An MRAP for India

Casspir Mk6/ MPV-I

The global trend toward mine-resistant patrol vehicles actually added India back in the late 1990s, when it began to buy used South African Casspir vehicles. India ended up buying 165 Casspirs from 1999-2001, and they have seen extensive use in Jammu and Kashmir. The Casspir can be thought of with some justification as “the original MRAP,” and still serves with a number of national armies (South Africa, Djibouti, India, Indonesia, Namibia, Peru) as well as with private firms like Mechem De-mining.

The Casspirs India bought began production in 1979-1980, however, and many have served for a long time now. Even refurbished vehicles won’t last forever, and India’s Maoist Naxalites have demonstrated both signs of both informal co-belligerency with Islamist terrorists, and signs of cooperation further up the supply chain. With bomb-making skills spreading globally, and IED land mines a growing choice around the world, might there be an opening for an Indian MRAP program? BAE Systems thought so, hence its DLSI joint venture with Mahindra.

Timely Defenders: Keeping Patriots in Shape

Patriot system

The USA’s MIM-104 Phased Array Tracking Radar Intercept On Target (PATRIOT) anti-air missile system offers an advanced backbone for medium-range air defense, and short-range ballistic missile defense, to America and its allies. This article covers domestic and foreign purchase requests and contracts for Patriot systems. It also compiles information about the engineering service contracts that upgrade these systems, ensure that they continue to work, and integrate them with wider command and defense systems.

The Patriot missile franchise’s future appears assured. At present, 12 nations have chosen it as a key component of their air and missile defense systems: the USA, Germany, Greece, Japan, Israel, Kuwait, The Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan and the UAE. Poland, Qatar, and Turkey have all indicated varying levels of interest, and some existing customers are looking to upgrade their systems.

Rapid Fire Feb. 12, 2013: SASC SECDEF Vote

• The US Senate Armed Services Committee will likely vote this afternoon on Chuck Hagel’s nomination as Secretary of Defense. Republican senators denied as an unfounded rumor that they were considering walking out of the committee.

• Senate Democrats will introduce a bill later this week that would postpone sequestration by another 10 months, based on a mix on spending cuts and tax increases. will it be anything the Republicans are likely to agree to? Reuters.

• Congressman Ander Crenshaw (R-FL, HACD member) and 8 other representatives from coastal states wrote Navy Secretary Ray Mabus to ask him to delay pending cancellation of third and fourth quarter ship maintenance availabilities.

• According to anonymous sources cited by the Washington Post, the Obama administration is considering leaving 8,000 troops in Afghanistan in 2014-2015, then phase them out to as little as a thousand by 2017. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dempsey says it all depends on what the post-war mission is going to be. A key question is of course the ability of Afghanistan to run its own security forces: a new GAO report points out shortfalls in funding, which relies overwhelmingly on international support.