Scratch one flag…
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In April 2005, South Africa’s Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin expected the cost of the SAAF’s 8 planned Airbus A400M medium-heavy military transport aircraft to be EUR 830 million. That converted to R 6.5 billion at those exchange rates, or about $177.75 million per plane in American dollars. South Africa reportedly intended to take delivery of 8 of the A400Ms from 2010-2014, with a further 6 on option. Ordering those additional 6 aircraft would reportedly have pushed the total contract value to EUR $1.5 billion, or about R11.9 billion at those exchange rates. When the deal was signed in December 2006, the price for 8 aircraft and initial fielding had risen to R 17.646 billion, or almost $2.5 billion: about $308 million per plane.

Meanwhile, South Africa bit the bullet and decided to upgrade its 8-9 aged C-130B Hercules planes. The first SAAF C-130Bs were delivered in 1963, and badly needed additional upgrades and refurbishment.

Subsequent delays to the A400M program were set to either extend the C-130Bs’ service, or force reliance on charters, even as the A400M’s likely costs grew. That SAAF aerial uncertainty has only grown, now that South Africa has become the first country to pull out of the A400M program…

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The Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) awarded 6 small business qualifiers firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity multiple award contracts with a combined maximum value of $151.1 million to suppport and maintain US Navy barges.

The companies will provide management, administrative and production services, materials, tools, equipment, facilities and required support for depot level troubleshooting, repair, renewal, refurbishment, modernization, maintenance and testing of Navy living barges and their auxiliary systems (hull, mechanical and electrical), including the potential of periodic docking. Living barges have crew living quarters and galleys.

Four firms will service barges in the Norfolk, VA area, and 2 will service barges in Jacksonville, FL…

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LPD-17 cutaway
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LPD-17 San Antonio class amphibious assault support vessels are a new class of ship which is just entering service with the US Navy. Much like their predecessors, their mission is to embark, transport, land, and support elements of a US Marine Corps Landing Force. What changes are the capabilities and technologies incorporated to perform that mission. This new ship class includes significant internal technology and design upgrades, and is designed to operate accompanying platforms like the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft and the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle amphibious armored personnel carrier.

Between 10-11 scheduled ships of this class are slated to assume the functional duties of up to 41 previous ships, including the USA’s older LSD-36 USS Anchorage class dock landing ships (all decommissioned as of 2004, LSD-36 and LSD-38 transferred to Taiwan) and its LPD-4 USS Austin Class ships (12 built and serving, LPD 14 Trenton now India’s INS Jalashva). The San Antonio class ships may also replace 2 classes of ships currently mothballed and held in reserve status under the Amphibious Lift Enhancement Program (ALEP): the LST-1179 Newport class tank landing ships, and LKA-113 Charleston class amphibious cargo ships.

Welcome to Norfolk…
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Replacing that many existing ships is already a very tall order. While its design incorporates notable advances, the San Antonio Class has also had its share of teething problems. So, too, has the New Orleans shipyard to which most of this contract has been assigned. The number of serious issues encountered in this ship class have been much higher than usual, and more extensive. The initial ships have been criticized for sub-standard workmanship, and it took 2 1/2 years after the initial ship of class was delivered and accepted before any ship of class was sent on an operational cruise. Whereupon the USS San Antonio promptly found itself laid up Bahrain due to oil leaks. Meanwhile, costs are almost twice the originally promised amounts at over $1.7 billion per ship – 2 to 3 times as much as many foreign LPD classes, and more than 10 times as much as Singapore’s 6,600 ton Endeavour Class LPD.

DID’s FOCUS articles offer in-depth, updated looks at significant military programs of record. This is DID’s FOCUS Article for the San Antonio Class, detailing the ships’ unique features and capabilities, its program innovations and issues, ship timelines, and related contracts throughout the program’s history. As has become DID custom, the most recent additions are highlighted in green type. The latest developments include a contract to Raytheon that could be worth over $175 million, and the imminent commissioning of the LPD 21 New York, which contains steel from the destroyed World Trade Center…

• LPD-17 San Antonio Class: Capabilities and Features
• LPD-17 San Antonio Class: Process & Issues
• LPD-17 San Antonio Class: Program, Budgets & Timelines [updated]
• LPD-17 San Antonio Class: Contracts and Events (1996-Present) [updated]
• Appendix A: Additional Readings & Sources – LPD-17 Ship Class
• Appendix B: Additional Readings & Sources – News and Views
  
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The US Marine Corps is moving ahead with plans to build 24 new barracks for single Marines at Camp Pendleton in Southern California. The service plans to add 22,000 Marines from FY 2010-2013, and intends to build modern barracks to accommodate the expected 4,000 Marine increase at Camp Pendleton. The new housing is expected to bring single Marine quarters up to the same standard as married quarters. It’s part of a $2 billion makeover that also includes new training facilities, a fitness center, electrical and sewer improvements, and other facilities.

