RC-7B “Crazy Hawk”

$50M to AirScan in Iraq. (March 29/11)

The US military has planes like F-22A stealth fighters that make a lot of news. It also has planes that make very little news, even though they play key roles in a number of conflicts around the world. One example is the RC-7B/EO-5B “Crazy Hawk”/ Airborne Reconnaissance Low aircraft, which use their short-field takeoff capabilities and array of imaging, signals collection, and radar sensors to monitor developments on the ground. The RC-7B made the news briefly in 1999 when one went down in Colombia, and again when the US military had to cancel the $8 billion ACS (Aerial Common Sensor) replacement program in 2006 and start over in 2008. Meanwhile, the situation in Afghanistan and Iraq is well suited to planes like the Dash-7 derived RC-7Bs.

ACS’ cancellation, delay, and restructuring have left the Navy pursuing its own independent program. The US Army’s RC-12N Guardrail electronic intelligence aircraft are being refurbished to keep them current and in service until the ACS arrives. And the RC-7B fleet continues to receive additional help, via a parallel program called MARSS. It’s part of a trend that involves putting private ISR planes on the front lines…

• The MARSS Program
• Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings
  
  
  Continue Reading… »

LHA-R Concept
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Long-lead materials, FY 2012 budget request. (March 30/11)

Modern U.S. Navy Amphibious Assault Ships project power and maintain presence by serving as the cornerstone of the Amphibious Readiness Group (ARG) / Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG). LHA/LHD are a key element of the Seapower 21 doctrine pillars of Sea Strike and Sea Basing, transporting, launching, and landing elements of the Marine Expeditionary Brigade (MEB) via a combination of LCAC hovercraft, amphibious transports and vehicles, helicopters, and aircraft.

Designed to project power and maintain presence, LHA-Replacement (LHA-R, aka. LH-X and now the America Class) large deck amphibious assault ships will replace the LHA-1 Tarawa Class. They’re based on the more modern LHD Wasp Class design, but initial ships will remove the LHD’s landing craft and well deck. While its LHA/LHD predecessors were amphibious assault ships with a secondary aviation element, it’s fair to describe the LHA-Rs as escort carriers with a secondary amphibious assault role.

• America Class Ships: 21st Century Escort Carriers
• The LHA-R Program [updated]
• America Class: Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings
  
  
  Continue Reading… »

• US costs of Libyan operation total $550 million so far, according to DoD official.

• Flight International provides an overview of allied air operations and assets against Libyan air defenses, and adds the destruction of a Libyan plane by a French Rafale fighter – after the Libyan aircraft landed. The evolving Wikipedia entry remains an excellent overview of the forces at work so far, and includes a timeline. See also Canada’s National Post, who shows recent events using changing maps.

• While initial goals have been reached, NATO remains divided on what’s next, as are key US figures. Meanwhile, as WIRED puts it: “While Libya War Grows, Obama Team Denies It’s a War.” That’s dangerous territory for an administration with no Congressional approval for its actions, hence a 60-day time limit, and no endgame in sight.

• Fox News and the New Yorker offer different perspectives re: the Libyan rebels, in the wake of allegations that al-Qaeda may in fact be involved. Or, you could ask Canada’s CSIS intelligence analysis agency, which looked at eastern Libya in 2009.

• Russian Army is replacing its Grad MRLS systems with new Tornado-G systems, which have ranges up to 90 kilometers.

• Up to $100 million to Qwest Communications to provide IP services to DoD under the GSA’s Networx program.

• State-sponsored cyber threats to US infrastructure are growing, head of STRATCOM warns Congress [PDF].

• US Army Chemical Materials Agency has destroyed 85% of the US chemical agent stockpile, or a total of 26,019 tons of agent and more than 2.3 million munitions.

• Northrop Grumman’s AMSEC snags US Navy contract worth up to $40.2 million to provide marine design and engineering services to Puget Sound and Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyards and intermediate maintenance facilities.

