science from the bottlenecks of copyright-bound paper articles, even for research produced on the public dime. Open source science is impractical for much defense R&D, except as a potential input. On the other hand, new Open Science approaches have shown great promise for areas like disease cures – which do have a military dimension.

• India continues working on creating a nuclear triad with the deployment of its 1st Arihant class nuclear submarine expected in 2012. It also has inspection teams doing assurance checks in advance of an expected buy of M777 ultra-light howitzers.

• UK announces plans for a new nuclear-powered submarine to replace its existing Vanguard class submarine. Advance design contracts for the missile section started a while ago, and the main build decision is expected in 2016.

• Italy accepts 2 of its 4 ordered KC-767A aerial tankers into service, after a long set of technical delays and certifications.

• Israel is setting up a taskforce to develop defense capabilities against cyber attacks on critical infrastructure. Rumor has it that they set up a task force to handle the other end a while back. You’d have to ask the Iranians.

• The US Army may have to spend at least $441 million to replenish prepositioned equipment to meet combatant command planning requirements, part of the $4.5 billion needed to fully reconstitute the Army’s prepositioned stocks, the GAO says.

• Russian President Dmitry Medvedev fires weapons plant officials and defense ministry officials over delays in deliveries of new weapon systems, after musing about the good old days when they would have enjoyed “hard physical labor in the fresh air.” Getting Russia’s defense industry back on its feet won’t be easy – but the money is there. It will happen. Eventually.

• White House unveils [PDF] an international cyberspace strategy that includes a call for tightening global defenses against cyber attack and using “all necessary means” to defend networks. Until the US can go on offense, it doesn’t matter much since there’s no cost to attacks.

• The age of the Compound Helicopter draws closer. Eurocopter’s Dauphin-derived X3 demonstrator has exceeded 232 knots in level flight, almost matching Sikorsky’s X2. Russia is also looking to field its own compound helicopter demonstrators, with Kamov’s Ka-92 concept competing against Mil’s Mi-X1.

• So, too, does the age of the UCAV unmanned attack jet. Northrop Grumman’s X-47B/UCAS-D has picked up awards from the USAF Flight Test Center at Edwards AFB, CA, including Flight Test Team of the Quarter (above candidates like the F-35). It will compete with Boeing’s Phantom Ray, General Atomics Avenger/Sea Avenger, and the European nEUROn project.

• US Air Force Academy beats West Point and Naval Academy in the “Crew System 2035” contest to design an achievable future military aircraft cockpit.

• San Diego-based defense contractor Jesse Denome pleads guilty to bribing US Navy official to obtain $300,000 worth of military aircraft equipment orders.

• Up to $101 million to URS for maintenance of USMC vehicles and equipment in Southeast US.

Malaysian F/A-18D:
Bersama Shield 2010

Malaysia has an unusual air fleet, which includes Russian MiG-29s and very advanced SU-30MKMs, alongside Boeing’s F/A-18D Hornets. The MiG-29s are declining in numbers, and Malaysia had hoped to phase them out, but it expects the Hornets to soldier on for a little while longer.

Part of their efforts in that regard involve upgrades, to give their Hornets the same advanced surveillance and targeting pod capabilities enjoyed by advanced air forces around the world.

• Turkey’s current account deficit is hitting levels that worry some observers. High levels have been predictors of economic crises in the past. If that comes to pass, there are a lot of new and pending weapons programs that would be affected.

• Turkey’s next-generation fighters are among them. There are reports of growing interest in a split-buy, to reduce dependence on the USA. Italy’s government is pushing Turkey to solve that problem by joining the Eurofighter consortium. Turkey might also pick a hi-low approach, and join existing arms partners South Korea and Indonesia in KF-X.

• BAE Systems snags 10-year, $850 million contract to manage the US Army’s Radford ammunition plant in southwest Virginia; stock of incumbent ATK takes a hit.

• In the money: EADS posts a net loss of EUR 12 million, on revenues of EUR 9.9 billion, as a result of negative dollar accounting revaluation; however, net cash reserves reach record EUR 12.2 billion (~17.2B USD).

• Russian Space Forces plans to test a new Voronezh DM radar being built near Baltic port of Kaliningrad by end of 2011, one of four radars being built to fill radar coverage gaps created by the collapse of the Soviet Union.

• Goodrich completes EUR 331 million for Microtecnica, a Turin, Italy-based provider of flight control actuation systems for helicopters, aircraft, missile actuation, and aircraft thermal and environmental control systems for military and commercial customers.

• Azerbaijan extends joint production agreement with South Africa’s Paramount Group to produce an additional 30 Marauder [PDF] and 30 Matador [PDF] mine-protected vehicles, with deliveries running through late 2012.

• Raytheon & Boeing finish government testing of their JAGM light strike missile contender, and keep their perfect test record.

• Good news: 1st A109 light helicopter from the May 2008 contract enters service in New Zealand. Bad news: They’re still waiting for the NH90-TTH medium helicopters from their July 2006 contract.

• Northrop Grumman is cutting 200 jobs at its Electronics Systems division, mostly in the Baltimore area.

• Terrorists have procurement networks, too – most of which also have criminal uses. Read FP Magazine’s slanted but still enlightening “Tunnelnomics” piece re: the Israeli/Gaza border.