• US Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) published its latest acquisition guide [PDF].

• Katherine Hammack, the US Assistant Secretary of the Army (Installations, Energy, & Environment), presented “US Army Power & Energy” [PDF] last week during AUSA.

• MBDA announced that it is pitching its Taurus air-to-ground missiles in answer to a Request for Information from the Indian Air Force.

• According to the New York Times, the Obama administration considered using cyber warfare during the war in Libya, but balked because of legal concerns and to avoid setting a precedent.

• South Africa’s Department of Defense discloses the value of its assets but the country’s Auditor General could not audit that statement, reports DefenceWeb. This sounds familiar.

• South Korea’s Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) is reportedly working on a tilt-rotor UAV.

• If Scotland were to break up from the United Kingdom – an event that is actually under serious consideration – what would be its defense policy?

• US Rear Admiral Craig Faller, Commander of Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 3, muses over the value of a CSG in terms of power, flexibility and mobility.

• The Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) released a briefing [PDF] on the state of Iran’s chemical, biological, and nuclear capabilities. The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) also published several updates about Iran’s nuclear facilities and centrifuges.
• Winslow T. Wheeler from the Center for Defense Information (CDI) takes US SecDef Leon Panetta to task on the latter’s assertion that “the American military today is without question the finest fighting force that has ever existed.” Wheeler’s contention: “We got this smaller, older, less ready force not because of less money but because of more.” While some may object to Wheeler’s tone, he’s summoning accurate facts to support his rebuttal: the US Navy does have fewer ships than it used to, and USAF planes are indeed aging on average.

• Video below of a Q&A with Dmitri Trenin at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on Russia where Putin is likely to again become President:
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Another research contract; WSJ Top 50. (Sept 23/11)

Achaogen in San Francisco, CA is working on “preclinical development of novel therapeutics that reduce the virulence of, and inhibit resistance in, Class A Bacterial Pathogens.” Achaogen closed a $26 million round of venture financing in October 2006, and they had raised $103 million in equity by March 2011. Their approach focuses on small molecules that inhibit the emergence of bacterial resistance to antibiotics. Initial efforts had the goal of making the bacteria susceptible to existing fluoroquinolones, and potentially to other classes of antibacterial drugs.

So, just what are “Class A bacterial pathogens?” You certainly know some of them by name…

The US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) has a central role in addressing the threat of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Their Research and Development Enterprise [PDF] is especially wide-ranging, covering everything from protective gear, to predictive and decision-support algorithms, to ScanEagle UAV variants that can monitor WMD levels, to co-operative non-proliferation programs, to development of new weapons like the Massive Ordnance Penetrator. Some of this work has even led to commercial spinoffs, vid. Sanofi Pasteur’s acquisition of VaxDesign and its DARPA/DTRA-financed MIMC model: an in vitro tool capable of predicting human immune response to specific bio-threat agents.

5-6 year, $950M contract. (April 27/11)

Through the Co-operative Threat Reduction program, the Department of Defense provides equipment, services, and technical advice to Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine to assist them in eliminating (or in the case of Russia, reducing) the weapons of mass destruction remaining from the Soviet era, and preventing proliferation. That means dismantling the associated infrastructure, or transforming portions of it to engage in peaceful civilian activities.

The U.S. objectives in the CTR program as established by Congress are to cooperate with the Newly Independent States (NIS) of the former Soviet Union to:

• DARPA’s Prophecy project looks to stay a step ahead of virus evolution, something with strong public health relevance as well as defensive military uses. That’s good, because the US State Department’s new arms control compliance report shows that there is a lot we do not know about the world’s germ warfare programs.

• Research and Markets: The South African defense industry is expected to continue its consolidation trend, with fewer firms competing for more international business. No surprise, given its weak domestic market.

• F-35 flight tests suspended, due to issues with fuel-system software on all variants and with a door hinge on the Marines’ F-35B.

• At least one person on Cryptome thinks the Stuxnet worm is too sloppy to be Israeli malware, and that the “myrtus” aspect of it has a non-biblical explanation. Meanwhile, Iran blusters – and may be about to implement the accompanying social hack.

• Collateral Economy: US military’s 17 facilities in Maryland generate $36 billion annually in economic activity, according to a University of Baltimore report [PDF].

• Cleveland Rocks: Defense News reports that Cleveland Ship has bid for Northrop Grumman’s shipbuilding unit, which Bloomberg estimates to be worth up to $4.6 billion.

