Yak-130

A February 2006 report noted that a $4 billion arms sale was brewing between Algeria and Russia involving fighter aircraft, tanks, and air defense systems, with the possibility of additional equipment. Those options came through the following month, as a high-level Russian delegation in Algeria closed up to $7.5 billion worth of arms contracts. The Algerian package remains post-Soviet Russia’s largest single arms deal. As an instructive comparison, annual Russian weapons export orders from all customers were just $5-6 billion per year in 2004 and 2005.

T-90 tank

Reuters South Africa quoted Rosoboronexport chief Sergei Chemezov as saying that “Practically all types of arms which we have are included, anti-missile systems, aviation, sea and land technology.” The actual contents of that deal were murky, though DID offers triangulation among several sources to help sort out the confusion. A number of these deals have evolved over time, and other public-source information has helped to sharpen the picture a bit. The subsequent crash of Algeria’s MiG-29 deal, and its ripple effects, are also discussed:

• Detailing the Deal: The Algerian Package [updated]
• Structuring the Deal: Anatomy of a Euro Squeeze Play [updated]
• Contracts and Key Events [updated]
• Appendix A: Algeria’s Appetite for Advanced Arms
• Appendix B: Russia’s Arms Industry Woes
• Appendix C: Additional Readings
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• [Update] The US DOD released its FY13 budget request.

• Budget killer? With TRICARE costs spiraling, pharmacists and lawmakers are calling attention to the fact that the proposed merger of the USA’s only 2 national “pharmacy benefit managers” would not be good for TRICARE costs. If the merger is allowed by the FTC, it will be one more reason to push TRICARE recipients toward mail-order for drugs.

• In the UK’s House of Commons’ Major Projects Report 2011:

We welcome the Department’s better performance in controlling project-level cost increases, but remain concerned that total costs of the top 15 projects continue to rise for other reasons each year. Projects approved since 2002 have shown significantly lower overall cost growth than those approved before this date and since 2008 there has been no overall cost increase from project-specific technical issues. However, in 2010-11 the forecast costs to complete the 15 largest defence projects still increased by £466 million overall [DID: about $735M], and the Department continues to struggle to live within its means.

A note on variables that a Department cannot control: macro-economic factors such as exchange rate changes accounted for 38% of the 2010-2011 increase. Meanwhile the National Audit Office (NAO) reviewed the way the Ministry of Defence is handling reductions in the size of its workforce.

• Japan’s government decided to ease its arms exports policies set in the 60s and 70s.

• The United Kingdom may involve the private sector in running defense procurement. Chief of Defence Materiel Bernard Gray and Minister for Defence Equipment Peter Luff will discuss options under consideration today on BBC Radio 4.

• Finland arrests 2 Ukrainian crew of the British-flagged M/S Thor Liberty, which was en route to China with 69 Patriot surface-to-air missiles and explosives. Germany says “hey, that was our legitimate sale to South Korea!”

• The US Navy’s departure from standard ship class-naming conventions, and insertion of political figures instead (vid. “John P. Murtha” for LPD-26, instead of a city name), has raised a few eyebrows in recent years. USNS Cesar Chavez [T-AKE-14] may have tipped a backlash in Congress. This is so even though that example has far more merit. The T-AKE ships have honored other pioneering political figures, and Chavez was a Navy veteran.

• Northrop Grumman’s LN-251 GPS/INS will fly on the USMC’s forthcoming CH-53K heavy-lift helicopters.

• Manufacturers are working on ground control stations that could let a single pilot manage several UAVs at once.

• Mexico’s Zetas drug cartel had an entire system of encrypted short-range radio relays around their territories, in what amounted to a military communication infrastructure. The NPR report adds that some of their kidnappings have even been designed to get technical expertise – though holding highly technical people hasn’t always gone well for them.

• After the cremated remains of at least 274 fallen US service-members, and 1,762 other unidentified body parts, were unceremoniously thrown into a county landfill as waste, Tom Ricks says that “either the Air Force Secretary, its Chief of Staff, or both” need to resign; “It’s not a colonel’s problem”. He makes a strong case. Meanwhile Congresswoman Renee Ellmers [R-NC] wants to legislate.

