Replacing M113 Armored Personnel Carriers
* The US Army released its finalized RFP to acquire Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicles (AMPV) to be used for a variety of support roles, from medical treatment and evacuation, to mission command and other functions. They expect EMD funding to peak in FY16 at $174M, followed by a low rate initial production phase in 3 options of between $244M and $505M each. Eventually close to 3,000 vehicles could be produced. After 5 decades of use, M113s have been found versatile but they lack power and protection, among the gaps to be filled with the APMV’s requirements.
Lock-in Martin?
* A jury in a Circuit Court in Maryland awarded $24.8M to Command Technology Inc. in a lawsuit against Lockheed Martin over access to F-16 technical data and software used for aircraft maintenance. It sounds like Lockheed Martin will appeal the decision.
Germany’s Second Thoughts About Pentagon Research
* It might be tempting to discount as handwringing this Der Spiegel article about relatively minor research contracts between German universities and the Pentagon, but some of these institutions have clauses bounding them to civilian-only research. The Pentagon is curiously funding medical research that has nothing to do with its mission – prostate cancer research comes to mind – however some of the German contracts can clearly lead to military applications.
Someone Should Secure the Movie Rights
* Arkady Gaydamak, a Russian-Israeli businessman involved in everything from arms dealing to diamond trading to soccer to ad hoc evacuations, was arrested [in French] in Switzerland yesterday in connection to a deal in Kazakhstan. France is reportedly seeking his extradition for his involvement in the “Angolagate” arms deal (when Angola was under a UN embargo) that embroiled senior French officials in the 90s. Gaydamak recently sued one of Angola’s top generals.
Bueno, Bonito y Barato
* If only Russia’s abundant weapons sales to Venezuela had been good, nice and cheap. El Universal relays claims from opposition parliamentarians that Venezuela spent billions of dollars on armament that turns out to be defective at an alarming rate.
Bomber Diplomacy
* Russian defense officials denied speculation that they would use the Kant air base in Kyrgyzstan to refuel and maintain Tu-95 strategic bombers. Speaking of which, 2 of these bombers again flew close to Japan’s air space just days ago.
* South Korea will proceed with an RFP for 4 aerial tankers next year, according to Yonhap.
* The US responded to China’s new air defense identification zone (ADIZ) by flying B-52 bombers over said zone without identifying themselves. The Chinese, which had been pretty noisy after releasing their ADIZ map on Saturday, monitored the aircraft but otherwise stayed put: DPA | NYT | FT.
* Today’s video is a quick explanation by Reuters of the maritime tensions between China and Japan:
