Norway’s Proposed FY 2007 Defense Budget

Norway’s government has proposed a defence budget for 2007 amounting to NOK 31 billion (about $4.65 billion), with increases in a number of areas. DID has covered their upcoming choice of a new fighter, the new hybrid-power patrol vessels being introduced, and the recent controversies around the Fridtjof Nansen Class AEGIS frigates.

The new budget spotlights increased funding and ongoing investment needs in a number of sectors, including:

US FY 2006 Stryker Orders Rise Past Budgetary Plans

M1126 Stryker ICV

General Dynamics announced that the U.S. Army has placed its FY 2006 order for 306 Stryker wheeled combat vehicles from General Dynamics Land Systems. The order is valued at $463.9 million, and is an extension of a November 2000 contract to provide more than 2,100 armored vehicles. Work will be performed in Anniston, AL; Lima, OH; and London, Ontario, Canada. Vehicle deliveries are slated for April 2007 through March 2008.

An October 4, 2006 release from General Dynamics notes that an additional 3 delivery orders for a total of 109 Strykers are valued at $155 million, and increase the Army’s FY 2006 Stryker procurement to a total of 518 vehicles, significantly higher than the 340 noted in Pentagon budget documents – but note the role of wartime supplementals. Work is expected to be complete by October 2008.

The status of the Stryker program is as follows:

India Looks to Order 40 More Mirage 2000s, Upgrade Other Aircraft

French Mirage 2000v5s

India is currently engaged in a wide-ranging modernization and upgrade of their fighter force. An earlier effort to buy 12 Mirage 2000v5s from Qatar ended up stalling when negotiations failed, but Dassault’s withdrawal of the Mirage 2000 from the MRCA competition, the emergence of delays in key programs, and accidents/issues with other fighters in the fleet have India’s defense planners re-thinking the need for stopgap measures. India Defence reports that the Indian Air Force is again in negotiations with Qatar and now France as well, in order to boost effective airpower strength as an interim measure.

The moves follow a number of other efforts by the Air Force to:

Turkey Gets Responses re: Sub Program, Delays Other RFPs

Preveze Class U-209-1400

DID’s article “Today’s Special: Turkey Sub RFI” covered Turkey’s solicitation for 4 new diesel-electric submarines to augment its fleet of U-209 Class boats. Defense-Aerospace.com passes on an official list of firms who responded to the solicitation, as well as a copy of the RFI itself.

Note that the responding firms are not all submarine builders; indeed, most are component makers or submarine-launched weapon suppliers. According to Turkey’s SSM defense procurement agency, they are:

General Atomics Contracted to Derive Energy from Solid Waste

General Atomics in San Diego, CA received a $5.8 million cost-plus-fixed fee contract modification “for continuation of the work completed on the base effort.” Work will be complete June 2009, and $1.5 million has been obligated. Air Force Research laboratories at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, OH issued the contract (FA8651-04-C-0158/P00005).

What’s this all about? “The goal of the proposed activity is to develop reactor systems for recovering energy from the department of defense solid and liquid waste.”

Insert mandatory jokes about harnessing the hot air in meetings, and references to various locations in the greater Washington area, here.

UPDATE: Note that it may actually be possible to convert bull–t into energy… it’s called “thermal depolymerization.”