Afghan poppy production down by half, creating heroin shortages on Britain’s streets. Pity. That pleospora papaveracea sure is potent. Nothing like having a lot of Taliban foreigners traipsing through the poppy fields, to ensure that outbreaks spread…
Closing the barn door: DoD tightens information security controls in the wake of WikiLeaks data breach.
Pentagon chief Gates seeks to trim US military health care costs, which total $50 billion per year. TRICARE has a number of serious problems, which must be solved to keep the service sustainable, and avoid gutting the future defense procurement budget.
Cybersecurity Down Under: BAE Systems acquires Australian cybersecurity firm stratsec.net for A$24 million.
USMC Lt. Gen. John F. Kelly’s Nov 13/10 speech to the Semper Fi Society [HTML | PDF], 4 days after his son, 2nd Lt. Robert M. Kelly, was killed in action in Afghanistan during his 3rd combat tour with 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines. It’s the men behind the weapons…
Switzerland became a Leopard 2 tank customer under Armament Program 84, with 380 Leopard 2A4 variants delivered as “Pz 87s” from 1987-1993. The Swiss military has been drawing down sharply over the last decade and a half, with many tanks mothballed into storage. With plans for a smaller defense force firmly set, some of those tanks are being converted or sold.
The Swiss recently converted 12 of their tanks to AEV-3 Kodiak/Geniepanzer Armored Engineering Vehicles, as a partnership between Rheinmetall and the Swiss firm RUAG. The type has received export orders, but Leopard 2 tanks aren’t being manufactured any more. Some countries can use stocks of existing Leopard 2 tanks for conversion, but that won’t be true for every customer. Fortunately for the partnership, in November 2010, aramsuisse announced the sale of another 42 tanks to Rheinmetall, for conversion to “protected special vehicles.” The tanks they’re receiving are being delivered without weapons or communications system, which wouldn’t be useful to Rheinmetall anyway. That equipment will be kept by the Swiss armed forces, as spares. Tank deliveries will begin before the end of 2010, per undisclosed sale terms. Swiss government.
New Mexico Technology Group, LLC in El Paso, TX recently won a 6-year, $84.4 million cost-plus-award-fee contract for mission support services, to support the testing mission at White Sands Missile Range, NM. The 3,200 square mile White Sands range is used for testing equipment ranging from missiles to satellite communications. It was also the site of the “Trinity” test, which detonated the world’s first atomic bomb.
Work will be performed at the White Sands Missile Range, NM, and will run until Nov 30/16. Three bids were solicited with 3 bids received by the White Sands Mission & Installation Contracting Center (W9124Q-07-C-0504).
