Israel’s Arrow Theater Missile Defense

Arrow test concept

In a dawning age of rogue states, ballistic missile defenses are steadily become a widely accepted necessity. Iran is widely believed to be developing nuclear capabilities, and Israeli concerns were heightened after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged that Israel be “wiped off the map” (the fact that America was also placed in that category went largely uncovered).

Because missile defenses are so important, states like India and Israel have taken steps to ensure that they have the ability to build many of the key pieces. The Arrow project is a collaboration between Boeing and IAI to produce the missile interceptors that accompany the required radars, satellites, command and control systems.

NOTE: Article capped and coverage suspended in 2011.

Canadian Forces Seek to Build Excellence in Foreign Flight Training

In 2005, the Canadian Department of National Defence awarded a 22-year, $1.77-billion (USD $1.5 billion) contract to an “Allied Wings” team lead by Kelowna Flightcraft Ltd. of Kelowna, British Columbia, who beat out a competing group led by Bombardier’s military training division in Mirabel, Quebec. The long-term contract will provide primary flight training training and support services to the Canadian Forces and international allies. These services will be provided out of the “Canada Wings Aviation Training Centre” in the Southport Aerospace Centre near Portage la Prairie, Manitoba.

This is not the first time the Canadian government has chosen a public/private approach to aviation training. Bombardier was already managing the Contracted Flying Training and Support (CFTS) program, and the public-private NATO Flying Training in Canada (NFTC) program has been running since 1997. In some ways, however, the new “Allied Wings” contract was a logical next step aimed at solidifying Canada’s traditional advantages, as Canada attempts to make itself an international center of excellence for foreign military aviator training:

• NATO Flying Training in Canada
  
• Primary Training: Competition for CFTS [updated]
  
• The Big Picture: International Flight Training in Canada [updated]
  
• Contracts & Key Events [NEW]
  
• Additional Readings & Sources [updated]
  

Rapid Fire 2011-02-22: Military Vehicle Electronics

• Will Middle East unrest prompt governments to boost defense spending? Or kill/ delay existing arms deals, as has already happened in Iraq?

• Meanwhile, Japan is considering its acquisition path for new fighters. The F-2 program didn’t go quite as hoped, but Japan is still looking at a collaborative F-X project to field an advanced fighter, and possibly an engine project as well.

• Well, this is clever. Sentient, whose Kestrel MTI software helps Australian Heron and ScanEagle operators detect small moving targets, has developed an add-on that’s especially good at finding lifejackets in the ocean. A task that’s much harder than you’d think…

• Raytheon gets $42.8 million contract to train Afghan air force pilots in an undisclosed Arab Gulf country. UAE is a good bet.

• Ukraine is investing UAH 3.5 billion ($440 million) to build the Sapsan multiple-rocket launch system with a range of up to 280 kilometers (174 miles) that is expected to enter service in 2015.

• MBDA has an initial customer for their drop-in MPCV, which uses the Mistral short-range air defense missile, and for the accompanying IMCP/PCP local air defense command system.

• Navy’s free-electron laser reaches key developmental milestone ahead of schedule.

• Military vehicle electronics market increasingly opts for COTS-based technologies, says Frost & Sullivan.

• Also, BAE completes purchase of L-1′s intelligence services business for $297 million – part of a larger deal for France’s Safran to acquire L-1 Identity Solutions.

Jordan’s Pocket Gunships: Converted CN-235s

AC-235 concept

In February 2011, with unrest engulfing the Middle East, ATK announced a project with Jordan to turn 2 Jordanian CN-235 light transport aircraft into small aerial gunships.

The aircraft would pack electro-optical targeting systems that include a laser designator, aircraft self-protection equipment, and a weapons suite of Hellfire laser-guided missiles, 70mm/2.75 inch rockets (which could include laser guided rockets), and the same M230 link-fed 30mm chain gun that equips AH-64 Apache helicopters. The weapons are all controlled by ATK’s STAR mission system, turning the CN-235s into lethal but relatively inexpensive counter-insurgency platforms…

Rapid Fire 2011-02-18: Spike Anti Armor Missiles

• BAE Systems returns to profitability in 2010, but expects decline in 2011 sales due to reduced volume at its Land and Armaments unit and UK defense cutbacks.

• Arrest made in 2010 theft of 3,000 US special ops laptops – worth $7.2 million – from an iGov Technologies facility in Tampa, FL.

• Pentagon chief Robert Gates and JCS Chairman Michael Mullen face Senate grilling over FY 2012 budget request, after similar treatment by the House.

Rapid Fire 2011-02-17: Personnel Security Clearance Program

• GAO takes DoD’s personnel security clearance program off its high-risk list [PDF] of programs facing fraud, waste, and management challenges; however, its weapons system acquisition program remains on the list.

• DoD to expand cybersecurity personnel swaps with private industry and add $500 million in cybersecurity research funding in FY 2012, Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn tells RSA conference.

