Rapid Fire 2011-12-02: NAVAIR Procurement Management System

• JSF PEO Vice Admiral David J. Venlet said in an interview with AOL Defense that ramping up production quickly while completing tests was a “miscalculation” but he has to live with concurrency, though he questions the delivery pace.

• Northrop Grumman’s 3-year, $8.9M Microscale Power Conversion contract could lead to higher-power radars with wider frequency ranges, without increasing their size. It’s an outgrowth of DARPA’s R&D into Gallium Nitride (GaN) circuits, and is one of several GaN-related contracts Northrop has received.

• MASTERing the CHIRP. What goes with the USAF’s ground-breaking Commercial Hosted Infrared Payload? Why, a MASTER ground control architecture that can expand to hosted payloads on other commercial satellites.

Iron Dome Sees Israel Ramp up, Raytheon Partnership for US Market

Iron Dome concept

On August 16, 2011, Rafael and Raytheon announced a partnership to market the Iron Dome system in the United States. This rocket interception system developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems has an all-weather range of up to 70 km (43.5 miles). To make the system mobile, the detection/tracking radar and battle management/control parts of the system are carried on trucks, while the missile firing unit is mounted on a trailer.

Hydra-70 Rockets: From Cutbacks to the Future of Warfare

(click to view larger)

Hydra-70 is a family of unguided rockets offering a variety of warhead configurations, from smoke and illumination rounds, to flechettes (hundreds of anti-personnel darts), submunition carriers, and unitary warheads up to 317 pounds. These versatile and relatively inexpensive rockets can be fired from a variety of aircraft, from attack helicopters to jet fighters to light helicopters. Hydra-70s have seen use in Afghanistan and Iraq, and they are arguably the world’s most widely used helicopter-launched weapon system. Magellan’s 70mm CRV-7 rockets and Thales’ 68mm SNEB system are its main Western competitors, while countries using Russian equipment have a variety of choices that begin with the 57mm S-5 family, extending through the 80mm S-8 family, and continuing up to the 266mm S-25.

While 70mm Hydra rockets are low cost weapons, and easy to carry in numbers, they’re not very accurate. This makes them problematic choices for urban warfare if limitations exist on the use of force, and sharply limits their value to platforms like UAVs. The US Army intended to scale back production of the rocket system in 2003, but Congress, led by Senator Leahy [D-VT], reversed the decision with a $900 million contract. Production continues to this day, even as technology developments promise to make Hydra rockets a multi-headed battlefield threat once again.

Rapid Fire Evening 2011-06-02: Blast Mitigation

• The UK’s Chief of the General Staff warns that the British Army faces “serious decline” if the government does not fulfill its pledge to increase defense spending after the 2015 general election. Speaking at at the Royal United Services Institute’s Land Warfare Conference General Sir Peter Wall said spending on the army would “require a real-terms growth in the latter part of the decade” in order to avoid such a decline.

• The Deputy Director of the Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation says Russia and the United States will set up a maintenance center for Afghanistan’s Mil Mi-17 helicopters.

• Israel deploys an Iron Dome rocket interceptor outside a town 4km from the Gaza Strip.

• Skydex Technologies signs multiple contracts with the US Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) to provide its blast mitigating Convoy Deck product for about 1,000 M-ATV vehicles. 

• DARPA’s crowd-sourced design crusade comes to the aircraft industry in the shape of a fly-off competition. UAVForge has been launched to demonstrate crowd-sourced design of small, persistent perch-and-stare unmanned aircraft. 

• As the Pentagon tries to save manpower, USAF proposes building an ‘intelligent robopallet’ to load cargo onto aircraft.

Jordan’s Pocket Gunships: Converted CN-235s

AC-235 concept

In February 2011, with unrest engulfing the Middle East, ATK announced a project with Jordan to turn 2 Jordanian CN-235 light transport aircraft into small aerial gunships.

The aircraft would pack electro-optical targeting systems that include a laser designator, aircraft self-protection equipment, and a weapons suite of Hellfire laser-guided missiles, 70mm/2.75 inch rockets (which could include laser guided rockets), and the same M230 link-fed 30mm chain gun that equips AH-64 Apache helicopters. The weapons are all controlled by ATK’s STAR mission system, turning the CN-235s into lethal but relatively inexpensive counter-insurgency platforms…

Iraqi Security Forces Order of Battle, Feb. 2011

(c) DJ Elliott

DJ Elliott is a retired USN Intelligence Specialist (22 years active duty) who has been analyzing and writing on Iraqi Security Forces developments since 2006. His Iraqi Security Forces Order of Battle is an open-source compilation that attempts to map and detail Iraqi units and equipment, as their military branches and internal security forces grow and mature. While “good enough for government use” is not usually uttered as a compliment, US Army TRADOC has maintained permission to use the ISF OOB for their unclassified handouts since 2008.

