HUG a Hornet today!

In 2008, the Northrop Grumman/ Rafael LITENING surveillance and targeting pod was chosen as the preferred surveillance and weapons targeting system for Australia’s upgraded F/A-18A/B Hornet fighter aircraft, in a contract worth more than $100 million. While the make was not disclosed in releases, DID was able to get confirmation that the order was for advanced model LITENING AT pods, that the effort is part of the Defence Procurement Office, Tactical Fighter Systems Program Office’s Hornet Upgrade (HUG) program, and that the project value quoted is the unclassified value and extends beyond the acquisition of the pods

Australia’s has been running the Tactical Fighter Systems Program Office’s Hornet Upgrade project for its 71 RAAF F/A-18 A/B Hornets, and assessed 3 systems….

• Australia’s Options [NEW]
• Contracts & Key Events [NEW]
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• The US DSCA managed [PDF] $28.3 billion in Foreign Military Sales cases in FY 2011, and another $6.5 billion were made through Direct Commercial Sales, etc. Top 10 buyers were Afghanistan ($5.4 billion), Taiwan ($4.9 billion), India ($4.5 billion), Australia ($3.9 billion), Saudi Arabia ($3.5 billion), Iraq ($2.0 billion), the United Arab Emirates ($1.5 billion), Israel ($1.4 billion), Japan ($0.5 billion), and Sweden ($0.5 billion). Afghanistan is basically US donations, so it shouldn’t really count, but it’s an eye-opening figure.

• Another interesting turn of events in Afghanistan: the country has vast mineral resources (including copper and gold) that the US DOD and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have helped map. The Afghan Mining minister has just opened a tender process to tap these deposits.

• Meanwhile a German government report [PDF in German] points to record weapons exports of 2.1 billion euros (about $2.8B) in 2010. Sales to EU/NATO countries amount to 77% of the total with more than half for submarine sales to Portugal and Greece alone. But with these countries threatened with being U-booted out of the Euro, Germany will probably have to look elsewhere in the future. This might be easier said than done. German parliamentarians are unhappy [in German] about the delayed, partial data they get from the executive about armament sales, especially when they involve countries where human rights abuses are committed. The Bonn International Center for Conversion (BICC) and the Joint Conference on Church and Development (GKKE) have both produced research [PDF, nochmal auf Deutsch] on this topic. Still, this is a drop in the bucket for the 1 trillion euro export powerhouse that Germany has become.

• Hackers are using a vulnerability in Adobe Reader 9.4.6 for Windows to target defense contractors including Lockheed Martin, reports Reuters. Attack emails embedded a bogus “contract guide” PDF attachment.

• Assistant Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Joseph Dunford said the FY13 President Budget should preserve USMC procurement but will see a smaller number of troops.

• RAND’s Arroyo Center has looked at how to optimize truck logistics within the continental United States (CONUS).

• Australian Defence Minister Stephen Smith will speak at an event organized by the Asia Society tomorrow in Mumbai. Beyond allowing uranium sales to India, will this lead to strengthened military ties between the two countries?

• UK Defence Secretary Philip Hammond spoke at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) earlier today. He announced that the final cost of operations in Libya was £212 million (about $330M) – 68% operations costs / 32% ammo.

• The Canadian Army is hosting a counter-IED symposium this week, arguing that improvised landmines are not going away neither will dealing with them. Videos in English and French embedded below:
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TU-142: headed out

Mk54 torpedo request – with GPS-guidance?; 1st P-8i flight; TU-142 overhauled; India’s P-8i order could reach 24. (Dec 5/11)

India’s fleet of Soviet-era maritime patrol aircraft has been upgraded, but it needs to be replaced. Indian naval responsibilities are growing, and the 2008 terrorist atrocities in Mumbai made it crystal-clear that control of their coasts was a necessity. Fortunately, they already had a competition underway. In December 2005, after an attempted buy of Lockheed Martin P-3s fell through, India’s navy had floated an RFP for at least 8 new sea control aircraft. Bids from a variety of contenders, including Lockheed Martin, were submitted in April 2007. Subsequent statements by India’s Admiral Prakash suggested that they could be looking for as many as 30 aircraft by 2020.

The plan had been for price negotiations to be completed in 2007, with first deliveries to commence within 48 months. India’s Ministry of Defence has extreme problems with announced schedules, but their existing fleet was wearing out, international requests for India’s maritime patrol help are rising, and Mumbai’s events provided an extra shove. By January 2009, India had picked its aircraft: the 737-derivative P-8i Neptune, a variant of the P-8A that’s readying for service as the P-3’s successor within the US Navy. DID discusses the geopolitical drivers, the current fleet, the known competitors, Boeing’s P-8i, and key contracts and events…

• With Growing Naval Power Comes Growing Naval Responsibility
• P-8i: Program Timeline & Industrial Participants
• Contracts and Key Events [updated]
• Appendix A: The Competitors
• Appendix B: Additional Readings
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B-2 drops JDAM

FY 2011-12 budget requests; $100M+ Lot 16 production order; UAE wants a variety of JDAMs. (Dec 2/11)

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.

DID’s FOCUS articles offer in-depth, updated looks at significant military programs of record. This DID FOCUS Article looks at the transformational history of the JDAM GPS-guided bomb program, the ongoing efforts to bring its capabilities up to and beyond the level of dual-mode guidance kits like Israel’s Spice and Raytheon’s Enhanced Paveway, and the contracts issued under the JDAM program since its inception…

• JDAM: A History of Transformation
• JDAM: Program & Variants [updated]
• JDAM: Contracts and Key Events, 1996 – Present [updated]
• Additional Readings & Sources
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The UAV market’s low cost of entry is spurring manufacturers around the world to enter, or re-enter, the military aircraft market as prime contractors. That’s also true in the USA, where former aviation powerhouses Northrop and Grumman have a stable of high-end UAVs; and Raytheon unveiled the Killer Bee 4, which will become a full-spectrum UAV family.

Even former fighter manufacturer General Dynamics stepped back in for a while, via a May 2009 partnership between Elbit Systems of America, LLC and General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products…

Harpoon in flight

Multinational Harpoon/ SLAM-ER support contract; Korean test fail. (Dec 1/11)

The sub-sonic, wave-skimming *GM-84 Harpoon is the US Navy’s sole anti-shipping missile, with the minor exception of small AGM-119B Penguin missiles and anti-tank Hellfires carried on some H-60 helicopters. The Harpoon has been adapted into several variants, and exported to many navies around the world. At present, the Harpoon family includes air, sea/land, and submarine-launched versions of the GM-84. Variants such as the land attack SLAM variant and the modern AGM-84K Joint Standoff Land Attack Missiles-Expanded Response (SLAM-ER) will also be covered in this DID FOCUS Article, which describes the missiles themselves, and covers global contracts involving this family.

The Harpoon family’s best known competitor is the French/MBDA *M38/39/40 Exocet, but recent years have witnessed a growing competitive roster at both the subsonic (Israel’s Gabriel family, Russia’s SS-N-27 Klub family, Saab’s RBS15, Kongsberg’s stealthy NSM, China’s YJ-82/C-802 used by Hezbollah in Lebanon), and supersonic (Russia’s SS-N-22 Sunburn/Moskit, SS-N-26 Yakhont, and some SS-N-27 Klub variants, India’s SS-N-26 derived PJ-10 BrahMos) tiers.

• GM-84 Harpoon Family: The Missiles
• GM-84 Harpoon Family: Contracts & Key Events, FY 2007 – Present [updated]
• Additional Readings & Sources
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Rustom-H mockup

3 variants; Rustom-1 flights. (Nov 11/11)

India has not been left out of the global UAV push. The country operates Israeli Searcher tactical UAVs, and Heron Medium Altitude, Long Endurance (MALE) UAVs, placing an additional Heron order in 2005. It has also undertaken development programs for a smaller UAV, the “Nishant”. With its “Rustom” program, however, India hopes to offer a UAV in the Heron/ Predator/ Watchkeeper class of MALE UAVs.

