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Rear Adm. Jawad &
Chris Beeson
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Recent requests for over $10 billion in military equipment are beginning to thrust Iraq into the industry spotlight for reasons having to do with its government’s own priorities, and not simply as a stage for other nations’ military efforts. Even so, many of the country’s procurement efforts are still managed by outsiders with Iraqi participation, once Iraqis make their equipment decisions. It’s al part of diligent efforts to grow a cadre of new Iraqi Ministry of Defence officials, with the experience and training needed to run an accountable organization within a democratic state. The British Ministry of Defence offers a snapshot of efforts underway, and the challenges involved. Some excerpts:

“After 25 years under Saddam Hussein’s heavy hand, where showing personal initiative could be career-limiting, if not life-threatening, things that we take for granted, like exercising delegated authority, are not a natural function in Iraqi ministries:

There is money in the Iraqi Government’s coffers. Quite a lot of it in fact, and if security continues to improve, many major international companies are poised to come and do business. But knowing how to spend that money, and who they want to spend it with is a new experience for officials used to nearly three decades of international isolation.”

On July 25/07, new UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that the UK MoD Defence Export Services Organisation (DESO) will be shut down. The agency was set up in 1966, when the UK arms industry was largely state-owned and concerned with selling off surplus equipment. Neither of these premises remain true, but as all government agencies tend to do, it has shifted its mission to fulfill other needs within its client base. According to The Guardian, DESO lobbies within Whitehall for export licences, and spends £15 million per year to help British firms sell equipment abroad. British firms pay below-market fees in return for these services. Industrial promotion activities will be shifted into the Department of Trade & Industry (now the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform), with the implementation plan scheduled for finalization by the end of 2007.

Left-wing organizations like Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) have lobbied for DESO’s demise since 1974. In the end, however, DESO appears to have been done in by opposition from Treasury officials on corporate subsidy grounds. Political observers will recall that Treasury has been Mr. Brown’s cabinet department for many years under former Prime Minister Tony Blair. DESO has also been caught up in the scandal over the GBP 43 billion Saudi Al-Yamamah framework, which is connected to Saudi buys of Tornado aircraft and maintenance services and its still-pending purchase of the BAE/EADS Eurofighter.

The UK defence industry, whose exports sit at GBP 5-6 billion per year, is deeply unhappy with the announcement, whose content and timing reportedly surprised them. DESO’s has now been dissolved, and its successor has begun operations, despite BAE Systems CEO Mike Turner’s letter that said:

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Yesterday, Defense Industry Daily started offering subscriptions to readers wishing to gain access to the site’s more in-depth analyses. This Defense Industry Insider package includes access to all of DID’s content, as well as upcoming applications such as in-depth search functions and other industry-focused enhancements. DID’s Defense Industry Insider subscribers gain immediate access to additional chronologies, pictures, and more complete analyses for key weapons programs and trends: reference materials available nowhere else.

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-Tig Tillinghast, Publisher

SSN 757: ICEX-07
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General Dynamics Electric Boat Corp. in Groton, CT received a $46.7 million firm-fixed-price delivery order under previously awarded multiple award indefinite delivery/ indefinite-quantity contract (N00024-04-D-4408) for the FY 2007 docking and selected restricted availability of the Improved Los Angeles Class attack submarine USS Alexandria (SSN 757). Electric Boat will perform advance planning, design documentation, engineering, procurement, ship-checks, fabrication and preliminary shipyard work and/or any other work necessary to prepare for and accomplish the necessary alterations and repairs, maintenance, testing and routine work. Work will be performed in Groton, CT and is expected to be complete by September 2007. Contract funds in the amount of $30.9 million will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington, DC is the contracting activity.

The 7,100 ton Alexandria will soon be familiar to the public, thanks to a cameo role in the film “Stargate: Continuum,” as the submarine surfaces through ice in the Beaufort Sea near the North Pole. Barry L. Campbell, the head of operations at the U.S. Navy Arctic Submarine Laboratory in San Diego, originally presented the idea to Executive Producer N. John Smith at a Stargate convention in Vancouver, Canada. He ended up with a speaking part in the film, an interesting task for the crew to execute during ICEX-07, and great publicity for the service on a show with a reputation for military respect and verisimilitude.

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SU-35
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This one has been making the email rounds lately, and we thought our readers would enjoy it. Sukhoi refers to this plane as the “The SU-35 Single-Seat Multi-Role Super-Maneuverable Fighter”; it’s a major upgrade to the SU-27 Flanker that includes new radar and avionics, thrust-vectoring engines, et. al. Production has been very limited, owing to the near-halt in Russia’s major aircraft programs due to limited funds. Nevertheless, exports remain a possibility and there have been rumors that Russia is looking at a renewal of its air force beginning around 2010. There has been some doubt concerning the aircraft’s exact configuration, but the MAKS 2007 air show appears to offer a settled design – see DID’s Sidebar “Which SU-35?” for more.