• The US House of Representatives approved the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) after the White House lifted its veto threat. The bill should now sail through the Senate and be made into law within the next few days. Which means focus will shift to FY13 and beyond. HASC Chairman Howard McKeon (R-CA) is introducing a bill as he had said he would to avoid sequester in 2013. The Senate is also on it, as per the video at the bottom of this entry. Also, representatives Mark Critz (D-PA-12) and Mo Brooks (R-AL-05) created last week a congressional caucus for Army Aviation (AAC).

• L-3 Communications bought for $210M in cash Kollmorgen Electro-Optical (KEO), a $160M/year unit of Danaher Corporation that employs about 550 people in Massachusetts and Italy. KEO will complement’s L-3s existing Sensor Systems division.
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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]
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• The Latest Defense AT&L [PDF] covers among other topics: contingency contracting (staying clear of mentioning the work of the now closed Commission on Wartime Contracting), the Afghan vendor base, critical path drag in project management, and collaboration between Program Managers (PMs) and Contracting Officers (KOs).

• This Should-Cost template [PPTX] provides a notional guide for presenting a summary of a program’s “should cost” plans and estimates, to flesh out “Better Buying Power” acquisition guidance published by the Pentagon last year.

• The US House Armed Services Committee released a summary of the conference report on the FY12 Defense Authorization Act.

• Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Michele Flournoy has announced she will step down early next year.

• Turkish papers report that Syria’s regime is taking warheads from its chemical weapon stocks, and has armed its medium range missiles. Syria’s Shabab-2 (Iranian) and Hwasong-6/ Scud-C (North Korean) missiles could hit southern and eastern Turkey, which is supporting the Free Syria Army against the regime. Russia, ever helpful, reportedly sent the Syrian regime 3 million gas masks.

• The US State Department says they’ve secured and destroyed around 5,000 Libyan SA-7 and related shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles. The regime had about 20,000, and teams are still trying to account for the rest: destroyed in fighting, abandoned, or…?

• Reports surface that Brazil may want the 3 completed “Port of Spain” Class offshore patrol vessels that Trinidad & Tobago canceled, with an option to build another 5 in Brazil. Brazil has been building its submarine force, and there’s a large naval contract on the horizon to build a variety of surface combatants.

• Norway’s AMRAAM-based NASAMS air defense system is going mobile. With the USA canceling its truck-based SL-AMRAAM, and international interest in the capability, that could be good for Kongsberg’s exports, too.

• Navy Cmdr. Charles Coughlin (ret.) gets 3.5 years in prison, after it’s determined that he faked being injured by falling debris in the Pentagon on 9/11. He had received $331,000 from the victims’ fund, a Purple Heart, and a Meritorious Service Medal.

• 2 OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopters crashed last night at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, WA, killing 4 soldiers.

• In the UK the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) released a scathing report on the lack of cost-effective armored vehicle capability. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) responded rather defensively but as Think Defence argues, what’s surprising about brutal weather and the use of landmines? This debate and dynamic are not new, see for instance MRAPs, Irregular Warfare, and Pentagon Reform [PDF] from the US National Defense University. Back to the UK’s present controversy, a quick summary in the video below:
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NPOESS

The National Polar-orbiting Observing Satellite System (NPOESS) was a joint program of the Department of Defense, Department of Commerce and NASA to replace less sophisticated weather satellites that are expected to fail over the next several years. It would help develop 3-7 day weather forecasts for civilian and military purposes, including weather like hurricanes, tornadoes, etc. Unfortunately, the program ended up billions over budget, and 6 or more years late. Some gaps in coverage are possible during that time, if enough older satellites fail.

