FRES-U finalists:
There can be… none?
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FRES-SV weapon agreement; Shake, rattle & roll testing; BAE shifts course in bid to win FRES-SV contract. (March 12/10)

Many of Britain’s army vehicles are old and worn, and the necessities of hard service on the battlefield are only accelerating that wear. The multi-billion pound “Future Rapid Effects System” (FRES) aims to recapitalize the core of Britain’s armored vehicle fleet over the next decade or more, filling many of the same medium armor roles as the Stryker Family of armored wheeled vehicles and/or the Future Combat Systems’ Manned Ground Vehicle family. Current estimates indicate a potential requirement for over 3,700 FRES vehicles, including utility and reconnaissance variants. Even so, one should be cautioned that actual numbers bought usually fall short of intended figures for early-stage defense programs.

The FRES program was spawned by the UK’s withdrawal from the German-Dutch-UK Boxer MRAV modular wheeled APC program, in order to develop a more deployable vehicle that fit Britain’s exact requirements. Those initial requirements were challenging, however, and experience in Iraq and Afghanistan led to decisions that changed a number of requirements. In the end, GD MOWAG’s Piranha V won the utility vehicle competition. FRES-U is not the end of the competition, however, or the contracts. In fact, FRES-U had the winning bidder’s preferred status revoked; that entire phase will now take a back seat to the FRS-SV scout version…

• FRES: The Program
• FRES: Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings [updated]
• Appendix 1 – The British Army’s Armored Vehicle Fleet, late 2006
• Appendix 2 – A New Procurement Approach: System House Challenges
• Appendix 3 – FRES: Key Challenges for the Contractors
• Appendix 4 – FRES Experiments: Electronic Architecture Contracts
• Appendix 5 – FRES Experiments: Vehicle-Related Contracts
  
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Nimrod MR2 at work
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MRA4 declared fit for training, as MR2 fleet retires early, leaving a gap. (March 10/10)

British naval theorist Sir Julian Corbett saw the navy’s proper role as “directly or indirectly either to secure the command of the sea or to prevent the enemy from securing it.” Airpower plays a prominent role in both of those missions. In 1996, Britain began a program to rebuild their existing Nimrod MR2 maritime patrol planes to the MRA4 standard with new wings, new engines, and new internal technologies and mission systems. Unfortunately, that program has faced a series of budget cuts, stalls, and conditions that have reduced the program from 21 aircraft, to 12, to 9. At times, it has been threatened with complete cancellation.

Like Lockheed’s P-3 Orion, Britain’s Nimrod aircraft are also based on a previous airliner design. Unlike the USA, Britain chose a jet-age Comet airframe. They ended up with an aircraft that boasted an unrefueled endurance of over 10 hours and longer range than the P-3, but less-favorable “low and slow” flight characteristics. The British claim, however, that “propeller-engined aircraft make a discrete resonance that can be detected by submerged submarines, whereas the jet noise of the Nimrod is virtually undetectable.”

Both aircraft types would go on to see long and successful service, and both would also be produced in ELINT (Electronic Intelligence) / SIGNIT (Signals Intelligence) versions: the EP-3, and the Nimrod MR1. Both would also face difficult replacement programs, with the USA canceling the P-7 and eventually settling on the 737-based P-8A. Now, Britain must also execute its replacement program…

• Hunters of Subs & Signals: Britain’s Nimrods
• MRA4 Program: The Next Nimrods
• Contracts and Events [updated]
• Project HELIX: Upgrading the Nimrod R1 ELINT Fleet
• Additional Readings & Sources [updated]
• Addendum: Correction Credit
  
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• White House releases its Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative, which includes plans to deploy intrusion detection and prevention systems throughout the US federal government.

• Up to $187.4 million to L-3 for US Navy systems engineering and technical support services.

• ITT snags $45 million order to support US military prepositioned equipment at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait under US Army’s FIRST contract [PDF].

