TACOM Orders Global Fleet Sales Trucks

Iraqi Policeman,
Baghdad

$146M order. (May 27/11)

Global Fleet Sales, Inc. is a member of the RM Asia Group of Companies, and has a long history of working in “difficult market situations” to produce modified and baseline Ford vehicles for companies and organizations involved in Humanitarian, Aid, Relief and Development Projects, and Police services around the world. The firm has been tapped for a number of US government contracts beginning in 2005, such as one for Afghan Police vehicles. GFS maintains all of the vehicles used by the Afghan National Army, with maintenance facilities in Mazar-e-Sharif, Herat, Kandahar, Kabul and Gardez; its parent firm RM Asia has a full country office in Afghanistan.

Recent awards fall under a 3 year firm-fixed-price contract with the US military to provide modified vehicles for customers like the Afghan and Iraqi police, and for other foreign military sales customers who might choose to order under the set contract terms and advantageous prices the US military has negotiated.

Rapid Fire: Evening 2011-05-31

• As a British Government Minister declares that offensive cyber warfare is an integral part of the UK’s armory, the Ministry of Defence outline their new Materiel Strategy.

• Cassidian win contract to provide the Canadian Navy new technologies to detect and counter laser-based threats against its vessels.

• The US Navy announces that CVN 79, the 2nd Ford Class aircraft carrier, will be named the USS John F. Kennedy. It will continue the namesake legacy of the non-nuclear powered CV 67, retired in 2007.

• The U.S. Navy successfully tested the DDG 1000’s Integrated Power System (IPS) at full power at the Land Based Test Site located in Philadelphia, May 11.

• The U.S. Navy also approves ATK’s Hostile Fire Indication (HFI) capability upgrade for the AAR-47 Missile Warning System.

• Singapore’s ST Engineering announce the formation of a joint venture (JV) company with Nanyang Technological University and DSO National Laboratories. The JV will design, develop and produce advanced earth observation satellites.

• India’s Mahindra and Mahindra report a 6.4% year-on-year rise in fourth quarter net profit.

Daily Rapid Fire Morning 2011-05-31: Azerbaijan’s Satellite

• President Medvedev is longing for the good old days when poor contract performance earned a Siberian home, Russia is prosecuting people for a catastrophically failed GLONASS GPS launch… and now Russia’s chief military prosecutor Sergei Fridinsky tells Rossiiskaya Gazeta that around 20% of Russia’s military spending is stolen every year by corrupt officials, dishonest generals and crooked contractors. One more reminder that their military modernization will be a tough slog.

• The Russian Severnaya Verf shipyard in St. Petersburg begins construction of new Steregushchy-class corvette. The Russian Navy has publicly announced that they expect to buy at least 30 of these ships, for all 4 major fleets. The challenge will be delivering them before some of those fleets rust out.

• South Korea is getting ROVER 5 devices for its forward air controllers, to share data with fighters overhead; US JTAC counterparts see them as a way of crossing the language barrier.

• Not content with auctioning off the B-2’s radar frequency and costing the US government $1 billion, the FCC’s latest move to approve Lightsquared for 1525 – 1559 MHz L-Band satellite broadband is now confirmed to cause “complete loss” of civilian GPS receiver functionality within its coverage. Above 1536 MHz seems to be the worst. No word on M-code impact, if any.

• Meanwhile, the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) is “considering measures” against North Korea, after its episode of jamming GPS signals in March 2011.

• Saab is seeking to offset its recent defeat in the Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft Competition by offering India its Saab 2000 MPA for India’s mid-tier maritime patrol competition. A potential purchase will add another dimension to India’s strategy of procuring aircraft with the ability to patrol and act at extended ranges.

• The Indian Navy receive an additional five MiG-29K/KUB carrier-based fighters. The deal forms part of $1.5 billion contract signed by Russia and India for the retrofitting and delivery of the Admiral Gorshkov carrier.

• Azerbaijan to purchase its first communications satellite. The $120 million AzerSat will be funded by the United States and built by Orbital Sciences Corp. Launch is planned for 2012.

• Bulgaria’s Prime Minister indicates that the country may team up with Turkey, Romania and Croatia to jointly-purchase modern jet fighters. Boyko Borisov also confirmed that Bulgaria will allocate 300 million leva ($221 million) to the defense budget. This is a significant increase on last year’s budget allocation.

• According to the Financial Times [registration required], the UK Serious Fraud Office launches an investigation into alleged bribery of Saudi officials by EADS subsidiary GPT Special Project Management. The investigation is focused on a $3.3 billion contract to provide the Saudi National Guard with communications and intranet services.

Memorial Day 2011

Honor & Reflect
(click to view cartoon)

Monday, May 30th is Memorial Day in the USA. DID honors those who have given all of their tomorrows in American military service; we will not be publishing.

Readers are reminded that in America, the Memorial Day moment of silence takes place at 3:00 pm. It seems that lots of reminders are needed elsewhere in America; a survey commissioned by The National WWII Museum in Washington had only 20% say they were very familiar with the day’s purpose, which is to honor those who have fallen in America’s wars. This function is served by Remembrance Day/ Armistice Day (Nov. 11th) in the British Commonwealth and elsewhere, but in America, that day is Veteran’s Day, and honors all who served in the military.

For additional resources, USAA has a full video that includes Hugh Ambrose (Band of Brothers, The Pacific, etc.), and the American National WWII Museum’s MyMemorialDay.org offers some ideas for honoring this day. One more idea might to be teach our fellow Americans. Email a good treatment of the day to people you know outside the national security field, and encourage them to forward it on.

Rapid Fire 2011-05-27: DoD Infrastructure Costs in Asia

• Cartwright’s rumored x-out for the pending Pentagon Chief of Staff slot is likely to have wide implications for future Pentagon buys. Even as it raises questions about the nature and origins of the whisper campaign that covertly works to do him in.

• “The [US] Department of Defense (DOD) is currently conducting the largest transformation of military posture in the Pacific region since the end of World War II.” But the GAO says that the Pentagon is significantly understating costs to transform facilities and infrastructure in Asia. Costs that will run in the tens of billions.

• Northrop Grumman spinoff Huntington Ingalls Industries provides a slew of shipbuilding updates. Updating their LPD-17 amphibious ship progress, moving the USS Theodore Roosevelt out of RCOH drydock, and moving a 945-ton superlift section in place for the first-of-class Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier.

• Key defense firm you’ve never heard of: Blackbird Technologies. Short version: their stuff helps track people. Specific people.

• The first steel is cut for the HMS Prince of Wales, the second of the Royal Navy’s Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers. Due to lower build-in costs, the future HMS Prince of Wales is likely to be the only catapult-equipped, fully operational British carrier.

• Harris gets US Navy contract worth up to $59.7 million to supply the KIK-11 tactical key loader with the Sierra II cyptographic module to encrypt communications between military radios.

• Up to $15 million to Advanced Technology International for support of the US Navy’s National Shipbuilding Research Program, which works to improve efficiency in building, operating and repairing Navy ships.

• Israeli UAV maker Aeronautics is busy. They’ve received Missile Technology Control Regime compliant export clearance for their long-range Dominator XR UAV (co-marketed by Boeing), begun development work on a 5,000 kg jet-powered UAV that can fly in civil airspace, and opened a factory in Spain to make Orbiter 2 & 3 mini-UAVs.

GFAS/WeaponWatch to Protect US Apache Helicopters

Apaches head out
(click for full view)

May 25/11: Radiance Technologies, Inc. in Huntsville, AL receives an $8.8 million sole-source, firm-fixed-price contract from the US Army. They’ll produce the hardware needed to equip a full battalion of AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopters with “the Ground Fire Acquisition System special mission kits.” Radiance seems to have a product that fits:

“Employing a powerful infrared camera and high-speed 5th generation data processing technology, WeaponWatch recognizes and analyzes in real time the heat signatures of fired weapons. WeaponWatch’s speed and accuracy make it possible to detect and respond to enemy weapon fire – by alerting soldiers, by communicating the type and location of the weapon, even by returning fire – before the sound of the enemy weapon reaches the sensor.”

That would certainly make it very dangerous to fire on equipped Apaches. Work will be performed in Huntsville, AL, with an estimated completion date of May 20/12. One bid was solicited by the U.S. Army in Fort Eustis, VA, with 1 bid received (W911W6-11-C-0043).

Rapid Fire 2011-05-26: Precision Attack Options, Costs

• As operations over Libya drain European stockpiles of smart bombs, Defense Update’s “The High Cost of Precision Attack” looks at progress, pricing, and options.

• The world military helicopter market reached $12.6 billion in 2010, and demand is predicted to remain strong over the next decade, says ASDReports.com.

• Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter is encouraged by Wall Street’s view of the defense industry. Wall Street once liked the housing sector, too…

• Emerging markets to invest billions of dollars in missile programs over the next 10 years, according to ASDReports.com.

• Lockheed Martin and TAI unveil the 1st of 30 new Turkish F-16 Block 50s, a couple months ahead of schedule. TAI has built and modified a number of F-16s under license, and operates a finishing and check-out line in Turkey.

• Force Protection adds Lockheed Martin (C4ISR) & Elbit (RWS) to its Cougar bid for Canada’s TAPV MRAP program.

