US personnel ratchet up criticism of Pakistan, openly saying that Pakistan’s ISI is threatening to arrest Taliban commanders who reconcile with the Afghan government. ISI support of al-Qaeda and the Taliban has long been an open secret, made more open as a result of WikiLeaks, but this accusation is a new level of seriousness – and could affect the pending military aid package. Fox News | Pakistan’s DAWN | Times of India | Afghan Conflict Monitor.
Predator vs Al-Qaeda: US deploys Predator UAVs in Yemen to hunt down Al-Qaeda, the Washington Post reports.
Changing Course: Northrop Grumman nixes plans to sell shipbuilding business, plans spinoff instead, according to Bloomberg sources.
Blowing the Whistle: Louis Berger Group settles for $69.3 million a whisteblower lawsuit that alleged the company overbilled the US government for construction contracts in Afghanistan.
Russian military vets rally against budget-cutting Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov.
US forces to expand use of Australian military facilities.
Tea Party: Senator-elect Rand Paul [R-KY], whose candidacy received strong Tea Partier support, says Republican lawmakers must be open to cutting military spending. His dad, Rep. Ron Paul [R-TX-14], has been saying as much for quite some time. Same results now, or is this time different?
Off we go…: The Mitchell Institute for Airpower Studies in Arlington, VA will release on November 10 a database of the full USAF aircraft inventory from 1950 to 2009.
France and DCNS sign an innovative contract, wherein the French Navy will receive a privately-developed Gowind family Ocean Patrol Vessel to operate for 3 years. The goal? Endorsement and operational success, to boost export sales for the scalable OPV/ Corvette family.
Research and Markets: China is shifting production from military to commercial products, with 450 production lines used for defense equipment now producing civilian goods.
Old-school counterinsurgency planes are getting more popular around the world – and a number of OV-1D Mohawks are available, refurbished and sporting a 30mm chain gun from ATK.
Accenture wins 5-year, $6.3 million contract, under the $5.3 billion SeaPort-e contract vehicle, to provide hardware and software maintenance for the US Navy’s effort to modernize its ships’ C4ISR systems.
Satellite imagery provider DigitalGlobe is concerned that budget cuts could scale back its 10-year, $3.55 billion EnhancedView contract from the DoD’s National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, a follow-on to the NextView contract.
Aviation Week reports that the global maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) industry needs to boost the size of its workforce to cope with the world’s growing feet of aircraft, at a time when work environments make retention more difficult.
Close to half of Germans surveyed support cutting defense spending to bring down the budget deficit, while only 39% of Britons think its a good idea, according to a Financial Times/Harris Poll.
General Dynamics’ Santa Barbara Sistemas subsidiary snags 4-year EUR 20 million contract to supply 5.56x45mm NATO ammunition to the Spanish armed forces.
Canada’s CAE receives C$ 85 million in contracts to supply aircraft simulators for the Turkish Air Force, the US Navy and USAF, and the UK armed forces.
DARPA’s Deep Learning program explores machine learning techniques to process ISR data.
The Defense Supply Center Philadelphia (DSCP) in Philadelphia, PA issues contracts for American field rations, known as Meals Ready to Eat (MREs), and for Humanitarian Daily Rations (HDRs) used when providing aid in emergency situations abroad. This Spotlight article covers related contracts during the slice of time from FY 2007 – 2011.
While there are reports that the French RCIR (Ration de Combat Individuelle Réchauffable) has superior trade value on the front lines, MREs are generally considered to be a significant improvement over earlier US rations. DID readers with a high fright threshold might wish to view a set of comparative photos of modern army rations from various militaries. Even if you knew nothing about China, you could guess that their soldiers are draftees – but scroll down in the post, as well as look at the link; things may be improving. In the USA, see below for field anecdotes, including MREs as RPG defenses, and what happens when celebrity chefs try MREs.
Field Anecdotes: USA
Contracts and Key Events, 2007 – Present [updated]
Entente cordial redux: UK, France ink historic defense accord that includes setting up a joint expeditionary force, shared use of aircraft carriers, cooperation on weapons procurement and logistics, and joint cybersecurity efforts.
End of British Harrier fleet a solution for India? (Oct 31/10)
Covering a potential aircraft carrier gap isn’t India’s only naval air issue these days. In response to a March 2008 question in Lok Sabha (lower house of Parliament), India’s Defence Minister Shri A K Antony said:
“The Indian Navy is facing shortage of Sea Harrier aircraft. The ongoing upgrade of Sea Harrier programme has also temporarily affected the availability of the aircraft. Contract for the limited upgrade of Sea Harrier aircraft was concluded with M/s Hindustan Aeronautics Limited in March 2005 at a cost of Rs. 476.69 crore [DID: about $109.8 million at the time]. The upgrade programme is expected to be completed by 2009.”
Can India’s Sea Harriers survive as an effective force, until MiG-29Ks aboard the rebuilt INS Vikramaditya can replace them?
Up to $1.7 billion to CSC, Sparta, and General Dynamics for infrastructure and deployment services for the US Ballistic Missile Defense System under the MDA’s Engineering and Support Services (MiDAESS) program.
Debt Buyback: Northrop Grumman to purchase $2.1 billion in debt securities of its Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding and Northrop Grumman Systems Corp. subsidiaries.
A Flare for Flares: ATK snags $71 million contract to supply aircraft-deployed LUU-2D/B visible light illumination flares and LUU-19B/B infrared energy illumination flares for battlefield operations.
Can you hear me now?: ManTech receives a $68 million contract to build and deploy an expeditionary cell phone system for the US Army’s forward bases in Afghanistan.
Midwest Research Institute gets $35.5 million order to supply a test system for chemical weapon contamination at the US Army Research, Development and Engineering Command at Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD.
In 2006 Norway made an urgent buy of blast-resistant patrol vehicles in response to poor front-line experiences with quasi-civilian flat-bottomed jeeps. In 2010, Norway has decided to supplement them with 20 of KMW’s larger Dingo-2 vehicles, which can carry more troops than the MLVs, or more additional equipment for route clearance and combat engineering. KMW’s release states that:
“The troops operating at the Hindu Kush are in need of the vehicles more than ever; since the beginning of the year, soldiers have been confronted with an increasing number of assaults by insurgents. By the end of November, the first ten vehicles shall be delivered by KMW and transported to the operational area. The remaining vehicles will follow in February 2011.”