The latest contracts were awarded to Solpac for repairs to existing single Marines barracks…

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Bridge to the future?
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In its 2009 White Paper, Australia’s Department of Defence and Labor Party government looked at the progress being made in anti-shipping surveillance-strike complexes, and the need to defend large sea lanes, and dropped something of a surprise. They proposed increasing Australia’s submarine fleet to 12 boats by 2030-2040, all of which would be successors to Australia’s a current fleet of advanced Collins class submarines.

The Collins class was designed with the strong cooperation of ThyssenKrupp’s Swedish Kockums subsidiary, and built in Australia by state-owned ASC. The class has encountered a number of issues, including significant difficulties with its combat systems, issues with acoustic signature, major cost growth to A$ 5+ billion, and schedule slippage. Worse still, reports indicated that the RAN can only staff 2 of its 6 submarines put a huge crimp in the fleet’s usefulness. High-level attention led to 29 recommendations aimed at improving conditions and staffing on Australia’s submarines, and those are now being implemented. Their long term effect remains to be seen.

So, too, does the nature of Australia’s future submarine project – and its eventual cost…

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[by John MacNeill]
Goo goo g’joob!

In April 2005, “USN, DARPA See Blimps & HULAs Rising”, looked at a range of projects on the drawing board, including the Walrus heavy-transport blimp (that’s “heavy” as in “1-2 million pounds”) which offered the potential for a faster and more versatile sealift substitute.

In this article DID explains the Walrus concept, details the contractors and contracts involved in this initial award (including a few updates), and lays out the program’s structure… or at least, what used to be its structure. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) funded phase 1 contracts, but things seemed to end in 2006. Yet the imperatives driving the need for Walrus, or even for a much smaller version of it, remain. Is the Walrus dead? What about Paul? And could it, or a HULA like like it, rise again?

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Ask Sherwin-Williams…or PPG
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PPG Industries in Pittsburgh, PA (N00189-10-D-0007) and Sherwin-Williams in Cleveland, OH (N00189-10-D-0006) each received an indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity with fixed unit price contract to provide marine coatings approved for US Navy shipyards.

Each contract contains a 1-year base period with 3 one-year option periods. The combined value of the contracts, if all options are exercised, would total $35.1 million…

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Taming the TIGER
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Stanley in Arlington, VA received a 5-year, firm-fixed-price contract valued at $12.4 million, if all 4 option years are exercised, from the US Marine Corps to support and maintain the Total Information Gateway for Enterprise Resources (TIGER) web portal.

The TIGER portal joins USMC information sources to provide an integrated family of web-based applications…

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UCAS-D concept
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In January 2006, DID noted the uncertain future of the J-UCAS program, which aimed to create Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles (UCAV) for the USAF and Navy that could approach the capabilities of an F-117 stealth fighter. Boeing’s X-45C was set to face off against Northrop Grumman’s X-47B Pegasus, the program had demonstrated successful tests that included dropping bombs, and aerial refueling tests were envisioned.

J-UCAS was eventually canceled, but the technologies have survived, and the US Navy remains interested. In May 2007, “CSBA on Future US Naval Aviation: Unmanned, Too?” highlighted a non-partisan report that discussed at the lengthening reach of ship-killers. Meanwhile, the US Navy’s carrier fleet sees its strike range shrinking to 1950s distances, and prepares for a future with 11 operational carriers – but just 10 carrier air wings. Could UCAV/UCAS vehicles with longer ranges, and indefinite flight time limits via aerial refueling, solve these problems?

Some people in the Navy seem to think that they might. Hence UCAS-D, whose aerial refueling and carrier landing programs are picking up steam. Recent additions include remarks by CNO Adm. Gary Roughead, and full carrier landing gear delivery…

• The UCAS-D Program [updated]
• The X-47B
• Contracts and Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings
  
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General Dynamics C4 Systems in Scottsdale, AZ received a $7.6 million contract to develop a new KG-530 SONET OC-768C in-line encryptor in support of a National Security Agency (NSA) initiative to secure and distribute data at 40 gigabits per second (Gbps) for US military and civilian government networks.

The KG-530 will secure large image, data and video files, classified up to and including Top Secret, that travel through US military and government networks…

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