• Latest on JSF: Reuters and Bloomberg report that Leon Panetta is about to announce that the F-35-B is off probation; Canadian industrial participation; 1st night flight; 3rd F-35B delivered; F-35C tail hook redesign.

• Israel’s IDF now believes that unrest in Syria has allowed Hezbollah to seize SA-8/ 9K33 vehicle-mounted surface-air missiles. They’re worried that Syria’s large chemical arsenal could also be vulnerable.

• K-Street Washington lobbyists see promise in the 2012 retirees, but how’s this for a blunt assessment? “Republicans are bonds. Dems are the options you play with the last 20 percent of your money…”

• The US Coast Guard is getting more and more interested in underwater inspection & surveillance. Their Research & Development Center is currently evaluating an advanced Underwater Imaging System (UIS) from CodaOctopus.

• Meanwhile, WSG has finished the initial demonstrations of their Argus One platform to the U.S. Department of Defense at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Nevada Test Site. Yes, this is our unmanned blimp, and yes, we are happy to see you.

• Could the same gas hydrates that caused the BP Deepwater Horizon’s blowup become a stable, low-energy input energy storage medium for hydrogen?

• Algorithms matter. Researchers have developed one that offers up to 10x improvement on the fast Fourier transform, widely used for tasks like image compression.

• Did the US Army’s policy of refusing to arm MEDEVAC helicopters, in a war against illegal combatants, cause the death of a US service member? Rep. Tom Akin [R-MO-2] is upset. The US Army responds.

• Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Michele Flournoy’s principal deputy Dr. James N. Miller will replace her when she leaves next month according to Yahoo News.

• Memo from the Pentagon: “Multiple U.S. Army Public Health Command studies of basic trainees have demonstrated that shoe selection based on arch type does not reduce injuries.” They do have a lot of soldiers running, so they ought to know a thing or 2. What follows are tips and cautions re: using new “minimalist” running shoes like the New Balance Minimus.

• It’s hard to call people who pay farmers 1/1,000th of their crop’s value Marxists, but FARC tries to wear the mask. Turns out they’re under pressure on the cocaine front, so they’re switching to… cattle rustling.

Deepwater officially done – updates from 2007-2011, as article closes. (Dec 8/11)

The US Coast Guard is currently operating vessels that date from the 1950s and 1960s, and a fleet-wide recapitalization is becoming an urgent priority given its new domestic security responsibilities. That effort is being handled as an integrated, multi-year $25 billion project called Deepwater that encompasses everything from long-range patrol aircraft and UAVs, to new communications and computing backbones, to new ship designs. Integrated Coast Guard Systems (ICGS), a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, has been serving as the program’s overall system-of-systems integrator.

Deepwater has been fraught with difficulties since the program’s inception. The Coast Guard was guaranteed a rough ride due to the issues with its existing fleet and lower status than the military services; its choice of program structure has also received negative reviews (as well as some official reports of improvement) for some time. DID offers some quick pointers to the New York Times and Washington Post articles covering Deepwater, as well as links to additional in-depth background from agencies like the GAO and our own previous coverage.

• Deepwater 2006: A Gathering Storm
• Deepwater: Key Updates [NEW]
• Additional Readings [updated]
  Continue Reading… »

Defender Class RB-S

Huge US Coast Guard projects like the frigate-sized National Security Cutters get a lot of attention, but they can only be in so many places at once. Most people who encounter the Coast Guard do so inshore, and their encounter is often with a “Response Boat – Small.” RB-S was developed as a direct response to 9/11, and the corresponding need for additional homeland security assets. The current Defender Class boats are assigned to the Maritime Safety and Security Teams (MSST), the Maritime Security Response Team (MSRT), Marine Safety Units (MSU), and to small boat stations throughout the coastal United States. They’re used for port, waterway, and coastal security; search and rescue; drug interdiction; immigration-related operations; fisheries enforcement; defense readiness; and law enforcement missions.

As you might imagine, these boats take a pounding. The first RB-S Defender Class boats arrived in May 2002, and they’re reaching the end of their expected 10-year service life. The US Coast Guard is looking to replace them with a new RB-S, and they’ve picked a winner…

CGC Sanibel

Contract for 4 more FRCs. (Sept 22/11)

On Sept 16/05, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Lockheed Martin/ Northrop Grumman joint venture Integrated Coast Guard Systems (ICGS) completed the preliminary design review for a program to buy 58 Fast Response Cutters (FRC). “The FRC is being designed to provide the Coast Guard with a state-of-the-art patrol craft that is capable of conducting simultaneous missions,” said ICGS Deepwater’s FRC program manager Mike Duthu.

That success was surrounded, and eventually overwhelmed, by delays and failures on multiple fronts. More than 2 years after the Coast Guard asked ICGS to accelerate the Fast Response Cutter (FRC) program timeline by more than 10 years, in order to hasten replacement of their deteriorating Island Class patrol vessels, the Coast Guard was still waiting for replacements of any type to arrive. Hull cracking in the first 8 refurbished Island Class ships had made that stopgap unfit for service. Even as delays and technical problems tossed the FRC program about.