• New Zealand army awards $100 million contract to Lockheed Martin to provide warehousing and repair services.

• Canadian Forces release latest suicide rates, program information. For comparison, the Canadian male rate was 17.9 per 100,000 in 2005, and would be higher if restricted to forces-eligible age ranges.

• Northrop Grumman seeking small businesses to join its GMD missile defense bid. Industry Day on March 11/10, in Huntsville, AL.

• Navantia delivering patrol vessels to Venezuela.

• USAF updating GPS-II ground control software.

• “Bet you’re surprised” category: 3 US Navy facilities nominated for wildlife conservation awards.

• Research and Markets: Study finds that technology companies have role to play in beefing up early warning systems for regional conflicts.

The May 2008 IEEE spectrum magazine, in “The Hunt for the Kill Switch”:

“Feeding those dreams is the Pentagon’s realization that it no longer controls who manufactures the components that go into its increasingly complex systems. A single plane like the DOD’s next generation F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, can contain an “insane number” of chips, says one semiconductor expert familiar with that aircraft’s design. Estimates from other sources put the total at several hundred to more than a thousand. And tracing a part back to its source is not always straightforward. The dwindling of domestic chip and electronics manufacturing in the United States, combined with the phenomenal growth of suppliers in countries like China, has only deepened the U.S. military’s concern.”

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• US DoD to require vendors to meet tougher cybersecurity standards.

• Cyberattack simulation highlights infrastructure, leadership gaps. What keeps cybersecurity specialists up at night?

• Pentagon cites over 100 cyber breaches at US defense contractors and agencies.

• Pwnage: US Army calls in its best VBS2 gamers for a conference.

• Lockheed Martin may battle Babcock to acquire British defense firm VT Group.

• UK begins using new “Python” for mine clearance in Afghanistan, showcases CDE research projects.

• F-35 Joint Strike Fighter’s development schedule to be delayed a year.

• US Army is developing a signal-processing interface to combine outputs from different radar systems.

• Navistar’s $750+ million contract to provide 1,050 more MaxxPro Dash vehicles is expected to restore 400 jobs to the company’s West Point, MS facility, following multiple layoffs in 2009 that had cut staffing to 120.

• Feb 10: RF notes Tory shadow minister’s comment that Britain must be capable of acting unilaterally. Today: read Liam Fox’s full speech to the RUSI re: Britain’s coming defense review and challenges.

• Hollywood scriptwriters are preparing scenarios for the Cyber Shockwave exercise on Feb 16/10 involving top US government officials. The event is sponsored by industry and will be covered by CNN.

• France’s DGA procurement agency offers 2009 summary [ in French], says average program delays will be slightly longer.

• VCCT simulators improve convoy training, give US and allied forces an OODA loop advantage.

• Pros and Cons of Stryker wheeled APCs in Afghanistan. The Canadians know this debate well.

• Pentagon set to create a project office to manage “non standard” helicopter buys for allies – like Mi-17s for Iraq and Afghanistan.

• First flight of revamped German CH-53GA helicopter at Donauworth.

• Northrop Grumman delivers 1st AN/ZPY-1 STARlite radars for the Army’s Warrior ER/MP UAS under a $78.5 million contract.

• Northrop Grumman clarifies its SPQ-9B radar contract.

• General Dynamics awards an $18 million contract to Northrop Grumman to produce LRS-2000 rate sensor assemblies for US Army’s M1A1 Abrams tank.

• SAIC to develop integrated crew member simulators for the CH-47 Chinook and UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters under the US Army’s $17.5 billion STOC II contract vehicle.

• Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne hot-fire tests RS-68A upgraded engine for Delta IV rocket.

• VTOL UAV funding from… the State of Maryland.

• Iranian president warns Israel against pre-emptive attack.

• Japan and South Korea are demanding that North Korea return to talks to end its nuclear weapons program.

• Ike’s copy of Germany’s WW II surrender document up for sale – just $2.95 million.

