THAAD on HEMTT
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FY 2011 budget, 275 HET trailers ordered, Recap of 60 HEMTT wreckers. (Feb 5/10)

With its bridge buy of FMTV medium trucks in place and the re-compete proceeding, and initial awards for the potential JLTV Hummer replacement designs underway, the next order of business on the US Army’s agenda was a new Family of Heavy Tactical Vehicles multi-year contract: FHTV-III. That multi-billion dollar FHTV-III contract has been awarded – not as a re-compete like FMTV, but as a single-source solicitation.

Oshkosh has provided the core of this capability for over 20 yeas now. Its Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Trucks (HEMTT) and their 13-ton payloads are the mainstay of the FHTV fleet, serving in variants that include M977/985 Cargo, M978 Fueler, M982/983 Tractors, and M984 Wrecker/Tow; they also serve as heavy transporters for Patriot and THAAD air defense systems. M1074/75 Palletized Load Systems (PLS) and PLS trailers (PLST) are best known for their automated container/pallet loading arms, and for their Universal Power Interface Kit (UPIK) that can add modules for firefighting, construction, cranes, et. al. The M1000/1070 Heavy Equipment Transporters (HET) are flatbeds that can transport a 70-ton Abrams tank – or anything less – in order to save wear and tear on expensive armored vehicles and on the roads. A specialized FHTV truck called the M1977 CBT can even lay bridges.

• FHTV: Upgrades, LTAS, and RECAP
• Contracts and Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings
  
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Night raid
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Irvine Sensors snags subcontract to supply clip-on thermal imagers under $37.8 million US Navy special ops night vision contract. (Feb 8/10)

It was Christmas Eve 2007 and US Army Rangers were searching for suspected Al-Qaeda members in Mosul, Iraq. They were using their night vision goggles so they would have the element of surprise on their side. The story, detailed in a USA Today article, dramatically demonstrates the advantage night vision capabilities provide to US troops on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Rangers found 2 Al-Qaeda suspects who were holding an 11-year-old Iraqi boy hostage. Using their night vision capabilities, they were able to shoot the suspects without harming the boy. After that encounter, a firefight erupted between the Army rangers and Al-Qaeda insurgents, with 10 insurgents killed, including the head of an assassination cell, and no Army ranger losses. As former General Barry McCaffrey, commander of the US Army’s 24th Infantry Division in the 1991 Desert Storm conflict, commented: “Our night vision capability provided the single greatest mismatch of the war.” It still does.

This DID Focus Article will examine how this technology works, how its military application has developed over years, how the technology is used by troops in the field, as well as major DoD contracts for procuring night vision devices. The latest contract was awarded to Optics 1 to provide Clip on Thermal Imager systems for PVS-15A night goggles…

• Night Vision Technology
• Generations
• Riding the Omnibus
• Thermal Weapon Sight II
• Multi-Functioning Aiming Laser System
• Helicopter Systems
• Panoramic Night Vision
• Contracts and Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings
  
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Styker APC in
Mosul traffic jam
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GM General Dynamics Land Systems Defense Group LLC Joint Venture in Sterling Heights, MI received a $253.3 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for follow-on contractor logistics support for Stryker family of vehicles in both garrison and deployment locations.

The 8×8 wheeled Stryker armored vehicle is the backbone of the US Army’s 7 medium armored brigades, with an 8th on the way.

Of the 7 brigades, 3 are deployed in combat zones: 2 in Iraq and 1 in Afghanistan. The Army has 3,320 Stryker vehicles, with more than 640 currently being used in combat.

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LVSR comes ashore
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Order for another 388 LVSRs, and trailers. (Feb 3/10)

Why are trucks a big deal? Because they’re the unglamorous but very necessary backbone of any mobile military force. The US Marines certainly fit the description of a mobile force, and Oshkosh Defense supplies their MTVR medium trucks. In 2006, the Marines took the next step, and chose a winner to replace a worn-down Oshkosh LVS heavy truck fleet that has served since 1985.

Like their predecessors, these new “Logistic Vehicle System Replacement” (LVSR) heavy trucks will usually find themselves transporting heavy equipment, or basic supplies such as ammunition, fuel, and water. The LVSR winner was also an Oshkosh design…

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P-8A Poseidon
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FY 2011 budget request, the US Navy’s self-inflicted 6-month delay, P-8i may have air-air surveillance capability. (Jan 29/10)

Maritime surveillance and patrol is becoming more and more important, but the USA’s P-3 Orion fleet is falling apart. The P-8A emerged from the ashes of the P-7 Long Range Air ASW (Anti-Submarine Warfare) Capable Aircraft program that was begun in 1988. That program originally envisaged an improved P-3, but cost overruns, slow progress, and interest in opening the competition to commercial designs led to cancellation for default in 1990. The successor MMA program was begun in March 2000, and Boeing beat Lockheed’s “Orion 21” with a design based on the ubiquitous 737 passenger jet.

This is DID’s FOCUS Article concerning the P-8A Poseidon Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft, and it will be updated as events and contracts are announced. Filling the P-3 Orion’s shoes is certainly no easy task. What missions will the new P-8A Poseidon face? What do we know about the platform, the project team, and ongoing developments? Will the P-3’s level of global customer coverage give its successor a comparable level of export opportunities? Australia and India have already signed on, but has the larger market shifted in the interim?

• The Controversy: Turboprop, or Turbofan Jet?
• P-8A Poseidon: Platform & Capabilities
• The P-8’s BAMS Companion: Kicking It Up a Notch
• P-8A Poseidon: History, Program, and Industrial Players
• P-8A Poseidon: Contracts & Events [updated]
• News & Analysis: India’s Interest, and Broader Export Potential
• Additional Readings & Sources: Platforms & Program Background
• Additional Readings & Sources: News & Updates
  
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USAF F-16s, Iraq
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Dynamics Research Corp. (DRC) in Andover, MA received a task order valued at $13.9 million under the DoD’s Logistics, Maintenance and Supply Support (LMSS) contract to support the F-16 System Program Office in the Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.

Under the terms of the task order, DRC will provide program management and technical services assisting with the modernization and maintenance of the F-16 weapon system. The work also includes supporting the USAF and various foreign military sales F-16 programs.

DRC is 1 of 6 prime contractors awarded the LMSS contract in March 2008 to provide lifecycle management services across DoD. The contract ceiling is $300 million. The other prime contractors are…

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Those Were the Days
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ODIN gets contract to maintain and monitor network of passive RFID readers at 7 US Air Force Bases and 1 US Naval Air Station. (Jan 27/10)

The US military has a vast store of supplies and equipment around the world. Keeping track of all that stuff has always been a challenge. In World War II, the US Army kept track using IBM punch cards and electric accounting machines (EAMs).

Well today, radio frequency identification (RFID) tags have replaced punch cards and RFID readers and computers have replaced the EAMs. The RFID tags work like “wireless bar codes” that record, track, and manage the supplies and equipment of a modern networked military.

Military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have focused attention on the performance of the US Department of Defense’s (DoD) supply chain management in support of deployed US troops. The availability of spare parts and other critical supply items affects the readiness and operational capabilities of the forces, and the supply chain can be a critical link in determining outcomes on the battlefield.

So, not only does RFID technology help keep track of supplies and equipment, it also helps get critical supplies to the battlefield at the right time and place and to secure supplies en route…

• Key Technologies
• Applications
• Benefits
• Problems
• RF-ITV System
• Other Uses
• Contracts and Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings
  
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US military construction money usually flows out from Washington, DC, to various parts of the country and the world. The amounts are often large and can have a major impact on a community’s economy.

However, there has been a growing trend for that same money to go into the communities surrounding the Washington, DC area. Just in the last month, the Naval Facilities Engineering Command Washington has awarded up to $1.25 billion in construction contracts for work in Washington and the Maryland and Virginia suburbs.

In early January 2010, NAVFAC awarded up to $750 million to 5 firms for DC area construction, and on Jan 27/10, 4 small business qualifiers received construction contracts from NAVFAC Washington worth up to $500 million…

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CACI International received an $81 million task order from the US Army to support the consolidation of Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) resources to the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.

CACI will assist in consolidating C4ISR resources from Fort Monmouth, NJ; Fort Belvoir, VA; Eatontown, NJ; Huntsville, AL; and Fort Knox, KY, to Aberdeen as required by the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission.

The company’s support includes the planning/preparation, disassembly, transport, and synchronized reconstitution of components involving information technology, systems engineering, and network automation…

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Delicate operation
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When you think of military healthcare, you might picture MASH doctors performing surgery on wounded soldiers. Or you might picture a US soldier injured by an IED being rehabilitated in a hospital state-side.

You probably don’t think of computers, networks and Web sites. But modern healthcare, whether military or civilian, depends on information technology for all of the advanced medical technology to work together seamlessly.

To procure military IT, the US Department of Defense developed a contract vehicle called the Defense Medical Information Systems/Systems Integration, Design, Development, Operations and Maintenance Services (D/SIDDOMS 3) contract. Just rolls off the tongue, don’t it.

While hardly Shakespeare, the contract vehicle enables US military services and the US Department of Veterans Affairs to buy medical IT equipment and services through task orders from a group of eager contractors operating under an $8 billion contract ceiling…

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