The video takes you through the SU-35’s key upgrades over the earlier SU-27 and its weapon fits, then includes a number of “mission scenes” which are laughably unrealistic but still somewhat illustrative of the SU-35’s equipment and uses. The labels are all in Russian, but aviation buffs will be able to recognize most of the items in it from context and background knowledge. Hokey, yes, but lots of fun.

• SU-35 Deep Modification YouTube video.

RU-38 Twin Condor
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DID Recon posts will be used on occasion in order to cover a slew of news via a rapid-fire set of bullet points.

• US Army meets 2006 recruiting goals early.

• India’s $7-10 billion MRCA fighter buy may be accelerated.

• No slowdown in India-Israel defense cooperation.

• China recruiting innovative weapons designers

• US Congress tightens port security requirements.

• BAE’s Nimrod MRA4 goes for cold-weather testing… in Florida. See DID article re: the new Nimrod MRA4s.

• US Army Future Combat Systems receives NLOS-C vehicle and light mobile artillery system at Yuma, AZ for testing. See GlobalSecurity.org NLOS-C article.

• FY 2007 US defense budget proposal delays IT modernization.

• Colombia wants 15 UH-60L Black Hawks (up to $303 million), while Brazil’s Navy requests 6 S-70B Seahawks, 13 T700-401C engines, and support (up to $300 million) [DSCA releases in PDF format].

• Australia modernizing command and control for air operations with ULTRA.

• Eurofighter simulator training software hits version 1.0.

• SUAV (E) in the UK – GBP 200 million ($376 million) for UAV/UCAV technology demonstrator program?

• ...And they’re interested in naval UAV/USVs as well.

• Global Hawk UAV rundown: from Block 10 – Block 40.

• Boomerang UAVs
  
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The Few. The Proud.
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The US Navy and Marines recently awarded a pair of additional contracts as part of their ongoing recruiting efforts. Walter Thompson Co. USA in Atlanta, GA received a $36.2 million modification to previously awarded GSA Task Order M00264-02-F-0213 for marketing and advertising services in support of the Marine Corps recruitment programs. The cumulative value of this contract is $196.5 million. Work will be performed in Atlanta, GA and is expected to be complete by September 2006. The Regional Contracting Office Northeast in Quantico, VA issued the contract.

For the US Navy, meanwhile…

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AdAge reports (via MediaBuyerPlanner.com) that the U.S. Army tonight awarded its advertising account, the government’s largest, to Interpublic Group of Cos. McCann Erickson, New York. The army said the contract could be worth up to $1.35 billion over five years. In making this award, the Army decided against renewing its contract with Publicis Groupe’s Leo Burnett USA. The other finalists were WPP Group’s Ogilvy & Mather, New York, and Omnicom Group’s BBDO, Atlanta.

The review had drawn fire because Burnett’s original contract, slated to end more than a year and a half ago, was repeatedly extended. The Army extended the contract with Leo Burnett a final time in September to avoid an interruption in its advertising during the transition period following its review.

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Defense firms interested in doing business with the Pentagon are limited by federal law in their ability to interact with procurement officials. But that isn’t stopping them from mass advertising. The Washington Post notes that companies may invest years of work and millions of dollars just preparing a proposal for the most complicated multi-million or multi-billion dollar contracts. They don’t always know who is on the decision committee. By blanketing the area with mass advertising, they hope to reach some of the officials who have a say in the matter – or the subordinates, peers, et. al. who influence them.

It seems inefficient, and it is. Still, consider the situation. Larry Allen, executive vice president of the Coalition for Government Procurement, said: “They spend so much money putting together their proposals that the relatively small amount of money they spend on advertising is a way to try to protect their investment in the proposal,” Allen said. “They might do a $20,000 ad campaign on WTOP [a Washington radio station], which gets you some nice air time, but that is a fraction of a cost of putting together their proposal, which can easily cost more than a $1 million.”

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The Canadian Department of National Defence recently awarded a 22-year, $1.77-billion (USD $1.5 billion) contract to an “Allied Wings” team lead by Kelowna Flightcraft Ltd. of Kelowna, British Columbia, who beat out a competing group led by Bombardier’s military training division in Mirabel, Quebec. The long-term contract will provide flying training and support services to the Canadian Forces and international allies. These services will be provided out of the “Canada Wings Aviation Training Centre” in the Southport Aerospace Centre near Portage la Prairie, Manitoba.

This is not the first time the Canadian government has chosen a public/private approach to aviation training. Bombardier was already managing the Contracted Flying Training and Support (CFTS) program, and the public-private NATO Flying Training in Canada (NFTC) program has been running since 1997. In some ways, however, the new “Allied Wings” contract is a logical next step aimed at solidifying Canada’s traditional advantages, as Canada attempts to make itself an international center of excellence for foreign military aviator training.

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