When the Island Class refurbishment program was terminated in June 2005, 41 Island Class vessels still plied US and international waters. Their time is running out, but their initial replacement program fared little better. In February 2006, the Coast Guard’s Deepwater system-of-systems Program ‘temporarily’ suspended design work on the FRC-A program due to technical risk. FRC-A was eventually canceled in favor of an off-the-shelf buy, and on March 14/07, ICGS lost responsibility for the Deepwater Fast Response Cutter-B off-the-shelf acquisition as well. What happened next? DID discusses the programs, their outcomes and controversies, the fate of the Island Class and FRC programs, and the work underway to replace them…

• Behind the Programs: The Modernization Imperative
• FRC Plan B: The Sentinel Class
• Program Updates & Contracts [updated]
• Appendix A: Down on the Islands – The Suspended Modernization
• Appendix B: FRC-A’s Not-So Fast Response: The Catch With Composite Cutters
  • March 2007: What Next?
• Appendix C: Additional Readings – Background
• Appendix D: Additional Readings – News, Official Reports & Statements
  Continue Reading… »

• The 1st USAF CHIRP (Common Hosted Infrared Payload) launches aboard SES SA’s Orbital Star 2.4 variant satellite, riding an Ariane 5 rocket from the spaceport in French Guiana. It wasn’t easy, but this is the 1st time the USAF has hosted a military satellite payload on a commercial satellite, and their 1st wide field-of-view infrared staring payload. CHIRP will power on in 30 days, and begin experiments.

• The USA’s 1st JHSV fast transport catamaran, USNS Spearhead, has been christened at Austal’s Mobile, AL yard.

• Alenia North America delivers C-27A tactical transports #12-14 to the Afghan Air force, from the 20-plane program.

• Pakistan has begun fielding Chinese Type 022/ Azmat Class Fast Attack Catamaran missile boats.

• Russia has reportedly given the go-ahead for full production of the SU-34 Fullback long-range strike fighter.

• Elbit Systems lands a contract for perimeter security systems at Haifa port, networked back to the Security Center. Israel has one of the world’s most advanced maritime surveillance systems – mostly based on shore.

• It’s done: United Technologies buys Goodrich for $16.5B ($18.4B counting net debt assumed). Meanwhile the Virginian-Pilot reports that General Dynamics plans to acquire the Metro Machine Corp. ship-repair facility in Norfolk.

• The US Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI)’s Report on Security Clearance Determinations [PDF] states that 2.17M government employees held a confidential/secret clearance as of October 1st, 2010, and 666K were at the Top Secret level. Add private contractors and others gets you to 4.2M people, which the Federation of American Scientists notes is quite higher than previous estimates published by the GAO. Of course getting a clearance is different from keeping it.

• Barry Watts and Todd Harrison at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) look at how to sustain the US defense industrial base [PDF]. Step 5 – Acceptance: the US defense industry does not function like a free market. In order to maintain vital sectors of the industry, it is likely the government cannot rely just on private decisions and need to come up with its own strategy. This will involve defining what is and is not vital.

• The US House of Representatives did vote on a Continuing Resolution yesterday. It did not vote for it though: keeping the federal government funded through Nov. 18 failed 195-230. This stopgap measure will be looked at again tomorrow. Next week Congress will be on recess. Politico, The Hill, Bloomberg.

• In his list of recommendations [PDF] for the committee on deficit reduction, US Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) seeks $1.4T in savings over 10 years. In his recipe: cut the workforce by 10% through attrition, freeze civilian pay until 2015, and cut the contractor workforce by 15%. Many of these come from Tom Coburn (R-OK)’s Back in Black plan from last July.

• Video of the day: 1st hearing from the House Armed Services Committee panel on defense industry challenges, embedded below, worries about small business market access, barriers to entry and deterrents to even bother selling to DoD:
  Continue Reading… »

Ripple effect

Sharp criticism of IAF for aerostat crash, procurement failure; Plans for 9 more? (Sept 9/11)

As countries recognize the need to watch their borders, and especially their coasts, they’re running up against the reality of high operating costs for aerial surveillance. They’re also turning to a logical way around that problem: aerostats. These tethered airships offer very low operating costs and near-constant deployment, carrying optical and radar surveillance gear to altitudes that give them wide-area coverage. Israel has joined the USA as a leading developer of these systems, and a leading exporter as well. One of its customers is India.

In 2007, the Tamil Tigers’ (LTTE), which was responsible for assassinating Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991, attacked Sri Lankan military bases and oil facilities using an unusual weapon for guerrillas and terrorists: aircraft. The implications of those attacks were regional in scope, and in time, aerostats’ value would be driven home by another surprise, this time from Islamic LET terrorists operating from Pakistan. The gaps it revealed in India’s defenses, and the deployment of the existing Israeli aerostat systems to protect critical areas in the attack’s aftermath, strongly underlined the systems’ value. Now India’s Navy is now buying them, too, and additional purchases are expected…

• Flying Tigers, and Unease in India
• The Aerostat Solution
• Updates and Developments [updated]
  Continue Reading… »

• Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and South Pacific Affairs, Kurt Campbell, says that US foreign policy needs to make the transition from the immediate challenges of the Middle East to address ‘long term and deeply consequential issues in Asia’.

