CRS (Congressional Research Service) analyst Ronald O’Rourke, who has often been right about shipbuilding programs when the US Navy was wrong, releases his August 2010 report on Navy shipbuilding plans [PDF].
Meanwhile, Maritime Professional delivers an equally hard-hitting analysis of the fast-dwindling US Merchant Marine, and MARAD: “The Emperor Has No Clothes.” Taken together, these analyses are not encouraging.
PricewaterhouseCoopers: The value of mergers and acquisitions in the aerospace and defense sector dropped to $2.2 billion in the second quarter of 2010 from $5 billion in the same quarter last year, despite significant M&A activity in the middle-market segment.
Show Me the Money: A slew of private equity firms line up to buy McKechnie Aerospace, an Irvine, CA-based supplier of aerospace components for commercial and military customers, for around $1.2 billion. This is part of a broader PE trend.
Turkey plans to keep on spending on major equipment buys. Its 2010 budget is 1.8% of GDP rather than the 2% commitment for NATO members – but that’s almost double the level for many European NATO countries.
Rent-a-Cop: Private contractors will take up much of the security work in Iraq as US troops pull out, the New York Times reports.
Cardinal Health in Dublin, OH snags DoD contracts worth a total of $206.6 million for medical supplies and services.
ManTech in Fairfax, VA gets a $23 million contract to provide security and operations management support to a new Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) facility at Fort Meade, MD, to accommodate the BRAC-mandated closure of DISA’s Arlington, VA facility.
Former US Representatives from Virgina Davis and Pickett to head commission set up to assess the impact of defense budget cuts on the state.
DJ Elliott is a retired USN Intelligence Specialist (22 years active duty) who has been analyzing and writing on Iraqi Security Forces developments since 2006. His Iraqi Security Forces Order of Battle is an open-source compilation that attempts to map and detail Iraqi units and equipment, as their military branches and internal security forces grow and mature. While “good enough for government use” is not usually uttered as a compliment, US Army TRADOC has maintained permission to use the ISF OOB for their unclassified handouts since 2008.
This compilation is reproduced here with full permission. It offers a set of updates highlighting recent changes in the ISF’s composition and development, followed by the full updated ISF OOBs in PDF form. Reader feedback and tips are encouraged. This month’s developments include:
US Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic in Charleston, SC recently issued cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery /indefinite-quantity, multiple award contracts to 7 universities, who will compete for task orders. Up to $30 million may be requested over the base year and 5 option years, in exchange for “…technical and maintenance services to obtain analytical and technical support services, and research and development efforts from undergraduate and graduate students and faculty… in support of advanced research and development projects on behalf of multiple customers in the South East region to include, but not limited to, SPAWAR Atlantic.”
These educational institutions will compete for the task orders under the terms and conditions of the awarded contract. Work will be performed in Charleston, SC (40%), Norfolk, VA (30%), and New Orleans, LA (30%). Work is expected to be complete in September 2011, and could continue until September 2015 if all options are exercised. The multiple award contracts were competitively procured by full and open competition via the SPAWAR e-Commerce Central website, with 8 offers received. The 7 winners were:
Clemson University in Clemson, SC (N65236-10-D-6834)
Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA (N65236-10-D-6835)
Pennsylvania State University in State College, PA (N65236-10-D-6836)
University of New Orleans in New Orleans, LA (N65236-10-D-6837)
University of South Alabama in Mobile, AL (N65236-10-D-6838)
University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC (N65236-10-D-6839)
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Institution in Blacksburg, VA (N65236-10-D-6840)
