CACI International in Arlington, VA received a $125 million task order to provide the U.S. Army’s Communications-Electronics Command’s (CECOM) Fires Software Engineering Division (FSED) with software engineering support for fielded fire support systems. The award, for 1 base year and 2 option years, was competitively awarded under the Army’s Strategic Services Sourcing (S3) contract vehicle. The task order brings the total amount of S3 awards to CACI to nearly $2 billion.

DID has more on the FSED and the CACI team…

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FAC Kfir C7
(click to view larger)

Colombia’s narco-terrorist FARC army has reportedly lost some of its military shine recently, thanks to years of unswerving pressure from the Colombian army. Much of that pressure has been led by the popular President Uribe, who has apparently ruled out a bid for constitutional amendments and an attempt at a 3rd term of office, but allowed a related referendum proposal to go forward. Delays to that proposal now appear to be solidifying Uribe’s term limit exit. Before that 2010 exit, however, a special tax levied in 2006 is set to finance about $4 billion worth of military hardware, and add stronger backing to those military gains.

Colombia’s El Tiempo newspaper reports that the deals are meant to solidify and modernize the military, and will include a wide variety of equipment from American, French, German, Israeli, and Russian suppliers. Additional research has added more details, and key deliveries have now begun.

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Elbit Systems in Haifa, Israel, has agreed to pay $18 million for a 19% stake in fellow Israeli defense firm Mikal. The Mikal group operates through 3 main divisions: Soltam Systems, which supplies artillery, mortars, and ammunition; Symar, which supplies armored fighting vehicles; and ITL Optronics, which supplies sensors for soldiers, unmanned aerial vehicles, military vehicles and battle management systems.

In the first stage of the transaction, Elbit Systems will loan Mikal $18 million. Once regulatory approvals are received, the loan will be converted to an equity investment, and Mikal will issue approximately 19% of its shares to Elbit Systems. Then, Elbit Systems will be granted the option to purchase the remaining shares of Mikal from the other shareholders during 2011 for a purchase price to be determined through an independent external valuation. The Mikal Group is Israel’s second largest privately owned defense conglomerate, consisting of 19 globally-distributed companies focusing on land-based solutions, systems and products for over 80 countries worldwide.

More M777s, eh?
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BAE Systems received orders worth $118 million for 63 more M777 howitzers, bringing the M777 order total to 800 guns. The U.S. Department of Defense is buying 38 guns for the Marine Corps and Army, and Canada is acquiring 25 more through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales program to add to the 12 it already has in service. BAE Systems also received a $3 million contract to reset 33 U.S. howitzers returning from operations in Afghanistan. Both the U.S. and Canada operate M777s in Afghanistan, providing fire support to coalition forces.

The M777 ultra-lightweight towed 155mm howitzer has an integrated digital fire control system, and can fire all existing 155mm projectiles…

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YRH-70 w. Hydras
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In July 2008, the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced Iraq’s formal request to buy 24 helicopters. Based on the request, Iraq seems to be interested in Armed Reconnaissance Helicopters that act as scouts, perform light close air support, and escort other helicopters on dangerous missions.

The IqAF currently relies on a small force of Russia’s popular Mi-8/17 and refurbished Bell “Huey II” helicopters. While the Russian helicopters can be armed, their status as Iraq’s only medium utility helicopters makes them a poor fit for an ARH role. Instead, Iraq looks set to choose between 2 competitors. One is the Bell 407, whose derivative ARH-70A won the competition in America but ran into trouble. The other is Boeing’s AH-6 “Little Bird” light attack helicopters used by US Special Forces, which provided critical fire support during the 1991 “Blackhawk Down” incident.

The July 2008 request also added requests for airborne weapons – something the nascent post-Saddam IqAf has not really had to this point. Now, it appears that Iraq has picked its ARH winner – and issued a production contract. Even so, much still remains to be decided…

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M777: dragon’s breath
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The M777 ultra-lightweight towed 155mm howitzer has an integrated digital fire control system, and can fire all existing 155mm projectiles. Nothing new there. What is new is the fact that this 9,700 pound howitzer saves over 6,000 pounds of weight by making extensive use of titanium and advanced aluminum alloys, allowing it to be carried by Marine Corps MV-22 tilt-rotor aircraft or medium helicopters, and/or airdropped by C-130 aircraft. The new gun is a joint program between the US Army and Marine Corps to replace existing 155mm M198s, and will perform fire support for U.S. Marine Air Ground Task Forces and U.S. Army Stryker Brigade Combat Teams.