It had also hoped to begin to change a culture and tradition of wholly state-owned development of military hardware, which has not always performed well, or served India’s needs. A recent award has selected a winner, and moved the project forward. It may also serve as a reminder that bureaucracies are very difficult to change.

• The Rustom family of UAVs [NEW]
• Procurement & the Private Sector: India’s Struggles
• Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings
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Iron Dome concept

On August 16, 2011, Rafael and Raytheon announced a partnership to market the Iron Dome system in the United States. This rocket interception system developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems has an all-weather range of up to 70 km (43.5 miles). To make the system mobile, the detection/tracking radar and battle management/control parts of the system are carried on trucks, while the missile firing unit is mounted on a trailer.

IL-76/A-50EI Phalcon:
first delivery

IAF ordering 2 more A-50EI Phalcons?; Article improvements. (Nov 8/11)

In recent years India has been shifting toward aircraft that would give it the ability to patrol and act at extended ranges. In January 2004, India and Israel signed a $1.1 billion contract for 3 Phalcon airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft, as part of a $1.5 billion tripartite agreement with Russia. With the arrival of its first IL-76 Phalcon, India joined the global ranks of AWACS operators. The aircraft will monitor huge swathes of Indian airspace, intercept communications and log radar frequencies, add some ground surveillance, and help command IAF responses.

At the same time, India moved to implement AWACS capabilities on a 2nd, smaller, platform, in order to provide broader coverage. The goal there is to field a Tier 2 platform based on Embraer’s ERJ-145 jet, and Indian radar and electronics, allowing India to join the global ranks of AWACS designers. Just to make things interesting, their arch-rival Pakistan offers a contrasting case study, with quicker fielding of off-the shelf buys from China (Y-8 based ZDK-03) and Sweden (Saab 2000 Erieye)...

• India’s AWACS: Platforms & Programs [updated]
• Updates and Developments [updated]
• Video Briefings from Aero India 2009
• Additional Readings & Sources
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• The US DoD acquisition office hosted the 1st Product Support Manager (PSM) Conference last week. Among the material presented there, we recommend this overview [PDF] of Open Systems Architectures (OSA) and data rights. “Data rights are rights granted to the government for technical data and computer software” which can help DoD maintain competition over the life of a program, among other benefits.

• Also of interest from the PSM event: sustainment metrics [PDF]; this primer [PDF] on the role of PSMs, a position created under Section 805 of the FY10 defense authorization bill. Per DTM 10-015 [PDF], all ACAT I/II major programs must have a PSM supporting them.

• Conundrums can arise when safety procedures meet environmental concerns in the life of a military base. For instance, US DoD policy requires periodic aircraft hangar fire suppression foam system nozzle discharge checks to make sure these systems will perform when needed. But these necessary checks generate nontrivial amounts of wastewater, a liability and another burden to deal with. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command Engineering Service Center think they have an answer with their “NoFoam” design [PDF].

• Meanwhile the US Army is trying to scale its renewable energy efforts through its recently-created Energy Initiatives Task Force (EITF).

• If you’re a US military member preparing to enter the federal or private sector workforce, this US Navy primer will help.

• The WSJ reports that the CIA has made concessions about how it uses UAVs for strikes in Pakistan.

• The USAF’s unique BACN jets and UAVs receive official designations.

• Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Andrew J. Shapiro gave a speech last Friday summarizing the nature of American military support for Israel, which receives $3B per year in funding for training and equipment under Foreign Military Financing (FMF), or 60% of a total $5.5B spread among 70 countries.

• Transfield Services (Australia) Pty Ltd wins A$ 90 million Comprehensive Maintenance Services (CMS) contract for all Defence establishments in South Australia, from 2011-2014, with options to 2017.

• The US Air National Guard has approved the new LITENING G4 surveillance and targeting pod for fielding on its F-16s.

• Bloomberg has a wrap-up on the F-35, one of the few programs that have been identified by name in recent budget cut talks.

• 6th Swiftship patrol boat delivered to Iraq.

• The anti-climatic video below shows US National Guard soldiers loading tanks to be shipped out of Contingency Operating Base Adder, Iraq:
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