• Israel sees the visit of the Chief of the General Staff of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) as an opportunity to influence China’s arms sales to the wider Middle East.

• Russia makes a number of announcements regarding the future shape of its air defense systems. The mid-range Vityaz air defense system is expected to replace the S-300 by 2014, with the short-range Morfey due to be introduced by 2013. It is also expected that S-500 air defense systems will be deployed around Moscow by 2015.

• Saab completes the acquisition of air traffic and defense management systems provider Sensis Corporation.

• The CIA’s former Director of Operations, Chad Sweet, outlines to the Washington Journal US strategies to counter homegrown terrorism.

• South Korean media relays that a Chinese Army publication sees the country’s first aircraft carrier as being utilized to deal with territorial disputes. This contradicts the Chinese Defense Ministry’s assertion that the carrier is for training purposes only.

• The UK’s Disposal Services Authority (DSA) is assuming greater responsibility for plugging the £36 billion black hole in the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) budget. Products it is seeking to dispose of include a replica Harrier jet, Saxon armored personnel carrier and luxury watches for intelligence agents.

• Rumors are circulating that the Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency provided Chinese engineers with access to the remnants of the Black Hawk stealth helicopter that crashed during the US raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound.

C295, delivered

In September 2009, a US DSCA request for 4 C-27J aircraft plus ancillaries and support, at a price of up to $680 million, sparked considerable controversy in Ghana. As we noted at the time, a DSCA request is not a contract. It’s a legal notice under American export laws, and if Congress does not block the sale within 30 days, negotiations may begin.

Ghana is a West African country located on the Gulf of Guinea. Its parliament was chosen to host President Obama’s 2009 Africa speech, and the DSCA describes the country and the sale as ”...a U.S. Government partner which has been, and continues to be, an important force for political stability and democracy in Africa.” As of 2011, however, Ghana is not listed or cited among the C-27J’s buyers or operators. On the other hand, it has become a confirmed buyer of Airbus Military’s rival C-295…

• As politicians send condolences to families of servicemen killed in the CH-47 Chinook helicopter crash, consideration is given to the development of countermeasures to protect military aircraft from low-tech weapons.

• An internal audit of Ferrostal by American-based law firm Debevoise and Plimpton concludes that the firm paid R300 million (about $43 million) in bribes to South African politicians, including current President Zuma, as part of the U209-1400 submarine sale in 2000.

• Israel’s Knesset rejects the Defense Ministry’s request to increase its budget by ILS620 million ($175 million) over concerns that the increase will be used to pay debts with defense industries.

• Raytheon has been selected by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to provide support to its Anomaly Detection at Multiple Scales (ADAMS) project to understand ‘insider’ threats to information systems.

• EADS’ Eurocopter subsidiary delivers 3 EC135 helicopters to the Japan Maritime Self Defense Forces (JMSDF).

• The Bulgarian Government is to sell its 35.8% stake in arms and munitions manufacturer Arsenal Kazanlak. Bids will be welcomed from companies involved in weapons production.

• The Brookings Institution think tank will hold a panel discussion on August 12 to analyze the impact of deficit reduction plans on US national security and foreign policy.

• The Government Accountability Office (GAO) publishes Defense Department Cyber Efforts [PDF]. The report raises concerns about the DoD’s initial responses to cyber threats.

• A senior Israel Air Force Officer (IAF) tells an Israel Technology Group conference that the successful deployment of Rafael’s Iron Dome missile interception system in April prevented an escalation of conflict with the Gaza Strip.

• The US Army awards Hamilton Sundstrand a contract with a maximum potential value of almost $38 million for miscellaneous and unspecified communications equipment.

• Rheinmetall announces that the first basic version of its Acoustic Shooting Locating System (ASLS) is ready for the marketplace.

• Terrabon announces that it has been awarded a $9.6 million contract [PDF] to design a renewable jet fuel production solution for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The Houston-based company’s MixAlco bio-refining technology will likely underpin research and development.

• The Center for Nonproliferation Studies’ (CNS) current Nonproliferation Review includes an article [PDF] stating that between 1997 and 2009 North Korea accounted for more than 40% of the 1,200 ballistic missile systems exports to the developing world.

• Australia’s Ministry of Defence signs a AUD25 million ($28 million) contract with Thales Australia for nine additional training simulators for army crews operating the Australian Light Armoured Vehicle (ASLAV).

• Boeing is working on a new vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft using jets called Pulse Ejector Thrust Augmentors (PETA), based on technology originally developed by Nazi Germany.

• The revival of the state-owned Fabrica Argentina de Aviones (FAdeA) continues following the recent announcement of the company’s upgrades for the IA-58 Pucara counterinsurgency aircraft.