C-130J
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The Hill magazine reports that Lockheed Martin is lobbying the US Air Force to buy an additional 120 C-130J aircraft, under an offered multi-year contract worth more than $6 billion.

The USAF has about 20% of its C-130E/H Hercules fleet on the ground or under significant flight restrictions right now, and has been pleading to be able to retire them instead of spending time and maintenance dollars on aircraft that will probably never fly again. This percentage will continue to grow as the hours continue to pile up. Meanwhile, the C-130Js are performing well in Iraq and Afghanistan, where their performance suffers much less from the heat and high altitude than C-130E/H versions. US Special Forces are also looking to renew their aging C-130 specialty aircraft and gunship fleet, but they worry that platforms like the C-130 won’t be survivable 15 years from now.

Both groups have made noises lately about a competition that could involve Airbus’ recently-delayed A400M, which breaks through the 20-ton cargo barrier that has stymied several US armored vehicle programs. Those rumblings, and the delay, may have handed Lockheed both motive and opportunity to make its proposal….

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OH-58D over Tal Afar
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DRS Sensors & Targeting Systems – Optronics Division in Melbourne and Palm Bay, FL recently announced $48 million (36 + 12 million) in orders from U.S. Army’s Aviation and Missile Command at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, AL. The orders cover FY 2008 electro-optical design and engineering, manufacturing, provision of spare parts, field service support, and general depot repairs for the Mast Mounted Sight (MMS) systems installed on OH-58D Kiowa Warrior scout helicopters, which have seen very heavy use in the current war. See esp. DRS’ explanations of the battlefield benefits of mast-mounted helicopter sights vs. roof-mounted alternatives

This year’s orders are part of a current five-year Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (ID/IQ) contract that has a maximum value in excess of $700 million. Since the beginning of this indefinite delivery/ indefinite quantity contract in December 2003, DRS has been awarded approximately $276 million from AMCOM to produce and maintain MMS systems; DID also covered the $33 million February 2006 order.

Norwegian C-130H by
Torbjorn Kjosvold
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Back in February 2007, the Norwegian Forsvarsnett said:

“The Armed Forces have six C-130H Hercules transport aircrafts today [DID: 335 skv, out of Oslo-Gardermoen]. These were bought in 1969 and are outdated. Recent updates have made them able to be operational until 2012-15, but it is now known that the planes need further work done to them still. Therefore the Norwegian government has started investigating the possibility of either renting or buying up to four new planes of the type Hercules C-130J.”

Faced with the prospect of further C-130H refurbishment work on one hand, and entreaties by the A400M consortium on the other, Norway needed to decide what to do. They did, and the decision promptly came under political attack – but a deal is done now for 4 C-130Js, at a maximum of $304 million…

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Baroness Taylor
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Lord Paul Drayson was an accomplished man when he entered government. The founder of the needle-free vaccination firm PowderJect reaped over GBP 80 million, rose to a seat in the House of Lords, and went from an under secretary position to a full Ministry. He then went on to accomplish a great deal over 30 months as Britain’s Minister of State for Defence Equipment and Support. Britain has become the world’s leading practitioner of availability-based support contracts for a wide range of weapons systems, major mergers of government departments have been undertaken to move that approach forward, and NAO audits have confirmed the effectiveness of the new approach. A Defense Industrial Strategy has been put in place that outlines key technical skills Britain believes it must retain, and industry consolidation and changes have followed in its wake as the industrial base moves to adjust. The country is now on track to buy full-size aircraft carriers for the first time in decades, and other shifts have begun, albeit slowly, in the land sector.

How do you top that? How about by submitting the most unusual, way-out, and flat-out interesting senior official government resignation letter we’ve ever seen. Or are likely to see in our lifetimes…

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DDG-51 modernization
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The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington Navy Yard, DC has issued a cost-plus-award-fee, fixed-price incentive/ firm-fixed-price hybrid, indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity contracts for the Phase II development, qualification, production, and support of the Common Enterprise Display System (CEDS) Display Consoles. The contract will provide CEDS Display Consoles in support of the DDG 1000 Zumwalt Class and and AEGIS destroyer & cruiser Modernization. The CEDS is a family of displays that will be implemented across platform systems on Navy surface ships, submarines, and aircraft, providing a common interface to the Platform Open Architecture Computing Environment. Remote displays will be used in conjunction with display consoles.

This is not a completely new idea. The AN/UYQ-70 (Q-70 program) builds commercial off the shelf computing into a set of ruggedized consoles that are widely used on land, airborne, naval, and undersea platforms in the USA and beyond. Winners of recent CEDS contracts include:

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“Killer Chick”
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The American Office of the Secretary of Defense sent this on to DID, and we thought we’d pass it on to all of our readers in the Washington area. The American Veteran Center’s 10th Annual Conference begins today, and will take place November 8-10 at the Renaissance Washington Hotel. there is still time to register and attend.