• ManTech’s acquisition of TranTech gives company access to DISA’s $12.3 billion ENCORE II IT support contract vehicle.

Rapid Fire 2011-02-16: FY 2011/12 DoD Budgets

• What about FY 2011?: While the Pentagon is asking for $671 billion in FY 2012 (DoD Comptroller breakdown), Gates tells Congress, “We need $540 billion in FY 2011!”

• The Russian Defense Ministry grounds its fleet of Mi-28 attack helicopters after an Mi-28N Night Hunter crashed in Stavropol, killing the pilot.

• I’ll be baaack: The worldwide military robotics market is expected to explode over the next 5 years, reaching $8 billion in 2016, compared with $5.8 billion in 2010, according to ABI Research.

PAS-13 Thermal Weapon Sights On Order

AN/PAS-13 family

Thermal sights on weapons see heat. This has advantages in complete darkness, or in the presence of obscurants like dust storms, normal smoke, etc. because they can still pick out human and vehicle targets. Using deep infrared viewers also avoids “blooms” or whiteouts if someone flashes a bright light source like a flashlight at you. On the other hand, unless the lines on your map or lettering on that street sign have different heat values, thermal/ “deep infrared” sights aren’t going to help very much. This is why most 3rd and 4th generation night vision goggles use a combination of thermal and light intensifier technologies.

The AN/PAS-13 thermal weapons sights are used in more limited capacities, either as weapons sights or without a weapon as a sort of hand-held “night telescope.” The second generation of these sights is now being fielded, and are the subject of additional multi-billion orders from the US military.

2011: Another 8 Years for the C-130 ATS Training Contract

C-130 ATS
(click for cutaway)

Lockheed Martin recently announced an 8-year, $270 million contract to continue offering its C-130 Aircrew Training Systems (ATS), which provide simulators, computer training, and instruction to C-130 pilots in the USA and around the world. Graduates of the formal school are considered mission-qualified, and can report directly to active units – but not C-130J units. The new C-130J family are very different aircraft internally, and have their own C-130J Maintenance and Aircrew Training System (MATS), with its own instructors and sites.

ATS training includes all crew positions, refresher courses, cockpit resource management (initial and recurring), Instrument Refresher Courses, and the Instructor Preparatory Course. The contract also includes a security program, an Environmental Health & Safety program, a scheduling office, a student publications library, and learning center operations. Behind the scenes, a full Training System Support Center (TSSC) supports ATS operations & maintenance, research, and development engineering.

Like its C-130J MATS companion program, the C-130 ATS schoolhouse is headquartered at Little Rock AFB, AR. ATS also provides training at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, GA; Dyess AFB, TX; McChord AFB, WA; Minneapolis Air National Guard Base, MN; and Yokota Air Base, Japan. Lockheed Martin says that nearly 12,000 students from more than 25 countries depend on C-130 ATS for their training needs every year, and draw on 150 instructors to do so.

Rapid Fire 2011-02-15: PB FY12

• Obama administration’s fiscal year 2012 budget [PDF] boosts defense spending by $22 billion over FY 2010 appropriations, to $671 billion, while projecting $78 billion in “savings” through 2016. [Update: 2013 request.]

• Russia’s armed forces rely on aging equipment, lack transport capability, and suffer from manpower shortages, according to a NATO report cited in a leaked US diplomatic cable.

• Which is true now, and even Russian analysts agree. But Moscow is increasing spending, and roughly doubled annual arms exports from 2005-2010. Meanwhile, Germany’s Rheinmetall is about to build an Army training center in the Nizhny Novgorod region.

• Ceradyne’s new Enhanced Combat Helmet may be twice the price, but it looks like a 70% plus increase in head protection over the current American ACH design, with a new ability to stop close rifle shots. The USA plans to buy 200,000 ECH helmets, beginning in the fall of 2011.

• Canada’s DND freezes benefits for deployed soldiers and next-of-kin, but isn’t moving to end double-dipping by senior officers. Not exactly leadership.

• You can find it in those deployed ranks, though. Kudos to Canadian Master Corporal Shawn Grove, who taught himself Pashto and became a big asset to the Afghan campaign, without any help from his military.

• UK soldiers get new lightweight ration packs for troops on patrol under a GPB 140 million contract with Purple Food Services.

• Northrop Grumman CEO Wes Bush backs easing of high-tech export controls.

• Israel’s IAI looks to work with Bombardier as well as Gulfstream, unveiling a maritime surveillance Dash-8 mockup at Aero India 2011, and considering Airborne Early Warning planes based on Bombardier’s Global Express jets.

• 2 Thai F-16s crash during Cobra Gold 2011. The pilots are safe, and the country’s F-16 upgrade program should be unaffected.

• General Dynamics snags $9.3 million task order to perform network systems integration for the Marine Corps Systems Command under the $9 billion NETCENTS contract vehicle.

• Recent WikiLeaks revelations re: Saudi Arabia have reignited the peak oil debate. Joe Lazarro says we may or may not have hit peak oil, but we can say goodbye to cheap oil.