In November 2005 testimony given at a House of Congress Science Committee hearing, the Administrator of NOAA and the Undersecretary of the Air Force promised new cost and schedule estimates and policy options, as well as fuller and more rapid information. NPOESS was openly described as “a program in crisis.” Just under 5 years later, that crisis came to an end with a program split into civilian (JPSS) and military (DWSS) systems, and a 5-year NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) satellite that will test key instruments and serve as a capability bridge:

• The NPOESS Program: Basic Briefing
• Hereafter: NPP, JPSS and DWSS [updated]
• Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• Appendix A: Stormy Weather – NPOESS’ Rocky Ride
• Appendix B: Nov 2005 DID Op/Ed: How About “Good Enough, and Working”?
• Appendix C: Additional Readings
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ROKAF F-15K

In late November 2011, South Korea’s left-wing Hankyoreh newspaper reports that a combination of unauthorized examination of an F-15K’s Lockheed Martin “Tiger Eyes” IRST sensor, and concerns that a number of South Korean products contain copied technologies, have halted “strategic weapons exports” from the USA to South Korea. That reportedly includes the proposed RQ-4B Global Hawk deal.

The allegations are single-source, and written by Hankyoreh, but they are also quite detailed:

• We wish there were more elected officials like Rep. Walter Jones [R-NC-3], who has spent 10 years trying to clear the names of 2 pilots involved in a fatal MV-22 Osprey crash. Why didn’t H.Res. 698 (111th) get out of committee?

• RAND Corporation analyzed the root causes behind Nunn-McCurdy cost breaches for the following MDAPs: Zumwalt, JSF, Apache, and WGS. See also DOT&E’s presentation [PDF] from last August on the very same topic, and The Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s just-released report on managing risk in defense projects.

• POGO has more details on the failed IT modernization contract at Andrews AFB that led the US Air Force to ask for the debarment of 3 contractors.

• The Heritage Foundation, the Lowy Institute for International Policy, and the Observer Research Foundation think tanks jointly made the case for US-Australia-India cooperation defense cooperation.

• First battalion of UH-72A Security & Support variant helicopters enter service with the US military.

• The crew of the Taiwanese fishing vessel Chin Yi Wen takes back their boat from about 6 Somali pirates, then contacts the UKMTO naval task force. Seems some of the sailors were veterans of the Vietnam War. 3 sailors injured, and the pirates, uh, “fell into the sea” and haven’t been found. Last week German frigate FGS Köln sank 2 pirate fishing boats and captured several people.

• TKMS Blohm + Voss holds a keel-laying ceremony for Germany’s first F125 expeditionary frigate.

• 3 soldiers of the Welsh Cavalry on a patrol in Nahr-e Saraj, Afghanistan got out of their recently-rehulled Scimitar Mk2 almost unfazed after an IED blast. The 1st video below shows what these tracked vehicles look like.

• The 2nd video below shows the US Navy’s Deep Submergence Unit (DSU) using a pressurized rescue module to practice a submarine rescue with their Chilean peers:
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• Trash into Gold: DARPA has a Phoenix Program to recycle satellites for parts.

• One of the ship blocks for Britain’s new Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier had a fire. It’s out, and doesn’t appear to have done any significant damage, or hurt anyone.

• The RAND Corporation reviewed US Navy major defense acquisition programs (MDAPs) and the unique challenges they face.

• An F-4 training jet crashed in Turkey, killing its 2 pilots.

• A federal grand jury in Texas has indicted 3 people in a $6.5M fraud investigation involving subcontracts to a fake company used to overcharge the USAF for engineering services.

• The US GAO reports its findings on the state of the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) and Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA), says: “Because of its own workforce struggles, DCAA has lagged in completing a number of [contractor business systems] audits and is currently focusing on other high priority areas. GAO found, however, that DCMA contracting officers maintained their determination of many contractor business systems as adequate despite the fact that the systems had not been audited in a number of years – in many cases well beyond the time frames outlined in DCAA guidance.”

• The US Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive published a report to Congress on foreign spies stealing US economic secrets in cyberspace [PDF].

• US Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member John McCain (R-AZ) and Appropriations Committee member Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) sent a letter asking the Secretary of Defense to describe what specific measures DoD would have to enact if the super committee doesn’t reach an agreement.

• The Jacksonville Daily News in North Carolina has a look at projected workloads at Fleet Readiness Center (FCR) East, with or without JSF work.

• Quick look in the video below at how MRAPs and M-ATVs are maintained in Bagram AF, Afghanistan:
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