Rapid Fire Oct. 25, 2012: Euronaval 2012

• The Euronaval tradeshow is taking place this week in Paris, France. They publish a daily bilingual wrap-up, here is yesterday’s [PDF].

• Lockheed Martin’s Q3 2012 sales decreased by 2% Y/Y to $11.87B, a smaller decrease than reported by Northrop Grumman or Boeing BDS for the same period. Electronic Systems grew and actually passed Aeronautics to become the largest segment by revenue.

• Raytheon’s Q3 sales are down 1% to $6.05B. Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) saw the best topline performance among their divisions. The backlog remains stable around $35B.

• Contrarily to other prime contractors, General Dynamics’ revenues for the quarter were up 1% to $7.93B, driven by a +30% surge in the Aerospace segment that more than compensated declining combat and information systems revenue. However their total backlog has lost about $7B from a year ago.

ATTAC! Britain Hammers Out Through-Life Support Framework for Tornado Fleet

Tornado maintenance

Under ATTAC (Availability Transformation: Tornado Aircraft Contract), BAE will take over depot-level support and maintenance for the RAF’s Tornado fleet, with the responsibility of ensuring that enough of Britain’s Tornado GR4 strike aircraft and Tornado F3 interceptors are available to fly, rather than paying BAE for selling spare parts and maintenance hours.

This “future contracting for availability” approach is a major departure from traditional military and commercial practice; but it has been proven on a smaller scale within the UK’s Tornado fleet, and a number of other platforms are already operating under these types of contracts in Britain. BAE hopes to achieve the required availability levels using a combination of embedded diagnostics, rear-echelon repair process improvements, and what BAE executive and former Air Vice-Marshall Steve Nicoll referred to as the “Dirk Gently approach” to problem diagnosis and maintenance during the September 2006 TFD Group Conference. DID explains what Nicoll meant, and discusses the ATTAC contract and its follow-ons in more detail.

Rapid Fire Oct. 24, 2012: Primes Continue to Lose Ground in Q3

• When President Obama said sequestration “will not happen” during the last pre-election debate, it seems he meant “should not happen.”

• The US Navy continues to play a significant role [PDF] in the economy of the Hampton Roads area in Virginia.

• Northrop Grumman’s Q3 2012 sales are down 5.2% (Y/Y) to $6.27B, but their total backlog is up by $1.5B to $41B. Continuing a trend seen in previous quarters, information and electronic systems are driving revenue down, while aerospace has grown 5% to $2.59B thanks to UAVs and the F-35.

Phalanx CIWS: The Last Defense, On Ship and Ashore

Phalanx, firing

The radar-guided, rapid-firing Mk. 15 Phalanx Close-In Weapons System (CIWS, pron. “see-whiz”) can fire between 3,000-4,500 20mm cannon rounds per minute, either autonomously or under manual command, as a last-ditch defense against incoming missiles and other targets. Phalanx uses closed-loop spotting with advanced radar and computer technology to locate, identify and direct a stream of armor piercing projectiles toward the target (see video: MPEG | AVI).

These capabilities have made the Phalanx CIWS a critical bolt-on sub-system for naval vessels around the world. The latest fielded development is C-RAM/Centurion, a land-based system designed to defend against incoming artillery and mortars. This DID Spotlight article offers updated, in-depth coverage that describes ongoing deployment and research projects within the Phalanx family of weapons, the new land-based system’s new technologies and roles, and international contracts from FY 2005 onward. As of Feb 28/07, more than 895 Phalanx systems had been built and deployed in the navies of 22 nations.

Rapid Fire Oct. 23, 2012: Does Not Follow

• The final debate between President Obama and Governor Romney (full video | transcript) showed relatively little differences between the two candidates on foreign policy. They agreed on a number of policy choices, from not sending US troops to Syria, to withdrawing from Afghanistan in 2014. Romney regrets that negotiations on renewing a status of forces agreement [PDF] with Iraq allowing the presence of US troops there eventually fell apart, a fact Obama seemed eager to brush aside. Yet the Obama-Biden 2008 platform stated that “a residual force will remain in Iraq” and “it is vital that a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) be reached.”

