You’re a soldier, approaching a building that contain armed enemies. As the squad slips from point to point, leapfrogging to offer each other cover, the question arises: who wants to be the designated bad boy who gets to kick down the door and hope they aren’t greeted by a hail of bullets from the other side? As the saying goes: Noooobody!
The Israelis thought about this problem, and decided to let Simon do it. Simon is RAFAEL’s bullet-trap grenade with a stand-off rod, and a precisely shaped 120mm warhead. Just attach the standoff
rod at the front, slide the 1.5 pound grenade’s tail over the muzzle of your rifle, take aim from between 10-36 yards/ 9-33 meters away, and pull the trigger. The rod and specially shaped warhead ensure that the grenade’s shock wave blast blows the door right in, while creating enough noise and chaos to give the squad a few precious seconds to get inside and take the offensive.
Sending Simon…
“Let Simon do it” became popular enough to earn RAFAEL’s grenade wide Israeli use, a partnership with General Dynamics ATP, a video on US Army PEO Soldier’s web site, and a 2005 award from the US Army for the M100 GREM(Grenade Rifle Entry Munition) as one of the year’s top 10 military inventions. On Nov 4/07, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. announced another milestone: a $52 million contract from the US Army for the Simon (GREM) door breaching rifle grenade.
Tinker Support Services of Anchorage, AK received an indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity contract for $267.4 million for Tinker Air Force Base Civil Engineering Services. At this time no funds have been obligated; funds will be assigned as services are requested under this umbrella contract. 79 CONS/PKAB, Tinker Air Force Base OK issued the contract (FA8101-08-D-0006).
Tinker AFB’s largest organization is the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, which is the largest of 3 depot repair centers in the Air Force Materiel Command. It provides depot maintenance, management expertise, services and supply chain management as well as installation, services and information support for 31 weapon systems, 10 commands, 93 Air Force bases and 46 foreign nations.
Offshoring aerospace work to India is a growing trend, and the Indian defense market’s combination of obvious opportunity and required industrial offsets has many foreign firms working to line up partners. Raytheon recently announced signed memorandums of understanding with 5 major Indian companies, as part of their “plan to build a team committed to providing the best solutions for India’s military forces… [These agreements] represent another step toward establishing a strong working relationship, encouraging pursuit of emerging business opportunities, and providing for in-country offset. They also will pave the way for more exchanges of technology and business know-how between India and the U.S.”
The Dubai 2007 air show is in progress, which means a lot of multi-billion announcements for passenger aircraft from Boeing and Airbus. There are also a couple of military aircraft sales in the mix. Sikorsky has signed a direct commercial sale contract for 10 S-70A Black Hawk helicopters to upgrade the fleet used by U.A.E. Armed Forces; the aircraft will also be used to train pilots and technicians transitioning to the Black Hawk platform. No price was given, but depending on the equipment and options chosen, the most likely figures sit within the $150-300 million range.
The UAE currently flies AS330 Pumas as its main transport helicopters, with some Bell 212/214/412s and a smattering of miscellaneous helicopters rounding out the mix. Bell 206, AS350B Ecureuil, and SA342 Alouette helicopters are used for training. The sheikhdoms requested 26 UH-60M helicopters as a Foreign Military Sale in June 2006, but that contract has yet to be concluded. On which note, Sikorsky’s acquisition of PZL also figured into this release, which added:
“Sikorsky also plans to introduce a BLACK HAWK helicopter model specifically for the international market, with production taking place in Mielec, Poland, and deliveries starting in 2010-2011.”