• Canada’s AirBoss-Defense gets $22 million worth of orders to supply CBRN protective boots and gloves to the US military.

• Up to $8 million to Kratos for IT and cybersecurity support for the US Navy’s Pacific region network.

• Big Enough Umbrella: US Secretary of State Clinton and NATO Secretary General Rasmussen call for cooperation between the Western alliance and Russia on a missile defense shield.

• ‘Intersleek’ Paint Job: BAE Systems completes GBP 17.5 million overhaul of the Type 42 Sheffield class destroyer HMS Edinburgh; the ship has been fitted with a new underwater spoiler and a coat of new “intersleek” paint that will cut fuel consumption by up to 15%.

• Slimey Solution: US DoD awards a $29.5 million contract to Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Trius Therapeutics to develop antibiotics from bacteria on the ocean floor for defense against biological weapon agents.

• L-3 acquires 3Di Technologies, a provider of secure satellite communications for forward-deployed US special ops forces and in-theater personnel.

• US DoD explores use of mobile solar and wind generators to produce energy in combat zones.

Ebola patient

Significant progress at AVI Biopharma? (Aug 22/10)

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency at Fort Belvoir, VA is awarding contracts to find new anti-viral compounds that are effective against hemorrhagic fever viruses, a class that includes Ebola and other diseases.

Drug development is a long and expensive process ($100 million is often mentioned as the table stakes to get a drug through approvals), and promising therapies do not all make it through the research and testing stages. Even so, the research is interesting:

• AVI BioPharma’s AntiSense Approach [updated]
• Alnylam Pharmaceuticals & Tekmira’s RNAi Approach
• Functional Genetics’ TSG101 Approach
• Peregrine Pharmaceuticals’ Bavituximab
• Contracts & Key Events [updated]
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• Free Fall: Boeing reports a 21% drop in second-quarter profits, but still beats dismal Wall Street estimates. Boeing release

• Sideways: European lawmakers and defense experts are calling on the European Commission to investigate allegation of corruption in awarding of side deals for major weapons systems.

• Dispensable Deterrent? The private Royal United Services Institute questions need for UK to maintain its nuclear-armed missile submarine force on patrol at all times, proposes alternative force structures. Full report [PDF]

• Sikorsky’s X2 compound helicopter flies at 225 knots / 259 mph / 417 kmh, breaking the Lynx’s 216 knot speed record on its way to an envisioned 250 knot test later in 2010. A new Light Tactical Helicopter simulator will help potential customers envision what that kind of tilt-rotor class speed via simpler systems could mean.

• Trust, but Verify: A US State Department report cites Russian compliance issue with international agreements restricting chemical and biological weapons. Full report [PDF]

• Green Accord: US DoD signs agreement with US Energy Department to cooperate on clean energy programs, including renewable energy, alternative fuels, efficient transportation technologies, smart grids, and mobile/deployable power systems.

• Boeing’s Phantom Ray stealth UCAV will head to NASA’s Dryden Center aboard NASA’s shuttle carrier.

• JAGM battlefield strike missile prototypes have begun government test firings.

• South Africa discovers that maintaining its 4 Super Lynx 300. Mk64 naval helicopters costs money.

• GE gets $7 million R&D contract to develop silicon-carbide-based solid-state power switches for USAF aircraft.

• Superconductor step forward: USA’s Brookhaven National Laboratory adds insights into the “pseudogap” phase.

• Quantum dots may lead to dark pulse lasers, with applications in atomic clocks and networking technologies.

• European governments look to defense cuts to balance budgets.

• EADS mulls expansion in India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, where defense spending is expected to grow at healthy rates.

• Israel is cutting its defense budget for first time in years.

• AVI BioPharma snags US Army contract worth up to $291 million to develop antidotes for biological threats, such as the Ebola and Marburg viruses.

• Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS) demonstration satellites, built by Northrop Grumman and Raytheon to track missiles as part of a BMD system, successfully tracked a Minuteman III ICBM.

PolyMedix of Radnor, PA has now received 3 biodefense-related contracts from the US government, including a a $1.6 million, 1-year contract from the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) to develop new “defensin-mimetic antibiotic compounds.” The primary goal of that contract is to devise more effective rapid-response countermeasures against anthrax, plague, and tularemia. Other work may have benefits against pan-Staphylococcal infections, and pneumonia.

How does their proposed approach work, and what makes it novel?

• BAAC to the Future?
• Contracts and Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings
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