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Booz Allen Hamilton in Norfolk, VA received a $25.6 million cost-plus-fixed-fee, firm-fixed-price contract to provide expertise in change management, organizational barrier identification and removal, and key enterprise performance metrics to the US Navy. This contract includes a base year and 4 one-year options, which if exercised, bring the total estimated value of the contract to $120.1 million.

Work will be performed in various locations around the continental United States (CONUS), and the base year will be complete by January 2009. Contract funds will expire at the end of the fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured though Government-wide Points of Entry, Navy Electronic Commerce On-line, and Federal Business Opportunities websites, with 3 offers received by the Fleet and Industrial Supply Center Norfolk (N00189-08-D-0022).

Merry Xmas, K-Dog!
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The global proliferation of advanced, ultra-quiet diesel electric submarines has prompted a number of responses around the globe, from initial-stage efforts to mimic a shark’s senses in the USA, to the most obvious route of using more powerful active sonars. In Western countries, concerns have been expressed that these sonars may disorient or scare marine mammals, leading to decompression sickness or disruption of their biological sonar navigation systems. This has led to (unsuccessful) lawsuits aimed at curtailing submarine exercises by Western navies.

In December 2007, USN Rear Adm. Lawrence S. Rice, director of Naval Operations Environmental Readiness, discussed some of the measures that are being taken to investigate the issue, and also mitigate any possible effects. In January, a court battle erupted over undersea training off the coast of San Diego, CA, throwing the issue back into the limelight….

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BR710 engine
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At the end of November 2007, engine maker Rolls-Royce employed around 39,500 people in 50 countries: around 23,300 are employed in the UK, 8,300 in North America, 2,300 in Germany, 3,400 in the Nordic countries, 680 in Asia with an additional 2,000 working in joint ventures, and about 1,500 in the rest of the world. One of their managerial foci is the metric of sales per employee, and this has underpinned their approach in a number of areas, including investments in process controls and IT systems.

The firm is now negotiating with its employees and their unions with the aim of reducing 2,300 staff and management positions (about 5.8% of their workforce), focusing on overhead and support functions. The Independent is reporting that most of the job losses are expected to be in Britain, where executives hope to use voluntary buyouts. The firm says that it does not intend to lay off manufacturing employees, though a separate union/political battle is being fought over the proposed closure of the Merseyside, UK plant and relocation of its production to Mount Vernon, OH, USA. Rolls-Royce’s release said that the firm “will continue to recruit graduates, apprentices and those required directly to deliver growth.”

While the firm cites “external headwinds” like increasing raw material costs and the weak US dollar, the reductions are expected to have no net impact on the Group’s 2007 or 2008 performance, once all costs are factored in. The most likely explanation, therefore, appears to be the straightforward one of a corporation creating a leaner support structure and managing to its key metrics like productivity and sales per employee. Rolls Royce release | Reuters report | UPI report.

Star SAFIRE HD

FLIR Systems, Inc. recently announced a $13 million order from the Colombian Ministry of Defense for its Star SAFIRE HD stabilized, multi-sensor surveillance turrets, to be used on board Colombian Air Force helicopters. That country already uses FLIR Systems products on its Super Tucano counter-insurgency aircraft, but FLIR Systems’ release indicates that this contract was competitively awarded against competitors. Work will be performed at FLIR’s facility in Portland, Oregon, and deliveries are expected to take place during the second half of 2008. Customer support, training, and integration services will be performed from FLIR’s licensed maintenance facility located in Bogota, Colombia.

The fully-digital Star SAFIRE HD packs 120x zoom daylight, low-light, and forward looking infared (FLIR, 640×512 array) cameras, laser targeting and designation options, and IMU relative positioning to transmit coordinates, in a compact 15” turret system that weighs about 120 pounds. Star SAFIREs are also 6-axis stabilized, which means they will remain locked on their viewing point no matter what the helicopter does. Helicopters equipped with these kinds of systems can operate in day, night, or twilight reconnaissance mode against guerrillas, drug runners, and narco-terrorists, providing overwatch along their flight paths and scanning landing zones et. al. to reduce the odds of fatal surprises. If targets are confirmed, or key features need to be pointed out, laser designation can be used to illuminate targets or objects of interest for nearby helicopters and supporting aircraft.