• Lance Cpl Liam Tasker took a bullet to save his Arms and Explosives Search dog, Theo. But working dogs are more than simple procurement items, and Cpl Tasker’s death ultimately killed them both.

• Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter tells Commission on Wartime Contracting that DoD needs “fast lane” to speed procurement and deployment of weapons in wartime, warns against over-reliance on contractor debarment to combat fraud.

• The US Federal Communications Commission, fresh from its stellar job selling off the B-2 bomber’s radar frequency and forcing a $1+ billion switch, has issued an L-band broadband satellite license that’s likely to interfere with GPS signals. The question “Where on earth does the FCC get its ideas?” may presuppose the wrong answer.

• A small number of defense programs are driving cost increases in DoD’s budget, GAO finds.

• UK is shifting toward the passive-cooling PWR3 nuclear reactor design for its future SSBN nuclear missile submarines. The PWR2 design used in its SSBN Vanguard Class, as well as the SSN Trafalgar, and new SSN Astute Class fast attack boats, reportedly shares unwelcome features with the Fukushima reactors.

• Looks like the November 2008 order to Singapore’s ST Marine for a $135 million, 7,600 ton amphibious ship was indeed from Thailand.

• Indonesia & China sign a defense industry MoU for shared/licensed weapons programs. But does anyone know what a “C-907” missile is?

• Private ship repair firms in northeast Florida will likely be able to support the maintenance requirements of a nuclear aircraft carrier if one is homeported at Naval Station Mayport in 2019, GAO says.

• Philippines invests 31 million pesos to repair military airfield on Pag-asa (Thitu), a disputed island in the Spratly archipelago.

• Lockheed Martin gets C$22.3 million contract to provide live fire target training to the Canadian Army.

• Goodrich snags USAF contract to continue supplying & supporting multispectral cameras for the U-2 spy plane.

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2010-2011 contracts. (March 25/11)

Naval technologies have advanced on many fronts, but one of the most significant is the growing roster of diesel-electric submarines that boast exceptional quietness. Some of the newer AIP (Air-Independent Propulsion) models even have the ability to operate without surfacing for a week or two at a time. In exercises against the US Navy, diesel-electric submarines have successfully ‘killed’ their nuclear counterparts, and in 2006, a Chinese submarine reportedly surprised a US carrier battlegroup by surfacing within it.

The US Navy is slowly moving to beef up anti-submarine capabilities that had been neglected since the end of the Cold War, and other navies are also beginning to adjust. One of the first areas that requires attention is improved detection. That means wider coverage areas, longer baselines, better sonar and other detection systems, and greater use of small unmanned platforms on the surface and underwater. With UUV/USV platforms still maturing, and almost every advanced navy except the Chinese getting smaller due to the cost of new warships, towed systems are a natural place to start…

• The New MFTA [upgraded]
• Contracts & Key Events [upgraded]
  
  
  Continue Reading… »

ROKS King Sejong the Great,
RIMPAC 2010
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2nd destroyer begins operational service. (June 1/11)

KDX (Korean Destroyer eXperimental) is the Republic of Korea’s big surface combatant shipbuilding program. This 3-phased program involves 3 individual classes of ships. The 3 KDX-I Gwanggaeto the Great Class ships are called destroyers, but at 3,800 tons, their size and armament more properly rank them as small frigates. The last ship of class was commissioned in 2000. The next 6 KDX-II Chungmugong Yi Sun-sin Class ships are indeed destroyers at 6,085 tons full load, with a hull design licensed from Germany’s IABG and more advanced systems that include SM-2 air defense missiles. They were commissioned between 2003-2008.

With that experience under their belts, Korea has entered the 3rd phase of the program. Ther KDX-III King Sejong the Great Class destroyers are by far the largest, at 8,500 tons standard displacement and 11,000 tons full load. They carry the AEGIS combat system, along with a wide array of American, European, and Korean weapons and missiles….

