USA: Fixed-Wing Transport Contracts for the Central Asian Front

C-212, hot & high

Early operations in Afghanistan and Iraq led US combat commanders to ask for transport aircraft that could use smaller runways, and land closer to zones of operations. The US Army pressed its King Air C-12s and Shorts C-23s into service, but beginning in 2004, they began supplementing those efforts with contractors. Helicopters have also been hired, but cost, speed, and carrying capacity all favor fixed-wing planes whenever possible.

The US military hoped that Blackwater affiliate Presidential Airways, Inc. of Moyock, NC would be able to address some of these issues, using EADS-CASA 212 and Bombardier Dash-8 transport aircraft. For a while, they did. Presidential received several contracts over the years for fixed-wing, in-theater contract transport around Afghanistan, but the fixed-wing business was bought by AAR, and their firm is no longer the only option. As of 2010, the USA began spreading fixed-wing contracts among a number of contractors. This article chronicles fixed-wing contracts from 2004 – 2012.

Adding Arleigh Burkes: H.I.I. Steps Forward for DDG-51 Restart

DDG-110 Construction

In April 2009 Bath and Ingalls agreed to the Navy’s surface combatant plans, thus heralding a significant restructuring within the American naval shipbuilding community. Under the agreements, the USA would end production at 3 Graf Spee sized DDG-1000 Zumwalt Class “destroyers,” but shift all production from the Congressionally-mandated joint arrangements to General Dynamics Bath Iron Works in Maine, which had already made program-related investments in advanced shipbuilding technologies.

Northrop Grumman (now Huntington Ingalls Industries) would retain its DDG-1000 deckhouse work, but their main exchange was additional orders for DDG-51 Arleigh Burke Class destroyers. Their Ingalls yard in Pascagoula, Mississippi would continue building the DDG-51 destroyers, beginning with 2 ordered in FY 2010-2011. They would also become the lead design yard for the program, taking over from Bath Iron Works.

Rapid Fire June 12, 2012: Stuck in Bad Places

• Negotiations with Pakistan on supply routes to/from Afghanistan still appear stalled in what some call a widening rift. This benefits border towns with Tajikistan which of course offers little comfort. Joshua Foust of the American Security Project opines that the NDN is not a viable alternative for a full withdrawal.

• One potential consequence of sequestration: a tide of WARN Act notifications just before the presidential election. This apparently does not shake the motivation of Lockheed Martin workers getting close to two months of strike in Forth Worth, Texas.

• Hiring veterans is good for business, according to the Center for a New American Security (CNAS).