* Iraq asked the US to launch air strikes against jihadists, but the US Administration and prominent US lawmakers hinted that prime minister Maliki should first resign to make room for a more inclusive government. Maliki says he won't quit. The Pentagon reportedly...
DID site Articles
Tanks for the Lesson: Leopards, too, for Canada
Leopard 2A6M CAN(click to view full) Canadian Forces took some of the lessons re-learned during Operation Medusa in Afghanistan, directly to heart. Canada's DND: "The heavily protected direct fire capability of a main battle tank is an invaluable tool in the arsenal...
Insurgents Target Oil Infrastructure in Northern Iraq
* Insurgents and the Iraqi military have been fighting over the control of Iraq's largest oil refinery in Baiji, as well as waging an information war in parallel over their alleged accomplishments. * This brings to mind recent events in Libya, where the crumbling of...
US Considers Using Some War Funds to Help Iraq
* The White House continues to milk its failure to submit a proper Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) FY15 budget for all it's worth. Two weeks after saying it intended to spend some OCO money to reassure Eastern Europeans, funds previously meant for Afghanistan...
To ARMS: USA Looks to Improve AESA Radar Manufacturing
NGC's G/ATOR(click to view full) The ARMS (Affordable Radio Frequency Multifunction Sensors) program is focused on developing new manufacturing processes to improve manufacturing for ASEA (Active Electronically Scanned Array) radar components, whether that means...
US, Iran to Talk About Iraq, Probably Not Do Much Else
* ISIS militants posted pictures to back up their claim they had executed hundreds of Iraqi soldiers near Tikrit. The pictures leave a lot of room for interpretation about what actually happened, but they seem to be working to escalate the situation into a full-blown...
USA: Fixed-Wing Transport Contracts for the Central Asian Front
C-212, hot & high(click to view full) 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...
Pentagon Contract Awards Stay on Downward Trend
* Bloomberg's tracking of Pentagon awards of $6.5M and more shows another Y/Y drop in May, with a total of $13.7B vs. $19.4B last year. For the past 6 months, only April was above levels seen in 2013. Iraq * The Institute for the Study of War provides ongoing, very...
Saudi Arabia’s A330 MRTT Tankers
Saudi A330-MRTT(click to view full) In January 2008, EADS North America announced that The Royal Saudi Air Force will acquire 3 of EADS A330 Multi-role Tanker/Transports (MRTTs), equipped with both EADS centerline-mounted ARBS (advanced Air Refueling Boom System) for...