• First SBIRS GEO missile detection satellite reaches geosynchronous orbit – passing the impaired but rising AEHF-1 secure broadband communications satellite.

• Raytheon gets $20.7 million USAF contract to provide 1,900 KIV-77 Mode 4/5 cryptographic units that provide secure IFF communications to reduce friendly fire.

• The outgoing Chief of the U.S. Navy says it is ‘not moving fast enough’ in developing Unmanned Underwater Vehicles. But he sees lasers as the biggest game changer.

• Elbit wins Israeli contract with its “Flying Elephant” resupply UAV – a parafoil, GPS guidance, and a 1 tonne wheeled cargo pallet. It was picked in part for its simplicity and speed of deployment… unusual criteria in places like the USA, which is looking at a much more expensive approach.

Rapid Fire 2011-05-25: Raytheon’s ALR-67v3

• The global armored vehicle and counter IED vehicle market is predicted to reach $25.1 billion this year, but decline to $24.1 billion by 2021, according to ASDReports.com

• Russian prosecutors are pursuing criminal charges against space officials over 4.3 billion ruble loss of 3 Glonass navigation satellites as the result of a failed launch attempt aboard a Proton-M rocket in December 2010.

• Pressure is building for land assaults on Somali pirate havens. Step 1 in the inevitable renaissance of the traditional “punitive expedition” concept?

• General Atomics delivers the 1st set of EMALS electro-magnetic catapult production components, to equip the new Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier class.

• Alenia Aeronautica delivers a stealth-maintaining weapons bay for the prototype nEUROn Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle to France’s Dassault Aviation.

• USAF demonstrates new C2 forward concept design to improve mobility of the JFACC [PDF] command post using existing technology.

• Lockheed Martin chief Bob Stevens tells media that his company is cutting $500 million in cost, most of that coming from a 26% reduction in senior executive personnel through early retirement.

• Royal Navy leases retrofitted ice breaker MV Polarbjorn from Norway’s GC Rieber Shipping to replace damaged ice breaker HMS Endurance in Antarctica.

• Israel Aerospace Industries’ Bedek division is taking its K-767 multi-mission tanker transport (MMTT) to the global market. They’ll be converted from used Boeing 767-200s to keep the price low. IAI Bedek has already provided 1 to Colombia, and Israel is actively considering one as a combination VVIP plane/ tanker, alongside its KC-135s.

• Raytheon gets $84.7 million US Navy contact for continued production of the ALR-67v3 digital radar warning receivers for American F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, and Swiss F/A-18C/D Hornets. See the linked articles for full details; the Pentagon announced the contract in April 2011.

Rapid Fire 2011-05-24: AFOTEC Services

• US Supreme Court throws out lower court ruling that would have required Boeing and General Dynamics to repay $3 billion to the federal government for the cancelled A-12 Avenger fighter program.

• Does SpaceX have lessons to teach NASA? After it spends under $400 million to do what would have taken NASA around $4 billion, Congressional testimony says “yes!”, and SpaceX underscores its cost positions. Next step? Falcon 9 Heavy, which aims to challenge the current Boeing/Lockheed EELV heavy lift platforms on cost and payload.

• FLIR Systems, a supplier of thermal imaging and threat detection systems, agrees to pay $39 million to two former executives to settle litigation related to its 2004 acquisition of Indigo Systems.

• L-3’s Systems Field Support division gets contract worth up to $300 million to provide C-12 aircraft logistics support and maintenance to the US Navy and USAF.

Rapid Fire 2011-05-23: Open Source Military Software

• Die Welt reports that Iran & Venezuela are collaborating on a hardened underground silo complex for Shebab-3 medium range ballistic missiles, on the Paraguana peninsula above Coro, Venezuela.

• A leaked UN report says Iran and North Korea are exchanging ballistic missile technology, with help from China. Al-Jazeera Inside Story (incl. video).

• GAO faults DoD’s efforts to include combatant commands in weapons system development.

• Chile has reportedly picked Elbit Systems’ Hermes 900 as its next high-end UAV. While the Hermes 450 has been a popular export, this would be the larger Hermes 900 MALE (Medium Altitude, Long Endurance) UAV’s 1st export order.

• India conducts 2 successful tests of its indigenously developed Astra medium range air-to-air missile.

• Spain fails to reach NATO target of spending 2% of GDP on defense in 2010. Just like most other NATO countries.

• DoD publishes open-source technology guide for military software, in an effort to encourage contractors to implement open technology development, rather than proprietary technology, for defense systems.

• Russia wants assurance from NATO that a European missile defense system is not be directed at their country. As long as they don’t launch missiles against NATO members, it won’t be.

• These are not you parents’ sea mines.

• US Defense Secretary Robert Gates warns against sharp cuts in the size and reach of US forces.