Huntington Ingalls Industries begins trading on New York Stock Exchange after Northrop Grumman completes the $6.7 billion spinoff of shipbuilding subsidiary.
UK military’s antiquated information systems for logistics supply chain management have resulted in delays of supplies to front-line troops, says UK National Audit Office.
China’s National Defense in 2010 white paper stresses “defensive” nature of military buildup, criticizes US for selling weapons to Taiwan. Criticism of Chinese weapon sales to rogue regimes like Zimbabwe, Myanmar, Sudan, et. al. is mysteriously absent.
House Armed Services Committee chairman warns that NATO might have to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya for a decade. Would it?
The global military communications market reached $15.9 billion in 2010, according to Visiongain report.
NATO plans to deploy mobile counter-IED labs by the end of year.
AAR snags $27 million order to supply specialized shelters to the US Army’s Standard Automotive Tool Set program.
Pratt & Whitney secures $6.8 million USAF contract extension to maintain the F100-PW-220E engines powering the Italian Air Force’s F-16 fighter jets. Intended as temporary gap-fillers, those F-16s are currently seeing action over Libya.
Djibouti is an important base for western navies, the French Foreign Legion, and the US Marines. It sits in a very strategic location, at the entrance to the Red Sea and astride the passage from the Indian Ocean to the Suez Canal. This has made it a key base for strike aircraft, UAVs, and troops, as well as a key hub from the new AFRICOM. Maintaining and operating that base takes work, of course. The US Navy’s Seabees have done excellent work there, and the base is being used as a testing ground for containerized renewable power options.
In the modern era, however, military construction teams are not the only ones involved in keeping the base running. Contractors are also involved. The base operations services contract was competitively procured via the NAVFAC e-solicitation website, with 6 proposals received by the Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Europe and Southwest Asia in Naples, Italy (N33191-07-D-0207). The winner was:
ACS’ cancellation, delay, and restructuring have left the Navy pursuing its own independent program. The US Army’s RC-12N Guardrail electronic intelligence aircraft are being refurbished to keep them current and in service until the ACS arrives. And the RC-7B fleet continues to receive additional help, via a parallel program called MARSS. It’s part of a trend that involves putting private ISR(Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance) planes on the front lines.
