An M4 – or is it?

Smith & Wesson out of IC competition; So is USMC. (Nov 17/11)

The 5.56mm M-16 has been the USA’s primary battle rifle since the Vietnam war, undergoing changes into progressive versions like the M16A4 widely fielded by the US Marine Corps, “Commando” carbine versions, etc. The M4 Carbine is the latest member of the M16 family, offering a shorter weapon more suited to close-quarters battle, or use by units who would find a full-length rifle too bulky.

In 2006 an Army solicitation for competitive procurement of 5.56mm carbine designs was withdrawn, once sole-source incumbent Colt dropped its prices. The DoD’s Inspector General weighed in with a critical report, but the Army dissented, defending its practices as a sound negotiating approach that saved the taxpayers money. As it turns out, there’s a sequel. A major sequel, that’s only getting bigger with time.

The M4/M16 family is both praised and criticized for its current performance in the field. In recent years, the M4 finished dead last in a sandstorm reliability test, against 3 competitors that include a convertible M4 variant. Worse, the 4th place M4 had over 3.5x more jams than the 3rd place finisher. Was that a blip in M4 buys, or a breaking point? DID explains the effort, the issues, and the options, as the Army moves forward with an “Individual Carbine” competition. But will it actually replace the M4?...

• The M4 Carbine
• Nobody Loves Me but My Mother – and She Could Be Jivin’ Too…
• The Cry for Competition: How Much Is That HK In the Window?
• UPDATES: The Tests, Reactions, and Subsequent Developments
• Any Last Words?
• M4 Carbine Contracts Announced to Date
• Additional Readings & Sources – News & Developments [updated]
• Additional Readings & Sources: Weapons & Background
• Appendix A: Testing, Testing – Fairly?
  Continue Reading… »

M4 carbine, firing

Guest Article by Daniel E. Watters

On June 14/11, the US Army released a pre-solicitation notice for the procurement of approximately 70,000 to 100,000 M4 and M4A1 carbines in a best value competition (W56HZV-10-R-0593). This represents the first time that the procurement of the M4/M4A1 has not been limited to Colt Defense. How was this point reached, exactly what are the Army’s options, and how that may affect the Individual Carbine competition?

There’s still a very good chance that the competition for a new replacement rifle will meet the fate of previous competitions, and the Army will continue to buy the M4…

• The Infamous M4 Addendum
• What Second Sourcing Really Means
• The Individual Carbine
• Additional Readings
  Continue Reading… »

M240L

FN Manufacturing, LLC in Columbia, SC received a $28.1 million firm-fixed-price contract for 3,053 of their M240L 7.62mm general purpose machine guns. Work will be performed in Columbia, SC, with an estimated completion date of Sept 30/12. One bid was solicited with one bid accepted by the U.S. Army Contracting Command in Picatinny Arsenal, NJ (W15QKN-09-C-0108).

The M240 is widely used within NATO, and aside from a few carrying annoyances, it’s a good gun: reliable, with good accuracy and rate of fire. It can be mounted on vehicles and helicopters, or carried on foot, and the gun is convertible between these modes. The M240 has moved into a more central role with US forces in Afghanistan, where engagements often take place at 300+ meter ranges. At those ranges, the platoon’s M240 GPMGs and 7.62mm designated marksman rifles may be the only truly effective guns they have. Fortunately, the M240L improves on the M240B by using titanium alloy in key sections, with a chrome carbo-nitride coating to resist galling, and a ceramic-based top coat. The result? Same gun, but at 22.3 pounds/ 10.1 kg, it weighs 5 pounds/ 2.27 kg less. At about $9,200 a pop, they aren’t cheap. Still, when you’re humping your M240L over 5,000+ foot total elevation changes in the course of a day, at medium to high altitudes, it feels like money well spent.

• As operations over Libya drain European stockpiles of smart bombs, Defense Update’s “The High Cost of Precision Attack” looks at progress, pricing, and options.

• The world military helicopter market reached $12.6 billion in 2010, and demand is predicted to remain strong over the next decade, says ASDReports.com.

• Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter is encouraged by Wall Street’s view of the defense industry. Wall Street once liked the housing sector, too…

• Emerging markets to invest billions of dollars in missile programs over the next 10 years, according to ASDReports.com.

• Lockheed Martin and TAI unveil the 1st of 30 new Turkish F-16 Block 50s, a couple months ahead of schedule. TAI has built and modified a number of F-16s under license, and operates a finishing and check-out line in Turkey.