This compilation is reproduced here with full permission. It offers a set of updates highlighting recent changes in the ISF’s composition and development, followed by the full updated ISF OOBs in PDF format.

UAE Orders $752M Worth of HIMARS Launchers & Rockets

M142 HIMARS

In September 2006, the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced the United Arab Emirates official request High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) as well as associated equipment and services. The total value, if all options are exercised, could be as high as $752 million.

The principal contractors will be Lockheed Martin Missile and Fire Control at Dallas, TX (rockets, system, prime contractor) and Stewart & Stevenson at Sealy, TX (truck platform). The UAE requested offsets, to be defined in negotiations. Items requested include both the weapons platform and a variety of rockets and missiles, and parts of the deal have come to fruition since that 2006 announcement.

France Orders More AT4-CS Infantry Rockets

AT4 firing -
note backblast

Sweden’s Saab Bofors Dynamics recently announced a SEK 150 million ($18.6M/ EUR 14M) order for its AT4-CS infantry rockets. This is France’s 4th order for the unguided system, following purchases in 1996, 2000, and 2003. The AT4-CS fills a niche as a lighter version of Giat/Nexter’s 112mm APILAS, which has some disadvantages that hamper its use.

The 84mm AT4 will not defeat modern tanks, but it will destroy light vehicles and some medium armor. It’s also extremely useful against fortified enemy positions. That’s currently its most common use, hence Saab’s designation as an “Anti-Structure Weapon.” In the US Army and USMC, a modified version is known as the M136, which has been license-manufactured by ATK, and also bought via direct order. The AT4-CS is now the standard version sold around the world, and the CS means “confined space,” thanks to the clever use of a saltwater mass in the back. As the firing pin hits the ammunition and the normally large and dangerous backblast begins, it turns the counter-mass into spray, baffling and slowing the pressure wave to make it safe for use in confined spaces like buildings.

France & Spain Order New Eurocopter Tiger HAD Variant

Tiger HAP & HAC

In December 2005, Eurocopter Tiger and the French/European OCCAR organization for armament cooperation signed a formal contract in Bonn, Germany, to create a HAD version of Eurocopter’s Tiger scout/ attack helicopter . This agreement superseded the official launch ITP (Instruction To Proceed) for the multi-role HAD (Hélicoptère Appui Destruction) version of the Tiger, signed on December 8th, 2004 by France and Spain. It also set out initial procurement numbers for Spain. This was followed by the French DGA’s official announcement re: the restructuring of its own 80 helicopter order.

Eurocopter’s Tiger had always had a very odd setup in that it came in two seemingly incomplete versions (HAP and HAC/UHT), severely limiting its flexibility. The new Tiger HAD variant helps to rectify this, and has entered a new stage thanks to testing and ancillary weapons orders from France and Spain. The latest tests involve RAFAEL’s Spike air-ground missile.

GMLRS Rockets: FRP-V Orders

M270 firing M30 GMLRS

Recent wars have brought a new technology to the fore: precision artillery fire offers an alternative to air support that has a shorter reach, with very considerable throw-weight and repeatable fire, plus 100% persistence and availability in any weather. GMLRS is a highly accurate GPS-guided rocket that can be fired by ground forces 35 miles away and arrive on target, in under a minute, under any conditions, with a 200 pound unitary warhead that will take out a fortified house. That’s very useful. When integrated into a battlefield surveillance/strike setup like Task Force ODIN, their effectiveness is kicked up several more notches.

In July 2010, Lockheed Martin Missile and Fire Control in Dallas, TX received a $469.9 million firm-fixed-price and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for Full Rate Production Lot V procurement for 4,770 total unitary rocket pods (with 6 227mm rockets each), and 530 reduced range rocket pods (RRPR, used for training). Work will be performed in Dallas, TX (15%), and Camden, AR (85%), with an estimated completion date of June 30/13. One bid was solicited with one bid received by US AMCOM Contracting Center at Redstone Arsenal, AL (W31P4Q-10-C-0270).

This Lot 5 buy covers hardware, support, spares, and “obsolescence support” for the USA, foreign partners, and Foreign Military Sales customers, as follows: