Rapid Fire 2011-02-01: Swedish Defense Market Flat

• Swedish defense spending is expected to grow at an anemic 0.36% per year over the next 4 years, reaching $5.4 billion by 2015, according to iCD Research.

• Strategy Analytics: US defense semiconductor sector is expected to post 6% compound annual average growth rate through 2015.

• Up to $410 million to VSE to provide logistics support to US Army Reserve Command and the 63rd and 88th Regional Support Command under the GSA’s LOGWORLD contract vehicle.

After Yeonpyeong, South Korea Buys More ARTHUR Radars

ARTHUR radar

Sweden’s Saab Group announced a SEK 450 million (WON 77.04 billion, $69 million) subcontract order from South Korea’s LIG Nex1, for more of its ARTHUR artillery tracing radars. South Korea first ordered Saab’s Arthur Mod C in 2007, and this is a follow-on order. Saab adds that “The main part of the production for this program will be done at LIG Nex1 under a localisation agreement between Saab and LIG.”

Rapid Fire 2011-01-31: Defense Business Transformation

• GAO reports: DoD is having trouble counting [PDF] all of its service contractors; Defense Business Transformation initiative [PDF] has flaws; and ballistic missile defense plan for Europe has unrealistic cost estimates [PDF].

• Is Pentagon chief Robert Gates planning to stay for awhile?

• GE’s joint venture with China’s Avic, to produce advanced open architecture avionics, is raising some eyebrows.

Rapid Fire 2011-01-28: Portable Gas Turbines

• Defense budget cuts split HASC Republicans between hawks and Tea Partiers.

• With a bevy of batteries weighing soldiers down, MIT’s research into mini gas turbines in a silicon chip promises a possible way out.

• US Army’s Dugway Proving Ground, which stores and tests chemical and biological weapons, reopens after a lockdown because of a “serious concern within the test area.”

Rapid Fire 2011-01-27: Patrol Boats for Latvia

• General Dynamics sees a 19% jump in 4th quarter earnings, fueled for demand for military vehicles and ships.

• Bad News: Boeing’s net income and revenues drop 8% for the 4th quarter [PDF], due in part to cuts in defense programs.

• New HASC Chairman Howard McKeon criticizes Obama administration’s plans to pare $78 billion from the Pentagon’s topline budget.

• US Navy orders procurement officers to stop buying computer servers or adding new data centers, the Washington Post reports.

• Canadian Defence Minister Peter MacKay announces awards of C$55.6 million contract to Thales Canada for 2 tactical control radars (TCRs) as part of a C$80 million TCR modernization project; C$5.6 million contract to TLD America for 14 aircraft cargo loaders; and C$1.6 million contract for sewer upgrades at 17 Wing Winnipeg.

• ManTech snags $45 million task order to provide engineering, technical and program management support to the Naval Surface Warfare Center for submarine and surface ship signature silencing programs.

• Telos gets a task order under the $9 billion NETCENTS contract vehicle to provide secure messaging system for the DISA’s Defense Messaging System.

• Latvia christens Skrunda, its first twin-hull SWATH patrol boat. The design includes a small mission module section up front.

Too Late? Canada’s CASW for 40mm GMGs

Kandahar PRT

The infantry soldier is the center of gravity in current wars, and improvements to the individual soldier’s equipment and firepower overmatch often provide most bang for the buck to militaries wishing to make a difference on the ground. They’re not high profile purchases, however, which often creates neglect and delays. 40mm grenade weapons are an obvious choice, given their area suppression abilities and versatile ammunition. Grenade Machine Guns go beyond 1-shot rifle attachments and even beyond multi-shot weapons like the M-32/MSGL, providing medium-range, area effect firepower that decisively beats other infantry weapons within its reach.

The Americans have deployed 40mm GMGs from the outset of conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, mostly General Dynamics’ Mk19. That inventory is modernizing, as the USA has begun buying General Dynamics’ new STRIKER 40, with programmed airburst features. Others have been slower. Britain addressed this gap back in 2006, when it began ordering Heckler & Koch GMG systems to equip its Royal Marines. Canada has been much slower to react, but 8 years after its troops entered Afghanistan, the Close Area Suppression Weapon (CASW) project aims to give Canadians the same options that other militaries already enjoy…

• The CASW Cock-Up
  
• Contracts & Key Events [updated]
  
• Additional Readings [updated]
  

Rapid Fire: 2011-01-26

• Former Northrop Grumman engineer Noshir Gowadia gets 32 years in prison for assisting China in developing a low-signature cruise missile exhaust system and providing classified information on the B-2 Spirit bomber.

• When Aviation Week is writing editorials called “Get Real on National Security,” change is definitely in the air.

• Portland, OR-based Vigor Industrial expects to complete its $130 million purchase [PDF] of Seattle, WA-based military and civilian shipbuilder Todd Shipyards on Jan. 28/11, after Todd allows “go shop” period to expire.

• RAND report [PDF] says there is no “direct benefit” to the US military’s use of alternative fuels for tactical operations. It recommends that the military stick to proven tech, and focus on efficiency rather than cutting edge commercialization.

• ABI Research: Military spending and Gallium Nitride adoption is fueling demand for RF power semiconductors used in radar and military communication and electronics equipment.

• Thermacore gets $3 million contract extension to continue development of active heat sink technologies used to cool military electronics systems, under DARPA’s Micro-technologies for Air-Cooled Exchangers (MACE) program.

• US Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn meets with NATO counterparts about implementing cyber shield plan approved at the Lisbon Summit.

• Cpl. Katrina “Combat Barbie” Hodge, Miss England 2010 and bravery commendation recipient for her actions in Basra, Iraq, is set to deploy to Afghanistan.

Saudi Smart Bombs: Paveways from Raytheon

RAF Tornado &
Enhanced Paveway

In late January 2011, Raytheon announced a $475 million contract with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for its Paveway family of precision-guided munitions. These Paveway II and Paveway III kits transforms ordinary bombs into laser-guided smart bombs, and the firm’s Enhanced Paveway kits add dual-mode laser/GPS guidance.

Here’s what is known, and what is not, about the Saudi order…

Rapid Fire 2011-01-25: Self-contained Mini-reactors

• Lockheed Martin agrees to pay $2 million to settle a DoJ lawsuit accusing the company, as well as partners SAIC and AES, of conspiring with former government employees Stephen Adamec and Robert Knesel to ensure the 3 companies were awarded a $115M contract in 2004 to support the Naval Oceanographic MSRC (now the Navy DSRC).

• Iraqi Security Forces Order of Battle author DJ Elliott offers thoughts on Iraq’s military development, ability to defend itself, and 5 most pressing weaknesses against conventional invasion.

• The Philippines is eying a used US Coast Guard Hamilton Class high endurance cutter. The 378 foot Hamilton Class is being replaced by the Bertholf Class National Security Cutters, but the USCG remains overstretched with its current fleet.

• France’s DCNS is capitalizing on its nuclear submarine knowledge to offer a “FlexBlue” self-contained mini-reactor in the 50-250 MW range, to be installed underwater off the coast. It would be shipped out for maintenance, and use seawater for cooling. Areva, EDF and the CEA R&D organization are also involved.

• Another fire on Britain’s S120 HMS Ambush, the second-of-class Astute fast attack submarine. HMS Astute has certainly had its own share of problems as well. The fitting out and testing periods are when you’re supposed to find them, and this fire was as minor as a submarine fire can be… but at some point, the number and types of faults become worrying.

• The RAF’s 7th C-17 arrives at Brize Norton.

• Up to $102 million to SAIC for logistics support to the Army’s 1st Theater Sustainment Command.

• API Technologies completes acquisition of SenDec, a Fairport, NY-based defense electronics manufacturer, in a stock swap deal worth around $97 million.

• ManTech gets $57 million contract to supply engineering, technical and administrative support to the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division for US navy aircraft and systems.

• Textron to deliver the final 47-foot motor lifeboat (MLBs) to the Mexican Navy under a contract to build 6 craft based on 117 MLBs currently in use by the USCG.

SPAWAR’s C4ISR Installation Contracts: 2011-2016

On Jan 21/11, Us Navy Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command in San Diego, CA announced a set of 4 multiple-award contracts to install and certify Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) systems. These systems will be delivered under a combination of cost-plus-incentive-fee, fixed-price-incentive (firm target), firm-fixed-price, and cost-plus-fixed-fee delivery orders as “Government Furnished Equipment” (GFE), for installation on board surface ships, submarines, and shore stations located worldwide.

With the umbrella terms all set, contracts can be placed on behalf of SPAWAR, and also on behalf of other prospective U.S. Government and Foreign Military Sales customers. There’s an initial 3-year base period that runs to 2014, and a 2-year option period that would extend it to 2016. When these contracts were issued, several media outlets added them together, and reported $5+ billion in contracts. That isn’t correct. Here’s what is correct, and how the contracts work…