• Force Protection adds Lockheed Martin (C4ISR) & Elbit (RWS) to its Cougar bid for Canada’s TAPV MRAP program.

• First SBIRS GEO missile detection satellite reaches geosynchronous orbit – passing the impaired but rising AEHF-1 secure broadband communications satellite.

• Raytheon gets $20.7 million USAF contract to provide 1,900 KIV-77 Mode 4/5 cryptographic units that provide secure IFF communications to reduce friendly fire.

• The outgoing Chief of the U.S. Navy says it is ‘not moving fast enough’ in developing Unmanned Underwater Vehicles. But he sees lasers as the biggest game changer.

• Elbit wins Israeli contract with its “Flying Elephant” resupply UAV – a parafoil, GPS guidance, and a 1 tonne wheeled cargo pallet. It was picked in part for its simplicity and speed of deployment… unusual criteria in places like the USA, which is looking at a much more expensive approach.

• Want to buy an aircraft carrier? Have we got a deal for you. HMS Ark Royal is up for sale on the Internet.

• Israel Defense Forces deploy first Iron Dome rocket/artillery defense system along the Gaza border.

• Demand for new technologies is predicted to fuel growth in the global defense communications market, according to Frost & Sullivan.

• ATK receives $65.8 million engineering and manufacturing development contract for the US Army’s XM25 auto-ranging grenade gun.

• Lockheed Martin gets contract worth up to $57 million to provide training and technical support for US Coast Guard aviation instruction.

• Israel’s Elbit Systems snags $9.6 million USMC contract to provide the Joint Terminal Attack Controller Laser Target Designator [PDF].

• Just how deep is the US Navy’s budget crisis? Very deep, and it will soon spread to the other services. In the Navy’s case, the Congressional Budget Office says it’s underestimating the total cost of its 30-year shipbuilding plan by nearly 20%. That’s actually business as usual, but what if there’s less future money, not more? Information Dissemination asks: Perhaps it’s time for an unbalanced force?

• Russia in talks to buy 500 light armored vehicles for $260 million from French defense firm Panhard General Defense.

• Up to SEK 1.655 billion (about $260 million) to Saab to provide anti-armor projectiles for the 84mm Carl-Gustaf M3 man-portable weapon system. That’s a lot of rockets. For which customer? They won’t say.

• GAO says US Navy failed to consider alternative acquisition approaches to its $50 billion Next-Generation Enterprise Network, which is replacing the Navy Marine Corps Intranet.

• US Navy’s forthcoming MQ-4C BAMS long-range surveillance UAV finishes, but does not close out, its system-level Critical Design Review. The Global Hawk derivative is said to remain on schedule.

• US Army issues a sources-sought notice for RSTA components for Cerberus portable sensor tower, which is used at forward operating bases.

• DARPA kicks off voting for eXperimental Crowd-derived Combat-support Vehicle Design Challenge.

Cypriot Mi-35P

As Rosvertol General Director Boris Slyusar announced the firm’s 2010 trading figures, he revealed that a fall 2010 deal had been signed with Azerbaijan for 24 Mi-35 attack helicopters. That would more than double the current fleet of 12-13 Mi-24s at Baku Kala air base, and make “Hind family” helicopters the backbone of Azerbailjan’s rotary-wing force. Newer Russian attack helicopters like the Mi-28 “Night Hunter” and Ka-52 “Alligator” get a lot of attention, but the Mi-24 “Hind/Krokodil” family of heavy helicopter gunships remains broadly popular around the world, with a secondary troop transport capability that’s unique in the market. News.Az.

Azerbaijan is located on the Caspian Sea, south of Russia, north of Iran, and east of Armenia. A highly-charged territorial dispute with Armenia remains a source of tension, as does protection of the country’s significant oil & natural gas infrastructure, and the possibility of meddling from its larger neighbors north and south. The country is busy building a defense industry of its own, and has pursued close cooperation and joint ventures with a number of foreign countries including Israel, Pakistan, Russia/Ukraine, and Turkey. Beyond its helicopter forces, recent cooperation discussions have involved 9mm Czech Skorpion EVO-III submarchine guns, Russian GAZ 2975 Tigr HMMWV class vehicles, and Pakistani designs for air-dropped bombs.

• Electromagnetic pulse gun developed by Swiss research institute EPFL could be used to explode IEDs remotely.

• Looks like Brazil won’t be buying any new fighters in 2011.

• Belgium’s defense spending is expected to grow at a modest 1.76% per year, reaching $3.7 billion by 2015. Also, the Wallonia regional government comes under fire for approving FN Herstal’s sale of EUR 6.9 million worth of rifles, machine guns and ammunition to Libya.