• When the debate touched on the defense budget, President Obama said the sequester “will not happen.” He also rejected that counting how many ships there are in the US Navy is a relevant metric, in a weird twist of logic that suggests the US is the only country benefiting from technological advances. But quantity does matter, especially when you want to maintain a worldwide blue water footprint.

ATAC’s Aerial Opponent Training

Kfir C2 w. ALQ-167

Over the last 13 years, ATAC has performed a wide range of flight training operations for the US Navy, US Air Force and Air National Guard, including participation in US Navy fleet training, acting as adversary fighters for the “TOPGUN” program, Red Flag exercises and F-22 Raptor training; participating in JTAC/ FAC-A/ CAS ground controller training; and even serving American research & development programs like the Ship Self Defense System and ALE-50 towed decoy. Under their agreement with US Navy, their services have also been used to train militaries in the UK, Canada, Japan, the Philippines, and others.

Unlike most other contractors, who operate Learjets and similar business aircraft, ATAC operates fighters and attack jets.

Lease and Learn: L-3′s EW Training Aircraft

L-3 Learjet, EW-Equipped

L-3 Flight International’s modified Learjets include uprated on-board power systems, internal electronics, and the ability to carry a range of external pods to help them simulate enemy radar and communications jammers in Navy training exercises. The modified business jets can also tow targets for gunnery training, and perform related tasks.

L-3 has performed this role for many years now, and chartered aircraft of various kinds play a significant role in US Navy exercises, within the commercial air services (CAS) program.

US Army Moves Ahead with V-Hull Strykers

M1126, post-IED

Under current plans, the 8×8 wheeled Stryker armored vehicle will be the future backbone of 8 US Army and 1 National Guard medium armored brigades. The 5th Stryker Brigade from Fort Lewis, WA was the first Stryker unit sent to Afghanistan, deployed in the summer of 2009 as part of a troop level increase. The brigade was equipped with 350 Stryker vehicles. In the first few months of deployment, they lost 21 soldiers, with 40 more wounded, to IED land mines. The losses prompted the Army to examine modifications to their Stryker vehicles, in order to make them more resistant to land mines.

One result is the Stryker hull redesign, creating the v-hulled Stryker DVH. The US Army is now on pace to order 2 brigades worth, as it moves toward the end of Stryker armored vehicle production.

Rapid Fire October 22, 2012: Of Unintended Consequences

• The USAF issued a solicitation for their 300-plane T-X trainer program, but don’t get excited yet. It isn’t even an RFI, just advance clarification re: Military Airworthiness Certification requirements. If Boeing really wants to invest in a new design, that will be just one of their challenges. IAI/ATG’s Javelin could give them a running start, but… this is a very high wall to climb without a proven design, no matter how you go about it.

• The US Navy christens their new escort carrier America [LHA 6] in a ceremony at HII’s Pascagoula, MS shipyard. Technically, she’s still “Pre-Commissioning Unit America”.

• Todd Harrison at the CSBA think tank published a paper on the effects of competition on defense acquisitions. “In some instances, the structure of the competition can actually incentivize contractors to bid higher and drive up costs.”

Gulf Chokepoint: Seafox Saves the Day?

Seafox Mk.II

Rising tensions in the Persian Gulf, coupling increasingly bellicose actions by Iran with pointed American warnings, have left international navies thinking hard about how to keep the Strait of Hormuz open for oil traffic. Naval mines, which can be laid by submarines or boats, remain one of the most difficult and inconvenient threats to counter. That was true during the last set of armed clashes between the USA and Iran in the 1980s. It remains true, and the USA has weakened its position by retiring its modern Osprey Class minehunter ships. Some are available for reactivation in an emergency, but their place was supposed to be taken by the MH-60S helicopter’s Airborne Mine Counter-Measures (AMCM) system.

The USA is looking to bolster its defenses in the Straits, but AMCM isn’t quite ready yet. That leaves them looking elsewhere for urgent operational buys. While countries like China counter mines using unmanned ships, the US Navy is turning toward a widely-bought German UUV…