Britain is also an M777 LWH development partner, but Canada became the first country to field it in combat via an emergency buy before their 2006 “Operation Archer” deployment to Afghanistan. This is DID’s new FOCUS article covering the M777 program. The latest news includes another order from Canada, more howitzers for the US military, and a RESET contract…

• M777: Capabilities and Upgrades
• M777: Program
• M777: Contracts and Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings & Sources
  
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FH-77Bs, Kargil War
via Bharat Rakshak
(click to view full)

India’s $2 billion purchase of about 400 new 155mm self-propelled howitzers is intended to supplement India’s dwindling artillery stocks, while out-ranging and out-shooting Pakistan’s self-propelled M109 155mm guns.

It seems simple enough, and BAE Systems Bofors had been competing against systems from Israel’s Soltam and Denel of South Africa.

Unfortunately, the competition has mostly served as a cautionary tale, a years-long affair filled with legal drama, accusations of corruption, and more than one re-start. Meanwhile, India’s stock of operational 155mm howitzers has dwindled to around 200. In 2007, a new RFP was issued, and the competition was expanded. Is there an end in sight? Or a potential winner?

There are rumors that a winner in the light 155/39 caliber howitzer competition is about to be announced – and it isn’t the contender that many expected…

• Competition Background
• Contracts and Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings
  
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Begun in 2001, IDEX in the United Arab Emirates has become the Middle East’s biggest defense show. The UAE is a significant buyer in its own right, as illustrated in “UAE Announces Deals at IDEX 2007,” which covered a range of deals for advanced aerial tankers, radios, mortars, mine-resistant vehicles, pistols,fast patrol boats, and more. During IDEX 209, the UAE made headlines again with multi-billion deals for C-17 and C-130J aerial transports, and major deals for new M346 advanced jet trainers and Dash-8 maritime patrol aircraft.

Defpro recently covered a number of IDEX 2009 deals that received less notice. The article below strips out the smallest deals, and adds a number of details and additional background:

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Bofors Archer system
(click to view full)

BAE Systems Bofors’ Archer is a light, air-portable, and highly automated 155/52 light mobile artillery system that can hit targets with great accuracy at ranges up to 50km/ 30 miles. Automation ensures that the crew can fire the gun within 30 seconds of arriving in position, and without leaving the cabin. Archer belongs in the same class as Nexter’s Caesar (France), Denel’s G6 (South Africa), and Soltam’s Atmos-2000 and Rascal (Israel).

To this point, Archer has been a Swedish project, administered by their FMV procurement agency. Funding has been provided for system development and some initial production, but the project’s future has been shadowed by anemic Swedish defense budgets. In May 2007, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed with Norway’s FLO procurement agency. Now, it has evolved into joint development of the Archer artillery system, and an initial contract…

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UK M270+
(click for before & after)

The 2006 controversy over the quality of Harrier support notwithstanding, close air support has proven to be a valuable asset to British forces in Afghanistan. When available and on-station, it provides a high-end counter to the standard enemy tactics of concentration and ambush. The cost of operating modern aircraft, however, and the size of modern air fleets, are both working to put a crimp in that option. Full battlefield coverage that can respond to any emergency within a few minutes is either cost-prohibitive, or beyond most militaries’ capabilities.

Fortunately, the rise of precision artillery fire offers an alternative with less reach, but 100% persistence and availability within its range. By 2010, MBDA expects to begin selling a loitering attack UAV called ‘Fire Shadow’ for use in Afghanistan. This one-shot, rocket-boosted UAV sports a range of 165 km, 10-hour endurance, and a 50 pound warhead. To succeed, however, it will have to outclass an already-fielded option: British forces began using the M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System’s M30/31 GMLRS 227mm GPS-guided rockets and their 200 pound warheads in 2007, as a significant supplement to the UK’s close support options. British forces have recorded over 140 firings of the rockets in Afghanistan, which have earned GMLRS a nickname: “the 70 km sniper”.

During this period, the M270 MLRS has maintained 100% mission availability, often operating in ‘switched on and ready’ mode for 48 hours at a stretch. That kind of use, under conditions that differ significantly from their originally-envisaged role defending NATO from the USSR, created a March 2007 Urgent Operational Request for changes to the vehicle…

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