Militaries around the world are moving to modernize and transform themselves to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Our mission is to deliver a monthly cross-section of relevant, on-target stories, news, and analysis that will help both experts and interested laypeople stay up to speed on key military developments and issues. Stories are broken down by military category and presented as fast bullet points that orient you quickly, with accompanying links if you wish to pursue more in-depth treatments.
Some of This Month’s Targets of Opportunity Include: New ‘bunker busters’ that tunnel through stone; India moving toward more “strategic reach”; Euro UCAVs; Hunter-killer standoffs and Hellfire Jr.; FCS and urban warfare; Exoskeletons; Shooting down RPGs; Secret weapon – green laser pointers; Or how about laser blimps?; Conventional ballistic missiles and ray guns; USAF Smart Operations 21 process improvement; Budget games; QDR 2006 links and reactions; The Pentagon’s FY 2007 budget request; The Pentagon’s broken accounting system; Serbia’s stealth fighter shootdown story.
Winds of Change.NET presents this new monthly briefing as part of a team that includes professional publications Defense Industry Daily, Military.com’s DefenseTech, and eDefense Online. To contact us with story tips, email transformation, over here @windsofchange dot net.
Raytheon Company announced that it has been awarded a $346 million FY 2006 production contract increment to supply the U.S. and United Kingdom navies with the Block IV (Tactical) Tomahawk non-nuclear cruise missile. Raytheon notes that this is the third installment on a multi-year contract whose value could reach $1.6 billion. Manufacturing work will be done at Raytheon’s Missile Systems businesses in Tucson, AZ and Camden, AR, and is expected to be complete in 2009.
The Navy and Raytheon have entered into a five-year procurement contract to replenish Tomahawk inventory at the most affordable cost. The legacy program Tomahawk missile is the Navy’s weapon of choice for critical, long-range precision strike missions against high value, heavily defended targets. Other notes re: the Block IV missiles and related recent contracts include…
Rockwell Collins Inc., Cedar Rapids, IA received a $7.8 million firm fixed price and cost plus fixed fee contract modification for the purchase of another 3,614 defense advanced GPS receivers (DAGRs) and accessories. The DAGR provides authorized Department of Defense and foreign military sales users of GPS user equipment a precise positioning system (PPS), hand-held, dual-frequency (L1/L2), lightweight receiver (less than one pound) that incorporates the next generation, tamper-resistant GPS selective availability anti-spoofing module (SASSM) security module. The DAGR replaces the Precision Lightweight GPS Receiver (PLGR) in integrated platforms as well as for the advanced and basic GPS user.
This effort also supports foreign military sales to Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Kuwait, and Spain. Work will be complete April 2007. The Headquarters Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles Air Force Base, CA issued the contract (F04701-02-C-0011/P00037). To date, the US and its allies have spent approximately $188 million for DAGR systems, and received nearly 76,600 systems excluding initial test deliveries (see all related contracts, and also all related DID coverage.
Meanwhile, the existing fleet must be maintained. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems division, the company with the unusual pro-active military production business model, are being tapped to take care of their products’ back end, too.
BAE Systems Land & Armaments in York, PA has received a delivery order amount of $187.3 million as part of a $227.3 million firm-fixed-price contract for repair of desert damaged vehicles. DID has discussed the maintenance overhang facing US equipment as a result of use in Iraq and Afghanistan, and this is one small piece of that. A subsequent release by BAE offers details: BAE Systems, in partnership with Red River Army Depot (RRAD), will return a total of 361 Bradley Combat Systems (262 M2 Bradley IFVs, 55 M3 Bradley Cavalry Fighting Vehicles and 44 M7 Bradley BFIST artillery spotters) to a combat ready status. DID has covered BAE’s partnership with RRAD and Bradley RESET program details before.
Work will be performed in York, PA (83%), Aiken, SC (5%), San Jose, CA (8%), and Fayette, PA (4%), and is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2006. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This was a sole source contract initiated on Oct. 18, 2005. The U.S. Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command, Warren, Mich issued this contract (W56HZV-05-G-0005).
