LOGCAP 4: Billions of Dollars Awarded for Army Logistics Support

Fluor builds LOGCAP housing
in southern Afghanistan

The US Army’s sole provider LOGCAP 3 contract, which provided food, housing and fuel for U.S. troops worldwide, generated lots of controversy because government audits of the sole supplier’s (Halliburton-KBR) work were unable to fully account for millions of dollars or justify all charges to the Pentagon’s satisfaction.

To address perceived problems of LOGCAP 3, the Army awarded the follow-on contract, LOGCAP 4, to 3 companies – KBR, DynCorp and Fluor – who compete for task orders.

The LOGCAP 4 contracts are indefinite-quantity/ indefinite-delivery contracts with 1 base year and 9 option years. Each contract has a maximum value of $5 billion per year. This allows the Army to award a total annual maximum value of $15 billion and a lifetime maximum value of $150 billion.

Poland to Extend, Improve Its FFG-7 Frigates

ORP Gen. T. Kosciuszko

The FFG-7 Oliver Hazard Perry Class of frigates successfully achieved the goal of fielding a lower-cost warship to bulk up numbers during the Cold War, and proved their ability to take a punch when the USS Stark survived an Iraqi Exocet missile strike in 1987. The flip side of that success was very little internal room to spare, and a design whose systems have proven prohibitively costly and difficult to upgrade. The USA has been providing these frigates to allies at low to no cost, rather than spend the money required, and has removed the advanced weapons on remaining American ships of class.

Poland was one of the recipients, and their 2 frigates retain the front pop-up launcher for SM-1 anti-air and RGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missiles. These are the Marynarka Wojenna Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej’s largest combat ships. Their equipment standard is adequate in the narrow Baltic Sea, where they are supplemented by Fast Attack Craft hosting more advanced RBS-15 missiles, and by even more advanced NSM missiles mounted in coastal shore batteries. The ex-FFG-7s also serve well enough for wider deployments with allies. Poland is now looking for more service life extension work, as well as upgrades, but those upgrades will stop well short of Australia’s difficult and costly “Adelaide Class” refit…

Medium Mainstay: Mi-17s for Iraq

Iraqi Mi-17, armed

Iraq’s Mi-17 medium transport and multi-role helicopters currently form the high end of the IqAF’s rotary-wing fleet, and their use has paced the air force’s slow rebuilding. They support both regular and special forces, flew their first night mission in December 2008, and can even be armed. That versatility, and Iraq’s long-standing familiarity with the type, has created a demand for more.

Unfortunately, Iraq has also had poor experiences trying to source these helicopters abroad, including a contract with Poland that was eventually canceled due to quality problems. In December 2006, a formal DSCA request asked to buy 20 more Mi-17s, and in July 2008, WIRED Danger Room both reported and questioned a $325 million contract to the Carlyle Group’s ARINC.

Rapid Fire 2011-08-03: Strategic Defence and Security Review

• President Barack Obama announces his intent to promote Ashton B. Carter from Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics to Deputy Secretary of Defense.

• The House of Commons Defence Select Committee publishes its report on the UK’s Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) [PDF]. The Committee rejects Prime Minister David Cameron’s view that the Armed Forces have a full spectrum of defense capabilities. Concerns are also raised that expenditure savings have overridden state security.

• Japan’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) publishes Defense of Japan 2011.  In the foreword [PDF] the Minister of Defense highlights China’s rapid military modernization and its increasing presence around Japanese waters.

• South Korean prosecutors have indicted three retired senior Air Force officers for allegedly passing classified military information to Lockheed Martin.

• Finmeccanica subsidiary DRS Technologies announces that its has been awarded a $514.3 million indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract to supply the US Army with its Small Tactical Optical Rifle Mounted Micro Laser Range Finder (STORM-mLRF).

• An Indian Air Force (IAF) pilot was killed when his MiG-21 fighter crashed in Rajasthan. This takes the number of accidents involving MiG-21s to 25 over the past three years and reinforces concerns that India is struggling to keep its aging Soviet fleet airworthy.

• Talk about your bad run for Army Aviation. An old Thai UH-1H crashed on July 16th, so they sent a UH-60 Blackhawk to recover remains etc. It crashed in challenging weather on July 19th. So they sent a UH-1N/212 twin-Huey. Which… crashed on the 24th. Toll: 17 dead and Thailand’s 54 UH-1N’s are now grounded.