• The KDX III Sejongdaewang-Ham Class [updated]
• Contracts and Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings
  
  
  Continue Reading… »

• Want to buy an aircraft carrier? Have we got a deal for you. HMS Ark Royal is up for sale on the Internet.

• Israel Defense Forces deploy first Iron Dome rocket/artillery defense system along the Gaza border.

• Demand for new technologies is predicted to fuel growth in the global defense communications market, according to Frost & Sullivan.

• ATK receives $65.8 million engineering and manufacturing development contract for the US Army’s XM25 auto-ranging grenade gun.

• Lockheed Martin gets contract worth up to $57 million to provide training and technical support for US Coast Guard aviation instruction.

• Israel’s Elbit Systems snags $9.6 million USMC contract to provide the Joint Terminal Attack Controller Laser Target Designator [PDF].

• Pentagon chief Robert Gates says US $1.5 billion in annual military aid to Egypt will continue during democratic transition.

• EADS to cut 600 jobs at its Cassidian defense unit in an effort to reduce costs by EUR 400 million over 3-4 years.

• Iranian government suspected of being behind counterfeiting of digital certificates used to secure Internet traffic.

• The top 5 emerging markets in aerospace and defense – Brazil, China, India, Mexico, and South Africa – should see robust 15.2% annual growth, reaching $260.1 billion in 2014, predicts Datamonitor.

• German Bundeswehr approves EADS Cassidian’s ParaLander GPS-guided cargo paradrop system for deployment in Afghanistan. The system is part of the same trend as JPADS.

• German Army receives 1st Boxer MRAV wheeled APCs for training, as they prepare to deploy it to Afghanistan later in 2011. One more piece of the puzzle, as Germany keeps adding better protected vehicles there.

• Austria’s defense expenditures are expected to decline at a 5.32% annual rate, dropping from $2.7 billion in 2011 to $2.2 billion in 2015, says iCD Research.

• LaBarge gets $4.5 million US Navy contract to provide cable harnesses for the tactical Tomahawk cruise missile.

Northrop Grumman gets $26M order to provide B-1 bomber aircraft mission planning capability. (March 24/11)

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 and Unix-based MPS, while the Navy will move from its TAMPS and the Army from its MPS.

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

• Why no F-22As over Libya?

• If you have complaints about low-flying RAF aircraft, there’s one country that seems to be missing from the official complaints page.

• Want a Type 42 air defense destroyer? Or just an SAS combat smock? Britain’s Disposal Services Authority may be the place for you.

• Germany upgrades Afghan contingent with more protected vehicles, other supplies – to include Marder 1A5 IFVs.

• Russian naval strike aircraft will be reassigned to Russian Air Force by the end of 2011. Naval strike aircraft include Tu-22M3 Backfire long-range bombers, MiG-31 Foxhound interceptors, Su-27 Flanker fighter jets, and Su-24 Fencer attack aircraft.

• ATK snags $49 million US Navy contract to produce 5.56mm and 7.62mm ammunition for use in the MK16 and MK17 Special Operations Combat Assault Rifle (SCAR).

• Sikorsky’s X2 compound helicopter wins the 2010 (100th) Collier Trophy for aviation achievement.

• USAF Air Combat Command’s new HC-130J combat search and rescue plane completes developmental testing, will begin deliveries in August 2011 alongside AFSOC’s MC-130J Combat Shadow IIs. Both are part of the C-130J Super Hercules family.

• BAE Systems gets GBP 22.5 million contract to provide training support to the Royal Navy’s submarine and mine warfare command team.

• Philippine commission finds a “staggering amount” of fraud in military procurement (and pretends to be surprised). Department of National Defense finalizes measures to prevent further fraud. Color us skeptical.

• The UAE is increasing pensions for military personnel by 70%, and giving bonuses to ministry of defense and armed forces staff, in a move seen as an effort to shore up loyalty.