UH-60L
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Colombia recently purchased 15 second-hand UH-60L Black Hawk/ Arpia helicopters from the USA, which would bring the core of its Fuerza Aérea Colombiana and Brigada XXV de Aviación del Ejército (BRIAV) fleets to an estimated 29-45 UH-60 Arpias, about 45-50 UH-1 Huey/ Huey-IIs, and about 16 Russian Mi-17s.

M1117 on base, Tikrit
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Add one more European nation to the bandwagon of emergency mine-resistant vehicle purchases. On Dec 7/07, Sofia News Agency reported that Bulgaria has just signed a deal with Textron Land Systems for armored vehicles. The memorandum is to be in force until 2011, and each year a concrete agreement will be signed for a given number of armored vehicles. The first 7 vehicles, worth 14 million leva ($10.5 million), are meant for the Bulgarian contingent in Afghanistan and are to be delivered by the end of the 2007.

The vehicles are almost certainly the firm’s mine-resistant M1117 Guardian ASVs, an armored car design that combines good mobility and protection with strong anti-personnel firepower from the combined .50 caliber machine gun and 40mm grenade machine gun in its turret. The ASV is popular with US military police, but was removed from the MRAP competition by the US Marines after testing.

Jan 14/08: Textron confirms a $10.2 million contract for 7 M1117 Armored Security Vehicles to the Bulgarian Ministry of Defense, with anticipated delivery of the vehicles in the first quarter of 2008.

HMAS Adelaide
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The FFG-7 Oliver Hazard Perry Class frigates make for a fascinating defense procurement case study. To this day, the ships are widely touted as a successful example of cost containment and avoidance of requirements creep – both of which have been major weaknesses in US Navy acquisition. The result was a capable 3,600t-4,100t anti-submarine platform, with some secondary air defense and anti-ship capabilities via its SM-1 Standard and RGM-84 Harpoon missiles, that could be bought in large enough numbers to fill the Navy’s needs. The ships’ hull twisting and cracking problems were solved early on, and they proved they could take a hit and stay afloat when the USS Stark was struck by 2 Iraqi Exocet missiles during the Iran/ Iraq war. By FFG-36, the “FFG-7 Flight III (Long)” variant, with an extra 8 feet of length that let it accommodate larger and more capable SH-60 Seahawk helicopters instead of the SH-2 Sea Sprites, was the sole US production version.

The bad news was the flip side of the good news. Very little reserved space for growth (39 tons in the original design), and the standard inflexible, proprietary electronics of the time, made updates problematic. So problematic, in fact, that the US Navy deemed upgrading their electronics, radars et. al. for new communications realities and advanced missile threats to be prohibitively expensive. Instead, they removed the 25 “FFG-7 Short” ships from inventory via bargain basement sales to allies or outright retirement, after an average of only 18 or so years of service. The remaining 30 ships received minor upgrades but had their no-longer standard SM-1 missiles removed – and with them, any air defense role. They do not operate in dangerous areas without cover from high-end AEGIS destroyers and cruisers.

FFG 6 fires SM-1
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Australia’s 6 ships of this class have served alongside Australia’s more modern ANZAC Class frigates, which are undergoing upgrades of their own in hopes that it will help them handle the reality of modern anti-ship missiles. With the SEA 4000 Hobart Class air warfare frigates just a gleam in their eye, the government looked for a way to upgrade their FFG-7 “Adelaide Class” to keep them in service until 2020 or so. Recent reports indicate, however, that this A$ 1.46 billion SEA 1390 project has not gone very well…

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HQ Building
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Watts-Weitz in Novato, CA received a $67.7 million firm-fixed-price contract for construction of trainee barracks at the US Army Maneuver Support Center and Fort Leonard Wood, MO. Fort Leonard Wood offers United States Army Basic Combat Training for most non-combat arms soldiers; and more advanced training for motor transport operators, combat and bridging engineers, chemical specialists and military police. The latter 2 specialties were added after BRAC 1995, and Fort Leonard Wood has also been approved as the center of excellence for Homeland defense by the Chief of Staff of the Army – but the base lost its role in Drill Sgt. training during BRAC 2005.

