Britain’s Defence Equipment Plan

Through a glass, darkly

As part of the current coalition government’s defence reform efforts, the UK Ministry of Defence has begun issuing a bare-bones 10-year equipment plan of expected budgets, and graphics of planned expenditures by category. A fuller plan is submitted to Britain’s National Audit Office for review. The plan itself is a step forward, and so are some of its underlying practices. Even if the document as a whole falls short of being a useful contribution to public debate.

Summaries of some key changes, and information, can be found below.

Israel’s AMOS-6 Dual-Use COMSAT

AMOS-6 signing
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In November 2012, Israel Aerospace Industries signed a minimum $185 million contract with Israel’s Spacecom satellite company. In return, IAI will build and operate the dual-use AMOS-6 communications satellite, covering Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. The launch contract will be a separate transaction.

Like most providers, Spacecom has already sold capacity on the satellite, including a $20 million lifetime contract from the Israeli government, who will receive a beam in an agreed-upon frequency band…

Rapid Fire Jan. 31, 2013: Feds Uncertain Why They’re Spending Less

• Alan Krueger, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers (to the White House), on the reason why US GDP contracted by 0.1% in Q4 2012:

“Federal defense purchases declined at an annual rate of 22.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012, the largest quarterly decline in 40 years. A likely explanation for the sharp decline in Federal defense spending is uncertainty concerning the automatic spending cuts that were scheduled to take effect in January.”

Emphasis on “likely” is ours: you would think advisers to the executive branch of the federal government would know for sure why it is spending less in response to a budget situation that it co-authored with Congress.

• Senator Hagel’s confirmation hearing with the Senate’s Armed Services Committee is unfolding today, 9:30am-noon ET. In his opening statement, new Ranking Member Jim Inhofe (R-OK) confirmed that he thought Hagel was “the wrong person” for what Inhofe characterized as a record of appeasement of the United States’ enemies. C-Span video.

FLCV: Canada Looks to Upgrade Its Armor

LAV-III: stuck
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In late November 2008, Canada’s Department of National Defence (DND) announced its intention to combine 3 programs into one general set of upgrades to its armored vehicle fleets. The C$ 5 billion meta-program would include:

(1) “Close Combat Vehicles” that perform as tracked Infantry Fighting Vehicles or Armored Personnel Carriers, alongside Canada’s new Leopard 2A6 tanks. Canada’s wheeled LAV-IIIs showed limitations in Afghanistan. Canada’s old M113 tracked APCs were a successful supplement, but the Canadians appear to be leaning toward a heavier vehicle for their future CCV. (2) A new “Tactical Armored Patrol Vehicle” that’s similar to the blast-resistant vehicle buys in other NATO countries. (3) LAV-UP upgrades to the existing LAV-III 8×8 wheeled APC fleet completed the set. July 2009 saw the roster expand to add (4) “FME”: dedicated Armored Engineering Vehicles based on the Leopard 2 tank, and engineering-related attachments for Canada’s new Leopard 2 tanks.

The “Close Combat Vehicle” appeared to be the most urgent purchase, but Canada’s procurement approach wasn’t structured to deliver urgency, and CCV has suffered the most from that failure. CCV is now the last unresolved contract, but all 4 sub-programs failed to deliver vehicles in time to help Canada in Afghanistan. Even so, all 4 programs continue to move forward.

Rapid Fire Jan. 30, 2013: Defense Dealings Lack Transparency

• Non-profit Transparency International asserts [PDF] that a vast majority of countries exert little, if any, political oversight of defense policy or scrutiny of defense procurement. Only Australia and Germany are ranked as at “very low risk” of defense-related corruption, followed by 7 low-risk countries including the US and the UK. Unsurprisingly Saudi Arabia is the worst-ranking country among major arms importers.

• The Peter G. Peterson Foundation thinks the recent legislation passed in the US to avoid the fiscal cliff “does not come close to solving longer-run structural deficits, nor does it yield significant improvements to our 10-year budget outlook.” Even sequestration – which looks more likely each day – would only buy a few more years. Only taming healthcare costs can put the federal debt back to a sustainable course.

• US Undersecretary of Defense Ash Carter recently acknowledged in an interview with Defense News that the Pentagon and the services had been quietly working on sequestration planning for a while (despite their repeated claims to the contrary) in order to avoid a self-fulfilling prophecy. In the end it looks like pretending to be playing ostrich did not make a difference, but this explains why they do have some amount of guidance ready, like this memo and budget presentation [PDFs] from the Navy’s Chief of Naval Operations (via Navy Times).