MHFCS Fixed Network Nodes
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To provide Australian armed forces with an integrated communications system, the Australian Defence Force contracted with Boeing Defence Australia, a subsidiary of US-based Boeing, to deploy an integrated HF communications system throughout the country, replacing the separate HF communications systems operated by each service.

The A$628 million (US$547 million) system – called the Modernized High Frequency Communications System (MHFCS) – provides the ADF with a nation-wide secure command and control network for all of the armed forces. The project is divided into two phases [pdf] – the MHFCS core system and the final system. The core system was delivered in October 2004, and the final system was introduced into service on Sept 24/09. Boeing expects Australia to formally accept the final system in March 2010.

On Feb 4/10, Boeing Defence Australia announced that the MHFCS final system completed 130 days in service…

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• US QDR 2010 (Quadrennial Defense Review) in bullet points. Plus, some questions to think about. And what about small business and innovation?

• US Army to spend $7 billion to develop replacement for cancelled FCS manned ground vehicles.

• Portuguese Institute of International Relations and Security (IPRIS) – Using BRIC to build at sea: The Brazil-China aircraft carrier agreement and shifting naval power [PDF].

• London-based IISS’s annual military balance report warns that cyber warfare threat is growing.

• Georgian satellite channel taken off-air by French firm as a condition of the proposed Mistral Class amphibious ship sale.

• Eurojet says it will share single-crystal engine blade technologies with India if Eurofighter wins MMRCA, or EJ200 engine is selected for the LCA Tejas Mk2.

• US Intel community funds power-generating silicone implants. No, really.

• Is a Golden Age of the Silicon Economy just ahead of us? That’s silicON – but if the above is true, we suppose it could be silicone…

• Northrop Grumman posts higher quarterly sales across nearly all of its businesses. What do the analysts have to say?

• Canada’s CAE gets C$58 million ($54 million) in Germany military contracts, including several contracts to provide flight simulator upgrade, maintenance and training support.

• Spiderman gets military assignment: DARPA’s web crawler device could enable US special ops forces to scale walls.

• IBM to develop secure cloud computing for US Air Force networks.

• US Air Force mulls $2 billion order for 100 light-weight armed counter-insurgency planes.

• The Royal Navy flagship HMS Illustrious arrives in Scotland to undergo a £40 million ($63 million) maintenance and upgrade program.

• Barak LR-SAM with 120 km range to fly in August 2010?

• Canada’s submarines – finally operational by 2012?

• Is a shortfall in the number of Pashto interpreters threatening the Afghan war effort?

Cloud Computing Diagram
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The commercial IT sector has been using “cloud computing” for a number of years. Cloud computing is a term that describes how large scale computer infrastructure can tap the power of the Internet to perform complex tasks.

Cloud computing allows computer users to realize efficiency and cost savings by using shared IT resources such as applications, storage devices and servers that are delivered as services over the Internet.

The US Air Force wants to tap this technology for its complex IT needs. An obvious problem for the Air Force is the security of accessing information from remote locations not on its secure servers. The Air Force has tasked IBM to come up with a solution to this problem…

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Unisys Clearpath Server
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While it might be more thrilling to imagine US Special Operations Forces getting critical intelligence about enemy movements through a laptop computer in the field, the bread and butter of US Department of Defense IT are mainframe computers. They have the computing power necessary to process the huge amount of information generated by the sprawling DoD bureaucracy.

One of the major suppliers of mainframe computers to the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) is Unisys. Since 1983, Unisys has been providing mainframe computer capacity for US Air Force logistics through DISA, the DoD agency that provides command, control and computing capabilities to the US services, other DoD agencies, and coalition partners.

On Feb 3/10, Unisys announced that it received a renewal of its contract to provide mainframe computer processing capacity and support services to DISA in support of USAF logistics and Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) financial activities. The contract is worth an estimated $187 million over 5 years.

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