DID has covered the bi-partisan drive for defense procurement reform among U.S. legislators. The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) non-governmental organization has a couple of recent entries on its blog that highlight a couple of recent efforts to watch.
One is from Sen. John McCain [R-AZ]. The other concerns some candid testimony to the DAPA from Air Force General Lawrence Farrell Jr. (ret.), President of the National Defense Industrial Association.
The European Commission has issued a news release noting that a proposed transaction, in which German defense firm Rheinmetall will take over EHG Elektroholding’s 50% shareholding in AIM, has been approved under EU Merger Regulations.
Despite some past issues with the Interceptor vests, they are overall highly valued by soldiers in the field and ESAPI is an additional improvement. Indeed, the ESAPI ceramic plates are part of a sweeping upgrade of U.S. military body armor…
Small business qualifier ArmorWorks, LLC in Tempe, AZ won a $5.5 million firm-fixed-price contract for the procurement of 164 Light Weight Armor Replacement System (LWARS) kits and six interim spares for the CH-46E Sea Knight Helicopter, including field support services.
The overall goal of the CH-46E modifications is to keep the Sea Knight as a viable platform until replacement H-60S Knight Hawk helicopters and MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotors can be fielded from 2006-2012 or so. Given the increased tempo of US Navy and Marines operations in the Global War on Terror, and the resulting need for the CH-46’s services, some of those requirements have accelerated or intensified. Required upgrades include:
Via Murdoc Online, we’re pointed to a new blog called CROWS to the Rescue, which chronicles the efforts of a Field Service Engineer for Recon/Optical Inc. who served for 14 years in the Army and is now in Iraq as a civilian, supporting the new systems.
Small business qualifier U.S. Ordnance Inc. in Reno, NV received a $5.5 million sole-source, firm-fixed-price contract for M60E4 7.62mm light machine guns. The M60E4 represents significant reliability and user-friendly improvements over the M60, M60D, and M60E3. The series consists of two configurations: LMG (ground) and mounted (aircraft and boat).
Although this was not mentioned in the DoD DefenseLink release, a reader at Murdoc Online did some further digging to find the contract itself, and notes that the weapons are actually destined for Colombia’s Marines. Good catch.
