A Washington think-tank has gone so far as to call the planned cancellation of C-17 heavy transport aircraft production “The Dumbest Weapons Decision of the Decade.” With heavy usage that is accumulating fatigue hours far faster than originally planned, the US Air Force is loath to pay $1.5 billion to close the C-17 line – then pay another $4+ billion to re-open if their decision proves to be too hasty. Not to mention the larger $8+ billion economic effects and lost jobs. Still, the cost of its equipment means that funds are tight, and last-minute Congressional earmarks have been necessary to keep the C-17 line going. Concern has also been expressed that by shuttering the line, the USA is effectively handing the global strategic airlift market over to France and Russia; the Airbus A400M and Russia’s super-giant AN-124 would be the only games in town from 2010-2025, or longer.
Worse, there is almost no confidence in the Pentagon’s 2005 Mobility Requirements Study, whose assumptions hadn’t budged from a 2000 study – before 9/11 and the resulting global war saw airlift usage and flight hours skyrocket, before the Army’s Future Combat Systems’ failure to fit into C-130 transports as promised… before a lot of things happened. Now, as the battle in Washington heats up again, DID offers this updated article, readings – and accompanying interactive Excel spreadsheet – as a contribution to the discussions.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) wants to take research on nitride-based electronic devices and integrated circuits – used in tactical radio systems, phased array radar, and satellite communication – to the next level. Or should we say the NEXT level?
That is the name of their research effort: the Nitride Electronic Next Generation Technology (NEXT) Program. The NEXT program is designed to enable revolutionary advances in nitride electronic devices and integrated circuits resulting in their ability to operate at very high frequencies while maintaining extremely favorable voltage breakdown characteristics.
There’ll be no tweaking of existing technology. On its NEXT Web site, DARPA declares: “Specifically excluded is research that primarily results in evolutionary improvements to the existing state of practice.” In other words, only Big, Hairy, Audacious Research need apply…
Raytheon’s Space and Airborne Systems business received a $19.8 million contract for the continued production of ALR-69A(V) radar warning receivers for the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia.
The contract calls for fabrication and testing of 34 digital receivers under the ALR-69A(V) low-rate initial production program. Deliveries of the systems are expected to begin in March 2011 and end in June 2012.
The ALR-69A(V) is currently installed on US Air Force C-130 transport, F-16 fighter, and A-10 close air support aircraft…
The great French military strategist and political leader Napoleon once said that “an army marches on its stomach.” This is as true today as it was when Napoleon’s troops were marching toward Moscow.
To ensure that the US Army and the other US services are well fed, the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) regularly awards contracts, some small and some large, to contractors to supply food.
DLA recently awarded up to $70.6 million to 3 contractors to supply food to the US Army, US Navy, and US Air Force…
Shipping containers are ubiquitous in a globalized world, and many modes of transport on air, sea, and land are adapted to carry them easily. To portability, add protection: their rigid metal construction provides more shielding than tent fabric, and this can be augmented by digging the structure in slightly or putting up Hesco-type instafill walls nearby. A number of manufacturers have thrown in a 3rd advantage: modular flexibility, created by making it easy to connect containerized modules and deploy the exact combination you need.
Military and para-public medical facilities are natural fits with these advantages, and EADS’ innovative TransHospital leverages all of them. Now, the Thai government will become a customer, giving them a transportable field hospital for military or disaster-related use…
VT Group US, a unit of UK-based VT Group, received a contract to provide logistics analyses and support for the Army’s fleet of CH-47D/F Chinook cargo helicopters. The contract has a potential value of $29.1 million over a 5 year period.
Under the terms of the contract, VT Group’s Technical Services Division will provide CH-47D/F logistics fleet management, sustainment, CH-47F product manager, foreign military sales, and sustainment support related to all CH-47 cargo helicopters in the Army’s fleet. This includes logistic support to be performed for the CH-47D/F programs, subsystems, product improvements, and the Army’s modernization plan for the CH-47s.
The USS Ronald Reagan [CVN-76] is scheduled for a $12.1 million makeover at the hands of Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding in Newport News, VA. The aircraft carrier will undergo a Planned Incremental Availability (PIA), during which its equipment and systems will be altered, repaired, and modernized. In addition, all the ship’s systems and components will be inspected and tested before its next deployment.
The USS Ronald Reagan is returning from the Gulf of Oman, where the carrier and the carrier air wing (CVW 14) were conducting operations in support of coalition forces on the ground in Afghanistan.
DCNS recently announced a EUR 310 million (currently about $462 million) set of multi-year contracts to maintain 22 of the French Navy’s ships. The firm has been providing support to the French Navy for a long time, though it has operated as state-owned DCN for many of those deals. They are characterized as “through-life support” (TLS), even though they are periodic rather than continuing to the vessel’s out of service dates.
In October 2005, the French Navy’s maintenance contracts continued a shift toward performance-based logistics, via a pair of EUR 288.5 million contracts to DCN: a 3.5 year effort to support a variety of surface ships, plus another to support for one of France’s Triomphant class ballistic missile submarines.
The 2009 contracts are issued to DCN’s successor firm DCNS, which is still majority-owned by the French state. They cover a wider array of ships.
“The Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) is charged with a critical role in contractor oversight by providing auditing, accounting, and financial advisory services in connection with DOD and other federal agency contracts and subcontracts. However, last year GAO found numerous problems with DCAA audit quality at three locations in California, including the failure to meet professional auditing standards. In a follow-up audit issued this September, GAO found that these problems existed agencywide.
Today’s testimony describes widespread audit quality problems at DCAA and provides information about continuing contract management challenges at DOD, which underscore the importance of DCAA audits that meet professional standards. It also discusses some of the corrective actions taken by DCAA and DOD and key GAO recommendations to improve DCAA audit quality.”
Science Applications International Corp’s Benham Companies subsidiary received a prime contract worth up to $95 million from the National Guard Bureau (NGB) to provide architectural design and engineering services in support of military structures, roadways and airfields.
The multiple award indefinite delivery/ indefinite quantity contract has a 2-year base period of performance and 3 one-year options. Work will be performed at NGB installations throughout the United States and its territories.
The NGB assigns federal missions and allocates resources to the Army National Guard, maintaining 63 major installations and 3,360 armories, and the Air National Guard, maintaining 87 bases, air stations and airfields…
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