• US Drug Enforcement Agency sting nails a Taliban-linked drug and weapon smuggling ring, whose price list reportedly included Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and Javelin anti-armor missiles.

• Defense Intelligence Agency awards 2 task orders worth $350 million to BAE Systems for IT support under the agency’s $6.6 billion SITE contract vehicle.

• Telos said it received $265 million worth of IT task orders for FY 2010 under the $9 billion NETCENTS contract.

• Alcatel-Lucent’s LGS subsidiary receives a $22.2 million Army delivery order to upgrade the communications infrastructure at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama.

• CACI snags $44 million in task orders to support the DoD’s Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) under its $494 million JIEDDO Comprehensive Support Services (CSS) contract.

• Aura gets order to provide power systems for the USCG’s Response Boat-Medium (RB-M) vessel, part of a contract awarded to Manitowoc Marine Group to provide 250 RB-M boats for $600 million.

• Thailand receives its 1st set of 6 JAS-39C/D Gripen fighters.

• Afghanistan’s 10th upgraded C-27A light transport plane lands in Kabul.

• Embraer unveils the 1st modified EMB-145 AEW&C airframe for use by the Indian DRDO in its indigenous Tier 2 AEW&C program.

• Israeli/American Arrow system test successfully intercepts ballistic missile.

• Aero India 2011 exhibition takes flight.

• The USA OKs its next-generation SSBN-X nuclear missile submarines for Milestone A studies, to accompany missile compartment contracts already underway.

• Even as reports gather that China has tested Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles of its own.

• How did Northrop Grumman do in the fourth quarter? Depends who you talk to: Reuters | Wall Street Journal.

• Pentagon backs mergers and acquisitions among smaller defense suppliers, but not for the heavy hitters.

• DoD is requesting $7 billion less in FY 2012 than was forecast last year, according to a Bloomberg report.

• US Army wants more “Punisher” XM25 semi-automatic high-explosive airburst weapons for Afghanistan.

• US SOCOM forces stretched to the limit in Afghanistan, commander warns.

• Defense electronics contracts totaled in excess of a billion dollars in January 2011, according to Strategy Analytics.

• Greenbelt, MD-based Gryphon Technologies is adding 60 jobs and office space in Bloomington, IN, to accommodate its $26.6 million logistics services contract with the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division.

• Harris snags $9 million order to supply Falcon II 400-watt AN/PRC-150-C radios for the US Army’s Joint Biological Point Detection System [PDF] designed to identify biological threats on the battlefield.

• Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said that he wants to replace Russia’s iconic Kalashnikov assault rifles and Dragunov SVD sniper rifles, possibly with foreign made weapons. Unsurprisingly, controversy ensues. Media mistake alert: current Kalashnikovs in Russian service are not 7.62mm AK-47/AKMs. They’re 5.45mm AK-74s, which entered service in the 1990s.

• Did the Serbian shoot-down of an F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter in 1999 contribute to Chinese development of its J-20 stealth fighter?

• Israeli firm Aeronautics DS is set to begin manufacturing parts of its Aerostar and Orbiter UAVs, and performing final assembly, in Baku, Azerbaijan. Azeri use of the UAVs will benefit both countries. Since the opening of the Baku-Ceyhan (Turkey) oil pipeline in 2006, Azerbaijan has become one of Israel’s biggest crude oil suppliers. At least, until Israel transitions to a natural gas economy...

• Boeing to slow C-17A heavy airlifter production (14 in 2010, 13 in 2011, 10/yr. after), and cut 1,100 workers – mostly at Long Beach, CA.

• Good news for BAE Systems Southeast Shipyards (formerly Atlantic Marine Florida LLC), as navy contracts for cruisers and destroyers, post-delivery work on Pakistan’s new frigate, and post-delivery work on Littoral Combat Ships has nearly doubled its work force to 1,100 in the past 6 months.

• German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg orders investigation into German armed forces following reports of mutiny aboard a naval training ship, an accidental shooting in Afghanistan, and army mail tampering claims.

• US contractors that provide maintenance work for military equipment are worried that US administration’s plan to bring outsourced jobs inside federal government will cost them billions of dollars.

• US Army aviation worries about long-term helicopter plans. That has been a serious question for some time now, but perhaps privately-funded efforts will help step into that gap. If the Army lets them.

• Hacker sells what is claimed to be administrative control to US military websites.

• US Army releases handbook advising troops on security for social media use.