Size Matters: Elbit’s Hermes 900 MALE UAV

Hermes 900

Elbit Systems has enjoyed considerable domestic and export success with its Hermes 450, which sits at the smaller end of the MALE (Medium Altitude, Long Endurance) UAV spectrum. As UAVs proved themselves, Elbit wasn’t interested in ceding the market for larger and more capable MALE UAVs to the likes of IAI and General Atomics.

They invested company funds to create the larger Hermes 900, but those kinds of investments eventually need a buyer. In 2010, their home country of Israel stepped up, and became the anchor buyer for this system. They weren’t the last. A comparison with the popular Hermes 450 is instructive…

Fire & Fallout: Norway’s Mine-Resistant Iveco LMVs

LMV in Afghanistan

After some bad experiences with its up-armored Mercedes “Gelendevagen” in Afghanistan, Norway decided that they needed patrol vehicles with better protection. In 2006, therefore, they placed an order for 25 blast-resistant Iveco MLV/LMV vehicles, which are called Lynx by the Italians and Panther by the UK.

Deliveries began in 2006, and the vehicle’s performance in Afghanistan has led to additional orders over the years. A 2013 buy brings Norway’s order total to 170.

Samson’s Wings: Israel Orders ‘Special’ C-130J-30s

Israeli C-130

In July 2008, the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced Israel’s request to buy up to 9 stretched C-130J-30 aircraft, which will replace some of the aging C-130 aircraft that Israel made famous in its 1976 commando raid at Entebbe, Uganda.

It took some time, but Israel finally became the 13th C-130J customer nation in April 2010. Appropriately, Israel’s new “Samson” planes will contain a number of features associated with the new special forces variants bought by India and the USA. The program of up to 9 planes looks like it will take a while to finish, though…

Rapid Fire Jan. 29, 2013: Vaporware, For Real

• BAE will cut 300 jobs across 5 US states, two thirds of which at their Electronic Systems site in Nashua, NH, where 50 people were already laid off last year.

• US AFRICOM is pondering establishing a base to operate UAVs out of a northwest African country such as Niger or Burkina Faso, according to the NYT.

• DARPA is interested in cheap, disposable electronic microsystems that could be used to create large networks of sensors that would biodegrade after they have accomplished their purpose. A Proposers’ Day will take place on Feb. 14 in Arlington, VA. They call it Vanishing, Programmable Resources (VAPR) and must be commended for acknowledging they are literally working on vaporware.

• The US Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) is researching whether they could host their payloads on commercial spacecraft and will host an Industry Day for that purpose on Feb. 19-21 in El Segundo, CA.

• The Yomiuri Shimbun reports that Japan has stepped up its monitoring of the disputed Senkaku islands in the East China Sea.

• The Brazilian defense market: big, growing, tantalizing, seemingly open but competitive and hard to get into [FT - reg. required].

• The Argentinian defense market… none of the above. Argentina’s defense minister Arturo Puricelli does not rule out sabotage to explain how the ARA Trinidad destroyer sank in port [in Spanish]. Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence. Alas, President Cristina Kirchner’s doll was touring Asia at the time so she couldn’t help.

Germany’s F125 Special Forces and Stabilization Frigates

F125 Concept
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Over the last decade, a belief has taken root in global naval circles that shallow littoral chokepoints for maritime trade, operations in and around failed states like Somalia, and expeditionary stabilization operations, will become key foci for many deployments. That realization has driven a number of approaches to naval construction. In the Netherlands, Royal Schelde’s Sigma Ships are designed in block modules, which can be added or subtracted to build anything from an offshore patrol vessel to a large frigate. Denmark is already building its Flyverfisken Class and Absalon Class ships, which leverage the mission module concept and can be used in roles ranging ranging from mine or sub hunting, to anti-ship warfare/ land attack, to carrying troops. Sweden’s Visby Class stealth corvettes helped to inspire the American concept of the Littoral Combat Ship – which has been criticized both for its cost, and for having fewer and less flexible high-end weapon options than any competitor.

Germany’s response has been the F125 frigate, which might best be described as an “expeditionary frigate” design. It doesn’t use the Danish or American mission module concept. Instead, it includes a number of features aimed at making it a strong contributor to long international deployments in littoral environments, and to naval support for stabilization operations.