In October 2007, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran a series of articles about basic training at the facility. The base is located in the Ozark highlands about 120 miles SW of St. Louis, and some wags call it “Fort Lost in the Woods” due to its terrain.

Work is expected to be complete by Aug 1/09. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Web bids were solicited on May 9, 2007, and two bids were received. Corps of Engineers, Kansas City District, Kansas City, Mo., is the contracting activity W912DQ-08-D-0057.

Mk19 on M3
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Cape Fox Professional Services in Ketchikan, Alaska received an $8.5 million firm-fixed-price contract for 12,278 M3 tripod mount. The M3 tripod (see associated Field Service manual) is the standard ground mount for M2 12.7mm heavy machine guns and Mk19 40mm grenade machine guns.

CFPS is an Alaska Native Company (ANC) certified in the Small Business Administrations 8(a) Business Development program, and is HUB Zone certified as well. Their web site states that “the purpose of CFPS is to engage in the business of providing information technology IT services and integrated solutions.” Parent firm Cape Fox Corp. has a number of subsidiaries, however, including interests in HDPE piping and coating.

M3 tripod, labeled
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Work will be performed in Ketchikan, AK and is expected to be complete by Dec. 31, 2010. Web bids were solicited on Aug 1/07, and 4 bids were received by the US Army Tank Automotive and Armaments Command in Rock Island, IL (W52H09-08-D-0107).

B-2 drops JDAM
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Precision bombing has been a significant military goal since the invention of the Norden bomb sight in the 1920s, but its application remained elusive. Over 30 years later, in Vietnam, the destruction of a single target could require 300 bombs, which meant sending an appropriate number of fighters or bombers into harm’s way to deliver them. Even the 1991 Desert Storm war with Iraq featured unguided munitions for the most part; the US Air Force did use some laser and TV-guided weapons like Paveway bombs and Maverick missiles, but they were very expensive and only effective in good weather. If precision bombing was finally to become a reality throughout the Air Force, a new approach would be needed.

The Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) became that alternative, an engine of military transformation that was also a model of procurement transformation. The DID FOCUS Article looks at the transformational history of the JDAM program, the ongoing efforts to bring its capabilities up to the level of weapons like Israel’s Spice, and the contracts issued under the JDAM program and its derivatives. The latest news is a $100+ million contract for most of FY 2008’s budgeted production, allied requests, and testing of an advanced anti-jam system…

• JDAM: A History of Transformation (i.e. Continue reading…)
• JDAM: Program & Variants [updated]
• JDAM: Contracts and Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings & Sources

MaxxPro MRAPs
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Israeli firm Plasan Sasa recently announced a $200+ million order to supply Navistar’s International Military and Government, LLC with armoring systems for an additional 1,500 armored MRAP blast-resistant vehicles, to be delivered by the end of July 2008. The Plasan Sasa release says that this armor contract continues and builds on the US military’s June 2007 order for 1,200 MaxxPro vehicles. Their release also says that:

“Plasan, while enjoying international acclaim for its achievements and rapid growth, recognizes the importance of providing employment not only to workers and suppliers in Israel but to workers and suppliers in every one of its user countries. Plasan purchased manufacturing companies in both France and the U.S. “We maintain”, points out Ziv, “and expand our ongoing cooperation initiatives with local companies in our client countries.” Ziv goes on to say, “This is an integral aspect of our mode of operation. We recognize the need to generate employment and to contribute to the further development of technological know-how and manufacturing capabilities everywhere our systems are sold.”