You want scary this Halloween? Well, you could be managing EADS. DID has discussed Airbus’ difficulties before, mostly in the context of BAE’s divestiture and likely investments in the defense field. A related corporate issue also feeds back into the defense sector, however; it concerns the balance of French and German representation within Airbus and EADS, and related political pressures from interested governments.

Of course, Halloween eventually ends, and it would appear that EADS has now resolved the issue….

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Small business qualifier Tribalco L.L.C. in Bethesda, MD received a $9.7 million sole-source, firm-fixed-price contract for information technology support services at Camp Victory, Baghdad, Iraq. Work is expected to be complete by Oct. 25, 2007. The Joint Contracting Command, Baghdad, Iraq, issued the contract (W91GEU-07-C-0007).

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The German Bundeswehr is no longer the formidable force that some remember from the Cold War. The force has been downsized, significant quantities of its heavy equipment have been sold off, and Germany’s level of defense spending has fallen sharply over the past decade and a half. Is the German military transforming, or just shrinking?

The last White Paper on the Security of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Situation of the Bundesweh was published in 1994. Now, 12 years later, a revised White Paper has been published and is available via the Ministry’s web site (English HTML page | Full Report [PDF format]). Defense Aerospace adds a report from Deutsche Welle Radio concerning the new White Paper, which notes a low level of public discussion as a result of differences within Chancellor Merkel’s coalition.

For additional background regarding Germany’s military, its transition since the Cold War, and its future, readers may wish to peruse the following resources:

• German Federal Ministry of Defence (April 7/06) – The NATO Response Force: The driving force behind transformation

• SpaceWar (Aug 31/05) – Analysis: Germany’s New Armed Forces

• Dr. Burkhard Theile, Head of the Strategic Business Development and Technology department, Rheinmetall DeTec AG (July 12/05) – The Defence Technology Industry in a Time of Force Transformation and Internationalization

• Defense News (March 21/05) – At 50, Bundeswehr Struggles with Identity

• American Institute for Contemporary German Studies, The Johns Hopkins University (2004) – Policy Report #11: Reinventing the German Military [PDF Format]

• American Institute for Contemporary German Studies, The Johns Hopkins University (2000) – Preparing Germany’s Armed Forces For The Future: The Bundeswehr at a Crossroads
  
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Falcon HTV Concept
(click to view full)

In a January 2006 update to our original article covering the FALCON HTV hypersonic space plane, DID noted that the a Mach 15+ flight of HTV-1 was supposed to take place in September 2007. Now a Flight International article notes that changes in the FLACON program have led to a change in plans – and may affect the program as a whole.

DARPA and prime contractor Lockheed Martin have decided not to build and fly the two planned HTV-1 craft after subcontractor C-CAT experienced delamination problems with the curved leading edges of the carbon-based aeroshell. Instead, they have shifted efforts to a different HTV-2 design whose multi-piece aeroshell has thinner leading edges and will be easier to build because it’s less of a technical stretch. Meanwhile, thermal protection research will continue, as will research into the scramjet engines required. DID has updated our FALCON HTV anchor article to accommodate the resulting changes, add additional background, and cover a recent contract.

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DRS DPGDS

DRS Technologies, Inc. recently announced almost $10 million in new orders to produce Deployable Power Generation and Distribution Systems (DPGDS) for the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army. DRS will provide power units, secondary equipment and spare parts to support the U.S. Army’s 249th Engineer Battalion and the U.S. Air Force’s fleet of prime power units. Work for these awards will be accomplished by the DRS Technical Services unit in Alexandria, VA, and deliveries are expected to be completed within 8 to 12 months. The contracts were awarded by the U.S. Air Force Air Armament Center at Eglin Air Force Base, FL.

KBR convoy into Iraq

The DPGDS are air-transportable electrical power generation and distribution systems that can be configured to provide power in support of military and humanitarian missions. Such missions can range from supporting small, isolated outposts to supporting fully operational, forward-deployed U.S. military bases. While efficient, they require fuel to run, and significant convoy activity in places like Iraq and Afghanistan involves supplying these kinds of power units with fuel. Hence the call from combatant commanders for renewable energy options.

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Our readers aren’t the only ones with electricity bills to pay. Governments of all levels get them, including the military. In addition, the military’s purchasing power often makes it easier and cheaper for federal civilian government agencies to include themselves in these contracts than to negotiate and manage their own. Individual locations like the Fermi National Accelerator Lab can rack up truly impressive annual bills – and see these March 2006 New Jersey & Maryland contracts as another recent example.

Unless otherwise specified, all electricity contracts are firm-fixed-price and were issued by the Defense Energy Support Center (DESC) at Fort Belvoir, VA. They include over $290 million worth of contracts:

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Katrina (click to view full)

Manson Gulf L.L.C. in Houma, LA received a $16.9 million firm-fixed-price contract for Levee Enlargement in New Orleans, LA, which is expected to be complete by Nov. 30, 2007. Bids were solicited via the World Wide Web on Aug. 18, 2006, and 7 bids were received by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in New Orleans, LA (W912P8-07-C-0003).

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NH90
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Frost & Sullivan’s study “European Military Helicopter Markets 2006 – 2015” (code: B858-16) Notes that the European military helicopter is valued at nearly $26 billion between 2006-2015, but will shrink in size over that time. A number of programs (NH90, Eurocopter Tiger, EH101) are in the delivery stage right now, and the firm sees continued shrinkage in European defense budgets.

Their most interesting points had to do with the demands of that particular market in the coming years. Beyond budgetary assessments, the overarching point was that “The European military helicopter market will be determined by the demands of operations other than war (OOTW) for the next ten years…,” a situation characterized by small numbers of troops being moved rapidly and safely around large areas. This in turn will place a premium on:

• Rapid reconfiguarability for roles like aid and reconstruction
• Carrying capacity beyond a squad of troops
• Higher levels of maintainability & repair/ low operating costs
• Ease of upgrade via Commercial Off the Shelf components

M1200 Armored Knight

DRS Technologies, Inc. announced that it has received a $12 million order for Knight Precision Targeting Systems, mission equipment electronic units, cupolas and cables, and integration into more than 60 U.S. Army M1117 Guardian Armored Security Vehicles. The order was received by DRS from the U.S. Army Tank-Automotive & Armaments Command (TACOM) in Warren, Michigan. Work will be performed by the company’s DRS Sustainment Systems unit in St. Louis, MO, and delivery of the completed vehicles is expected to commence in March 2008 and be complete by January 2009.

So, just what are these “Knight” systems?

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The Wright Brothers Institute Inc. in Dayton, OH received a $7.2 million collaborative project order contract. The objective of this project is to stimulate the rapid transition of radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies by developing a rapid transition of radio frequency solutions center. The RFID solutions center shall provide an effective way to collaborate with government end users, contractors, and defense industry suppliers. At this time, $4.6 million has been obligated. Solicitations began April 2006, negotiations were complete October 2006, and work will be complete October 2007. The Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, OH issued the contract (FA8650-06-3-9021).

The Wright Brothers Institute is a joint organization drawn from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, the academic, industrial and business entities of the Miami Valley community, and the State of Ohio. Their mission is to support the development of world-class, aerospace science and technology collaborations in the area. See DID’s May 2006 article US DoD Beginning to See RFID Payback” for more background regarding RFID in the US military’s supply chain.