The AVC conference is one of the largest annual gatherings of decorated military combat veterans, and will host some of the greatest heroes of WWII, Korea, Vietnam and Iraq/Afghanistan. It features 3 days of speaker panels, wreath laying ceremonies at the World War II, Korea, and Vietnam memorials and an awards banquet. The conference also features salutes to Medal of Honor recipients and service members wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some of the participants include:

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By Tim Oren

This article is a follow-on to the play-by-play discussion in “DARPA Urban Challenge 2007: George Town Races” that looked at events on the course. This article looks at everything that happened, and is likely to begin happening, outside of it.

Looking at the crowds at the 2007 Urban Challenge, you’d be forgiven for wondering if DARPA has touched off another of the famous side-effects from its research projects. The event was open and free to the public. While the teams and DARPA staff were present for the duration, the spectators came and went through the day, making it hard to judge the crowd. But I’d say at least a third and maybe half of the attendees were fans. Some seemed to have found a new kind of southern California entertainment: NASCAR for Nerds!

In reality, the goals of DARPA and the tastes of race fans are in conflict. Safety and reliability aren’t usually compatible with speed and risk. (There could be a future for autonomous bot races on the tube, however. Rumor had it that the presence of Discovery Channel talent indicated a forthcoming special or mini-series on the Urban Challenge.)

The Grand Challenges are like NASCAR in some important respects, however – and a few of them herald changes to the way we think about vehicle platforms, robotics, and more…

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Afghan Army Mi-17s
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An Oct 24/07 report in Canada’s Globe & Mail claims that: “NATO plans to rent helicopters to resupply front lines and remote bases in southern Afghanistan – an unprecedented move that could reduce ground casualties even as it exposes the unwillingness of major European allies to send their choppers into dangerous, Taliban-infested areas.” Which may be partly explained by US Secretary of Defense Gates’ remarks, in a recent European speech:

“As it stands today, non-U.S. NATO nations have more than 2 million men and women in uniform, yet we struggle to maintain 23,000 non-U.S. troops in Afghanistan. This is partly a function of how NATO militaries are organized, and partly a matter of resources – but it is mostly a matter of will and commitment. The same is true for equipment and other resources. Consider that earlier this year the U.S. extended its Aviation Bridging Force in Afghanistan in Kandahar [DID: 20 CH-47 Chinook helicopters] because the mightiest and wealthiest military alliance in the history of the world was unable to produce 16 helicopters needed by the ISAF commander. Sixteen.”

While European defense budgets are low, this is a case of forces being available, but not provided by member states. Charters have already been used to try to fill some of those gaps, but this would be a new step…

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future SSN 777
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General Dynamics Electric Boat Corporation in Groton, CT received a $148 million cost-plus-fixed-fee modification with performance incentives, under previously awarded contract N00024-05-C-2103, to exercise an option for continuation of engineering efforts associated with their role as lead construction yard for Virginia Class Submarines. The contract provides Lead (Construction) Yard engineering support that will maintain, update and support design and related drawings and data for each SSN-774 Virginia Class attack submarine, including technology insertion, throughout its construction and Post Shakedown Availability period. The contractor will also provide all engineering necessary for direct maintenance and support of Virginia Class ship specifications. Work on this contract will be performed in Groton, CT (94%); Quonset, RI (5%) and Newport, RI (1%), and is expected to be complete by September 2008. The Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington Navy Yard, D.C. issued the contract. General Dynamics release re: the Nov 2/07 modification.

The contract was initially awarded in October 2005, and a July 2007 General Dynamics release states that the contract will be worth $890 million if all options are exercised and funded. Previous awards have included:

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DID has covered the stealthy AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles (JASSM) cruise missile’s key characteristics and development troubles. The February 2006 article “Breakup, Interrupted: JASSM Missile Back on Track” noted its 2006 budgetary allocations, and a subsequent article covered the regional military implications of JASSM’s winning Australia’s future strike missile competition. Despite its status as the program that got the Universal Armament Interface started, ongoing production, and efforts to upgrade the missiles with a full 2-way targeting and reporting link and range extension from 200 to 500 miles, the JASSM program remains troubled by very low test success scores that imperil its existence. Over 11 years of development, problems have arisen with its engine, warhead, power, electrical and other systems. Spring 2007 tests demonstrated guidance and detonation failures, testing success rates since December 2006 are reportedly just 58%, and the program has been reported to Congress for cost breaches.

Now a related and rather public controversy has boiled over, thanks to a United Press International article by Theodore Gaillard. Gaillard’s piece cites testing and reliability issues with the missile, but it also goes a step further and argues that JASSM is the wrong concept. In response, his articles have provoked an official reply from Lockheed Martin that directly addresses his arguments….

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