UAE Buying the Newest Hellfire Missile for its Choppers

Part-converted UH-60M

Sept 22/11: The US DSCA announces [PDF] the United Arab Emirates’ request to buy 500 AGM-114R3 Hellfire II missiles, plus containers, spare and repair parts, support and test equipment, repair and return support, training equipment and personnel training, and other U.S. Government and contractor support. The estimated cost is up to $65 million, and if a contract is negotiated, it will be with the Lockheed/Boeing Hellfire Systems LLC joint venture in Orlando, FL. Under Foreign Military Sales rules, the US military will act as the UAE’s agent, and the order will almost certainly be added to the USA’s existing umbrella contract.

The AGM-114R has a triple-threat warhead, which works against armored vehicles, fortified positions, and troops in the open. The UAE can deploy them on its modernized AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopters, and also on its forthcoming UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters equipped with the Battlehawk kit.

Rapid Fire 2011-09-26 | UK MOD UAS Doctrine; Top 2010 Contractors

• British MoD publicly released its joint doctrine approach to UAS’s [PDF]. Why define UAV doctrine? Well, from the introduction: “[i]n the absence of any higher level policy, all UAS currently used by UK armed forces have been procured or leased under the Urgent Operational Requirement (UOR) process.” See table on page 3-13 for a flowchart to assist the key decision: is manned or unmanned the right choice given any specific mission?

• USAF 301st Fighter Wing is trying to work out fuel savings by testing different fuel mixes.

• Aviation Week Intelligence Network crunched the numbers about top defense contractors for 2010: Lockheed Martin comes top at $12.5B through more than 6.3K contracts, followed by Boeing at $8.3B.

• Pay reimbursement for all private execs may get capped at $694K if a bill passed by the US House of Representatives is approved by the Senate. Senator Grassley (R-IA) thinks the underlying formula to calculate the executive compensation cost ceiling should be reformed.

• US Senate debates continuing resolution today (Monday) after it rejected the House’s own stopgap bill on Friday (see what its impact would be on short-term defense spending). 5 days to work things out before government shutdown.

• Last Friday the Senate confirmed Ashton Carter as Leon Panetta’s deputy. Question: who will lead Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (AT&L)? Presumably Frank Kendall is acting in that capacity for the time being until the Obama administration makes a decision.

• The US House Armed Services Committee (HASC) Republicans have an analysis in hand of what would happen to defense spending if automatic cost cutting were to be triggered by a lack of deal coming out of the Supercommittee before its deadline, says Politico.

• A video of last week’s HASC hearing on Defense Financial Management and Auditability Reform is embedded below. Key milestones have been missed for 4 out of the 11 ERPs meant to get DoD where it needs to be. Sadly this was predictable.